leanprover / leanprover/lean4

Incorrect unused variable warning in lambda with pattern match and type signature

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bug P-medium
Dominant language
Lean
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Description

Prerequisites

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Description

Incorrect "unused variable" warnings are reported around lambdas with pattern matches and explicit type annotations. See example below.

Context
Steps to Reproduce
#check λα (p : α → Prop) (⟨x, _⟩ : {a // p a}) => x
--         ^                             ^ ^
--         1                             2 3

Expected behavior: No unused variable warnings.

Actual behavior: Lean reports 3 unused variable warnings at the indicated locations:

  • Lean claims p at location 1 is unused, even though though 2 is its use.
  • Lean claims p at location 2 and a at location 3 are unused, even though these are not the variables' binding sites.
Versions

4.13.0

Additional Information

The "2" warning goes away if we use p in the body of the lambda:

#check λα (p : α → Prop) (⟨x, _⟩ : {a // p a}) => (x, p)
--         ^                             ^ ^
--         1                             2 3

as if Lean believes 2 is p's binding site which in turn shadows the p bound at 1.

The problem goes away if matching is moved out of the lambda:

#check λα (p : α → Prop) (x : {a // p a}) => match x with | ⟨x, _⟩ => x

The use of (Subtype.mk _ _) versus ⟨_, _⟩ makes no difference.

Impact

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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

Start by running the minimal lambda and pattern-match reproduction against Lean 4.13.0 and the latest nightly, then compare it with the two alternatives in the issue. Done means the original example produces no incorrect unused-variable warnings while the reported behavior remains covered by a regression test.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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