Error count display is different when there's only one error left, making it difficult to scan output

[carols10cents]

Code

Take any code that doesn't compile with multiple errors, then fix them one at a time, running the compiler between each fix.

Current output

When there are 3 errors left, the compiler says:

error: could not compile `crate` (lib test) due to 3 previous errors

When there are 2 errors left, the compiler says:

error: could not compile `crate` (lib test) due to 2 previous errors

When there is 1 error left, the compiler says:

error: could not compile `crate` (lib test) due to previous error

Desired output

When there's only 1 error left, I wish the number 1 appeared in the output so that it scans the same as the output when there's more than 1 error, so:

error: could not compile `crate` (lib test) due to 1 previous error

Rationale and extra context

When I'm in a cycle of quickly going between edit -> compile -> see how many errors there are to ensure I'm making forward progress and see how much work is left -> edit, my brain goes to the due to previous error message looking for a digit. My brain also sees that there's clearly still error output, so it's saying "where's the count?!??! how many are left?!? what's going on?!?!" until my brain's flow is broken and it goes "oh right, this error message is different, there's 1 left".

It's a minor paper cut. Feel free to prioritize accordingly.

I'm using Rust stable 1.71.0.

[carols10cents]

@rustbot label +D-papercut

[chenyukang]

sounds reasonable, if there is N in the message, make it more explicit:

[ehuss]

Transferred to the cargo repo, since these error messages are generated via cargo. Although rustc generates a similar message ("aborting due to previous error"), cargo intercepts that message and does not display it, and instead displays its own summary. I'm assuming @carols10cents is interested in the message when using cargo (although I'd guess that changing rustc's error to have a similar form could also be done).

[carols10cents]

Oh I had no idea this was cargo's doing! Thank you for taking care of the move :) Yes, I was using cargo.

[weihanglo]

Not sure about other team members' opinions. The intention sounds pretty valid to me. The relevant code is here:

cargo/src/cargo/core/compiler/mod.rs

Lines 423 to 427 in e2fbcd9

	let errors = match output_options.errors_seen {
	0 => String::new(),
	1 => " due to previous error".to_string(),
	count => format!(" due to {} previous errors", count),
	};

[adrianEffe]

Would it make sense to do the same for warnings if we go ahead with this?

[weihanglo]

Anyone willing to have a look at how rustc handles this diagnostic? Would be great if rustc and Cargo are more consistent in the format.

[chenyukang]

I can take a look for the rustc part.
It's here:
https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/64ad036307727d21070a46f1a5e323cd442229da/compiler/rustc_errors/src/lib.rs#L1443

If cargo fixed I may create PR to fix it and update cargo.

[adrianEffe]

Happy to open a PR for this if it gets labelled as accepted 🙏

[weihanglo]

Since it's a revertible change, I'll go ahead and accept this change. Just a tiny advice — open the PR in both rust-lang/rust and rust-lang/cargo at the same time, so that maintainers of each repo can have a reference of whether they want to proceed.

If anyone objects to this, please call out here. Thank you :)

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@rustbot label +S-accepted -S-needs-team-input