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@niacdoial niacdoial commented Dec 23, 2024

This PR tries to re-add the changes in #131669 (which were reverted in #134064 after one (1) nightly),
and adds better coverage of ty_kinds:

  • in the take-1-added TypeSizedness enum and its construction
  • in a new test file

The changes in the original PR aim to make ImproperCTypes/ImproperCTypesDefinitions produce better warnings when dealing with indirections (Box, &T, *T), especially for those to DSTs.

r? workingjubilee (because you reviewed the first attempt)

@rustbot rustbot added S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. T-compiler Relevant to the compiler team, which will review and decide on the PR/issue. labels Dec 23, 2024
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(
hi Jubilee, I'm back at this again!
I know this is not the best time of year to add PRs, so I'm fine with postponing this if you don't feel like tackling it these upcoming weeks.
In any case, have some nice end-of-year festivities, if you celebrate any!
)

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ah, and before I forget: a small part of the new test file is commented out because it hits ICE #134587, but there should be more than decent coverage anyway

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unfortunately the lint needs to be gutted and rewritten.

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workingjubilee commented Dec 24, 2024

Also while I was possibly having a mild case of get-there-itis and thus mostly tried to just make sure things were coherent, I would prefer all new code for the lint be in compiler/rustc_lint/src/types/improper_ctypes.rs.

@workingjubilee workingjubilee added S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. and removed S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Jan 4, 2025
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The version cut happened so there will be less time pressure now.

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I have a first version for compiler/rustc_lint/src/types/improper_ctypes.rs if you want.
it's less of a from-the-ground-up rewrite as it is scrapping the original for parts, if the analogy makes sense.

you probably have things to say about its architecture, even if the whole thing still have a bunch of TODO comments
the progress so far looks like this:

  • completely separate the type-checking and reporting systems
  • (part of the way there) remove some of the special cases and integrate them to the "main logic"
    • check_for_opaque_types is still a "special case" part of the checking logic
    • Cstr and Cstring are also somewhat special-cased because the advice for them depends on the type around them, if any
    • the unit type is handled in multiple places, see if this can be fixed
  • (almost complete) compile, pass existing tests
    • only failed tests are for Cstring, due to different error messages
    • one unrelated test had to have a second "#[allow(improper_ctypes)]" added, but it makes more sense for it to need that anyway
  • better separation of the different checks in different visit_* methods of ImproperCTypesVisitor
  • better tracking of how the currently-checked type is used (static, function argument, function return's inner type, etc...)
    • raises questions about the separation of improper_ctypes and improper_ctypes_definitions versus declared/defined functions, especially when FnPtr:s are involved
  • allow single argument check to emit multiple errors (for fnptr:s, structures with multiple FFI-unsafe fields, etc)
  • review what is considered FFI-safe or not (once everything else is complete)

If you want to take a look in this state, should I just commit it here? (possibly put the PR in draft mode while I'm at it?)
or send you the files in a different way?

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bors commented Jan 15, 2025

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #135525) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

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niacdoial commented Jan 18, 2025

aaaand I think I have something that's "first draft" material! (should I put this pull in the "draft" state?)
There's still a bunch of TODOs (...well, they were changed to FIXMEs to be pushed here) for questions I didn't manage to answer (and a bunch of failing tests because I don't know if the error should be here), but yeah.

here's a list of some of my remaining questions and concerns:

  • visit_numeric seems too x86_64-specific

  • should we revisit the distinction between ImproperCTypes and ImproperCTypesDefinitions?

    • part 1: the output ("external fn" or vs "external block" vs other possibilities)
    • part 2: handling opaque types (there's a high correlation between ImproperCTypesDefinitions and places where we allow FFI-opaque types to be fully specified. do we want this correlation to be 1?)
  • more on FFI-opaque types: how do we handle that in the context of the "context switch" between functions and possible FnPtr arguments? The answer that seems correct currently prevents a stage1 compiler from being built

    • should we introduce a std::ffi::FfiOpaquePtr type? (which would be a *const c_void and some phantomdata, on first approximation)
  • for indirections whose values may be supplied by non-rust code: do we only allow pointers (and Optionstd::ptr::NonNull), or do we also allow Option<&T> and Option<Box<T>>?

  • not sure if the new error messages are intelligible in all cases (especially if there's a type param like Self or <Self as ::std::ops::Add<Self>>::Output that gets resolved in the error message).

  • it feels like the current handling of CStr/Cstring and Option-like enums uses special casing, since those are tested for in multiple places.

  • if we deny references and boxes in defined functions, what of &self in methods? We don't allow *const Self, last I checked.

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bors commented Jan 23, 2025

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #135921) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

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hmm.

@workingjubilee workingjubilee added S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. and removed S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. labels Jan 31, 2025
@workingjubilee workingjubilee self-requested a review January 31, 2025 05:14
@workingjubilee workingjubilee marked this pull request as draft January 31, 2025 05:15
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aaaand I think I have something that's "first draft" material! (should I put this pull in the "draft" state?)

Yes, it's a good marker for "I don't want this merged yet, even if it looks done".

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visit_numeric seems too x86_64-specific

It probably is.

should we revisit the distinction between ImproperCTypes and ImproperCTypesDefinitions?

Yes, but in particular, not to just repartition them between: I think breaking them into as many conceptually-smaller lints as possible is good, as long as each one is a distinct idea (no splitting just for the sake of splitting!).

more on FFI-opaque types: how do we handle that in the context of the "context switch" between functions and possible FnPtr arguments? The answer that seems correct currently prevents a stage1 compiler from being built

I'm not sure what you mean?

for indirections whose values may be supplied by non-rust code: do we only allow pointers (and Option<std::ptr::NonNull>), or do we also allow Option<&T> and Option<Box<T>>?

We must allow Rust code to declare a pointer in a C signature to be Option<&T> or a number of things about our FFI story fall apart.

it feels like the current handling of CStr/CString and Option-like enums uses special casing, since those are tested for in multiple places.

Yes, probably.

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some initial nits on a first pass

Comment on lines 872 to 873
// but for some reason one can just go and write function *pointers* like that:
// `type Foo = extern "C" fn(::std::ffi::CStr);`
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  1. Because unsized function parameters are something we may want to support.
  2. The code may not be well-formed: as you may have noticed at some point, you get warnings even if you get errors (usually), and this is because we lint even on "bad" code. This is because rustc didn't use to, once upon a time, and it was a bad debugging experience.

@workingjubilee workingjubilee added S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. and removed S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Feb 20, 2025
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alright, sorry for taking a while!

I'm currently planning what changes I'll do in terms of splitting the lint(s)
my current idea is to separate based on the nature of the thing being (presumably) propped up against a FFI boundary

  • improper_ctypes: what's definitely an interface to an outside library (extern statics, extern function declarations)
  • improper_ctypes_fn_definitions: functions written in rust intended to be exported
  • improper_ctypes_callbacks: FnPtr arguments, no matter in what function they are being used
  • improper_ctypes_ty_definitions: repr(C) structs/enums(/unions)?

more on FFI-opaque types: how do we handle that in the context of the "context switch" between functions and possible FnPtr arguments? The answer that seems correct currently prevents a stage1 compiler from being built

I'm not sure what you mean?

well, this is more or less answered in what I said before that, but my question was about how to deal with "switching" from checking arguments for, say, a function definition, to checking the arguments of a FnPtr argument?

  1. should the nature of the lint change?
    (temptative answer: yes)
  2. how should FFI-Safe-pointers-to-FFI-Unsafe-pointees work in FnPtr arguments? Should it be the rules for extern fn declarations? (throw the lint because one should use *const c_void, an extern type declaration, etc...) or the rules for extern fn definitions? (allow that, the function's body needs the full type even if it's opaque to the other side of the FFI boundary)
    (temptative answer: it should be the former, but parts of the rustc codebase doesn't follow this rule, so I can't get a stage1 compiler if I make that the rule)

// you would think that int-range pattern types that exclude 0 would have Option layout optimisation
// they don't (see tests/ui/type/pattern_types/range_patterns.stderr)
// so there's no need to allow Option<pattern_type!(u32 in 1..)>.

oh, I should fix that probably

I... maybe? I can't for the life of me find the link to that again but I think I saw a discussion about that and type covariance/contravariance,
where i32 is 1.. is a subtype of i32 (well that was under consideration), meaning fn(Option<i32>) is a type of fn(Option<i32 is 1..>) and it might have impacts on whether there should be an optimisation because of transmutation?

Though you'll definitely know more than me on all the moving parts.
Especially assuming you might have looked at this more in the past week.


As for the rest of your advice, I already took all this in!
thanks for shedding light on my code, one nit at a time!

@niacdoial niacdoial force-pushed the linting-ptrdyn-ffi branch from 5c27e88 to 858bf47 Compare May 24, 2025 20:10
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@niacdoial niacdoial force-pushed the linting-ptrdyn-ffi branch from 858bf47 to 002a066 Compare May 24, 2025 23:27
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@niacdoial niacdoial force-pushed the linting-ptrdyn-ffi branch from 002a066 to 6be8a4c Compare May 25, 2025 10:33
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Alright, I think this is good enough for a new review.
Let me try to summarise the state of things, and the major decisions I took:

Decisions:

  • repr(C) on a struct/union/enum is now seen as enough of a signal for the lint to look closer (edit: no, it looks like repr(C) is also often used to specify the order of fields. decision undone)
  • Static variables with no_mangle or export_name are now seen as FFI boundaries
  • The "valid type, possibly invalid value" part of the checks (used for e.g. references in defined-function arguments) does not apply when linting on FnPtrs.
    (in most cases, these warnings would show up somewhere else. the one case that remains is when an arbitrary non-rust callback is given to a rust function, which later executes it)
  • Uninhabited types are now deemed unsafe in function arguments and static variables. For function returns, only ! and empty enums are allowed. (e.g. structs with uninhabited fields are not)
  • &self in methods will be considered just as unsafe as other un-Option'd references, eventhough last I checked self: Option<&Self> is not something that compiles

Things to maybe do that are relegated to a future PR:

  • Make a specific lint for "invalid pointee type" (currently unchecked)
    • There would need to be discussions as to how to deal with types considered opaque on the non-rust side of the FFI boundary
    • Ideally the underlying errors/warnings would vanish if /either/ of improper_c_pointee and improper_ctypes is allowed
  • Same thing for a "possible invalid value for type" lint (currently checked)
    • The only reason here is to be able to allow this without allowing any other part of these lints
  • Finally, reintroduce improper_c_type_definitions to #[allow()] struct/enum/union definitions, even if they are not FFI-safe

Other points of note:

  • I had to add a piece of macro_rules! to rustc_codegen_llvm::llvm::ffi to wrap all returned references in options. This is sort of ugly, but I think this is the best solution for this
  • This whole PR already fixes stack overflow in ImproperCTypesVisitor::{check_type_for_ffi, check_variant_for_ffi} #130310 for the wrong reasons, so I had to retroactively add a change that fixes it for the right reasons. (Though I think I'll change my approach on that, I fear I just opened a door to DOS attacks that use a slight modification of that issue's MWE.)

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*deep inhale*
@rustbot label -S-waiting-on-author +S-waiting-on-review

@rustbot rustbot added S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. and removed S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. labels May 25, 2025
@niacdoial niacdoial changed the title lint / ImproperCTypes: better handling of indirections, take 2 lint ImproperCTypes: overhaul (take 2 of "better handling of indirections") May 25, 2025
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bors commented May 26, 2025

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #141557) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

niacdoial added 17 commits May 26, 2025 11:29
- removed special-case logic for a few cases (including the unit type,
  which is now only checked for in one place)
- moved a lot of type-checking code in their dedicated visit_* methods
- reworked FfiResult type to handle multiple diagnostics per type
  (currently imperfect due to type caching)
- reworked the messages around CStr and CString
- now the lint scans repr(C) struct/enum/union definitions
- it now also scans method declarations in traits
- many other changes in the underlying logic
- some extra tests
- also fix a couple of thorny typos in/around types.rs::is_outer_optionlike_around_ty()
  and subsequently fix library and tests
- do not check ADT definitions themselves, it turns out `repr(C)` is not
  a strong enough signal to determine if something is designed for FFIs
- however, start checking static variables with `#[no_mangle]` or
  `#[export_name=_]`, even if that's not a perfect signal due to the
  lack of specified ABI
- some changes to the LLVM codegen so it can be seen as FFI-safe
for now, let's fully remove this lint. it might be reintroduced later as
a way to make the lints ignore the inside of some ADT definitions
- make clippy happy about the changes in rust_codegen_llvm
- split a test stderr into 32bit and 64bit
- fix some documentation
@niacdoial niacdoial force-pushed the linting-ptrdyn-ffi branch from 6be8a4c to ee6f1cd Compare May 26, 2025 09:29
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bors commented May 27, 2025

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #141644) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

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