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unit X deprecated 'msg'; — a unit hint directive is a parse error

Measured

external/synapse/ssl_openssl.pas:2320 ends with the perfectly ordinary

unit ssl_openssl deprecated 'Use ssl_openssl3 with OpenSSL 3.0 instead';

and pxx stops on it:

pascal26:2320: error: unexpected token
  near: end  end  unit ssl_openssl >>> deprecated Use ssl_openssl3 with OpenSSL 3.0 instead

FPC and Delphi both accept hint directives on a unit declaration — deprecated (with or without a message string), platform, experimental, library, unimplemented. They are advisory: the unit still compiles, the compiler may emit a warning at the use site.

Impact — real but bounded

It is a hard parse error, so a unit carrying the directive cannot be compiled at all, and a deprecated unit is exactly the kind a real-world codebase keeps around for compatibility. It cost nothing here because ssl_openssl3 is the one to use on this box anyway; it would cost a lot on a project pinned to the older unit.

Not a silent-wrong-behaviour bug — it fails loudly and immediately, which is why this is compat rather than a bug- escalation.

Fix shape

Accept and ignore (or warn on) the hint-directive suffix on a unit declaration, and on the other declarations that take them (procedures, types, variables, class members) if those are not already handled — worth checking in the same pass rather than fixing one spelling.

Gate

unit X deprecated 'msg';, unit X deprecated;, unit X platform; and unit X experimental; all compile; a program using the unit still builds and runs. external/synapse/ssl_openssl.pas reaching the same wall the OpenSSL-3 unit does rather than a parse error is the real-world check.

RESOLVED 2026-08-19 — frankonpiler-an (Track A/P, sole-A confirmed)

One line: the unit header now calls SkipHintDirectives before its semicolon. All five FPC hint directives are accepted on a unit declaration, with or without a message, and the unit still compiles and runs:

unit hintu deprecated 'use hintu3 instead';   -> 2
unit hintu deprecated;                        -> 2
unit hintu platform;                          -> 2
unit hintu experimental;                      -> 2
unit hintu library;                           -> 2
unit hintu unimplemented;                     -> 2

Regression: test/test_unit_hint_directive.pas + its unit, in test-core, differential against FPC (which also emits its advisory warning; pxx does not warn, which is the same parse-and-ignore treatment every other declaration site already gives these).

Worth noting for its own sake: the machinery already existed and the unit header simply never called it. SkipHintDirectives has been handling the same run of soft identifiers after a const value, a type declaration and a routine header since [[feature-hint-directives-deprecated-platform]]. This was not a missing feature but a missing call site — which is what made a hard parse error out of a directive the compiler already knew how to ignore, and why the whole fix is one line rather than a new parser path.

Gate: make compiler/pascal26 fixedpoint + tools/gate.sh quick, green.

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