Re: [GHC] #13092: family instance consistency checks are too pessimistic

10 Jan 2017

      #13092: family instance consistency checks are too pessimistic
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
        Reporter:  rwbarton          |                Owner:  rwbarton
            Type:  bug               |               Status:  new
        Priority:  normal            |            Milestone:  8.2.1
       Component:  Compiler          |              Version:  8.1
      Resolution:                    |             Keywords:
Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple  |         Architecture:
 Type of failure:  Compile-time      |  Unknown/Multiple
  performance bug                    |            Test Case:
      Blocked By:                    |             Blocking:
 Related Tickets:                    |  Differential Rev(s):
       Wiki Page:                    |
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Comment (by rwbarton):

 I managed to write `unsafeCoerce` in 8.0.1 without involving recompilation
 tricks. Compile these modules in order with `ghc -c -XTypeFamilies
 -fforce-recomp` (then you can do a final link with `ghc -o Main Main.hs
 -XTypeFamilies`):

 {{{#!hs
 module A where
 type family A a
 }}}
 {{{#!hs
 module B (A, X) where
 import A
 data X
 type instance A (X, b) = ()
 }}}
 {{{#!hs
 {-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes #-}
 module C (x) where
 import Data.Proxy
 import B
 x :: Proxy b -> (forall t. Proxy t -> Bool -> A (t, b)) -> (Bool -> ())
 x _ f = f (undefined :: Proxy X)
 }}}
 {{{#!hs
 module Main where

 import Data.Proxy
 import A
 import C

 data Y
 type instance A (a, Y) = Bool

 y :: Proxy a -> Bool -> A (a, Y)
 y _ = id

 z :: Bool -> ()
 z = x (undefined :: Proxy Y) y

 main = print (z True)
 }}}
 `Main` has been rigged to not directly mention any names defined in `B`,
 by creating the intermediate module `C`. When `Main` is compiled the
 interface file for `B` is not read at all!

 There is a kind of off-by-one error in the check. The logic in the Note
 `[Checking family instance consistency]` correctly takes into account the
 fact that we do not check consistency of family instances in a module with
 those in its `dep_finsts`, and so if you try to import `Main` in another
 module (even one that is otherwise empty) GHC will report the overlap. But
 that still leaves a window of one module in which the overlap can be
 exploited.

 Even if not for this example I agree with
...
But regardless, I think it'd be better and more consistent to eagerly
 check consistency of all the new family instances in A with all those in
 modules it imports. Then instance lookup should never find more than one
 match.
I think it's even more efficient overall, since we currently do those
 checks in the importers of `A` instead, which usually will be at least one
 module. If we do them while compiling `A` then the optimization that this
 ticket was originally about will be sound and we can avoid the checks in
 the importers.

 I also figured out what my example involving recompilation was, I'll file
 a separate ticket for that.

--
Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/13092#comment:6
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