Freezing Rules
Author: JTC1/SC22/WG9/ARG, by Randall Brukardt, ARG Editor

Ada Reference Manual — Legal Information

# 13.14 Freezing Rules

1/3
This subclause defines a place in the program text where each declared entity becomes “frozen.” A use of an entity, such as a reference to it by name, or (for a type) an expression of the type, causes freezing of the entity in some contexts, as described below. The Legality Rules forbid certain kinds of uses of an entity in the region of text where it is frozen.
2
The freezing of an entity occurs at one or more places (freezing points) in the program text where the representation for the entity has to be fully determined. Each entity is frozen from its first freezing point to the end of the program text (given the ordering of compilation units defined in 10.1.4).
2.1/3
This subclause also defines a place in the program text where the profile of each declared callable entity becomes frozen. A use of a callable entity causes freezing of its profile in some contexts, as described below. At the place where the profile of a callable entity becomes frozen, the entity itself becomes frozen.
3/3
The end of a declarative_part, protected_body, or a declaration of a library package or generic library package, causes freezing of each entity and profile declared within it, except for incomplete types. A noninstance body other than a renames-as-body causes freezing of each entity and profile declared before it within the same declarative_part that is not an incomplete type; it only causes freezing of an incomplete type if the body is within the immediate scope of the incomplete type.
4/1
A construct that (explicitly or implicitly) references an entity can cause the freezing of the entity, as defined by subsequent paragraphs. At the place where a construct causes freezing, each name, expression, implicit_dereference, or range within the construct causes freezing:
5/3
The occurrence of a generic_instantiation causes freezing, except that a name which is a generic actual parameter whose corresponding generic formal parameter is a formal incomplete type (see 12.5.1) does not cause freezing. In addition, if a parameter of the instantiation is defaulted, the default_expression or default_name for that parameter causes freezing.
6
The occurrence of an object_declaration that has no corresponding completion causes freezing.
7
The declaration of a record extension causes freezing of the parent subtype.
7.1/2
The declaration of a record extension, interface type, task unit, or protected unit causes freezing of any progenitor types specified in the declaration.
7.2/3
At the freezing point of the entity associated with an aspect_specification, any expressions or names within the aspect_specification cause freezing. Any static expressions within an aspect_specification also cause freezing at the end of the immediately enclosing declaration list.
8/3
A static expression (other than within an aspect_specification) causes freezing where it occurs. An object name or nonstatic expression causes freezing where it occurs, unless the name or expression is part of a default_expression, a default_name, the expression of an expression function, an aspect_specification, or a per-object expression of a component's constraint, in which case, the freezing occurs later as part of another construct or at the freezing point of an associated entity.
8.1/3
An implicit call freezes the same entities and profiles that would be frozen by an explicit call. This is true even if the implicit call is removed via implementation permissions.
8.2/1
If an expression is implicitly converted to a type or subtype T, then at the place where the expression causes freezing, T is frozen.
9
The following rules define which entities are frozen at the place where a construct causes freezing:
10
At the place where an expression causes freezing, the type of the expression is frozen, unless the expression is an enumeration literal used as a discrete_choice of the array_aggregate of an enumeration_representation_clause.
10.1/3
At the place where a function call causes freezing, the profile of the function is frozen. Furthermore, if a parameter of the call is defaulted, the default_expression for that parameter causes freezing. If the function call is to an expression function, the expression of the expression function causes freezing.
10.2/3
At the place where a generic_instantiation causes freezing of a callable entity, the profile of that entity is frozen unless the formal subprogram corresponding to the callable entity has a parameter or result of a formal untagged incomplete type; if the callable entity is an expression function, the expression of the expression function causes freezing.
10.3/3
At the place where a use of the Access or Unchecked_Access attribute whose prefix denotes an expression function causes freezing, the expression of the expression function causes freezing.
11
At the place where a name causes freezing, the entity denoted by the name is frozen, unless the name is a prefix of an expanded name; at the place where an object name causes freezing, the nominal subtype associated with the name is frozen.
11.1/1
At the place where an implicit_dereference causes freezing, the nominal subtype associated with the implicit_dereference is frozen.
12
At the place where a range causes freezing, the type of the range is frozen.
13
At the place where an allocator causes freezing, the designated subtype of its type is frozen. If the type of the allocator is a derived type, then all ancestor types are also frozen.
14/3
At the place where a profile is frozen, each subtype of the profile is frozen. If the corresponding callable entity is a member of an entry family, the index subtype of the family is frozen.
15
At the place where a subtype is frozen, its type is frozen. At the place where a type is frozen, any expressions or names within the full type definition cause freezing; the first subtype, and any component subtypes, index subtypes, and parent subtype of the type are frozen as well. For a specific tagged type, the corresponding class-wide type is frozen as well. For a class-wide type, the corresponding specific type is frozen as well.
15.1/3
At the place where a specific tagged type is frozen, the primitive subprograms of the type are frozen. At the place where a type is frozen, any subprogram named in an attribute_definition_clause for the type is frozen.

#### Legality Rules

16
The explicit declaration of a primitive subprogram of a tagged type shall occur before the type is frozen (see 3.9.2).
17
A type shall be completely defined before it is frozen (see 3.11.1 and 7.3).
18
The completion of a deferred constant declaration shall occur before the constant is frozen (see 7.4).
19/1
An operational or representation item that directly specifies an aspect of an entity shall appear before the entity is frozen (see 13.1).

#### Dynamic Semantics

20/2
The tag (see 3.9) of a tagged type T is created at the point where T is frozen.

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