[llvm] [NFC][CodingStandard] Deprecate use of void casts to suppress warnings (PR #142850)

[Rahul Joshi via llvm-commits]

https://github.com/jurahul updated https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/142850

>From ba78cf127cedf42080552b2fede229cbd36aeb28 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rahul Joshi <rjoshi at nvidia.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 13:43:28 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] [NFC][CodingStandard] Deprecate use of void casts to suppress
 warnings

Recommend using attribute `[[maybe_unused]`` for variables that
may be unused in non-assert enabled builds to suppress unused variable
warnings.
---
 llvm/docs/CodingStandards.rst | 26 ++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/llvm/docs/CodingStandards.rst b/llvm/docs/CodingStandards.rst
index ad772f69127ad..045351986798d 100644
--- a/llvm/docs/CodingStandards.rst
+++ b/llvm/docs/CodingStandards.rst
@@ -587,14 +587,15 @@ Prefer C++-style casts
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 When casting, use ``static_cast``, ``reinterpret_cast``, and ``const_cast``,
-rather than C-style casts. There are two exceptions to this:
-
-* When casting to ``void`` to suppress warnings about unused variables (as an
-  alternative to ``[[maybe_unused]]``). Prefer C-style casts in this instance.
+rather than C-style casts. There is two exceptions to this:
 
 * When casting between integral types (including enums that are not strongly-
   typed), functional-style casts are permitted as an alternative to
   ``static_cast``.
+* Although ``[[maybe_unused]]`` is preferred to suppress warnings about unused
+  variables in simple cases, casting to ``void`` using a C-style cast can also
+  be used to suppress such warnings if using ``[[maybe_unused]]`` is not
+  acceptable.
 
 .. _static constructor:
 
@@ -1288,17 +1289,26 @@ These are two interesting different cases. In the first case, the call to
 ``V.size()`` is only useful for the assert, and we don't want it executed when
 assertions are disabled.  Code like this should move the call into the assert
 itself.  In the second case, the side effects of the call must happen whether
-the assert is enabled or not.  In this case, the value should be cast to void to
-disable the warning.  To be specific, it is preferred to write the code like
-this:
+the assert is enabled or not. In this case, the value should be defined using
+the ``[[maybe_unused]]`` attribute to suppress the warning. To be specific, it is
+preferred to write the code like this:
 
 .. code-block:: c++
 
   assert(V.size() > 42 && "Vector smaller than it should be");
 
-  bool NewToSet = Myset.insert(Value); (void)NewToSet;
+  [[maybe_unused]] bool NewToSet = Myset.insert(Value);
   assert(NewToSet && "The value shouldn't be in the set yet");
 
+In C code where ``[[maybe_unused]]`` is not supported, use ``void`` cast to
+suppress unused variable warning as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+    LLVMValueRef Value = LLVMMetadataAsValue(Context, NodeMD);
+    assert(LLVMIsAValueAsMetadata(Value) == NULL);
+    (void)Value;
+
 Do Not Use ``using namespace std``
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^