Rust: diagnostic for naive recursive async functions is really unfriendly

[nikomatsakis]

The following Rust source (playground):

#![feature(async_await)]

async fn foo(n: usize) {
    if n > 0 {
        foo(n - 1).await;
    }
}

fn main() {
}

gives the error:

error[E0720]: opaque type expands to a recursive type
 --> src/main.rs:3:24
  |
3 | async fn foo(n: usize) {
  |                        ^ expands to self-referential type
  |
  = note: expanded type is `std::future::GenFuture<[static generator@src/main.rs:3:24: 7:2 n:usize {usize, bool, impl std::future::Future, ()}]>`

We could be a lot clearer.

[gilescope]

@rustbot claim

[nikomatsakis]

I think an error like

error[E0720]: recursion is not supported in async fn
 --> src/main.rs:3:24
  |
3 | async fn foo(n: usize) {
  |                        ^ async fn cannot invoke themselves directly
  |
  = note: to create a recursive async fn, you must rewrite to return a boxed future
  = for more information, see https://rust-lang.github.io/async-book/index.html

[nikomatsakis]

I suspect we can intercept that "opaque type" error and check on the origin field of the opaque type, looking for AsyncFn

[withoutboats]

In addition to adding specific output for async fn, it would also be good to stop outputing "self-referential type" in any context, and instead use "recursive type" as this error message does at one point. Nowadays, "self-referential" is used very often to mean they have references pointing into themselves, rather than how it is being used here, and someone who googles it will get very unhelpful results. I imagine this fix would just be a search and replace.

[nikomatsakis]

It looks like the error is issued here:

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/b8ec4c4d11ede0fba333a0474ed473dbe82aacf1/src/librustc_typeck/check/mod.rs#L1317-L1331

That function is invoked from here:

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/b8ec4c4d11ede0fba333a0474ed473dbe82aacf1/src/librustc_typeck/check/mod.rs#L1379-L1384

In that caller's location, we can access the argument to the Existential variant, which is a ExistTy struct. That struct has a field origin that tell us where the existential type came from. If we pass that field into the original function I cited, it can check if this is an async function and alter the error message wording.

[gilescope]

I presume use a new error number rather than E0720?

[Centril]

Fixed in https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/62871.