Document and rename overload-overlap error code (#16074)

A new error code was introduced in
#16061

As per #16068, we didn't previously
run doc builds on changes to errorcodes.py, causing tests to fail on
master when this was merged.

Renaming the code as per:
#16061 (comment) All
type ignores should be unsafe, so we should save the unsafe adjective
for things that are really unsafe. As it stands, there are many cases
where overloads overlap somewhat benignly.

Fixes #8656

Author: hauntsaninja

docs/source/error_code_list.rst

@@ -1114,6 +1114,41 @@ Warn about cases where a bytes object may be converted to a string in an unexpec
     print(f"The alphabet starts with {b!r}")  # The alphabet starts with b'abc'
     print(f"The alphabet starts with {b.decode('utf-8')}")  # The alphabet starts with abc
 
+.. _code-overload-overlap:
+
+Check that overloaded functions don't overlap [overload-overlap]
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Warn if multiple ``@overload`` variants overlap in potentially unsafe ways.
+This guards against the following situation:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from typing import overload
+
+    class A: ...
+    class B(A): ...
+
+    @overload
+    def foo(x: B) -> int: ...  # Error: Overloaded function signatures 1 and 2 overlap with incompatible return types  [overload-overlap]
+    @overload
+    def foo(x: A) -> str: ...
+    def foo(x): ...
+
+    def takes_a(a: A) -> str:
+        return foo(a)
+
+    a: A = B()
+    value = takes_a(a)
+    # mypy will think that value is a str, but it could actually be an int
+    reveal_type(value) # Revealed type is "builtins.str"
+
+
+Note that in cases where you ignore this error, mypy will usually still infer the
+types you expect.
+
+See :ref:`overloading <function-overloading>` for more explanation.
+
 .. _code-annotation-unchecked:
 
 Notify about an annotation in an unchecked function [annotation-unchecked]

docs/source/more_types.rst

@@ -501,7 +501,7 @@ To prevent these kinds of issues, mypy will detect and prohibit inherently unsaf
 overlapping overloads on a best-effort basis. Two variants are considered unsafely
 overlapping when both of the following are true:
 
-1. All of the arguments of the first variant are compatible with the second.
+1. All of the arguments of the first variant are potentially compatible with the second.
 2. The return type of the first variant is *not* compatible with (e.g. is not a
    subtype of) the second.
 
@@ -510,6 +510,9 @@ the ``object`` argument in the second, yet the ``int`` return type is not a subt
 ``str``. Both conditions are true, so mypy will correctly flag ``unsafe_func`` as
 being unsafe.
 
+Note that in cases where you ignore the overlapping overload error, mypy will usually
+still infer the types you expect at callsites.
+
 However, mypy will not detect *all* unsafe uses of overloads. For example,
 suppose we modify the above snippet so it calls ``summarize`` instead of
 ``unsafe_func``:

mypy/errorcodes.py

@@ -262,8 +262,8 @@ def __hash__(self) -> int:
 # This is a catch-all for remaining uncategorized errors.
 MISC: Final = ErrorCode("misc", "Miscellaneous other checks", "General")
 
-UNSAFE_OVERLOAD: Final[ErrorCode] = ErrorCode(
-    "unsafe-overload",
+OVERLOAD_OVERLAP: Final[ErrorCode] = ErrorCode(
+    "overload-overlap",
     "Warn if multiple @overload variants overlap in unsafe ways",
     "General",
     sub_code_of=MISC,

mypy/messages.py

@@ -1604,7 +1604,7 @@ def overloaded_signatures_overlap(self, index1: int, index2: int, context: Conte
             "Overloaded function signatures {} and {} overlap with "
             "incompatible return types".format(index1, index2),
             context,
-            code=codes.UNSAFE_OVERLOAD,
+            code=codes.OVERLOAD_OVERLAP,
         )
 
     def overloaded_signature_will_never_match(

mypy/types.py

@@ -3019,7 +3019,7 @@ def get_proper_type(typ: Type | None) -> ProperType | None:
 
 
 @overload
-def get_proper_types(types: list[Type] | tuple[Type, ...]) -> list[ProperType]:  # type: ignore[unsafe-overload]
+def get_proper_types(types: list[Type] | tuple[Type, ...]) -> list[ProperType]:  # type: ignore[overload-overlap]
     ...
 
 

test-data/unit/check-errorcodes.test

@@ -1077,7 +1077,7 @@ x = 1  # type: ignore  # E: Unused "type: ignore" comment  [unused-ignore]
 from typing import overload, Union
 
 @overload
-def unsafe_func(x: int) -> int: ...  # E: Overloaded function signatures 1 and 2 overlap with incompatible return types  [unsafe-overload]
+def unsafe_func(x: int) -> int: ...  # E: Overloaded function signatures 1 and 2 overlap with incompatible return types  [overload-overlap]
 @overload
 def unsafe_func(x: object) -> str: ...
 def unsafe_func(x: object) -> Union[int, str]: