#[must_use] on traits should apply to all types that implement the trait, not just for impl Trait placeholders

[KarelPeeters]

General issue

Currently, #[must_use] on a trait Foo does not extend to types that implement Foo, it only works on impl Foo return types, and Box<dyn Foo> as a special case:

#[must_use]
trait Foo {}

struct Bar;
impl Foo for Bar {}

fn build_foo() -> impl Foo { Bar }

fn build_box() -> Box<dyn Foo> { Box::new(Bar) }

fn build_bar() -> Bar { Bar }

fn main() {
    build_foo(); // warning: unused implementer of `Foo` that must be used
    build_box(); // warning: unused boxed `Foo` trait object that must be used
    build_bar(); // no warning!
}

(playground)

This does not make much sense, presumably if a trait must always be used all types that implement that trait must also be used.

Application to Future

I came across this when dealing with futures. The Future trait has a #[must_use] annotation, with the useful reminder to .await or poll them:

rust/library/core/src/future/future.rs

Lines 28 to 37 in b8967b0

	#[doc(notable_trait)]
	#[must_use = "futures do nothing unless you `.await` or poll them"]
	#[stable(feature = "futures_api", since = "1.36.0")]
	#[lang = "future_trait"]
	#[rustc_on_unimplemented(
	label = "`{Self}` is not a future",
	message = "`{Self}` is not a future",
	note = "{Self} must be a future or must implement `IntoFuture` to be awaited"
	)]
	pub trait Future {

I was specifically using specifically BoxFuture, a type alias for Pin<Box<dyn Future>>. This type implements Future, but there is no warning message when you forget to use it. This was also the original justification in #67387, where a very different solution is proposed (extending must_use to Pin and other wrapper types).

Another effect of this missing warning is that any struct that implements Future has to repeat the same must_use annotation. Some examples:

• futures::future::Ready
• tokio::time::Sleep
• async_std doesn't expose any public types that implement Future, instead they almost always use an impl Future return type. There is still the internal WriteFmtFuture.

If must_use on traits infected any type that implemented it, these duplicate annotations could be removed and there would be no risk of forgetting them for any future types.

[Rua]

Related: #102287.

[kayabaNerve]

This is a bit worse than as initially described. Not only does must_use on trait not apply to generic instances, it erases the must_use which would be applied if not generic. While that makes sense (as otherwise you could instance a generic function with two different types, one must_use, one not, to distinct results), it means there's no workaround for this.

I unfortunately hit this and lost days of debugging over it (as I forgot to commit a rather critical DB transaction).

[traviscross]

Specifically, what @kayabaNerve is referring to is this:

#[must_use]
trait Tr {}

#[must_use]
struct S;
impl Tr for S {}

fn id<T: Tr>(x: T) -> T { x }

fn foo<T: Tr>(x: T) {
    id(x); //~ No warning
}

fn main() {
    id(S);
    //~^ WARN unused `S` that must be used
    foo(S);
}