M7-5-1: Class members are considered as **automatic** variables

[nbusser-sr]

Affected rules

• M7-5-1

Rule 7–5–1

A function shall not return a reference or a pointer to
an automatic variable (including parameters), defined
within the function

Description

When a function returns a reference to a class member, this class member is wrongly considered as an automatic variable.

Example

class M7_5_1 {
    private:
      /// Variable to be referenced
      std::uint32_t val_;

    public:
    /// Triggers M7_5_1
    std::uint32_t& M7_5_1() noexcept {
      return val_;
    }
}

[lcartey]

Thanks! This issue was introduced during some refactoring for MISRA C++ 2023. The problem is that the query refers to Variable instead of StackVariable, so no longer considers locality. This should be a straightforward fix, along with augmenting our test cases.