leanprover / leanprover/lean4

`apply?` generates references to daggered assumptions

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bug P-medium
Dominant language
Lean
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description

Sometimes, the library search tactics will generate references to inaccessible assumptions and include daggers in their suggestions. Accepting the suggestion leads to a broken proof.

Context

I've simply noticed this when working with Lean.

Steps to Reproduce

Enter the following proof:

example (n k : Nat) : n + k = k + n := by
  induction n <;> cases k
  . simp
  . simp
  . simp
  . apply?

Prior to apply?, the proof state is:

case succ.succ
n✝¹ n✝ : Nat
a✝ : n✝¹ + (n✝ + 1) = n✝ + 1 + n✝¹
⊢ n✝¹ + 1 + (n✝ + 1) = n✝ + 1 + (n✝¹ + 1)

Try it here

Expected behavior:

I would expect either that the suggestion included code to make the assumption accessible, or that it did not offer to insert suggestions that use inaccessible assumptions.

For instance, it could suggest:

rename_i n n' _
exact Nat.add_comm (n + 1) (n' + 1)

as the edit, or provide a message like:

Found suggestion
  exact Nat.add_comm (n✝ + 1) (n✝¹ + 1)
that relies on inaccessible assumptions n✝ and n✝¹. Please name these assumptions (e.g. with 'rename_i') to use the suggestion.

Actual behavior:
The suggestion generates code that does not parse: exact Nat.add_comm (n✝ + 1) (n✝¹ + 1):

example (n k : Nat) : n + k = k + n := by
  induction n <;> cases k
  . simp
  . simp
  . simp
  . exact Nat.add_comm (n✝ + 1) (n✝¹ + 1)

The errors are:

lean-nightly.lean:6:25

expected token

lean-nightly.lean:6:24

unknown identifier 'n'
Versions

"4.12.0-nightly-2024-09-19"

Additional Information

None

Impact

I consider this a papercut, but the library search features are so nice that polishing them seems worthwhile.

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Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the supplied Lean proof and inspect how apply? builds suggestions when the proof state contains inaccessible assumptions marked with daggers. Trace the library-search suggestion entry point and its handling of local declaration names. Done means the generated suggestion either names the assumptions accessibly or refuses to offer code that cannot parse, with coverage for this reproduction.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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