fix(useless_format): fire on  wrapped in a block-producing macro (#17060)

## Summary

Fixes a false negative in `useless_format`: the lint silently failed to
fire on `format!("{}", s)` when the call is the **tail expression of a
block produced by another macro**. This affects rustc's entire
`define_helper!`-generated family (`with_forced_trimmed_paths!`,
`with_no_trimmed_paths!`, `with_no_queries!`, etc).

Spotted during review of rust-lang/rust-clippy#17058:

> Even as a macro argument, using `format!("{}", some_string)` should
trigger it.

## Reproducer

```rust
#![feature(decl_macro)]
#![warn(clippy::useless_format)]

macro_rules! plain_mr { ($e:expr) => { $e }; }
macro_rules! block_mr { ($e:expr) => { { let _g: i32 = 0; $e } }; }
pub macro plain_dm($e:expr) { $e }
pub macro block_dm($e:expr) { { let _g: i32 = 0; $e } }

fn s() -> String { String::from("x") }

fn main() {
    let _ = format!("{}", s());                  // (1) bare         => lints
    let _ = plain_mr!(format!("{}", s()));       // (2) mr, no block => lints
    let _ = block_mr!(format!("{}", s()));       // (3) mr + block   => MISS (bug)
    let _ = plain_dm!(format!("{}", s()));       // (4) dm, no block => lints
    let _ = block_dm!(format!("{}", s()));       // (5) dm + block   => MISS (bug)
}
```

Before this PR, cases (3) and (5) are silently missed. After this PR all
five fire as expected. Note that the discriminator is block-wrapping,
not `macro_rules` vs `decl_macro`.

## Root cause

`clippy_lints/src/format.rs` previously used
`root_macro_call_first_node`, which requires `first_node_in_macro ==
Some(ExpnId::root())`. For `block_dm!(format!(...))`, the `format!` HIR
parent is the `Block` emitted by `block_dm`, whose span lives in
`block_dm`'s expansion (sibling to `format!`'s). `first_node_in_macro`
returns `Some(block_dm.expn)` rather than `Some(root)`, and the lint
bails.

## Fix

Replace the gate with:

```rust
if let Some(macro_call) = matching_root_macro_call(cx, expr.span, sym::format_macro)
    && first_node_in_macro(cx, expr).is_some_and(|p_expn| p_expn != macro_call.expn)
```

- `matching_root_macro_call` preserves hygiene. The outermost macro on
`expr.span`'s backtrace must be `format!`, so a `format!` written inside
another macro's body (where the rewrite would target the macro
definition) is still ignored.
- `first_node_in_macro(..).is_some_and(|p| p != macro_call.expn)`
preserves single-firing. `expr` must be the outermost node of
`format!`'s expansion. Without `p != macro_call.expn`, deeper nodes
whose parent is also in `format!`'s expansion (including internal
`format_args!` invocations) would slip through and the lint would fire
multiple times per call.

## Test changes

- `tests/ui/format.{rs,fixed,stderr}`: added `#![feature(decl_macro)]`
and a `block_wrap` module covering all four pass-through and block-wrap
combinations across `macro_rules!` and `decl_macro`, as regression
coverage.
- `tests/ui/unused_format_specs.{rs,1.fixed,2.fixed}`: added
`clippy::useless_format` to the allow-list. The relaxed gate also starts
firing on `println!("{:.3}", format!("abcde"))`-style cases, which
appear in this test's `.fixed` outputs (after `unused_format_specs`
suggests `format_args!` to `format!`). This is a latent true positive
previously masked by the strict gate. The test is scoped to
`unused_format_specs` and should not be entangled with another lint's
coverage. The same pattern is already used by `tests/ui/format.rs`
itself, which allows other unrelated lints.

## Verification

- `cargo test --test compile-test`: 1764 UI tests + 188 fixed checks +
46 ui-cargo tests pass. 0 duplicate diagnostics.
- `cargo test --test dogfood`: catches the same false negative in
clippy's own `unnecessary_literal_unwrap.rs` (the line that
rust-lang/rust-clippy#17059 is fixing manually), demonstrating the fix
on real-world code.

## Related

- Motivating discussion: rust-lang/rust-clippy#17058.
- Companion manual fix that this PR's lint now catches automatically:
rust-lang/rust-clippy#17059.
- Test file: `tests/ui/format.rs`, see the new `mod block_wrap` at the
bottom.

changelog: [`useless_format`] no longer misses `format!` calls that are
the tail expression of a block produced by another macro (e.g. rustc's
`with_forced_trimmed_paths!`).
tree: 7606976da07876fbaf9c2e43de49b6904100b038
  1. .cargo/
  2. .github/
  3. book/
  4. clippy_config/
  5. clippy_dev/
  6. clippy_dummy/
  7. clippy_lints/
  8. clippy_lints_internal/
  9. clippy_test_deps/
  10. clippy_utils/
  11. declare_clippy_lint/
  12. etc/
  13. lintcheck/
  14. rustc_tools_util/
  15. src/
  16. tests/
  17. util/
  18. .editorconfig
  19. .gitattributes
  20. .gitignore
  21. .remarkrc
  22. askama.toml
  23. build.rs
  24. Cargo.toml
  25. CHANGELOG.md
  26. clippy.toml
  27. CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
  28. CONTRIBUTING.md
  29. COPYRIGHT
  30. LICENSE-APACHE
  31. LICENSE-MIT
  32. README.md
  33. rust-toolchain.toml
  34. rustfmt.toml
  35. triagebot.toml
README.md

Clippy

License: MIT OR Apache-2.0

A collection of lints to catch common mistakes and improve your Rust code.

There are over 800 lints included in this crate!

Lints are divided into categories, each with a default lint level. You can choose how much Clippy is supposed to annoy help you by changing the lint level by category.

CategoryDescriptionDefault level
clippy::allall lints that are on by default (correctness, suspicious, style, complexity, perf)warn/deny
clippy::correctnesscode that is outright wrong or uselessdeny
clippy::suspiciouscode that is most likely wrong or uselesswarn
clippy::stylecode that should be written in a more idiomatic waywarn
clippy::complexitycode that does something simple but in a complex waywarn
clippy::perfcode that can be written to run fasterwarn
clippy::pedanticlints which are rather strict or have occasional false positivesallow
clippy::restrictionlints which prevent the use of language and library features[^restrict]allow
clippy::nurserynew lints that are still under developmentallow
clippy::cargolints for the cargo manifestallow

More to come, please file an issue if you have ideas!

The restriction category should, emphatically, not be enabled as a whole. The contained lints may lint against perfectly reasonable code, may not have an alternative suggestion, and may contradict any other lints (including other categories). Lints should be considered on a case-by-case basis before enabling.

[^restrict]: Some use cases for restriction lints include: - Strict coding styles (e.g. clippy::else_if_without_else). - Additional restrictions on CI (e.g. clippy::todo). - Preventing panicking in certain functions (e.g. clippy::unwrap_used). - Running a lint only on a subset of code (e.g. #[forbid(clippy::float_arithmetic)] on a module).


Table of contents:

Usage

Below are instructions on how to use Clippy as a cargo subcommand, in projects that do not use cargo, or in Travis CI.

As a cargo subcommand (cargo clippy)

One way to use Clippy is by installing Clippy through rustup as a cargo subcommand.

Step 1: Install Rustup

You can install Rustup on supported platforms. This will help us install Clippy and its dependencies.

If you already have Rustup installed, update to ensure you have the latest Rustup and compiler:

rustup update

Step 2: Install Clippy

Once you have rustup and the latest stable release (at least Rust 1.29) installed, run the following command:

rustup component add clippy

If it says that it can't find the clippy component, please run rustup self update.

Step 3: Run Clippy

Now you can run Clippy by invoking the following command:

cargo clippy

Automatically applying Clippy suggestions

Clippy can automatically apply some lint suggestions, just like the compiler. Note that --fix implies --all-targets, so it can fix as much code as it can.

cargo clippy --fix

Workspaces

All the usual workspace options should work with Clippy. For example the following command will run Clippy on the example crate:

cargo clippy -p example

As with cargo check, this includes dependencies that are members of the workspace, like path dependencies. If you want to run Clippy only on the given crate, use the --no-deps option like this:

cargo clippy -p example -- --no-deps

Using clippy-driver

Clippy can also be used in projects that do not use cargo. To do so, run clippy-driver with the same arguments you use for rustc. For example:

clippy-driver --edition 2018 -Cpanic=abort foo.rs

Note that clippy-driver is designed for running Clippy only and should not be used as a general replacement for rustc. clippy-driver may produce artifacts that are not optimized as expected, for example.

Travis CI

You can add Clippy to Travis CI in the same way you use it locally:

language: rust
rust:
  - stable
  - beta
before_script:
  - rustup component add clippy
script:
  - cargo clippy
  # if you want the build job to fail when encountering warnings, use
  - cargo clippy -- -D warnings
  # in order to also check tests and non-default crate features, use
  - cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
  - cargo test
  # etc.

Note that adding -D warnings will cause your build to fail if any warnings are found in your code. That includes warnings found by rustc (e.g. dead_code, etc.). If you want to avoid this and only cause an error for Clippy warnings, use #![deny(clippy::all)] in your code or -D clippy::all on the command line. (You can swap clippy::all with the specific lint category you are targeting.)

Configuration

Allowing/denying lints

You can add options to your code to allow/warn/deny Clippy lints:

  • the whole set of Warn lints using the clippy lint group (#![deny(clippy::all)]). Note that rustc has additional lint groups.

  • all lints using both the clippy and clippy::pedantic lint groups (#![deny(clippy::all)], #![deny(clippy::pedantic)]). Note that clippy::pedantic contains some very aggressive lints prone to false positives.

  • only some lints (#![deny(clippy::single_match, clippy::box_vec)], etc.)

  • allow/warn/deny can be limited to a single function or module using #[allow(...)], etc.

Note: allow means to suppress the lint for your code. With warn the lint will only emit a warning, while with deny the lint will emit an error, when triggering for your code. An error causes Clippy to exit with an error code, so is useful in scripts like CI/CD.

If you do not want to include your lint levels in your code, you can globally enable/disable lints by passing extra flags to Clippy during the run:

To allow lint_name, run

cargo clippy -- -A clippy::lint_name

And to warn on lint_name, run

cargo clippy -- -W clippy::lint_name

This also works with lint groups. For example, you can run Clippy with warnings for all lints enabled:

cargo clippy -- -W clippy::pedantic

If you care only about a single lint, you can allow all others and then explicitly warn on the lint(s) you are interested in:

cargo clippy -- -A clippy::all -W clippy::useless_format -W clippy::...

Configure the behavior of some lints

Some lints can be configured in a TOML file named clippy.toml or .clippy.toml. It contains a basic variable = value mapping e.g.

avoid-breaking-exported-api = false
disallowed-names = ["toto", "tata", "titi"]

The table of configurations contains all config values, their default, and a list of lints they affect. Each configurable lint , also contains information about these values.

For configurations that are a list type with default values such as disallowed-names, you can use the unique value ".." to extend the default values instead of replacing them.

# default of disallowed-names is ["foo", "baz", "quux"]
disallowed-names = ["bar", ".."] # -> ["bar", "foo", "baz", "quux"]

Note

clippy.toml or .clippy.toml cannot be used to allow/deny lints.

To deactivate the “for further information visit lint-link” message you can define the CLIPPY_DISABLE_DOCS_LINKS environment variable.

Specifying the minimum supported Rust version

Projects that intend to support old versions of Rust can disable lints pertaining to newer features by specifying the minimum supported Rust version (MSRV) in the Clippy configuration file.

msrv = "1.30.0"

Alternatively, the rust-version field in the Cargo.toml can be used.

# Cargo.toml
rust-version = "1.30"

The MSRV can also be specified as an attribute, like below.

#![feature(custom_inner_attributes)]
#![clippy::msrv = "1.30.0"]

fn main() {
  ...
}

You can also omit the patch version when specifying the MSRV, so msrv = 1.30 is equivalent to msrv = 1.30.0.

Note: custom_inner_attributes is an unstable feature, so it has to be enabled explicitly.

Lints that recognize this configuration option can be found here

Contributing

If you want to contribute to Clippy, you can find more information in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Copyright (c) The Rust Project Contributors

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 <LICENSE-APACHE or https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> or the MIT license <LICENSE-MIT or https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>, at your option. Files in the project may not be copied, modified, or distributed except according to those terms.