zed-industries/zed · error

Failed to create REGEX

Error message

Failed to create REGEX

What it means

A static-initialization guard: link_pattern_file_candidates compiles a fixed Regex via LazyLock and expects it to succeed. Regex::new on a hardcoded literal only fails if the pattern itself is malformed, so this panic indicates a programming error in the committed pattern string, not any user input or runtime condition — the regex is compiled once per process from a constant.

Source

Thrown at crates/editor/src/hover_links.rs:910

                                row: parsed.row,
                                column: parsed.column,
                            },
                        ));
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    None
}

// Generates candidate file paths by stripping common punctuation wrappers.
// Handles markdown patterns like [title](path), `path`, (path), as well as
// partial wrappers where punctuation only appears on one side (e.g. path) or path`).
// Returns candidates ordered from most-specific (most trimmed) to least-specific (raw).
fn link_pattern_file_candidates(candidate: &str) -> Vec<(String, Range<usize>)> {
    static MD_LINK_REGEX: LazyLock<Regex> =
        LazyLock::new(|| Regex::new(r"]\(([^)]*)\)").expect("Failed to create REGEX"));

    // Punctuation that commonly wraps file paths in prose/markdown
    const LEADING_PUNCTUATION: &[char] = &['`', '(', '[', '{', '<', '"', '\''];
    const TRAILING_PUNCTUATION: &[char] = &[
        '`', ')', ']', '}', '>', '"', '\'', '.', ',', ':', ';', '!', '?',
    ];

    let candidate_len = candidate.len();
    let mut candidates = Vec::new();

    // Trim leading and trailing punctuation iteratively
    let mut start = 0;
    let mut end = candidate_len;

    // Trim leading punctuation
    for ch in candidate.chars() {
        if LEADING_PUNCTUATION.contains(&ch) {
            start += ch.len_utf8();

View on GitHub (pinned to 9d272b0363)

Solutions

1. Add a unit test that constructs the regex (exercises the LazyLock) so a bad pattern fails CI instead of at runtime
2. Prefer a checked compile with a documented invariant comment, keeping expect only where a test guarantees it
3. Use a regex crate macro (e.g. regex!) if available to validate at compile time

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/editor/src/hover_links.rs:910 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@9d272b0363 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b33105d6ce23dbaa. Report an issue: GitHub.