rustdoc should include aliases in search that only partially matches

[Mingun]

A simple example:

/// Some struct.
#[doc(alias = "SomeAlias")]
pub struct SomeStruct;

I expect that when I search for term "alias" in the generated doc, it will show the corresponding alias, like when I search for term "struct" it shows reference to SomeStruct. Currently you will get the reference only if you type the whole alias in the search field.

Note, that if you enter "some", I would expect that only result for "SomeStruct" is appeared. In other words, the alias should be found by partial match if there is no result for the aliased thing.

Meta

rustc --version --verbose:

rustc 1.86.0 (05f9846f8 2025-03-31)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 05f9846f893b09a1be1fc8560e33fc3c815cfecb
commit-date: 2025-03-31
host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
release: 1.86.0
LLVM version: 19.1.7

This also happens on nightly compiler:

> rustc +nightly --version --verbose
rustc 1.88.0-nightly (e9f8103f9 2025-05-07)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: e9f8103f93f8ce2fa2c15c0c6796ec821f8ae15d
commit-date: 2025-05-07
host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
release: 1.88.0-nightly
LLVM version: 20.1.4

[GuillaumeGomez]

It's the expected behaviour: #50146 (comment)

[Mingun]

It seems to me counterintuitive behaviour. You usually doesn't know how exactly the thing is named (that is why you are search) but may expect it will have some strings in it's name. For example, in serde-rs/serde#2922 I've added helper struct, named CowStrVisitor with an alias CowStrSeed and it could be used in contexts where DeserializeSeed implementation is expected. Someone can assume that he can find the appropriate thing by string "seed" in the documentation, but due to this issue that is not the case.

[GuillaumeGomez]

Yeah agreed. I also think we should apply the same rule as for the rest. Gonna add it to next rustdoc meeting agenda.