Size, alignment, and field offset are often part of types' public API, so it would be lovely to make that information available in rustdoc JSON (and perhaps in rustdoc HTML as well, when relevant).

For example, public repr(C) types have well-defined layout which may be depended on by FFI use cases:

#[repr(C)] pub struct Example { first: i64, pub second: Option<&'static str>, }

Say the type of first were to change from i64 to (i64, i64). Since the first field is not public, there's no SemVer hazard from the field access. However, there are two hazards that cargo-semver-checks cannot detect without knowing size, alignment, and offset information:

• The offset of second changes from 8 to 16 (IIUC), so applications using Example via FFI need to update where they find that field's information.
• The size of the Example struct grows by 16 bytes, which likely affects how it can be allocated as well as the layout of [Example; N] arrays and slices thereof.

Similar information is useful when considering whether #[repr(transparent)] is public API. The current rule is that it's public API if its sole non-1-ZST field is pub. cargo-semver-checks would like to be able to:

• Clearly determine whether fields are 1-ZST or not.
• Thereby deduce whether #[repr(transparent)] is public API or not.
• In cases where #[repr(transparent)] used to be and has since stopped being public API, report to the user the reason why #[repr(transparent)] is no longer public API. This point in particular cannot be addressed if rustdoc performs 1-ZST analysis and strips #[repr(transparent)] in cases where it is considered non-public.

@rustbot label A-rustdoc-json

cc @aDotInTheVoid per our conversation at RustWeek