Create clippy-stacks alias to run in CI and to run locally

Signed-off-by: Jacinta Ferrant <jacinta@trustmachines.co>

.cargo/config.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 [alias]
 stacks-node = "run --package stacks-node --"
 fmt-stacks = "fmt -- --config group_imports=StdExternalCrate,imports_granularity=Module"
+clippy-stacks = "clippy -p libstackerdb -p stacks-signer -p pox-locking -p clarity -p libsigner -p stacks-common --no-deps --tests --all-features -- -D warnings"
 
 # Uncomment to improve performance slightly, at the cost of portability
 #   * Note that native binaries may not run on CPUs that are different from the build machine

.github/workflows/clippy.yml

@@ -20,21 +20,8 @@ jobs:
     name: Clippy Check
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      - name: Checkout the latest code
-        id: git_checkout
-        uses: actions/checkout@v3
-      - name: Define Rust Toolchain
-        id: define_rust_toolchain
-        run: echo "RUST_TOOLCHAIN=$(cat ./rust-toolchain)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-      - name: Setup Rust Toolchain
-        id: setup_rust_toolchain
-        uses: actions-rust-lang/setup-rust-toolchain@v1
-        with:
-          toolchain: ${{ env.RUST_TOOLCHAIN }}
-          components: clippy
       - name: Clippy
         id: clippy
         uses: actions-rs/clippy-check@v1
         with:
-          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-          args: -p libstackerdb -p stacks-signer -p pox-locking -p clarity -p libsigner -p stacks-common --no-deps --tests --all-features -- -D warnings
+          alias: "clippy-stacks"

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -81,18 +81,24 @@ fix: incorporate unlocks in mempool admitter, #3623
 
 ### Recommended githooks
 
-It is helpful to set up the pre-commit git hook set up, so that Rust formatting issues are caught before
+It is helpful to set up the pre-commit git hook set up, so that Rust formatting issues and clippy warnings are caught before
 you push your code. Follow these instruction to set it up:
 
 1. Rename `.git/hooks/pre-commit.sample` to `.git/hooks/pre-commit`
 2. Change the content of `.git/hooks/pre-commit` to be the following
 
 ```sh
 #!/bin/sh
+# Format staged Rust files
 git diff --name-only --staged | grep '\.rs$' | xargs -P 8 -I {} rustfmt {} --edition 2021 --check --config group_imports=StdExternalCrate,imports_granularity=Module || (
   echo 'rustfmt failed: run "cargo fmt-stacks"';
   exit 1
 )
+# Run cargo clippy-stacks and fail the commit if there are any warnings
+if ! cargo clippy-stacks; then
+  echo 'cargo clippy-stacks failed: fix the warnings and try again.';
+  exit 1
+fi
 ```
 
 3. Make it executable by running `chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit`
@@ -387,6 +393,18 @@ You can automatically reformat your commit via:
 cargo fmt-stacks
 ```
 
+## Clippy Warnings
+
+PRs will be checked against `clippy` and will _fail_ if any clippy warnings are generated.
+Unfortunately, not all existing clippy warnings have been addressed throughout stacks-core, so arguments must be passed via the command line. 
+Therefore, we handle `clippy` configurations using a Cargo alias: `cargo clippy-stacks`
+
+You can check what warnings need to be addressed locally via: 
+
+```bash
+cargo clippy-stacks
+```
+
 ## Comments
 
 Comments are very important for the readability and correctness of the codebase. The purpose of comments is: