docs: document new `suggest-tests` tool

3 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/SUMMARY.md b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/SUMMARY.md
index b01cb679786..58a476bdc76 100644
--- a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/SUMMARY.md
+++ b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/SUMMARY.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
         - [Test headers](./tests/headers.md)
     - [Performance testing](./tests/perf.md)
     - [Crater](./tests/crater.md)
+    - [Suggest tests tool](./tests/suggest-tests.md)
 - [Debugging the compiler](./compiler-debugging.md)
     - [Using the tracing/logging instrumentation](./tracing.md)
 - [Profiling the compiler](./profiling.md)
diff --git a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/building/suggested.md b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/building/suggested.md
index 3049d87db4e..8cf9891b6c9 100644
--- a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/building/suggested.md
+++ b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/building/suggested.md
@@ -109,6 +109,23 @@ the problem. A nice side-effect of this style is that you are left
 with a fairly fine-grained set of commits at the end, all of which
 build and pass tests. This often helps reviewing.
 
+## `x suggest`
+
+The `x suggest` subcommand suggests (and runs) a subset of the extensive
+`rust-lang/rust` tests based on files you have changed. This is especially useful
+for new contributors who have not mastered the arcane `x` flags yet and more
+experienced contributors as a shorthand for reducing mental effort. In all cases
+it is useful not to run the full tests (which can take on the order of tens of
+minutes) and just run a subset which are relevant to your changes. For example,
+running `tidy` and `linkchecker` is useful when editing Markdown files, whereas UI
+tests are much less likely to be helpful. While `x suggest` is a useful tool, it
+does not guarantee perfect coverage (just as PR CI isn't a substitute for bors).
+See the [dedicated chapter](../tests/suggest-tests.md) for more information and
+contribution instructions. 
+
+Please note that `x suggest` is in a beta state currently and the tests that it
+will suggest are limited.
+
 ## Configuring `rustup` to use nightly
 
 Some parts of the bootstrap process uses pinned, nightly versions of tools like
diff --git a/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/tests/suggest-tests.md b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/tests/suggest-tests.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..70d48bf708a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/doc/rustc-dev-guide/src/tests/suggest-tests.md
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+# Suggest tests tool
+
+This chapter is about the internals of and contribution instructions for the
+`suggest-tests` tool. For a high-level overview of the tool, see
+[this section](../building/suggested.md#x-suggest). This tool is currently in a
+beta state and is tracked by [this](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/109933)
+issue on Github. Currently the number of tests it will suggest are very limited
+in scope, we are looking to expand this (contributions welcome!).
+
+## Internals
+
+The tool is defined in a separate crate ([`src/tools/suggest-tests`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/tools/suggest-tests))
+which outputs suggestions which are parsed by a shim in bootstrap
+([`src/bootstrap/suggest.rs`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/bootstrap/suggest.rs)).
+The only notable thing the bootstrap shim does is (when invoked with the
+`--run` flag) use bootstrap's internal mechanisms to create a new `Builder` and
+uses it to invoke the suggested commands. The `suggest-tests` crate is where the
+fun happens, two kinds of suggestions are defined: "static" and "dynamic"
+suggestions.
+
+### Static suggestions
+
+Defined [here](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/tools/suggest-tests/src/static_suggestions.rs).
+Static suggestions are simple: they are just [globs](https://crates.io/crates/glob)
+which map to a `x` command. In `suggest-tests`, this is implemented with a
+simple `macro_rules` macro.
+
+### Dynamic suggestions
+
+Defined [here](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/tools/suggest-tests/src/dynamic_suggestions.rs).
+These are more complicated than static suggestions and are implemented as
+functions with the following signature: `fn(&Path) -> Vec<Suggestion>`. In
+other words, each suggestion takes a path to a modified file and (after running
+arbitrary Rust code) can return any number of suggestions, or none. Dynamic
+suggestions are useful for situations where fine-grained control over
+suggestions is needed. For example, modifications to the `compiler/xyz/` path
+should trigger the `x test compiler/xyz` suggestion. In the future, dynamic
+suggestions might even read file contents to determine if (what) tests should
+run.
+
+## Adding a suggestion
+
+The following steps should serve as a rough guide to add suggestions to
+`suggest-tests` (very welcome!):
+
+1. Determine the rules for your suggestion. Is it simple and operates only on
+   a single path or does it match globs? Does it need fine-grained control over
+   the resulting command or does "one size fit all"?
+2. Based on the previous step, decide if your suggestion should be implemented
+   as either static or dynamic.
+3. Implement the suggestion. If it is dynamic then a test is highly recommended,
+   to verify that your logic is correct and to give an example of the suggestion.
+   See the [tests.rs](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/tools/suggest-tests/src/static_suggestions.rs)
+   file.
+4. Open a PR implementing your suggestion. **(TODO: add example PR)**