clippy

Rust linter for catching common mistakes

TLDR

Run clippy on project

$ cargo clippy

Run clippy and fix issues automatically

$ cargo clippy --fix

Run clippy on all targets

$ cargo clippy --all-targets

Deny all warnings (treat as errors)

$ cargo clippy -- -D warnings

Allow specific lint

$ cargo clippy -- -A clippy::needless_return

Show all available lints

$ cargo clippy --list

Run clippy in release mode

$ cargo clippy --release

SYNOPSIS

cargo clippy [options] [-- clippyoptions_]

clippy is a collection of lints to catch common mistakes and improve Rust code. It provides hundreds of lints covering correctness, style, performance, complexity, and more.Clippy integrates with Cargo and analyzes code during compilation, providing actionable warnings. Lints range from simple style suggestions to detecting subtle bugs and performance issues. Many lints include automatic fixes that can be applied with `--fix`.

PARAMETERS

--fix

Automatically apply lint suggestions.

--all-targets

Check all targets including tests and examples.

--all-features

Check with all features enabled.

--release

Check in release mode.

--list

List all available lints.

-- -D lint

Deny specific lint (treat as error).

-- -W lint

Warn on specific lint.

-- -A lint

Allow (ignore) specific lint.

-- -F lint

Forbid lint (cannot be overridden).

LINT CATEGORIES

clippy::correctness: Likely bugsclippy::suspicious: Questionable codeclippy::style: Style improvementsclippy::complexity: Overly complex codeclippy::perf: Performance improvementsclippy::pedantic: Stricter lintsclippy::nursery: Experimental lints

CAVEATS

Some lints may produce false positives. The pedantic category is intentionally noisy and should be selectively enabled. Automatic fixes from --fix should be reviewed before committing. Clippy suggestions may occasionally conflict with rustfmt formatting.

HISTORY

clippy was created by Manish Goregaokar and others starting in 2014 as a third-party tool. The name references Microsoft's Office assistant. It became an official Rust component in 2018, distributed via rustup. Clippy has grown to include over 600 lints and is widely used in the Rust ecosystem.