[Haskell-cafe] Re: A GHC error message puzzle

[Simon Marlow]

On 12/08/2010 21:59, Yitzchak Gale wrote:
> Wei Hu wrote:
>> nonTermination _ = blackhole where blackhole = blackhole
>
> My original example was actually:
>
> process :: String ->  String
> process = let x = x in x

Ah yes, that works too.  But other similar versions don't, like this one:

process :: String ->  String
process _ = let x = x in x

Hence why I added the "tail" in my version.

So what happens is this:

  - the recursive definition causes the main thread to block on itself
    (known as a "black hole")

  - the program is deadlocked (no threads to run), so the runtime
    invokes the GC to see if any threads are unreachable

  - the GC finds that
    (a) the main thread is unreachable and blocked on a blackhole, so it
        gets a NonTermination exception
    (b) the Handle is unreachable, so its finalizer is started

  - the finalizer runs first, and closes the Handle

  - the main thread runs next, and the exception handler for writeFile
    tries to close the Handle, which has already been finalized

Really hClose shouldn't complain about a finalized handle, I'll see if I 
can fix that.

Cheers,
	Simon