Accessing fields through a Deref impl leads to confusing error messages

[Aaron1011]

The following code:

use std::ops::Deref;

struct DerefTarget {
    target_field: bool
}
struct Container {
    target: DerefTarget,
    container_field: bool,
}

impl Deref for Container {
    type Target = DerefTarget;
    fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
        &self.target
    }
}

impl Container {
    fn bad_borrow(&mut self) {
        let first = &self.target_field;
        self.container_field = true;
        first;
    }
}

causes the following error message:

error[E0506]: cannot assign to `self.container_field` because it is borrowed
  --> src/lib.rs:21:9
   |
20 |         let first = &self.target_field;
   |                      ---- borrow of `self.container_field` occurs here
21 |         self.container_field = true;
   |         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ assignment to borrowed `self.container_field` occurs here
22 |         first;
   |         ----- borrow later used here

This error is caused by the fact that &self.target_field does through the Deref impl on Container. As a result, &self is borrowed, not just the desired field. Changing this line to let first = &self.target.target_field makes the code compile.

However, the error message doesn't explain any of this. It claims that the usage of self is a borrow of self.container_field, without noting that this is due to the Deref impl.

We should do something similar to #75304 for borrows, and make it clear when lifetimes are being affected by implicit Deref calls.

[sledgehammervampire]

@rustbot claim

[sledgehammervampire]

@Aaron1011 How can I check if a Deref in the list of projections of a place is implicitly inserted?

[Aaron1011]

@1000teslas: You should be able to adapt this code:

rust/compiler/rustc_mir/src/borrow_check/diagnostics/mod.rs

Lines 798 to 893 in 0677d97

	// We are trying to find MIR of the form:
	// ```
	// _temp = _moved_val;
	// ...
	// FnSelfCall(_temp, ...)
	// ```
	//
	// where `_moved_val` is the place we generated the move error for,
	// `_temp` is some other local, and `FnSelfCall` is a function
	// that has a `self` parameter.
	let target_temp = match stmt.kind {
	StatementKind::Assign(box (temp, _)) if temp.as_local().is_some() => {
	temp.as_local().unwrap()
	}
	_ => return normal_ret,
	};
	debug!("move_spans: target_temp = {:?}", target_temp);
	if let Some(Terminator {
	kind: TerminatorKind::Call { fn_span, from_hir_call, .. }, ..
	}) = &self.body[location.block].terminator
	{
	let (method_did, method_substs) = if let Some(info) =
	crate::util::find_self_call(self.infcx.tcx, &self.body, target_temp, location.block)
	{
	info
	} else {
	return normal_ret;
	};
	let tcx = self.infcx.tcx;
	let parent = tcx.parent(method_did);
	let is_fn_once = parent == tcx.lang_items().fn_once_trait();
	let is_operator = !from_hir_call
	&& parent.map_or(false, |p| tcx.lang_items().group(LangItemGroup::Op).contains(&p));
	let is_deref = !from_hir_call && tcx.is_diagnostic_item(sym::deref_method, method_did);
	let fn_call_span = *fn_span;
	let self_arg = tcx.fn_arg_names(method_did)[0];
	debug!(
	"terminator = {:?} from_hir_call={:?}",
	self.body[location.block].terminator, from_hir_call
	);
	// Check for a 'special' use of 'self' -
	// an FnOnce call, an operator (e.g. `<<`), or a
	// deref coercion.
	let kind = if is_fn_once {
	Some(FnSelfUseKind::FnOnceCall)
	} else if is_operator {
	Some(FnSelfUseKind::Operator { self_arg })
	} else if is_deref {
	let deref_target =
	tcx.get_diagnostic_item(sym::deref_target).and_then(|deref_target| {
	Instance::resolve(tcx, self.param_env, deref_target, method_substs)
	.transpose()
	});
	if let Some(Ok(instance)) = deref_target {
	let deref_target_ty = instance.ty(tcx, self.param_env);
	Some(FnSelfUseKind::DerefCoercion {
	deref_target: tcx.def_span(instance.def_id()),
	deref_target_ty,
	})
	} else {
	None
	}
	} else {
	None
	};
	let kind = kind.unwrap_or_else(|| {
	// This isn't a 'special' use of `self`
	debug!("move_spans: method_did={:?}, fn_call_span={:?}", method_did, fn_call_span);
	let implicit_into_iter = matches!(
	fn_call_span.desugaring_kind(),
	Some(DesugaringKind::ForLoop(ForLoopLoc::IntoIter))
	);
	FnSelfUseKind::Normal { self_arg, implicit_into_iter }
	});
	return FnSelfUse {
	var_span: stmt.source_info.span,
	fn_call_span,
	fn_span: self
	.infcx
	.tcx
	.sess
	.source_map()
	.guess_head_span(self.infcx.tcx.def_span(method_did)),
	kind,
	};
	}
	normal_ret

and re-use the FnSelfUse code. The actual check for a non-user-supplied Deref call is done by:

rust/compiler/rustc_mir/src/borrow_check/diagnostics/mod.rs

Line 835 in 0677d97

let is_deref = !from_hir_call && tcx.is_diagnostic_item(sym::deref_method, method_did);

[sledgehammervampire]

@Aaron1011 It doesn't look like from_hir_call distinguishes between issue-81365.rs, where the deref in self.target_field is implicit and issue-81365-8.rs, where the deref is explicit.