black hole detection and concurrency

[Sterling Clover]

I have a good theory on the latter symptom (the "thread killed"  
message). Sticking in some traces, as in my appended code, helped me  
to see what's going on. It seems to be exactly what you describe --  
the variable v is permanently bound to the exception it "evaluates"  
to.  Since the right hand True portion of the unamb evaluates more  
quickly, the spawned threads are killed and the left hand (the v)  
"evaluates" to "thread killed". This remains the value of its thunk  
when you access it later. This problem seems sort of innate to a pure  
unamb utilizing unsafePerformIO and asynchronous exceptions. A clever  
use of  `par` might conceivably help, given that if the par spark  
fails, the thunk can still be evaluated? Might be a dead end.

Here's the code:

go = f "f" (f "" True) where f s v = (unamb (s++"f") (s++"g") v True)  
`seq` v

--unamb :: String -> String -> a -> a -> a
unamb s s' a b = unsafePerformIO (race s s' (evaluate a) (evaluate b))

--race :: String -> String -> IO a -> IO a -> IO a
race s s' a b = do
     v <- newEmptyMVar
     let t x = x >>= putMVar v
     withThread s (t a) $ withThread s' (t b) $ takeMVar v
  where
    withThread s u v = bracket (forkIO u) (killNote s) (const $  
putStrLn ("in: " ++ s) >> v >>= \x -> putStrLn ("out: " ++ show x ++  
" "++ s) >> return x)

killNote s tid = throwTo tid (ErrorCall s)

And a GHCi session:

*Un> go
in: ff
in: fg
in: f
in: g
out: True fg
out: True ff
<interactive>: ff
*** Exception: ff

Cheers,
Sterl.

On Dec 26, 2008, at 1:15 AM, Conal Elliott wrote:

> I'm looking for information about black hole detection with ghc.   
> I'm getting "<<loop>>" where I don't think there is an actual black  
> hole.  I get this message sometimes with the unamb package, which  
> is implemented with unsafePerformIO, concurrency, and killThread,  
> as described in http://conal.net/blog/posts/functional-concurrency- 
> with-unambiguous-choice/ and http://conal.net/blog/posts/smarter- 
> termination-for-thread-racing/ .
>
> Suppose I have a definition 'v = unsafePerformIO ...', and v is  
> used more than once.   Evaluation (to whnf) of v is begun and the  
> evaluation thread gets killed before evaluation is complete.  Then  
> the second use begins.  Will the second evaluation be (incorrectly)  
> flagged as a black hole?
>
> I haven't found a simple, reproducible example of incorrect black- 
> hole reporting.  My current examples are tied up with the Reactive  
> library.  I do have another strange symptom, which is "thread  
> killed" message.  I wonder if it's related to the <<loop>>  
> message.  Code below.
>
>     Thanks,  - Conal
>
>
> import Prelude hiding (catch)
> import System.IO.Unsafe
> import Control.Concurrent
> import Control.Exception
>
>
> -- *** Exception: thread killed
> main :: IO ()
> main = print $ f (f True) where f v = (v `unamb` True) `seq` v
>
> -- | Unambiguous choice operator.  Equivalent to the ambiguous choice
> -- operator, but with arguments restricted to be equal where not  
> bottom,
> -- so that the choice doesn't matter.  See also 'amb'.
> unamb :: a -> a -> a
> unamb a b = unsafePerformIO (evaluate a `race` evaluate b)
>
> -- | Race two actions against each other in separate threads, and pick
> -- whichever finishes first.  See also 'amb'.
> race :: IO a -> IO a -> IO a
> race a b = do
>     v <- newEmptyMVar
>     let t x = x >>= putMVar v
>     withThread (t a) $ withThread (t b) $ takeMVar v
>  where
>    withThread u v = bracket (forkIO u) killThread (const v)
>
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