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Document when errors should have an associated error code #967

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Document when errors should have an associated error code
camelid Nov 23, 2020
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Update general rule
camelid Nov 24, 2020
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13 changes: 11 additions & 2 deletions src/diagnostics.md
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Expand Up @@ -70,14 +70,23 @@ example of how to trigger it and advice on how to fix it.
Please read [RFC 1567] for details on how to format and write long error
codes.

The descriptions are written in markdown, and all of them are linked in the
The descriptions are written in Markdown, and all of them are linked in the
[`rustc_error_codes`] crate.

TODO: When should an error use an error code, and when shouldn't it?
As a general rule, give an error a code (with an associated explanation) if the
explanation would give more information than the error itself. A lot of the time
it's better to put all the information in the emitted error itself. However,
sometimes that would make the error verbose or there are too many possible
triggers to include useful information for all cases in the error, in which case
it's a good idea to add an explanation.[^estebank]
As always, if you are not sure, just ask your reviewer!

[^estebank]: This rule of thumb was suggested by **@estebank** [here][estebank-comment].

[`rustc_error_codes`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_error_codes/error_codes/index.html
[error index]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/error-index.html
[RFC 1567]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/blob/master/text/1567-long-error-codes-explanation-normalization.md
[estebank-comment]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rustc-dev-guide/pull/967#issuecomment-733218283

### Lints versus fixed diagnostics

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