# Basics for hacking on Clippy

This document explains the basics for hacking on Clippy. Besides others, this
includes how to build and test Clippy. For a more in depth description on
the codebase take a look at [Adding Lints] or [Common Tools].

[Adding Lints]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/blob/master/doc/adding_lints.md
[Common Tools]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/blob/master/doc/common_tools_writing_lints.md

- [Basics for hacking on Clippy](#basics-for-hacking-on-clippy)
  - [Get the Code](#get-the-code)
  - [Building and Testing](#building-and-testing)
  - [`cargo dev`](#cargo-dev)
  - [lintcheck](#lintcheck)
  - [PR](#pr)
  - [Common Abbreviations](#common-abbreviations)
  - [Install from source](#install-from-source)

## Get the Code

First, make sure you have checked out the latest version of Clippy. If this is
your first time working on Clippy, create a fork of the repository and clone it
afterwards with the following command:

```bash
git clone git@github.com:<your-username>/rust-clippy
```

If you've already cloned Clippy in the past, update it to the latest version:

```bash
# If the upstream remote has not been added yet
git remote add upstream https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy
# upstream has to be the remote of the rust-lang/rust-clippy repo
git fetch upstream
# make sure that you are on the master branch
git checkout master
# rebase your master branch on the upstream master
git rebase upstream/master
# push to the master branch of your fork
git push
```

## Building and Testing

You can build and test Clippy like every other Rust project:

```bash
cargo build  # builds Clippy
cargo test   # tests Clippy
```

Since Clippy's test suite is pretty big, there are some commands that only run a
subset of Clippy's tests:

```bash
# only run UI tests
cargo uitest
# only run UI tests starting with `test_`
TESTNAME="test_" cargo uitest
# only run dogfood tests
cargo test --test dogfood
```

If the output of a [UI test] differs from the expected output, you can update the
reference file with:

```bash
cargo dev bless
```

For example, this is necessary, if you fix a typo in an error message of a lint
or if you modify a test file to add a test case.

_Note:_ This command may update more files than you intended. In that case only
commit the files you wanted to update.

[UI test]: https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/tests/adding.html#guide-to-the-ui-tests

## `cargo dev`

Clippy has some dev tools to make working on Clippy more convenient. These tools
can be accessed through the `cargo dev` command. Available tools are listed
below. To get more information about these commands, just call them with
`--help`.

```bash
# formats the whole Clippy codebase and all tests
cargo dev fmt
# register or update lint names/groups/...
cargo dev update_lints
# create a new lint and register it
cargo dev new_lint
# automatically formatting all code before each commit
cargo dev setup git-hook
# (experimental) Setup Clippy to work with IntelliJ-Rust
cargo dev setup intellij
```

## lintcheck
`cargo lintcheck` will build and run clippy on a fixed set of crates and generate a log of the results.  
You can `git diff` the updated log against its previous version and
see what impact your lint made on a small set of crates.  
If you add a new lint, please audit the resulting warnings and make sure
there are no false positives and that the suggestions are valid.

Refer to the tools [README] for more details.

[README]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/blob/master/lintcheck/README.md
## PR

We follow a rustc no merge-commit policy.
See <https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/contributing.html#opening-a-pr>.

## Common Abbreviations

| Abbreviation | Meaning                                |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------- |
| UB           | Undefined Behavior                     |
| FP           | False Positive                         |
| FN           | False Negative                         |
| ICE          | Internal Compiler Error                |
| AST          | Abstract Syntax Tree                   |
| MIR          | Mid-Level Intermediate Representation  |
| HIR          | High-Level Intermediate Representation |
| TCX          | Type context                           |

This is a concise list of abbreviations that can come up during Clippy development. An extensive
general list can be found in the [rustc-dev-guide glossary][glossary]. Always feel free to ask if
an abbreviation or meaning is unclear to you.

## Install from source

If you are hacking on Clippy and want to install it from source, do the following:

First, take note of the toolchain [override](https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/overrides.html) in `/rust-toolchain`.
We will use this override to install Clippy into the right toolchain.

> Tip: You can view the active toolchain for the current directory with `rustup show active-toolchain`.

From the Clippy project root, run the following command to build the Clippy binaries and copy them into the
toolchain directory. This will override the currently installed Clippy component.

```terminal
cargo build --release --bin cargo-clippy --bin clippy-driver -Zunstable-options --out-dir "$(rustc --print=sysroot)/bin"
```

Now you may run `cargo clippy` in any project, using the toolchain where you just installed Clippy.

```terminal
cd my-project
cargo +nightly-2021-07-01 clippy
```

...or `clippy-driver`

```terminal
clippy-driver +nightly-2021-07-01 <filename>
```

If you need to restore the default Clippy installation, run the following (from the Clippy project root).

```terminal
rustup component remove clippy
rustup component add clippy
```

> **DO NOT** install using `cargo install --path . --force` since this will overwrite rustup
> [proxies](https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/concepts/proxies.html). That is, `~/.cargo/bin/cargo-clippy` and
> `~/.cargo/bin/clippy-driver` should be hard or soft links to `~/.cargo/bin/rustup`. You can repair these by running
> `rustup update`.

[glossary]: https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/appendix/glossary.html