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docs(tvix/eval): start doc about problematic/weird lang behavior The idea is that we can keep track of the more unexpected behavior, behavior that maybe should not be a thing at all and behavior we are not sure about yet. Change-Id: I70933f00af1230a7ab9d30e917b61199fe571caf Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/6803 Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su>
2022-09-29 16:29:40 +02:00
# Nix language issues
In the absence of a language standard, what Nix (the language) is, is prescribed
by the behavior of the C++ Nix implementation. Still, there are reasons not to
accept some behavior:
* Tvix aims for nixpkgs compatibility only. This means we can ignore behavior in
edge cases nixpkgs doesn't trigger as well as obscure features it doesn't use
(e.g. `__overrides`).
* Some behavior of the Nix evaluator seems to be unintentional or an
implementation detail leaking out into language behavior.
Especially in the latter case, it makes sense to raise the respective issue and
maybe to get rid of the behavior in all implementations for good. Below is an
(incomplete) list of such issues:
* [Behaviour of nested attribute sets depends on definition order][i7111]
* [Partially constructed attribute sets are observable during dynamic attr names construction][i7012]
chore(tvix/eval): fix markdown labeled link syntax Change-Id: I639dc0801090eaba56b61858e28204b5a0e631b6 Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/8784 Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su> Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Autosubmit: sterni <sternenseemann@systemli.org>
2023-06-15 13:40:52 +02:00
* [Nix parsers merges multiple attribute set literals for the same key incorrectly depending on definition order][i7115]
docs(tvix/eval): start doc about problematic/weird lang behavior The idea is that we can keep track of the more unexpected behavior, behavior that maybe should not be a thing at all and behavior we are not sure about yet. Change-Id: I70933f00af1230a7ab9d30e917b61199fe571caf Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/6803 Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su>
2022-09-29 16:29:40 +02:00
On the other hand, there is behavior that seems to violate one's expectation
about the language at first, but has good enough reasons from an implementor's
perspective to keep them:
* Dynamic keys are forbidden in `let` and `inherit`. This makes sure that we
only need to do runtime identifier lookups for `with`. More dynamic (i.e.
runtime) lookups would make the scoping system even more complicated as well
as hurt performance.
* Dynamic attributes of `rec` sets are not added to its scope. This makes sense
for the same reason.
* Dynamic and nested attributes in attribute sets don't get merged. This is a
tricky one, but avoids doing runtime (recursive) merges of attribute sets.
Instead all necessary merging can be inferred statically, i.e. the C++ Nix
implementation already merges at parse time, making nested attribute keys
syntactic sugar effectively.
fix(tvix/eval): bring foldl' strictness in line with C++ Nix Working on https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7158, I discovered that C++ Nix actually is strict in the accumulator, just not in the first value. This seems due to the fact that in the C++ evaluator, function calls don't seem to be thunked unconditionally and foldl' just elects not to wrap it in a thunk (don't quote me on this summary, even though it seems to line up with the code for primop_foldlStrict and testable behavior). It doesn't seem worth it to risk breaking the odd Nix expression just to be strict in one more value per invocation of foldl' (i.e. the initial accumulator value `nul`), so let's match the existing C++ Nix behavior here. Change-Id: If59e62271a90d97cb440f0ca72a58ec7840d1690 Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/7022 Autosubmit: sterni <sternenseemann@systemli.org> Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su>
2022-10-15 15:52:37 +02:00
Other behavior is just odd, surprising or underdocumented:
* `builtins.foldl'` doesn't force the initial accumulator (but all other
intermediate accumulator values), differing from e.g. Haskell, see
chore(tvix/eval): fix markdown labeled link syntax Change-Id: I639dc0801090eaba56b61858e28204b5a0e631b6 Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/8784 Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su> Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Autosubmit: sterni <sternenseemann@systemli.org>
2023-06-15 13:40:52 +02:00
the [relevant PR discussion][p7158].
fix(tvix/eval): bring foldl' strictness in line with C++ Nix Working on https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7158, I discovered that C++ Nix actually is strict in the accumulator, just not in the first value. This seems due to the fact that in the C++ evaluator, function calls don't seem to be thunked unconditionally and foldl' just elects not to wrap it in a thunk (don't quote me on this summary, even though it seems to line up with the code for primop_foldlStrict and testable behavior). It doesn't seem worth it to risk breaking the odd Nix expression just to be strict in one more value per invocation of foldl' (i.e. the initial accumulator value `nul`), so let's match the existing C++ Nix behavior here. Change-Id: If59e62271a90d97cb440f0ca72a58ec7840d1690 Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/7022 Autosubmit: sterni <sternenseemann@systemli.org> Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su>
2022-10-15 15:52:37 +02:00
docs(tvix/eval): start doc about problematic/weird lang behavior The idea is that we can keep track of the more unexpected behavior, behavior that maybe should not be a thing at all and behavior we are not sure about yet. Change-Id: I70933f00af1230a7ab9d30e917b61199fe571caf Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/6803 Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: tazjin <tazjin@tvl.su>
2022-09-29 16:29:40 +02:00
[i7111]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7111
[i7012]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7012
[i7115]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7115
fix(tvix/eval/builtins): force acc not list element in foldl' When investigating discrepancies between foldl' in tvix and C++ Nix, I discovered that C++ Nix's foldl' doesn't seem to be strict at all. Since this seemed wrong, I looked into Haskell's foldl' implementation which doesn't force the list elements (`val` in our code), but the accumulation value (`res` in our code). You can look at the code here: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.17.0.0/docs/src/GHC.List.html#foldl%27 This actually makes a lot of sense: If `res` is not forced after each application of `op`, we'll end up thunks nested as deeply as the list is long, potentially taking up a lot of space. This can be limited by forcing the `res` thunk before applying `op` again (and creating a new thunk). I've also PR-ed an equivalent change for C++ Nix at https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7158. Since this is not merged nor backported to our Nix 2.3 fork, I've not copied the eval fail test yet, since it wouldn't when checking our tests against C++ Nix in depot. Change-Id: I34edf6fc3031fc1485c3e714f2280b4fba8f004b Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/6947 Autosubmit: sterni <sternenseemann@systemli.org> Reviewed-by: grfn <grfn@gws.fyi> Tested-by: BuildkiteCI
2022-10-11 14:34:30 +02:00
[p7158]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7158
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