docs(ref): Specify frontmatter

Edited-by: TC

Fixed conflicts due to #2199.  No other changes.

Author: epage

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - [Lexical structure](lexical-structure.md)
     - [Input format](input-format.md)
     - [Shebang](shebang.md)
+    - [Frontmatter](frontmatter.md)
     - [Keywords](keywords.md)
     - [Identifiers](identifiers.md)
     - [Comments](comments.md)

src/frontmatter.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+r[frontmatter]
+# Frontmatter
+
+r[frontmatter.syntax]
+```grammar,lexer
+@root FRONTMATTER ->
+      FRONTMATTER_FENCE HORIZONTAL_WHITESPACE* INFOSTRING? HORIZONTAL_WHITESPACE* LF
+      (FRONTMATTER_LINE LF )*
+      FRONTMATTER_FENCE[^matched-fence] HORIZONTAL_WHITESPACE* LF
+
+FRONTMATTER_FENCE -> `-`{3..255}
+
+INFOSTRING -> (XID_Start | `_`) ( XID_Continue | `-` | `.` )*
+
+FRONTMATTER_LINE -> (~INVALID_FRONTMATTER_LINE_START (~INVALID_FRONTMATTER_LINE_CONTINUE)*)?
+
+INVALID_FRONTMATTER_LINE_START -> (FRONTMATTER_FENCE[^escaped-fence] | CR | LF)
+
+INVALID_FRONTMATTER_LINE_CONTINUE -> CR | LF
+
+HORIZONTAL_WHITESPACE ->
+      U+0009  // horizontal tab, `'\t'`
+    | U+0020  // space, `' '`
+```
+
+[^matched-fence]: The closing fence must have the same number of `-` as the opening fence
+[^escaped-fence]: A `FRONTMATTER_FENCE` at the beginning of a `FRONTMATTER_LINE` is only invalid if it has the same or more `-` as the `FRONTMATTER_FENCE`
+
+r[frontmatter.intro]
+Frontmatter is an optional section for content intended for external tools without requiring these tools to have full knowledge of the Rust grammar.
+
+```rust
+#!/usr/bin/env cargo
+---
+[dependencies]
+fastrand = "2"
+---
+
+fn main() {
+    let num = fastrand::i32(..);
+    println!("{num}");
+}
+```
+
+r[frontmatter.document]
+Frontmatter may only be preceded by a [shebang] and [whitespace].
+
+r[frontmatter.fence]
+The delimiters are referred to as a *fence*. The opening and closing fences must be at the start of a line. They must be a matching pair of hyphens (`-`), from 3 to 255. A fence may be followed by horizontal whitespace.
+
+r[frontmatter.infostring]
+Following the opening fence may be an infostring for identifying the intention of the contained content. An infostring may be followed by horizontal whitespace.
+
+r[frontmatter.body]
+The body of the frontmatter may contain any content except for a line starting with as many or more hyphens (`-`) than in the fences or carriage returns.
+
+[shebang]: input-format.md#shebang-removal
+[whitespace]: whitespace.md

src/input-format.md

@@ -44,6 +44,11 @@ r[input.shebang]
 r[input.shebang.removal]
 If a [shebang] is present, it is removed from the input sequence (and is therefore ignored).
 
+r[input.frontmatter]
+## Frontmatter removal
+
+After some [whitespace], [frontmatter] may next appear in the input.
+
 r[input.tokenization]
 ## Tokenization
 
@@ -54,11 +59,12 @@ The resulting sequence of characters is then converted into tokens as described
 >
 > - Byte order mark removal.
 > - CRLF normalization.
-> - Shebang removal when invoked in an item context (as opposed to expression or statement contexts).
+> - Shebang and frontmatter removal when invoked in an item context (as opposed to expression or statement contexts).
 >
 > The [`include_str!`] and [`include_bytes!`] macros do not apply these transformations.
 
 [BYTE ORDER MARK]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark#UTF-8
 [Crates and source files]: crates-and-source-files.md
+[frontmatter]: frontmatter.md
 [shebang]: shebang.md
 [whitespace]: whitespace.md

src/items/modules.md

@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ r[items.mod.attributes]
 ## Attributes on modules
 
 r[items.mod.attributes.intro]
-Modules, like all items, accept outer attributes. They also accept inner attributes: either after `{` for a module with a body, or at the beginning of the source file, after the optional BOM and shebang.
+Modules, like all items, accept outer attributes. They also accept inner attributes: either after `{` for a module with a body, or at the beginning of the source file, after the optional BOM, shebang, and frontmatter.
 
 r[items.mod.attributes.supported]
 The built-in attributes that have meaning on a module are [`cfg`], [`deprecated`], [`doc`], [the lint check attributes], [`path`], and [`no_implicit_prelude`]. Modules also accept macro attributes.