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panic on unboxed string literal in pattern

I don't think this program is meaningful, but it shouldn't cause a panic.

{-# LANGUAGE MagicHash #-}
g y = case y of
  "a"# -> True
  _ -> False
[1 of 1] Compiling CaseOnString     ( x/CaseOnString.hs, x/CaseOnString.o )
ghc: panic! (the 'impossible' happened)
  (GHC version 8.0.1 for x86_64-unknown-linux):
	litValue "a"#

The panic is also in at least 7.8, 7.10, and HEAD.

"a"# has type Addr#, and I suppose that if we allow case on Addr# then it ought to use pointer equality. But the literal "a"# has no particular address, so matching against it in a case doesn't make sense. So I think we should just disallow unboxed string literals as patterns.

Trac metadata
Trac field Value
Version 8.1
Type Bug
TypeOfFailure OtherFailure
Priority normal
Resolution Unresolved
Component Compiler
Test case
Differential revisions
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Blocking
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Architecture
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