Crate proc_macro_error

proc-macro-error

This crate aims to make error reporting in proc-macros simple and easy to use. Migrate from panic!-based errors for as little effort as possible!

(Also, you can explicitly append a dummy token stream to your errors).

To achieve his, this crate serves as a tiny shim around proc_macro::Diagnostic and compile_error!. It detects the best way of emitting available based on compiler’s version. When the underlying diagnostic type is finally stabilized, this crate will simply be delegating to it requiring no changes in your code!

So you can just use this crate and have both some of proc_macro::Diagnostic functionality available on stable ahead of time and your error-reporting code future-proof.

Cargo features

This crate provides enabled by default syn-error feature that gates impl From<syn::Error> for Diagnostic conversion. If you don’t use syn and want to cut off some of compilation time, you can disable it via

[dependencies]
proc-macro-error = { version = "1", default-features = false }

*Please note that disabling this feature makes sense only if you don’t depend on syn directly or indirectly, and you very likely do.

Real world examples

• structopt-derive (abort-like usage)
• auto-impl (emit-like usage)

Limitations

• Warnings are emitted only on nightly, they are ignored on stable.
• “help” suggestions can’t have their own span info on stable, (essentially inheriting the parent span).
• If a panic occurs somewhere in your macro no errors will be displayed. This is not a technical limitation but rather intentional design. panic is not for error reporting.

#[proc_macro_error] attribute

This attribute MUST be present on the top level of your macro (the function annotated with any of #[proc_macro], #[proc_macro_derive], #[proc_macro_attribute]).

This attribute performs the setup and cleanup necessary to make things work.

In most cases you’ll need the simple #[proc_macro_error] form without any additional settings. Feel free to skip the “Syntax” section.

Syntax

#[proc_macro_error] or #[proc_macro_error(settings...)], where settings... is a comma-separated list of:

• proc_macro_hack:

  In order to correctly cooperate with #[proc_macro_hack], #[proc_macro_error] attribute must be placed before (above) it, like this:

  #[proc_macro_error]
  #[proc_macro_hack]
  #[proc_macro]
  fn my_macro(input: TokenStream) -> TokenStream {
      unimplemented!()
  }

  If, for some reason, you can’t place it like that you can use #[proc_macro_error(proc_macro_hack)] instead.

  Note

  If proc-macro-hack was detected (by any means) allow_not_macro and assert_unwind_safe will be applied automatically.

• allow_not_macro:

  By default, the attribute checks that it’s applied to a proc-macro. If none of #[proc_macro], #[proc_macro_derive] nor #[proc_macro_attribute] are present it will panic. It’s the intention - this crate is supposed to be used only with proc-macros.

  This setting is made to bypass the check, useful in certain circumstances.

  Pay attention: the function this attribute is applied to must return proc_macro::TokenStream.

  This setting is implied if proc-macro-hack was detected.

• assert_unwind_safe:

  By default, your code must be unwind safe. If your code is not unwind safe, but you believe it’s correct, you can use this setting to bypass the check. You would need this for code that uses lazy_static or thread_local with Cell/RefCell inside (and the like).

  This setting is implied if #[proc_macro_error] is applied to a function marked as #[proc_macro], #[proc_macro_derive] or #[proc_macro_attribute].

  This setting is also implied if proc-macro-hack was detected.

Macros

Most of the time you want to use the macros. Syntax is described in the next section below.

You’ll need to decide how you want to emit errors:

• Emit the error and abort. Very much panic-like usage. Served by abort! and abort_call_site!.
• Emit the error but do not abort right away, looking for other errors to report. Served by emit_error! and emit_call_site_error!.

You can mix these usages.

abort and emit_error take a “source span” as the first argument. This source will be used to highlight the place the error originates from. It must be one of:

• Something that implements ToTokens (most types in syn and proc-macro2 do). This source is the preferable one since it doesn’t lose span information on multi-token spans, see this issue for details.
• proc_macro::Span
• proc-macro2::Span

The rest is your message in format-like style.

See the next section for detailed syntax.

• abort!:

  Very much panic-like usage - abort right away and show the error. Expands to ! (never type).

• abort_call_site!:

  Shortcut for abort!(Span::call_site(), ...). Expands to ! (never type).

• emit_error!:

  proc_macro::Diagnostic-like usage - emit the error but keep going, looking for other errors to report. The compilation will fail nonetheless. Expands to () (unit type).

• emit_call_site_error!:

  Shortcut for emit_error!(Span::call_site(), ...). Expands to () (unit type).

• emit_warning!:

  Like emit_error! but emit a warning instead of error. The compilation won’t fail because of warnings. Expands to () (unit type).

  Beware: warnings are nightly only, they are completely ignored on stable.

• emit_call_site_warning!:

  Shortcut for emit_warning!(Span::call_site(), ...). Expands to () (unit type).

• diagnostic:

  Build an instance of Diagnostic in format-like style.

Syntax

All the macros have pretty much the same syntax:

1. abort!(single_expr)

   Shortcut for Diagnostic::from(expr).abort().

2. abort!(span, message)

   The first argument is an expression the span info should be taken from.

   The second argument is the error message, it must implement ToString.

3. abort!(span, format_literal, format_args...)

   This form is pretty much the same as 2, except format!(format_literal, format_args...) will be used to for the message instead of ToString.

That’s it. abort!, emit_warning, emit_error share this exact syntax.

abort_call_site!, emit_call_site_warning, emit_call_site_error lack 1 form and do not take span in 2’th and 3’th forms. Those are essentially shortcuts for macro!(Span::call_site(), args...).

diagnostic! requires a Level instance between span and second argument (1’th form is the same).

Important!

If you have some type from proc_macro or syn to point to, do not call .span() on it but rather use it directly:

let ty: syn::Type = syn::parse2(input).unwrap();
abort!(ty, "BOOM");
//     ^^ <-- avoid .span()

.span() calls work too, but you may experience regressions in message quality.

Note attachments

3. Every macro can have “note” attachments (only 2 and 3 form).

let opt_help = if have_some_info { Some("did you mean `this`?") } else { None };

abort!(
    span, message; // <--- attachments start with `;` (semicolon)

    help = "format {} {}", "arg1", "arg2"; // <--- every attachment ends with `;`,
                                           //      maybe except the last one

    note = "to_string"; // <--- one arg uses `.to_string()` instead of `format!()`

    yay = "I see what {} did here", "you"; // <--- "help =" and "hint =" are mapped
                                           // to Diagnostic::help,
                                           // anything else is Diagnostic::note

    wow = note_span => "custom span"; // <--- attachments can have their own span
                                      //      it takes effect only on nightly though

    hint =? opt_help; // <-- "optional" attachment, get displayed only if `Some`
                      //     must be single `Option` expression

    note =? note_span => opt_help // <-- optional attachments can have custom spans too
);

Diagnostic type

Diagnostic type is intentionally designed to be API compatible with proc_macro::Diagnostic. Not all API is implemented, only the part that can be reasonably implemented on stable.

Re-exports

• pub use crate::dummy::append_dummy;
• pub use crate::dummy::set_dummy;

Modules

• dummy
  Facility to emit dummy implementations (or whatever) in case an error happen.

Macros

• abort
  Abort proc-macro execution right now and display the error.
• abort_call_site
  Shortcut for abort!(Span::call_site(), msg...). This macro is still preferable over plain panic, panics are not for error reporting.
• diagnostic
  Build Diagnostic instance from provided arguments.
• emit_call_site_error
  Shortcut for emit_error!(Span::call_site(), ...). This macro is still preferable over plain panic, panics are not for error reporting..
• emit_call_site_warning
  Shortcut for emit_warning!(Span::call_site(), ...).
• emit_error
  Emit an error while not aborting the proc-macro right away.
• emit_warning
  Emit a warning. Warnings are not errors and compilation won’t fail because of them.

Structs

• Diagnostic
  Represents a single diagnostic message
• SpanRange

Enums

• Level
  Represents a diagnostic level

Traits

• DiagnosticExt
  A collection of methods that do not exist in proc_macro::Diagnostic but still useful to have around.
• OptionExt
  This traits expands Option with some handy shortcuts.
• ResultExt
  This traits expands Result<T, Into<Diagnostic>> with some handy shortcuts.

Functions

• abort_if_dirty
  Abort macro execution and display all the emitted errors, if any.

Attribute Macros

• proc_macro_error