ty::Unevaluated: dealing with unused substs

src/constants.md

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+# Constants in the type system
+
+Constants used in the type system are represented as [`ty::Const`].
+The variants of their [`ty::ConstKind`] mostly mirror the variants of [`ty::TyKind`]
+with the two *additional* variants being `ConstKind::Value` and `ConstKind::Unevaluated`.
+
+
+## Unevaluated constants
+
+*This section talks about what's happening with `feature(const_generics)` enabled.
+On stable we do not yet supply any generic parameters to anonymous constants,
+avoiding most of the issues mentioned here.*
+
+Unless a constant is either a simple literal, e.g. `[u8; 3]` or `foo::<{ 'c' }>()`,
+or a generic parameter, e.g. `[u8; N]`, converting a constant to its [`ty::Const`] representation
+returns an unevaluated constant. Even fully concrete constants which do not depend on a
+generic parameter are not evaluated right away.
+
+We do not eagerly evaluate constant as they can be used in the `where`-clauses of their
+parent item, for example:
+
+```rust
+#[feature(const_generics, const_evaluatable_checked)]
+fn foo<T: Trait>()
+where
+    [u8; <T as  Trait>::ASSOC + 1]: SomeOtherTrait,
+{}
+```
+
+The constant `<T as  Trait>::ASSOC + 1` depends on the `T: Trait` bound of
+its parents caller bounds, but is also part of another bound itself.
+If we were to eagerly evaluate this constant while computing its parents bounds
+this would cause a query cycle.
+
+### Generic arguments of anonymous constants
+
+Anonymous constants inherit the generic parameters of their parent, which is
+why the array length in `foo<const N: usize>() -> [u8; N + 1]` can use `N`.
+
+Without any manual adjustments, this causes us to include parameters even if
+the constant doesn't use them in any way. This can cause
+[some interesting errors](pcg-unused-substs) and breaks some already stable code.
+
+To deal with this, we intend to look at the generic parameters explicitly mentioned
+by the constants and then search the predicates of its parents to figure out which
+of the other generic parameters are reachable by our constant.
+
+**TODO**: Expand this section once the parameter filtering is implemented.
+
+As constants can be part of their parents `where`-clauses, we mention unevaluated
+constants in their parents predicates. It is therefore necessary to mention unevaluated
+constants without being able to first compute the generic parameters
+available to these constants.
+
+To do this unevaluated constants start out with [`substs_`] being `None` while assuming
+that their generic arguments could be arbitrary generic parameters.
+When first accessing the generic arguments of an unevaluated constants, we then replace
+`substs_` with the actual default arguments of a constants, which are the generic parameters
+of their parent we assume to be used by this constant.
+
+[`ty::Const`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/struct.Const.html
+[`ty::ConstKind`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/enum.ConstKind.html
+[`ty::TyKind`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/enum.TyKind.html
+[pcg-unused-substs]: https://github.com/rust-lang/project-const-generics/blob/master/design-docs/anon-const-substs.md#unused-substs
+[`substs_`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/consts/kind/struct.Unevaluated.html#structfield.substs_