[Haskell-cafe] two problems with Data.Binary and Data.ByteString

[Tim Newsham]

Ok, surely at least everyone must agree that this is a bug:

   force :: Word8 -> IO Word8
   force x = print x >> return x
   -- force = return . (`using` rnf)

   main = do
       d <- force =<< decodeFile stateFile
       encodeFile stateFile d
       where stateFile = "1word32.bin"

test8.hs: 1word32.bin: openBinaryFile: resource busy (file is locked)

the built-in Data.Binary.decodeFile function doesn't close
its handle when it is done (same reason as my earlier examples).

> However, I think probably the real blame here should probably go
> to Data.Binary which doesn't attempt to check that it has consumed
> all of its input after doing a "decode".  If "decode" completes
> and there is unconsumed data, it should probably raise an error
> (it already raises errors for premature EOF).  There's no reason
> for it not to, since it does not provide the unconsumed data to
> the caller when its done, anyway...

I would have expected this to fix my problems:

   binEof :: Get ()
   binEof = do
       more <- not <$> isEmpty
       when more $ error "expected EOF"

   decodeFully :: Binary b => B.ByteString -> b
   decodeFully = runGet (get << binEof)
     where a << b = a >>= (\x -> b >> return x)

but even when using decodeFully, it still doesn't close the handle.
Shouldn't Data.Binary.Get.isEmpty force a file handle close in
the case that it returns True?

Tim Newsham
http://www.thenewsh.com/~newsham/