Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
better wording for the comment
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
Eh2406 committed Dec 26, 2024
1 parent 49f3f9d commit f6bebb6
Showing 1 changed file with 28 additions and 29 deletions.
57 changes: 28 additions & 29 deletions src/internal/core.rs
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -192,37 +192,36 @@ impl<DP: DependencyProvider> State<DP> {
Ok(satisfier_causes)
}

/// Return the root cause or the terminal incompatibility.
/// CF <https://github.com/dart-lang/pub/blob/master/doc/solver.md#unit-propagation>
/// Return the root cause or the terminal incompatibility. CF
/// <https://github.com/dart-lang/pub/blob/master/doc/solver.md#unit-propagation>
///
/// Usually by the time we have a conflict `unit_propagation` has done a lot of work.
/// So the actual conflict we find is important, but not particularly actionable.
/// It says something like "the dependency on package X and the dependency on package Y are incompatible".
/// To make it actionable we want to track it back to decisions that made the dependency required.
/// "The decision on B is incompatible with the decision on C,
/// because unit propagation from just those decisions will lead to the conflict about X and Y"
/// is much more actionable, backtrack until one of those decisions can be revisited.
/// To make a practical, we really only need one of the terms to be a decision.
/// We may as well leave the other terms general. Something like
/// "the dependency on the package X is incompatible with the decision on C" tends to work out pretty well.
/// Then if A turns out to also have a dependency on X the resulting root cause is still useful.
/// Of course, this is more heuristics than science. If the output is too general, then `unit_propagation` will
/// handle the confusion by calling us again with the next most specific conflict it comes across.
/// If the output is to specific, then the outer `solver` loop will eventually end up calling us again
/// until all possibilities are enumerated.
/// When we found a conflict, we want to learn as much as possible from it, to avoid making (or
/// keeping) decisions that will be rejected. Say we found that the dependency requirements on X and the
/// dependency requirements on Y are incompatible. We may find that the decisions on earlier packages B and C
/// require us to make incompatible requirements on X and Y, so we backtrack until either B or C
/// can be revisited. To make it practical, we really only need one of the terms to be a
/// decision. We may as well leave the other terms general. Something like "the dependency on
/// the package X is incompatible with the decision on C" tends to work out pretty well. Then if
/// A turns out to also have a dependency on X the resulting root cause is still useful.
/// (`unit_propagation` will ensure we don't try that version of C.)
/// Of course, this is more heuristics than science. If the output is too general, then
/// `unit_propagation` will handle the confusion by calling us again with the next most specific
/// conflict it comes across. If the output is too specific, then the outer `solver` loop will
/// eventually end up calling us again until all possibilities are enumerated.
///
/// This function combines incompatibilities with things that make the problem inevitable to end up with a
/// more useful incompatibility. For the correctness of the PubGrub algorithm only the final output is required.
/// By banning the final output, unit propagation will prevent the intermediate steps from occurring again,
/// at least prevent the exact same way. However, the statistics collected for `prioritize`may want
/// to analyze those intermediate steps. For example we might start with "there is no version 1 of Z",
/// and `conflict_resolution` may be able to determine that "that was inevitable when we picked version 1 of X"
/// which was inevitable when picked W and ... and version 1 of B, which was depended on by version 1 of A.
/// Therefore the root cause may simplify all the way down to "we cannot pick version 1 of A".
/// This will prevent us going down this path again. However when we start looking at version 2 of A,
/// and discover that it depends on version 2 of B, we will want to prioritize the chain of intermediate steps
/// to confirm if it has a problem with the same shape.
/// The `satisfier_causes` argument keeps track of these intermediate steps so that the caller can use.
/// To end up with a more useful incompatibility, this function combines incompatibilities into
/// derivations. Fulfilling this derivation implies the later conflict. By banning it, we
/// prevent the intermediate steps from occurring again, at least in the exact same way.
/// However, the statistics collected for `prioritize` may want to analyze those intermediate
/// steps. For example we might start with "there is no version 1 of Z", and
/// `conflict_resolution` may be able to determine that "that was inevitable when we picked
/// version 1 of X" which was inevitable when we picked W and so on, until version 1 of B, which
/// was depended on by version 1 of A. Therefore the root cause may simplify all the way down to
/// "we cannot pick version 1 of A". This will prevent us going down this path again. However
/// when we start looking at version 2 of A, and discover that it depends on version 2 of B, we
/// will want to prioritize the chain of intermediate steps to check if it has a problem with
/// the same shape. The `satisfier_causes` argument keeps track of these intermediate steps so
/// that the caller can use them for prioritization.
#[allow(clippy::type_complexity)]
#[cold]
fn conflict_resolution(
Expand Down

0 comments on commit f6bebb6

Please sign in to comment.