Can we merge two assert statements?

[IainNZ]

So we have @assert

julia> @assert 1==2 "It doesnt"
ERROR: assertion failed: It doesnt
 in error at error.jl:21

and assert, which can't take a second argument,

julia> assert(1==2)
ERROR: assertion failed

Is there any need to keep both?

[JeffBezanson]

Doesn't seem so. The assert() form probably exists to match C, but that's not such a big deal.

[elextr]

The manual notes the macro is the preferred, but doesn't say why.

[IainNZ]

Could be good to have PR that deprecates the assert form, and just leaves the macro version. Then the macro version could annotate the expression so that it could be, e.g. not run in a "high performance" mode

[mzaffalon]

Beginner's questions:

• does this imply going through the code and replacing each assert with @assert and adding it to deprecated.jl? I assume not: I quickly did so and it was not sufficient.
• what is the annotation you talk about?
  I can give this issue a try if someone can give some guidance.

[tkelman]

I quickly did so and it was not sufficient.

In what way was it not sufficient? What happened vs what did you expect?

I don't think the annotation exists as such yet, but there has been talk and one or two other issues on the idea of using compiler options or flags to set different debugging levels for whether assertion statements get skipped, etc. If people want to make asserts fancier in the future, would be easier if it only had to be done to the macro form instead of both the macro and the function.

[IainNZ]

@michele-zaffalon

My vision was, for the deprecation, to

• deprecate assert()
• make @assert call an internal _assert() (if thats even needed)
• replace usages in Base of assert with @assert

For annotation, I know that @simd does something with $(Expr(:simdloop)), and I assumed there was something similar for @inbounds, so such a thing would seemingly work for @assert. Alternatively, @assert generates code that tests if a constant global if true or false, and then the compiler would remove the dead code if its false.

[mzaffalon]

@tkelman Here is what I did:

• added assert to deprecated.jl
• removed assert from exports.jl
• replaced assert with @assert in inference.jl
• built julia: all goes fine

When I do make testall, I get the following:

michele@gulliver:~/projects/julia/julia$ make testall
cp /home/michele/projects/julia/julia/usr/lib/julia/sys.so local.so && /home/michele/projects/julia/julia/usr/bin/julia -J local.so -e 'true' && rm local.so
WARNING: assert(x) is deprecated, use @assert(x) instead.WARNING: error initializing module Base:
OutOfMemoryError()
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
jl_uv_writecb() ERROR: bad file descriptor EBADF
rec_backtrace at /home/michele/projects/julia/julia/usr/bin/../lib/libjulia.so (unknown line)
jl_throw at /home/michele/projects/julia/julia/usr/bin/../lib/libjulia.so (unknown line)
unknown function (ip: 0x7f08ba3e099c)
unknown function (ip: 0x7f08ba3e09a9)
uv_writecb_task at stream.jl:924
jlcapi_uv_writecb_task_20924 at  (unknown line)
uv__stream_destroy at /home/michele/projects/julia/julia/usr/bin/../lib/libjulia.so (unknown line)
unknown function (ip: (nil))
Makefile:514: recipe for target 'testall' failed
make: *** [testall] Terminated
Terminated

[mzaffalon]

@IainNZ There doesn't seem to be a need for an _assert function, but you people are more experienced and knowledgeable, so you say what I have to do.

For the second part, I am not good enough to do it myself.

[JeffBezanson]

Triage thinks we should deprecate assert (the function form). It's more consistent with e.g. the new logging macros.

[StefanKarpinski]

Triage accepts: deprecate assert to use the @assert macro.

[twadleigh]

I'll take a stab at this today.

[StefanKarpinski]

Closed by #26194.