Positivity Checking

Note

This is a stub.

The NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK pragma

The pragma switches off the positivity checker for data/record definitions and mutual blocks. This pragma was added in Agda 2.5.1

The pragma must precede a data/record definition or a mutual block. The pragma cannot be used in --safe mode.

Examples:

  • Skipping a single data definition:

    {-# NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK #-}
    data D : Set where
      lam : (D  D)  D
    
  • Skipping a single record definition:

    {-# NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK #-}
    record U : Set where
      field ap : U  U
    
  • Skipping an old-style mutual block. Somewhere within a mutual block before a data/record definition:

    mutual
      data D : Set where
        lam : (D  D)  D
    
      {-# NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK #-}
      record U : Set where
        field ap : U  U
    
  • Skipping an old-style mutual block. Before the mutual keyword:

    {-# NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK #-}
    mutual
      data D : Set where
        lam : (D  D)  D
    
      record U : Set where
        field ap : U  U
    
  • Skipping a new-style mutual block. Anywhere before the declaration or the definition of a data/record in the block:

    record U : Set
    data D   : Set
    
    record U where
      field ap : U  U
    
    {-# NO_POSITIVITY_CHECK #-}
    data D where
      lam : (D  D)  D
    

POLARITY pragmas

Polarity pragmas can be attached to postulates. The polarities express how the postulate’s arguments are used. The following polarities are available:

  • _: Unused.
  • ++: Strictly positive.
  • +: Positive.
  • -: Negative.
  • *: Unknown/mixed.

Polarity pragmas have the form {-# POLARITY name <zero or more polarities> #-}, and can be given wherever fixity declarations can be given. The listed polarities apply to the given postulate’s arguments (explicit/implicit/instance), from left to right. Polarities currently cannot be given for module parameters. If the postulate takes n arguments (excluding module parameters), then the number of polarities given must be between 0 and n (inclusive).

Polarity pragmas make it possible to use postulated type formers in recursive types in the following way:

postulate
  ∥_∥ : Set  Set

{-# POLARITY ∥_∥ ++ #-}

data D : Set where
  c :  D   D

Note that one can use postulates that may seem benign, together with polarity pragmas, to prove that the empty type is inhabited:

postulate
  _⇒_    : Set  Set  Set
  lambda : {A B : Set}  (A  B)  A  B
  apply  : {A B : Set}  A  B  A  B

{-# POLARITY _⇒_ ++ #-}

data  : Set where

data D : Set where
  c : D    D

not-inhabited : D  
not-inhabited (c f) = apply f (c f)

d : D
d = c (lambda not-inhabited)

bad : 
bad = not-inhabited d

Polarity pragmas are not allowed in safe mode.