Why exactly is eval evil?

I know that Lisp and Scheme programmers usually say that eval should be avoided unless strictly necessary. I’ve seen the same recommendation for several programming languages, but I’ve not yet seen a list of clear arguments against the use of eval. Where can I find an account of the potential problems of using eval?

For example, I know the problems of GOTO in procedural programming (makes programs unreadable and hard to maintain, makes security problems hard to find, etc), but I’ve never seen the arguments against eval.

Interestingly, the same arguments against GOTO should be valid against continuations, but I see that Schemers, for example, won’t say that continuations are "evil" -- you should just be careful when using them. They’re much more likely to frown upon code using eval than upon code using continuations (as far as I can see -- I could be wrong).

There are several reasons why one should not use EVAL.

The main reason for beginners is: you don't need it.

Example (assuming Common Lisp):

EVALuate an expression with different operators:

(let ((ops '(+ *)))
  (dolist (op ops)
    (print (eval (list op 1 2 3)))))

That's better written as:

(let ((ops '(+ *)))
  (dolist (op ops)
    (print (funcall op 1 2 3))))

There are lots of examples where beginners learning Lisp think they need EVAL, but they don't need it - since expressions are evaluated and one can also evaluate the function part. Most of the time the use of EVAL shows a lack of understanding of the evaluator.

It is the same problem with macros. Often beginners write macros, where they should write functions - not understanding what macros are really for and not understanding that a function already does the job.

It often is the wrong tool for the job to use EVAL and it often indicates that the beginner does not understand the usual Lisp evaluation rules.

If you think you need EVAL, then check if something like FUNCALL, REDUCE or APPLY could be used instead.

• FUNCALL - call a function with arguments: (funcall '+ 1 2 3)
• REDUCE - call a function on a list of values and combine the results: (reduce '+ '(1 2 3))
• APPLY - call a function with a list as the arguments: (apply '+ '(1 2 3)).

Q: do I really need eval or does the compiler/evaluator already what I really want?

The main reasons to avoid EVAL for slightly more advanced users:

• you want to make sure that your code is compiled, because the compiler can check code for many problems and generates faster code, sometimes MUCH MUCH MUCH (that's factor 1000 ;-) )faster code

• code that's constructed and needs to be evaluated can't be compiled as early as possible.

• eval of arbitrary user input opens up security problems

• some use of evaluation with EVAL can happen at the wrong time and create build problems

To explain the last point with a simplified example:

(defmacro foo (a b)
  (list (if (eql a 3) 'sin 'cos) b))

So, I may want to write a macro that based on the first parameter uses either SIN or COS.

(foo 3 4) does (sin 4) and (foo 1 4) does (cos 4).

Now we may have:

(foo (+ 2 1) 4)

This does not give the desired result.

One then may want to repair the macro FOO by EVALuating the variable:

(defmacro foo (a b)
  (list (if (eql (eval a) 3) 'sin 'cos) b))

(foo (+ 2 1) 4)

But then this still does not work:

(defun bar (a b)
  (foo a b))

The value of the variable is just not known at compile time.

A general important reason to avoid EVAL: it is often used for ugly hacks.

eval (in any language) is not evil in the same way that a chainsaw is not evil. It is a tool. It happens to be a powerful tool that, when misused, can sever limbs and eviscerate (metaphorically speaking), but the same can be said for many tools in a programmer's toolbox including:

• goto and friends
• lock-based threading
• continuations
• macros (hygenic or other)
• pointers
• restartable exceptions
• self-modifying code
• ...and a cast of thousands.

If you find yourself having to use any of these powerful, potentially dangerous tools ask yourself three times "why?" in a chain. For example:

> "Why do I have to use eval?" > "Because of foo." "Why is foo > necessary?" "Because ..."

If you get to the end of that chain and the tool still looks like it's the right thing to do, then do it. Document the Hell out of it. Test the Hell out of it. Double-check correctness and security over and over and over again. But do it.

Eval is fine, as long as you know EXACTLY what is going into it. Any user input going into it MUST be checked and validated and everything. If you don't know how to be 100% sure, then don't do it.

Basically, a user can type in any code for the language in question, and it will execute. You can imagine for yourself how much damage he can do.

"When should I use eval?" might be a better question.

The short answer is "when your program is intended to write another program at runtime, and then run it". Genetic programming is an example of a situation where it likely makes sense to use eval.

IMO, this question is not specific to LISP. Here is an answer on the same question for PHP, and it applies to LISP, Ruby, and other other language that has an eval:

> The main problems with eval() are: > > - Potential unsafe input. Passing an untrusted parameter is a way to > fail. It is often not a trivial task > to make sure that a parameter (or part > of it) is fully trusted. > - Trickyness. Using eval() makes code clever, therefore more difficult > to follow. To quote Brian Kernighan > "Debugging is twice as hard as > writing the code in the first place. > Therefore, if you write the code as > cleverly as possible, you are, by > definition, not smart enough to debug > it" > > The main problem with actual use of > eval() is only one: > > - inexperienced developers who use it without enough consideration.

Taken from here.

I think the trickyness piece is an amazing point. The obsession with code golf and concise code has always resulted in "clever" code (for which evals are a great tool). But you should write your code for readability, IMO, not to demonstrate that you're a smarty and not to save paper (you won't be printing it anyway).

Then in LISP there's some problem related to the context in which eval is run, so untrusted code could get access to more things; this problem seems to be common anyway.

The canonical answer is to stay away. Which I find weird, because it's a primitive, and of the seven primitives (the others being cons, car, cdr, if, eq and quote), it gets far and away the least amount of use and love.

From On Lisp: "Usually, calling eval explicitly is like buying something in an airport gift-shop. Having waited till the last moment, you have to pay high prices for a limited selection of second-rate goods."

So when do I use eval? One normal use is to have an REPL within your REPL by evaluating (loop (print (eval (read)))). Everyone is fine with that use.

But you can also define functions in terms of macros that will be evaluated after compilation by combining eval with backquote. You go

(eval `(macro ,arg0 ,arg1 ,arg2))))

and it will kill the context for you.

Swank (for emacs slime) is full of these cases. They look like this:

(defun toggle-trace-aux (fspec &rest args)
  (cond ((member fspec (eval '(trace)) :test #'equal)
         (eval `(untrace ,fspec))
         (format nil "~S is now untraced." fspec))
        (t
         (eval `(trace ,@(if args `(:encapsulate nil) (list)) ,fspec ,@args))
         (format nil "~S is now traced." fspec))))

I don't think it's a filthy hack. I use it all the time myself to reintegrate macros into functions.

There have been many great answers but here is another take from Matthew Flatt, one of the implementers of Racket:

http://blog.racket-lang.org/2011/10/on-eval-in-dynamic-languages-generally.html

He makes many of the points that have already been covered but some people may find his take interesting nonetheless.

Summary: The context in which it's used affects the result of eval but is often not considered by programmers, leading to unexpected results.

Another couple of points on Lisp eval :

• It evaluates under the global environment, losing your local context.
• Sometimes you may be tempted to use eval, when you really meant to use the read-macro '#.' which evaluates at read-time.

Like the GOTO "rule": If you don't know what you are doing, you can make a mess.

Besides from only building something out of known and safe data, there's the problem that some languages/implementations can't optimize the code enough. You could end up with interpreted code inside eval.

Eval is just unsecure. For example you have following code:

eval('
hello('.$_GET['user'].');
');

Now user comes to your site and enters url http://example.com/file.php?user=);$is_admin=true;echo(

Then the resulting code would be:

hello();$is_admin=true;echo();

Eval is not evil. Eval is not complicated. It is a function that compiles the list you pass to it. In most other languages, compiling arbitrary code would mean learning the language's AST and digging around in the compiler internals to figure out the compiler API. In lisp, you just call eval.

When should you use it? Whenever you need to compile something, typically a program that accepts, generates or modifies arbitrary code at runtime.

When shouldn't you use it? All other cases.

Why shouldn't you use it when you don't need to? Because you would be doing something in an unnecessarily complicated way that may cause problems for readability, performance and debugging.

Yeah, but if I'm a beginner how do I know if I should use it? Always try to implement what you need with functions. If that doesn't work, add macros. If that still doesn't work, then eval!

Follow these rules and you'll never do evil with eval :)

I like Zak's answer very much and he has gotten at the essence of the matter: eval is used when you are writing a new language, a script, or modification of a language. He doesn't really explain further so I will give an example:

(eval (read-line))

In this simple Lisp program, the user is prompted for input and then whatever they enter is evaluated. For this to work the entire set of symbol definitions has to be present if the program is compiled, because you have no idea which functions the user might enter, so you have to include them all. That means that if you compile this simple program, the resulting binary will be gigantic.

As a matter of principle, you can't even consider this a compilable statement for this reason. In general, once you use eval, you are operating in an interpreted environment, and the code can no longer be compiled. If you do not use eval then you can compile a Lisp or Scheme program just like a C program. Therefore, you want to make sure you want and need to be in an interpreted environment before committing to using eval.