Unkind error message failing patch non-existing package with a prerelease version package

[loloicci]

Problem

Trying to patch a stable version package (0.1.0) with prerelease version one (0.1.1-prerelease) fails with an unkind error message if there are no other matching repositories. For example,

root's Cargo.toml:

[package]
name = "cargo-mybin"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]
cargo-mylib = "0.1.0"

[patch.crates-io]
cargo-mylib = { git = "https://github.com/loloicci/cargo-mylib.git" }

cargo-mylib's Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "cargo-mylib"
version = "0.1.1-prerelease"
edition = "2021"

cargo update in this cargo-mybin fails with

$ cargo update
    Updating git repository `https://github.com/loloicci/cargo-mylib.git`
    Updating crates.io index
error: no matching package named `cargo-mylib` found
location searched: registry `crates-io`
required by package `cargo-mybin v0.1.0 (/.../cargo-mybin)`

This message says wrong information that no matching package was found. This is because

cargo/src/cargo/core/resolver/errors.rs

Lines 226 to 228 in 5febbe5

	let all_req = semver::VersionReq::parse("*").unwrap();
	let mut new_dep = dep.clone();
	new_dep.set_version_req(all_req);

does not match prerelease version.

Steps

1. clone https://github.com/loloicci/cargo-mybin
2. execute cargo update on it

Possible Solution(s)

use OptVersionReq::Any instead of semver::VersionReq::parse("*").unwrap() in

cargo/src/cargo/core/resolver/errors.rs

Lines 226 to 228 in 5febbe5

	let all_req = semver::VersionReq::parse("*").unwrap();
	let mut new_dep = dep.clone();
	new_dep.set_version_req(all_req);

.

Notes

No response

Version

$ cargo version --verbose
cargo 1.71.0-nightly (09276c703 2023-05-16)
release: 1.71.0-nightly
commit-hash: 09276c703a473ab33daaeb94917232e80eefd628
commit-date: 2023-05-16
host: x86_64-apple-darwin
libgit2: 1.6.4 (sys:0.17.1 vendored)
libcurl: 7.64.1 (sys:0.4.61+curl-8.0.1 system ssl:(SecureTransport) LibreSSL/2.8.3)
ssl: OpenSSL 1.1.1t  7 Feb 2023
os: Mac OS 10.15.7 [64-bit]

[loloicci]

cargo/src/cargo/core/resolver/errors.rs

Lines 226 to 228 in 5febbe5

	let all_req = semver::VersionReq::parse("*").unwrap();
	let mut new_dep = dep.clone();
	new_dep.set_version_req(all_req);

is intended and this is used to judge "dependency" specifies the prerelease version package. Using this, printing kind error message for mistakes in "dependency". (see #12316 and its CI fails)

I suggest improving error messages for "patch" specifies prerelease versions.

[Eh2406]

I agree we should use OptVersionReq::Any instead of semver::VersionReq::parse("*").unwrap()!

[weihanglo]

Feel free to hack on this if anyone is interested in it.

@rustbot label -S-triage +S-accepted +A-errors +A-dependency-resolution +A-semver