[GHC] #14120: Type comparison in stg-lint is hopelessly broken

[GHC]

#14120: Type comparison in stg-lint is hopelessly broken
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
        Reporter:  bgamari           |                Owner:  (none)
            Type:  bug               |               Status:  new
        Priority:  normal            |            Milestone:
       Component:  Compiler          |              Version:  8.2.1
      Resolution:                    |             Keywords:
Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple  |         Architecture:
                                     |  Unknown/Multiple
 Type of failure:  None/Unknown      |            Test Case:
      Blocked By:                    |             Blocking:
 Related Tickets:                    |  Differential Rev(s):
       Wiki Page:                    |
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Description changed by bgamari:

Old description:

> Today I spent a fair amount of time looking at the STG linter, having
> encountered a number of times in the past six months where I noticed it
> broke.
>
> While I thought fixing it would just be a few small tweaks, it seems that
> with every issue I fix another bug rears its ugly head. So far I have
> encountered and fixed,
>  * #14116
>  * #14117
>  * #14118
> The solutions to each of these has seemed rather obvious. However, now I
> seem to have run into a bit of a more fundamental issue:
>
> Consider this excerpt extracted from `Foreign.Storable`,
> {{{#!hs
> {-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}
>
> module Hi where
>
> import GHC.Word
> import GHC.Ptr
> import GHC.Base
> import GHC.Num
> import Data.Bits
> import GHC.Fingerprint.Type
>
> peekFingerprint :: Ptr Fingerprint -> IO Fingerprint
> peekFingerprint p0 = do
>       let peekW64 :: Ptr Word8 -> Int -> Word64 -> IO Word64
>           peekW64 _  0  !i = return i
>           peekW64 !p !n !i = peekW64 (p `plusPtr` 1) (n-1) (i `shiftL` 8)
>
>       high <- peekW64 (castPtr p0) 8 0
>       low  <- peekW64 (castPtr p0 `plusPtr` 8) 8 0
>       return (Fingerprint high low)
> }}}
>
> In particular notice the `castPtr` application. This triggers the STG
> linter with,
> {{{
> ghc-stage1: panic! (the 'impossible' happened)
>   (GHC version 8.3.20170815 for x86_64-unknown-linux):
>           *** Stg Lint ErrMsgs: in Stg2Stg ***
>   <no location info>: warning:
>        [in body of lambda with binders p0_s2zB :: Ptr Fingerprint,
>                                        eta_s2zC :: State# RealWorld]
>       In a function application, function type doesn't match arg types:
>       Function type:
>           Ptr Word8
>           -> Int#
>           -> Word#
>           -> State# RealWorld
>           -> (# State# RealWorld, Word64 #)
>       Arg types:
>           Ptr Fingerprint
>           Int#
>           Word#
>           State# RealWorld
>       Expression: $wpeekW64 p0_s2zB 8# 0## eta_s2zC
> }}}
>
> This is because by the time we are in Core Prep the `castPtr` is turned
> into a cast, which we discard in STG. Consequently, it seems that the
> comment attached to `stgEqType`,
> {{{#!hs
> stgEqType :: Type -> Type -> Bool
> -- Compare types, but crudely because we have discarded
> -- both casts and type applications, so types might look
> -- different but be the same.  So reply "True" if in doubt.
> -- "False" means that the types are definitely different.
> --
> -- Fundamentally this is a losing battle because of unsafeCoerce
> }}}
> is quite an understatement. Rather, there are exceedingly few cases where
> we can catch type errors in STG. I think the only case which we can
> reliably catch is that of two types with explicitly different primreps.
> It's not clear what we can/should do about this.

New description:

 Today I spent a fair amount of time looking at the STG linter, having
 encountered a number of times in the past six months where I needed to use
 it but noticed it was broken.

 While I thought fixing it would just be a few small tweaks, it seems that
 with every issue I fix another bug rears its ugly head. So far I have
 encountered and fixed,
  * #14116
  * #14117
  * #14118
 The solutions to each of these has seemed rather obvious. However, now I
 seem to have run into a bit of a more fundamental issue:

 Consider this excerpt extracted from `Foreign.Storable`,
 {{{#!hs
 {-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}

 module Hi where

 import GHC.Word
 import GHC.Ptr
 import GHC.Base
 import GHC.Num
 import Data.Bits
 import GHC.Fingerprint.Type

 peekFingerprint :: Ptr Fingerprint -> IO Fingerprint
 peekFingerprint p0 = do
       let peekW64 :: Ptr Word8 -> Int -> Word64 -> IO Word64
           peekW64 _  0  !i = return i
           peekW64 !p !n !i = peekW64 (p `plusPtr` 1) (n-1) (i `shiftL` 8)

       high <- peekW64 (castPtr p0) 8 0
       low  <- peekW64 (castPtr p0 `plusPtr` 8) 8 0
       return (Fingerprint high low)
 }}}

 In particular notice the `castPtr` application. This triggers the STG
 linter with,
 {{{
 ghc-stage1: panic! (the 'impossible' happened)
   (GHC version 8.3.20170815 for x86_64-unknown-linux):
           *** Stg Lint ErrMsgs: in Stg2Stg ***
   <no location info>: warning:
        [in body of lambda with binders p0_s2zB :: Ptr Fingerprint,
                                        eta_s2zC :: State# RealWorld]
       In a function application, function type doesn't match arg types:
       Function type:
           Ptr Word8
           -> Int#
           -> Word#
           -> State# RealWorld
           -> (# State# RealWorld, Word64 #)
       Arg types:
           Ptr Fingerprint
           Int#
           Word#
           State# RealWorld
       Expression: $wpeekW64 p0_s2zB 8# 0## eta_s2zC
 }}}

 This is because by the time we are in Core Prep the `castPtr` is turned
 into a cast, which we discard in STG. Consequently, it seems that the
 comment attached to `stgEqType`,
 {{{#!hs
 stgEqType :: Type -> Type -> Bool
 -- Compare types, but crudely because we have discarded
 -- both casts and type applications, so types might look
 -- different but be the same.  So reply "True" if in doubt.
 -- "False" means that the types are definitely different.
 --
 -- Fundamentally this is a losing battle because of unsafeCoerce
 }}}
 is quite an understatement. Rather, there are exceedingly few cases where
 we can catch type errors in STG. I think the only case which we can
 reliably catch is that of two types with explicitly different primreps.
 It's not clear what we can/should do about this.

--

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/14120#comment:3>
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