Cannot descend into function without revising

[AayushSabharwal]

On JuliaSymbolics/SymbolicUtils.jl@e7016cc, with

Julia Version 1.12.2
Commit ca9b6662be4 (2025-11-20 16:25 UTC)
Build Info:
  Official https://julialang.org release
Platform Info:
  OS: macOS (arm64-apple-darwin24.0.0)
  CPU: 14 × Apple M4 Max
  WORD_SIZE: 64
  LLVM: libLLVM-18.1.7 (ORCJIT, apple-m4)
  GC: Built with stock GC
Threads: 16 default, 2 interactive, 10 GC (on 10 virtual cores)
Environment:
  JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO = 0
  JULIA_PKG_USE_CLI_GIT = true

and global environment

Status `~/.julia/environments/v1.12/Project.toml`
  [6e4b80f9] BenchmarkTools v1.6.3
  [0ca39b1e] Chairmarks v1.3.1
⌃ [f68482b8] Cthulhu v2.17.10
  [31a5f54b] Debugger v0.7.16
  [5903a43b] Infiltrator v1.9.4
  [5fb14364] OhMyREPL v0.5.32
  [e4faabce] PProf v3.2.0
  [4722fa14] PkgAuthentication v2.3.2
⌃ [295af30f] Revise v3.12.2
  [aa65fe97] SnoopCompile v3.2.4
  [e2b509da] SnoopCompileCore v3.1.1
  [1e6cf692] TestEnv v1.102.3
  [44cfe95a] Pkg v1.12.0
  [8dfed614] Test v1.11.0

In the REPL

julia> using Revise, Cthulhu
julia> using SymbolicUtils
julia> @syms x y;
julia> @descend sorted_arguments(x + y)q

In Typed IR with warn enabled, the IR contains

2 ─ %9  = SymbolicUtils._sorted_args1::Core.Const(SymbolicUtils._sorted_args1)
│   %10 =   dynamic (%9)(x)::ReadOnlyArrays.ReadOnlyVector{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}, SymbolicUtils.SmallVec{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}, Vector{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}}}}

However, I cannot descend into this call:

Toggles: [w]arn, [h]ide type-stable statements, [o]ptimize, [d]ebuginfo, [r]emarks, [e]ffects, e[x]ception_types, [i]nlining costs, [t]ype_annotations, [s]yntax highlight for Source/LLVM/Native, [j]ump to source always.
Show: [S]ource, [A]ST, [T]yped, [L]LVM, [N]ative.
Actions: [q]uit, ⟵ ascend, [b]ookmark, [E]dit source code, [R]evise and redisplay, dum[P] params cache.

 • ↩

Pressing R to "Revise and redisplay"

Toggles: [w]arn, [h]ide type-stable statements, [o]ptimize, [d]ebuginfo, [r]emarks, [e]ffects, e[x]ception_types, [i]nlining costs, [t]ype_annotations, [s]yntax highlight for Source/LLVM/Native, [j]ump to source always.
Show: [S]ource, [A]ST, [T]yped, [L]LVM, [N]ative.
Actions: [q]uit, ⟵ ascend, [b]ookmark, [E]dit source code, [R]evise and redisplay, dum[P] params cache.

 • %10 = _sorted_args1(::SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal})::…

Now shows this option. This happens at multiple levels of the stack. Descending into this call, the IR

7 ── %28 = SymbolicUtils.:(var"##_sorted_args1#457")::Core.Const(SymbolicUtils.var"##_sorted_args1#457")
│    %29 =   dynamic (%28)(x)::ReadOnlyArrays.ReadOnlyVector{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}, SymbolicUtils.SmallVec{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}, Vector{SymbolicUtils.BasicSymbolicImpl.var"typeof(BasicSymbolicImpl)"{SymReal}}}}

is displayed. Again, I cannot descend into this call but pressing R enables me to.

[serenity4]

That is strange, it seems like callsite detection (find_callsites in src/compiler/reflection.jl) fails to get any callsites to descend into.
What R does, in addition to calling Revise.revise(), is to regenerate the current code instance with the latest world, and somehow this then fixes the issue and callsites are properly detected again. This might be a bug related to find_callsites, which currently relies on Compiler.CallInfo annotations to find callsites to descend into.