[Haskell-cafe] Question about touchForeignPtr

[Patrick Perry]

I have the following code:

IOVector n e = IOVector !ConjEnum !Int (ForeignPtr e)! (Ptr e)! Int!
newtype Vector n e = IOVector n e

unsafeAtVector :: Vector n e -> Int -> e
unsafeAtVector (Vector (IOVector c _ f p inc)) i =
     let g = if c == Conj then conjugate else id
     in inlinePerformIO $ do
            e  <- peekElemOff p (i*inc)
            io <- touchForeignPtr f
            let e' = g e
            e' `seq` io `seq` return e'
{-# INLINE unsafeAtVector #-}


The Ptr, 'p' is derived from the ForeignPtr, 'f'. For some offset,  
'o', it
is defined as:

p = unsafeForeignPtrToPtr f `advancePtr` o

The "touchForeignPtr" is there to keep the garbage collector from  
deallocating
the memory before we have a chance to read 'e'.  My question is the  
following:
Is the `seq` on `io` necessary (from a safety standpoint)?  Or am I  
just being
paranoid?

Thanks in advance for any help,


Patrick