unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn warning

Summary

• The unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn lint now warns by default. This warning detects calls to unsafe operations in unsafe functions without an explicit unsafe block.

Details

The unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn lint will fire if there are unsafe operations in an unsafe function without an explicit unsafe {} block.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#![warn(unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn)]
unsafe fn get_unchecked<T>(x: &[T], i: usize) -> &T {
  x.get_unchecked(i) // WARNING: requires unsafe block
}
}

The solution is to wrap any unsafe operations in an unsafe block:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#![deny(unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn)]
unsafe fn get_unchecked<T>(x: &[T], i: usize) -> &T {
  unsafe { x.get_unchecked(i) }
}
}

This change is intended to help protect against accidental use of unsafe operations in an unsafe function. The unsafe function keyword was performing two roles. One was to declare that calling the function requires unsafe, and that the caller is responsible to uphold additional safety requirements. The other role was to allow the use of unsafe operations inside of the function. This second role was determined to be too risky without explicit unsafe blocks.

More information and motivation may be found in RFC #2585.

Migration

The unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn lint is part of the rust-2024-compatibility lint group. In order to migrate your code to be Rust 2024 Edition compatible, run:

cargo fix --edition

Alternatively, you can manually enable the lint to find places where unsafe blocks need to be added, or switch it to allow to silence the lint completely.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// Add this to the root of your crate to do a manual migration.
#![warn(unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn)]
}