1 files changed, 21 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/compiler/main/CmdLineParser.hs b/compiler/main/CmdLineParser.hs
index 422fa13eb5..dad7ea7ae2 100644
--- a/compiler/main/CmdLineParser.hs
+++ b/compiler/main/CmdLineParser.hs
@@ -295,8 +295,26 @@ missingArgErr f = Left ("missing argument for flag: " ++ f)
 -- Utils
 --------------------------------------------------------
 
-errorsToGhcException :: [Located String] -> GhcException
+
+-- See Note [Handling errors when parsing flags]
+errorsToGhcException :: [(String,    -- Location
+                          String)]   -- Error
+                     -> GhcException
 errorsToGhcException errs =
-    UsageError $
-        intercalate "\n" [ showUserSpan True l ++ ": " ++ e | L l e <- errs ]
+    UsageError $ intercalate "\n" $ [ l ++ ": " ++ e | (l, e) <- errs ]
+
+{- Note [Handling errors when parsing commandline flags]
+
+Parsing of static and mode flags happens before any session is started, i.e.,
+before the first call to 'GHC.withGhc'. Therefore, to report errors for
+invalid usage of these two types of flags, we can not call any function that
+needs DynFlags, as there are no DynFlags available yet (unsafeGlobalDynFlags
+is not set either). So we always print "on the commandline" as the location,
+which is true except for Api users, which is probably ok.
+
+When reporting errors for invalid usage of dynamic flags we /can/ make use of
+DynFlags, and we do so explicitly in DynFlags.parseDynamicFlagsFull.
 
+Before, we called unsafeGlobalDynFlags when an invalid (combination of)
+flag(s) was given on the commandline, resulting in panics (#9963).
+-}