Hint directives are refused on a variable or a field

Found 2026-08-22 by an FPC differential sweep over less-trodden language features (fpc -Mobjfpc -O1 3.2.2 vs pxx 0b9004cae).

The measurement

Half the declaration forms in the language, with an error message that names the directive as if it were a mistyped type.

Root cause

Two of them, and the first is the interesting one.

The var section's type loop. ParseDeclTypeDesc ends with

while not (CurTok.Kind in [tkSemicolon, tkEq, tkBegin, ...]) and
      not ((CurTok.Kind = tkIdent) and CaseEqual(CurTok.SVal, 'absolute')) do
  VDTk := ParseTypeKind;

— it keeps consuming type descriptors until a stop token. A hint directive is a plain identifier, so it was handed to ParseTypeKind as a second type name, which is where unknown type: deprecated comes from. absolute is on that stop list for exactly this reason and has a comment saying so; hints are the same shape and were missed. The stop list, not the skip, was the actual defect.

Three field parsers. The record body, the class body and the var section each parse a declaration's tail themselves, so each needed its own SkipHintDirectives call. (type and const already had theirs, which is why those rows passed.)

The fix

• IsHintDirectiveName holds the list once; SkipHintDirectives consumes and the stop-list guard tests through the same function, so the two cannot drift.
• The var-section stop list now stops at a hint directive as it already stopped at absolute.
• SkipHintDirectives calls added: in the var section after the type and before the terminating ; (fpc accepts a hint before absolute, after it, and after an = value clause, so one position is not enough), at the end of a record field, and at the end of a class field.

Parse-and-ignore, matching fpc with hints off. The directive must not change what the declaration means, so the test asserts every value rather than merely compiling — a skip that swallowed something real would fail it.

Verified against fpc

All five directives on a var; the deprecated 'message' form; a hint after an initialiser and after an absolute overlay (the overlay must still be an overlay — asserted through the target); plain declarations following hinted ones in the same section; record fields including an array field; class fields; and var deprecated: Integer still being a legal identifier, which fpc also allows. Output byte-identical to fpc -O1.

Gate

make compiler/pascal26 (self-host fixedpoint) + tools/gate.sh quick GREEN. Test test/test_hint_directives_on_vars_and_fields.pas, 18 assertions, wired into test-core.