Github user NicoK commented on a diff in the pull request: https://github.com/apache/flink/pull/5583#discussion_r170988543 --- Diff: flink-runtime/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/io/network/partition/consumer/UnionInputGate.java --- @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ * +--------------------+ * </pre> * - * It is possible to recursively union union input gates. + * <strong>It is NOT possible to recursively union union input gates.</strong> --- End diff -- That would be a more invasive change in several places using `InputGate`s and we actually are able to use any other input gate types (if there were some) - just the recursive union does not make sense. So I guess, excluding ourself is the better approach here in terms of extensibility. Think of it as we're excluding this use not because we did not implement `pollNextBuffer` but because it does not make sense and we do not want this recursion.
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