Why is GC.collect not @safe?

[Nick Treleaven]

On Wednesday, 2 August 2023 at 13:27:50 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer 
wrote:
> On 8/2/23 7:40 AM, Nick Treleaven wrote:
>> Presumably an allocation like `new T` (for a type with a @safe 
>> constructor) can be made anywhere a call to `GC.collect` can 
>> be made, which may trigger a collection. So why isn't 
>> `GC.collect` marked @safe?
>
> It should be. Maybe historical reasons?
>
> One possible (but wrong) reason is that destructors can be 
> unsafe. But you are correct in that allocation can cause a 
> collection.

OK, thanks. I've made a pull to add `@safe` for enable, disable, 
collect, minimize:
https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/15493/files

Now I'm wondering why those functions are marked `pure` - they 
must affect the GC's bookkeeping state.