"use std" before #[link(...)] in .rc file causes an error

[erickt]

rustc errors out when compiling a ".rc" file if use std comes before the #link(...):

test:rc

use std;

#[link(name="test", vers="0.1")];

mod test;

test.rs:

fn main() {}

Errors with:

test.rc:3:32: 3:33 error: expecting mod, found ;
test.rc:3 #[link(name="test", vers="0.1")];

[brson]

That inner attributes (attributes terminated with a semi) must come before any module contents is intentional, but this gotcha has come up before. Should we allow attributes anywhere in a module to apply to that module? It seems like too much action at a distance if, e.g. 2000 lines into parser.rs you wrote #[cfg(target_os = "macos")];.

Maybe we could have a better error message.

[jbclements]

Agreed. Would it be worth while to have a "better error message please" category? Similar to #1208 . Also, #2569 seems to be the canonical bug on the topic of inner attributes.

[pcwalton]

I don't believe this is backwards incompatible, renominating.

[graydon]

just a bug, removing milestone/nomination.

[bblum]

It's definitely a worse gotcha to have accidental semicolons cause entire modules to be #[ignore]d or whatever. Improved error message is the way to go.

[flaper87]

Visiting for triage: @cmr are you planing to create a PR for those commits?

[emberian]

Oops. I'll get to it in ~2 weeks.

[alexcrichton]

I believe this has been satisfactorily fixed with unused attribute warnings.