Expand on stability documentation.

1 files changed, 78 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/stability.md b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/stability.md
index 46f62e52037..6b32dff2d53 100644
--- a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/stability.md
+++ b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/stability.md
@@ -3,13 +3,18 @@
 This section is about the stability attributes and schemes that allow stable APIs to use unstable
 APIs internally in the rustc standard library.
 
-For instructions on stabilizing a language feature see 
+For instructions on stabilizing a language feature see
 [Stabilizing Features](./stabilization_guide.md).
 
-# unstable
+## unstable
 
 The `#[unstable(feature = "foo", issue = "1234", reason = "lorem ipsum")]` attribute explicitly
-marks an item as unstable. This infects all sub-items, where the attribute doesn't have to be
+marks an item as unstable. Items that are marked as "unstable" cannot be used
+without a corresponding `#![feature]` attribute on the crate, even on a
+nightly compiler. This restriction only applies across crate boundaries, unstable
+items may be used within the crate they are defined.
+
+The `unstable` attribute infects all sub-items, where the attribute doesn't have to be
 reapplied. So if you apply this to a module, all items in the module will be unstable.
 
 You can make specific sub-items stable by using the `#[stable]` attribute on them.
@@ -21,9 +26,14 @@ Note, however, that due to a [rustc bug], stable items inside unstable modules
 can import `core::intrinsics::transmute` even though `intrinsics` is an unstable
 module.  Thus, this kind of nesting should be avoided when possible.
 
+The `unstable` attribute may also have the `soft` value, which makes it a
+future-incompatible deny-by-default lint instead of a hard error. This is used
+by the `bench` attribute which was accidentally accepted in the past. This
+prevents breaking dependencies by leveraging Cargo's lint capping.
+
 [rustc bug]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/15702
 
-# stable
+## stable
 
 The `#[stable(feature = "foo", "since = "1.420.69")]` attribute explicitly marks an item as
 stabilized. To do this, follow the instructions in
@@ -31,7 +41,7 @@ stabilized. To do this, follow the instructions in
 
 Note that stable functions may use unstable things in their body.
 
-# allow_internal_unstable
+## allow_internal_unstable
 
 Macros, compiler desugarings and `const fn`s expose their bodies to the call site. To
 work around not being able to use unstable things in the standard library's macros, there's the
@@ -49,4 +59,67 @@ are nondeterministic and often unknown at compile-time.
 Always ping @oli-obk, @RalfJung, and @Centril if you are adding more `allow_internal_unstable`
 attributes to any `const fn`
 
+## staged_api
+
+Any crate that uses the `stable`, `unstable`, or `rustc_deprecated` attributes
+must include the `#![feature(staged_api)]` attribute on the crate.
+
+## rustc_deprecated
+
+The deprecation system shares the same infrastructure as the stable/unstable
+attributes. The `rustc_deprecated` attribute is similar to the [`deprecated`
+attribute]. It was previously called `deprecated`, but was split off when
+`deprecated` was stabilized. The `deprecated` attribute cannot be used in a
+`staged_api` crate, `rustc_deprecated` must be used instead. The deprecated
+item must also have a `stable` or `unstable` attribute.
+
+`rustc_deprecated` has the following form:
+
+```rust,ignore
+#[rustc_deprecated(
+    since = "1.38.0",
+    reason = "explanation for deprecation",
+    suggestion = "other_function"
+)]
+```
+
+The `suggestion` field is optional. If given, it should be a string that can
+be used as a machine-applicable suggestion to correct the warning. This is
+typically used when the identifier is renamed, but no other significant
+changes are necessary.
+
+Another difference from the `deprecated` attribute is that the `since` field
+is actually checked against the current version of `rustc`. If `since` is in a
+future version, then the `deprecated_in_future` lint is triggered which is
+default `allow`, but most of the standard library raises it to a warning with
+`#![warn(deprecated_in_future)]`.
+
+[`deprecated` attribute]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/attributes/diagnostics.html#the-deprecated-attribute
+
+## -Zforce-unstable-if-unmarked
+
+The `-Zforce-unstable-if-unmarked` flag has a variety of purposes to help
+enforce that the correct crates are marked as unstable, but can still use
+private crates without special attributes. It was introduced primarily to
+allow rustc and the standard library to link to arbitrary crates on crates.io
+which do not themselves use `staged_api`. `rustc` also relies on this flag to
+mark all of its crates as unstable with the `rustc_private` feature so that
+each crate does not need to be carefully marked with `unstable`.
+
+This flag is automatically applied to all of `rustc` and the standard library
+by the bootstrap scripts. This is needed because the compiler and all of its
+dependencies are shipped in the sysroot to all users.
+
+This flag has the following effects:
+
+- Marks the crate as "unstable" with the `rustc_private` feature if it is not
+  itself marked as stable or unstable.
+- Allows these crates to access other forced-unstable crates without any need
+  for attributes.
+
+Code which does not use `-Zforce-unstable-if-unmarked` should include the
+`#![feature(rustc_private)]` crate attribute to access these force-unstable
+crates. This is needed for things that link `rustc`, such as `miri`, `rls`, or
+`clippy`.
+
 [blog]: https://www.ralfj.de/blog/2018/07/19/const.html