Weird lifetime error on closure in thread::scope

[m-ou-se]

This was reported here: #93203 (comment)

This should compile, but this fails to compile:

#![feature(scoped_threads)]

pub fn foo(x: &u8) {
    std::thread::scope(|s| {
        s.spawn(|| drop(x));
    });
}

Error:

error[E0495]: cannot infer an appropriate lifetime due to conflicting requirements
 --> src/main.rs:5:17
  |
5 |         s.spawn(|| drop(x));
  |                 ^^^^^^^^^^
  |
note: first, the lifetime cannot outlive the anonymous lifetime defined here...
 --> src/main.rs:3:15
  |
3 | pub fn foo(x: &u8) {
  |               ^^^
note: ...so that the types are compatible
 --> src/main.rs:5:17
  |
5 |         s.spawn(|| drop(x));
  |                 ^^^^^^^^^^
  = note: expected `(&&u8,)`
             found `(&&u8,)`
note: but, the lifetime must be valid for the anonymous lifetime #1 defined here...
 --> src/main.rs:4:24
  |
4 |       std::thread::scope(|s| {
  |  ________________________^
5 | |         s.spawn(|| drop(x));
6 | |     });
  | |_____^
note: ...so that the types are compatible
 --> src/main.rs:5:11
  |
5 |         s.spawn(|| drop(x));
  |           ^^^^^
  = note: expected `&Scope<'_, '_>`
             found `&Scope<'_, '_>`

(rustc 1.61.0-nightly (1eb7258 2022-03-08))

It seems to be complaining that it cannot find a lifetime no longer than the one of the x: &u8 argument, but no shorter than the scope closure. The error is very hard to read though.

It's interesting how the capture tuple (&&u8,) of the closure is visible in the diagnostic.

[m-ou-se]

It compiles fine with #![feature(nll)] enabled.

[danielhenrymantilla]

So, I think I've managed to reduce it a bit further:

fn bar<'at_x, 'x> (at_x: &'at_x &'x u8)
{
    ::std::thread::scope::<'at_x>(move |s| {
        s.spawn(move || drop(*at_x));
    });
}

passes, but if we remove the 'at_x annotation (the value of 'env):

fn bar<'at_x, 'x> (at_x: &'at_x &'x u8)
{
    ::std::thread::scope::<'_>(move |s| {
        s.spawn(move || drop(*at_x));
    });
}

then it fails.

---

So basically the borrow checker, together with lifetime inference, is looking for a 'env? inferred lifetime parameter, so that for all 'scope where 'env? ⊇ 'scope, we have 'at_x ⊇ 'scope. And it doesn't see all those choices of 'env where 'at_x ⊇ 'env (e.g., 'env = 'at_x) would work.

Stand-alone repro

The following snippet, involving no libraries, and tested from 1.0.0 up to 2021-edition-nightly, fails with the same error when the lifetime parameter is not provided:

struct T<'scope, 'up : 'scope> (
    &'scope mut (&'scope (), &'up ()), // in practice `'up` can have whatever variance, even contra; it's the non-covariance of `'scope` which scares Rust into thinking it may have to deal with too big of a `'scope`
);

impl<'scope, 'up : 'scope> T<'scope, 'up> {
    fn set<U> (self, _: &'scope U) {}
}

fn with_higher_order<'up, F : for<'scope> FnOnce(T<'scope, 'up>)> (_: F)
{}

fn foo<'at_x, 'x> (at_x: &'at_x &'x ())
{
    with_higher_order/*::<'at_x>*/(move |it| {
        it.set(at_x);
    })
}

• Godbolt

[krdln]

I don't get why #![feature(nll)] makes it compile – wasn't the whole idea of currently enabled "migration mode" to run old borrowck and nll just for cases nll rejects, but old borrowck accepts and thus we issue compat warning? I'm very confused... Because if old borrowck still have a veto posibility, then I don't get how even we can accept "problem case #1" and "problem case #2" now (which we do). From description of #57895 I understand that switch to nll can only cause code to stop compiling, not start.

[m-ou-se]

library/std/src/collections/hash/map.rs also has code that doesn't compile if we remove #![feature(nll)].

[bjorn3]

Should this be closed now that #95565 has been merged?