+
+While @lookupFamInstEnv@ uses a one-way match, the next function
+@lookupFamInstEnvUnify@ uses two-way matching (ie, unification). This is
+needed to check for overlapping instances.
+
+For class instances, these two variants of lookup are combined into one
+function (cf, @InstEnv@). We don't do that for family instances as the
+results of matching and unification are used in two different contexts.
+Moreover, matching is the wildly more frequently used operation in the case of
+indexed synonyms and we don't want to slow that down by needless unification.
+
+\begin{code}
+lookupFamInstEnvUnify :: (FamInstEnv, FamInstEnv) -> TyCon -> [Type]
+ -> [(TvSubst, FamInst)]
+lookupFamInstEnvUnify (pkg_ie, home_ie) fam tys
+ = home_matches ++ pkg_matches
+ where
+ rough_tcs = roughMatchTcs tys
+ all_tvs = all isNothing rough_tcs
+ home_matches = lookup home_ie
+ pkg_matches = lookup pkg_ie
+
+ --------------
+ lookup env = case lookupUFM env fam of
+ Nothing -> [] -- No instances for this class
+ Just (FamIE insts has_tv_insts)
+ -- Short cut for common case:
+ -- The thing we are looking up is of form (C a
+ -- b c), and the FamIE has no instances of
+ -- that form, so don't bother to search
+ | all_tvs && not has_tv_insts -> []
+ | otherwise -> find insts
+
+ --------------
+ find [] = []
+ find (item@(FamInst { fi_tcs = mb_tcs, fi_tvs = tpl_tvs,
+ fi_tys = tpl_tys, fi_tycon = tycon }) : rest)
+ -- Fast check for no match, uses the "rough match" fields
+ | instanceCantMatch rough_tcs mb_tcs
+ = find rest
+
+ | otherwise
+ = ASSERT2( tyVarsOfTypes tys `disjointVarSet` tpl_tvs,
+ (ppr fam <+> ppr tys <+> ppr all_tvs) $$
+ (ppr tycon <+> ppr tpl_tvs <+> ppr tpl_tys)
+ )
+ -- Unification will break badly if the variables overlap
+ -- They shouldn't because we allocate separate uniques for them
+ case tcUnifyTys bind_fn tpl_tys tys of
+ Just subst -> (subst, item) : find rest
+ Nothing -> find rest
+
+-- See explanation at @InstEnv.bind_fn@.
+--
+bind_fn tv | isTcTyVar tv && isExistentialTyVar tv = Skolem
+ | otherwise = BindMe
+\end{code}