rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

Variance not computed for concrete GAT references in struct fields

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A-GATs A-variance C-discussion T-types
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Rust
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Description

Similar to https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/114221#issuecomment-1656912412.

I tried this code:

trait Foo {
    type Ref<'a>;
}

struct Bar;
impl Foo for Bar {
    type Ref<'a> = &'a u8;
}

struct Baz<'a>(<Bar as Foo>::Ref<'a>);

fn f<'a>(s: Baz<'static>) { let _: Baz<'a> = s; }

I expected to see this happen: lifetime check passes

Instead, this happened:

error: lifetime may not live long enough
  --> src/main.rs:12:36
   |
12 | fn f<'a>(s: Baz<'static>) { let _: Baz<'a> = s; }
   |      -- lifetime `'a` defined here ^^^^^^^ type annotation requires that `'a` must outlive `'static`
   |
   = note: requirement occurs because of the type `Baz<'_>`, which makes the generic argument `'_` invariant
   = note: the struct `Baz<'a>` is invariant over the parameter `'a`
   = help: see <https://doc.rust-lang.org/nomicon/subtyping.html> for more information about variance

Although lifetime variance does get computed when the GAT type is directly referenced in the parameter type:

fn f<'a>(s: <Bar as Foo>::Ref<'static>) { let _: <Bar as Foo>::Ref<'a> = s; } // check passes

Edit:

Sames limitation on types:

trait Foo {
    type GAT<T>;
}

struct Bar;
impl Foo for Bar {
    type GAT<T> = T;
}


fn f<'a>(s: <Bar as Foo>::GAT<&'static ()>) { let _:  <Bar as Foo>::GAT<&'a ()> = s; } // this passes the check

struct Baz<T>(<Bar as Foo>::GAT<T>);
fn f1<'a>(s: Baz<&'static ()>) { let _: Baz<&'a ()> = s; } // but this doesn't

Meta

rustc --version --verbose:

rustc 1.84.0-nightly (c1db4dc24 2024-10-25)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: c1db4dc24267a707409c9bf2e67cf3c7323975c8
commit-date: 2024-10-25
host: aarch64-apple-darwin
release: 1.84.0-nightly
LLVM version: 19.1.1
Backtrace

<backtrace>

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 reproducing the two examples with the reported rustc 1.84.0-nightly version, comparing the direct GAT reference with the reference nested in Baz. Trace how variance is computed for concrete GAT references in struct fields; done means the Baz lifetime and type examples pass the same checks as the direct references.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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