The one wave core that did not close still paid for itself:
- §50-A the exact §47 priority encoding: pri = floor_log2(refs)*refs*size/(death-birth), birth/death = 2*insn_number,
DEATH IS 2*M NOT 2*M+1; ties break by ascending qty = BIRTH ORDER. A tie you can compute is a tie you can break.
- §50-B ** BOUNDS §48-A1/A4 **: 'cross_jump refunds the bytes' is only true for tails >= 2 insns, or when one path
FALLS THROUGH. jump.c:1993 calls find_cross_jump(minimum=2) and does not count the jumps themselves, so two j's
with a 1-insn common tail will NOT merge. Check the tail length before using A1/A4.
- §50-C an s16 param + 'x|1' manufactures a poison temp (ior->T; sll; sra); s32 does not (combine reuses i2dest).
Widening a parameter can DELETE an allocno.
- §50-D copy preferences beat plain preferences and need a BLOCK BOUNDARY (combine's LOG_LINKS never cross blocks).
- §50-E maspsx/gas MERGES lui $at for two stores to the same 64K page — which is why the original interleaves its
global stores. Never 'tidy up' the store order of a matched function.
- §50-F the documented wall: a local-alloc qty_compare_1 race needing a reload-deleted no-op copy in a specific range.
TWO REAL BUGS in classify(), and an HONEST CORRECTION of their blast radius (P9/R14).
- BUG 1 (under-count). classify() decides definition-vs-declaration by scanning to the first `{` or
`;`. A K&R definition puts its parameter declarations BEFORE the brace:
s32 func_8015AE2C(arg0)
s32 arg0; <- a `;` before the `{`
{ ... }
so it was read as a forward declaration and dropped into NO bucket — not REAL, not a stub,
invisible. And a K&R def is MANDATORY whenever a zero-arg engine_core.h thunk calls the function,
i.e. exactly the heavy-jr cores our own banking recipe produces: func_8015AE2C (562x134),
func_8015A3C8 (493x132), func_80166994 (369x134) were all compiled, linked and BYTE-IDENTICAL in
the shipped build while counting as zero. Fix: skip over K&R parameter declarations (a bare
`<type> <name>;` carrying no parens — that is what distinguishes it from a wrapped ANSI
prototype's continuation line, which always carries the `)`).
- BUG 2 (over-count). `real |= dedup_members(BINARY)` folded in EVERY registered dedup member without
checking it is actually instantiated. A member still sitting as an INCLUDE_ASM stub was counted
REAL *and* stayed in `stubs` — double-counting into `matchable` and inflating `byteident`
(532 phantom instances, per the scanner audit). Fix: subtract `stubs`. The registry is advisory;
the source tree is authoritative.
- COVERAGE ASSERTION (the rule ratified 2026-07-14): ground truth = every function splat emitted a
.s for. Anything classify() cannot place in ANY bucket is now reported LOUDLY (stderr + the .md),
because a silent skip is a defect, not a no-op. Currently: 0 unplaced.
- CORRECTION (this is the part that matters — I over-claimed and the bytes refuted me). The scanner
audit reported ~243k instructions "counted as nothing", and I repeated it. WRONG. weighted_metrics()
— which produces the HEADLINE instr-weighted and distinct-code numbers — does NOT call classify()
at all. It tests `func not in src_stubs(binary)`: since the fleet is 136/136 byte-identical,
anything not wrapped in INCLUDE_ASM must be compiled C emitting the exact original bytes. That test
never parses a definition, so it is IMMUNE to this bug. Verified: old-vs-new on the same tree gives
identical weighted numbers. The published 65.6% / 44.9% were CORRECT ALL ALONG; only the secondary
REAL count and fn-count % were wrong.
THE LESSON, sharper than the one we started with: a metric DERIVED FROM A PROVEN INVARIANT beats a
metric that RE-PARSES THE WORLD. weighted_metrics() leans on the byte-gate and inherits its
correctness; classify() re-derives the same fact by parsing C and inherited a bug instead. Prefer
the former wherever an invariant exists.
Residue of the same isolation-revert bug fixed for ov_SC01_000 in commit:0558: a failed bank left its
isolation's config in place, the retry re-isolated on top, and a duplicate
- [0x4b364, c, ov_SC01_077_jr_801734BC]
line rode into a commit. It is HARMLESS to splat (a zero-length subseg), so R22 stayed green and the
correctness gate never saw it — but it BLOCKED every subsequent isolation, which is what failed 5 of
the 9 crack-wave banks. Caught only by the fail-loud validation added in commit:0558 (a tool that refuses
to proceed on input it does not understand), never by the byte-gate. Fleet audit: ov_SC01_077 was the
ONLY affected config of 137. ov_SC01_077 rebuilds d19c9580 BYTE-IDENTICAL.
The sched.c analogue of §47's live-length slider. A close=2 with IDENTICAL registers is not a regalloc
residual — it is sched2's rank_for_schedule falling through to its final tiebreak,
'return INSN_LUID(tmp) - INSN_LUID(tmp2)', i.e. position in the .greg stream. Root cause is upstream in
sched1: adjust_priority/birthing_insn_p gives every register-DEFINING insn LAUNCH_PRIORITY 0x7f000001
(sched.c:2574), which sinks the un-boosted insn past its rivals and inverts the LUID order.
THE DIAL: materialize a call argument's sign-extension into an explicit s32 temp, placed AFTER the
intervening statement (adjacent to the load, combine fuses lhu+sll+sra into one lh and you LOSE 3 insns;
the intervening store blocks the fusion). Widen the prototype to (s32,s32) so the call adds no conversion.
Same instructions emitted, earlier INSN_LUID -> the tie flips.
Zero-byte dial family is now three: §47 live-length (global.c), §48-A1/A4 sink-init/sink-call
(global.c/local-alloc), §49 LUID (sched.c). Method: -dS -dR dumps the ready lists + priorities; equal
priorities => you are on a LUID tiebreak => the fix is PLACEMENT, not registers.
11 of 12 wave cores now MATCH.
The inverse of A1: A1 sinks an INIT to shorten a live range; this sinks the CONSUMER to delete the
allocno outright. A value defined in both if/else arms and consumed only by a call at the join becomes
a cross-block global allocno whose copy-prefs include the ARG register — and find_reg's copy-pref
override scans ascending regno (NOT reg_alloc_order), so $5 deterministically beats $16. The only
escape is allocno_calls_crossed>0 (global.c:906 strips caller-saved prefs), which a pseudo defined
after one call and dead before the next does not get. Duplicating the consumer call into the arms
demotes it to a call-crossing BLOCK-LOCAL -> local-alloc gives it a callee-saved reg, preserving the
§48-A2 $s0 occupant; the identical post-reload tails are re-merged by cross_jump, so the duplication
costs ZERO bytes. 10 of the 12 wave cores now MATCH.
- §48-A allocno-PRICING DIALS (global.c:594): sink an init into the if/else arms to collapse a
live-range and RAISE priority byte-neutrally (cross_jump re-merges the tails after regalloc);
the local-alloc $s0 occupant that pushes arg0 to $s1; block-scoped per-case temps as a
local-alloc tie gate (local-alloc.c:1765 refuses to tie a multi-block pseudo).
- §48-B THE EBB RULE, the general form of §46-L2: anything that must survive cse needs its def and
uses in different extended basic blocks — reg-reg copies, held global addresses (la $sN in a loop
preheader, def at loop top + use inside a jtbl-reached case), pointers-to-global across calls.
Corollary: a pointer-to-global survives only if EVERY use is at offset 0 (fold_rtx folds sym+k).
- §48-C the C TYPE selects the addressing mode: scalar global -> lui/%lo, struct global -> la+offset;
lwl/lwr block copy == a plain assign of a 2-byte-aligned struct (mips.c:output_block_move needs
align>=4 for the lw/sw arm); the dead-sibling-scalar trap (cost 108 ins — use a real array).
- §48-D the CROSS-JUMP RATCHET: two cases needing opposite branch senses cannot be a mirrored
if/else — cross_jump + jump.c's invert-over-uncond-jump collapse them into one. Use gotos into
labels inside the other case.
- 9/12 first-pass MATCH by ordinary agents applying the map. Fable5 discovers a class; everyone
else applies it.
- BUG: gen_harvest_targets.SIG_IN_BODY_RE required `)\s*{` between a DEFINE_func_* macro's signature
and its opening brace. When the brace sits on its OWN continuation line there is a line-continuation
BACKSLASH between them:
s32 func_80148824(void *arg0) \
{ \
and `\s` does not match `\`. So the regex silently dropped every own-line-brace macro.
- BLAST RADIUS (measured): 186 of 1801 engine_core.h shared signatures — 10% of the oracle — were
MISSING from the canonical-callee map that cast_call_sites / sig_unify / gen_harvest_targets resolve
against. A draft calling one of them kept its own guessed signature, hit `conflicting types` against
the TU's real definition, and the recovery pass reported nothing to fix — the failure looked like a
hard wall. This is why the crack wave's byte-exact cores would not bank.
- FIX: `[\s\\]*` instead of `\s*`. Oracle 2122 -> 2308 entries.
- PROOF: func_8015A3C8 (493 ins, MATCH standalone) went from "28 conflicting types, unbankable" to
BANKED ×1 BYTE-IDENTICAL at the `recovered` stage, with zero hand edits. R22 clean-fleet 136/136.
- This is the phase's SIXTH silent-skip bug and the THIRD of the same brace-placement class (§19
find_site; scope_data_externs' own-line brace; now this). Cookbook §40's standing lesson applies:
a tool that silently no-ops on input it cannot parse is indistinguishable from one that had nothing
to do — prefer fail-loud on unparsed input.
Cutting func_80178D40 out of ov_SC01_000_jr_801734BC adds the region's banked LEADER (0x801734BC)
as a cut too (the one-carve-per-object rule), making region 0 EMPTY (the object's first item IS the
first cut) — and region 1's derived name equals the object name, so emitting region 0 duplicated the
line exactly -> splat "segments out of order". Skip an empty region 0; region 1 rightly claims the
object's offset and name. First sibling then banks through the full chain (isolation validation
green -> carve -> --raw remap -> stage ladder -> whole-binary gate): ov_SC01_000 BANKED, included
here. The remaining 132 siblings sweep next.
Three-layer fix for the func_80178D40 ×133 sweep failures:
- LAYER 1 (the residue): jtbl_family_bank.revert() restored carve pieces + src/ but NOT the
isolation's CODE-subseg lines in the splat config. A failed bank attempt (BEBC's first try)
left its isolation config in place; the successful retry re-isolated on top and a DUPLICATE
`- [0x4b364, c, ov_SC01_000_jr_801734BC]` line rode into the commit (harmless to splat —
zero-length — so R22 stayed green). revert() now also restores config/splat.<ov>.yaml.
The committed duplicate is removed (ov_SC01_000 rebuilt BYTE-IDENTICAL 9052dc0e).
- LAYER 2 (the detonation): jr_isolate_all walked the duplicated object TWICE -> two
replacements -> a reversed duplicate block -> splat "segments out of order". It now VALIDATES
the generated config (code subsegs strictly ascending, names unique) and refuses to write on
violation, naming the likely cause — a corrupt input dies at the tool, not three tools later.
- LAYER 3 (the sweep template): jtbl_family_bank gains --raw <crack.c> — template from the RAW
crack via remap_hseq_body instead of the exemplar's banked source unit. REQUIRED when the
exemplar banked at the `reconciled` stage: a reconciled body is TU-SPECIFIC (§41c — uniquified
type names, TU-targeted casts), so extract_unit hands the sweep a polluted template and every
sibling gate-fails (byte-proven: 178D40 banked reconciled -> sweep 0/4; 8015AE2C banked raw ->
sweep 133/133). Same law as family_sweep --reconcile-raw.
The largest unmatched core in the game, walled at close=2 for the permuter (25 min, no close) and
queued for a gdb-on-cc1 read. Closed WITHOUT gdb — the RTL dumps were the oracle:
- THE TIE, byte-measured (.lreg): &g.sz1 pseudo 228 refs 13 / live_length 783; &g.sz2 pseudo 230
refs 13 / 782 -> pri = int(390000/L) = 498 == 498, an exact int-truncation tie in global.c:594
allocno_compare. Tie-break = creation order -> allocation follows emission; the target needs them
to DIFFER (allocation sz2-first, emission sz1-first). The shipped operand-permutation workaround
could only pick one (close=2 vs close=10).
- THE FIX (§47): restore NATURAL operand order (emission correct) + ONE zero-byte
`__asm__ volatile ("")` placed BETWEEN two existing GTE volatile asms (no new cse/sched barrier —
one is already there) -> +1 static insn at global-alloc time -> L 784/783 -> pri 497 vs 498 ->
the tie SPLITS toward the shorter-lived (later-created) pseudo, which is ALWAYS the direction
"allocation != creation" requires. All 10 grants cascade; MATCH 952/952 first try; the slider
emits only #APP/#NO_APP (zero bytes). PIN-FREE, ×113 template-safe.
- BANKED ×1 in ov_SC01_000 through the WHOLE-BINARY gate (jr fn — match_one is not the arbiter,
§8a): lazy isolation -> new region ov_SC01_000_jr_8017BEBC + 9-piece jtbl interleave -> splice ->
BYTE-IDENTICAL. One TU-visible decl reconcile en route (D_800B9A02: declare the TU's `short`,
force the unsigned halfword at use `(*(u16*)&D_800B9A02)` — §8d sub-class (b)).
- R22 clean-fleet 136/136 BYTE-IDENTICAL; 0 NON_MATCHING (G4). The ×113 sibling sweep is IMM-class
(scattered addresses) -> Task-8 mechanical work via the imm engine.
- cookbook §47 (the slider method + the placement rule + the direction law); decision-log (R31).
- _body_open_brace only matched a `{` on its own line (the K&R shape), so fix() SILENTLY NO-OP'D on
every ANSI draft — the same silent-skip disease as the four catalogued in §40/§8d, caught because
the h_seq re-sweep banked 0/780. Now brace-scans forward from the signature (ANSI same-line,
ANSI own-line, and K&R all work). Load-bearing for func_80178D40's upcoming ×134 bank.
- family_sweep --hseq now applies the §8d scoped stage at staging time.
- HONEST RESULT: still 0/780 — the substantial-band h_seq rejections are a DIFFERENT (sibling) class,
now fully diagnosed against the bytes:
gcc-2.7.2 decl-conflict semantics: a VISIBLE file-scope decl + a conflicting later decl (file OR
block) is a HARD ERROR; a limbo-only block decl (scope closed) + a conflicting later decl is a
warning. The h_seq drafts carry the EXEMPLAR TU's spellings; sibling TUs legitimately spell the
same symbol differently (loose typing), and the visible decl is often MACRO-INJECTED — a
DEFINE_func_* leading extern (§8c), invisible to any col-0 scan (e.g. D_80115158's `short` decl
enters ov_SC01_000.c via DEFINE_func_8014168C() @4637; the draft carries ov077's
`unsigned short` -> conflicting types at ANY scope).
Sub-class (a) no-visible-decl -> §8d demotion (the jr class, proven x133). Sub-class (b) visible
decl, different spelling -> needs reconcile-to-TU-VISIBLE (rewrite the draft decl to the TU-visible
spelling + byte-neutral access cast; oracle = col-0 decls above the stub + engine_core.h macro
externs for the DEFINE_ invocations above). Parked as a designed follow-up task; the 780 members
are mechanical-recovery fodder once the tool exists.
The extract_unit fix (commit:0552) revealed 82 families with a genuinely-matched exemplar and UNSWEPT
siblings (~2.03M templatable bytes) — mostly exemplars cracked AFTER the session-2/3 mechanical band
sweeps ran (the giant campaign + recent cores), so the sweep had simply never seen them.
- re-ran `family_sweep --hseq --band substantial` on a regenerated manifest: 29 matched-exemplar
families, 1046 member drafts staged, 1643 correctly skipped as pinned-exemplar.
- BANKED 266 member-matches / 780 gate-rejected. The whole-binary byte-gate (G3/P9) arbitrated every
one; R22 clean-fleet 136/136 BYTE-IDENTICAL from `make clean`.
- metrics: instr-weighted 63.6 -> 63.8%; distinct-code 40.5 -> 40.7%; fn-count 82.39%.
The 780 gate-rejections are the next lever: family_sweep's h_seq path does NOT yet carry the §8d
`scoped` stage (it prepends carried data externs at FILE scope, the exact class that blocked the jr
sweeps), so a large share are expected to be the same decl-environment conflict. Investigated next.
The heaviest core in the game (890 ins, reach 134 = 477 KB) closed from close=39 to MATCH 890/890,
PIN-FREE, by cheap-Opus reading loop.c/jump.c/cse.c. All 39 residuals were in ONE case body and every
one was STRUCTURAL — the permuter could not have reached any of them. Four new general levers:
- L1 PEEL: a loop's `break` must not land on the loop's own fall-through label — that leaves
NOTE_INSN_LOOP_BEG + an unconditional jump, firing duplicate_loop_exit_test (jump.c:2131), which
rotates the loop and peels iteration 1 (const-folding `i++` and dragging an extra address
re-materialization block). Write `goto <label>;` — same destination, different construct.
- L2 SURVIVING COPY: a source-level `fp = q;` ALWAYS dies (cse canon_reg + qty_first_reg, then flow).
To make it survive, split def and uses across extended basic blocks — cse resets its hash table at a
label with >1 predecessor. Test the memory, assign inside the guard branch.
- L3 MERGED STORE: write the store INSIDE the branch that reaches the shared tail, so jump2 tail-merges
it and reorg steals the `li` into the delay slot. An unconditional store before the `if` blocks it.
- L4 UN-COALESCED LOOP COPY = a non-replaceable giv, needing all three of: an index giv `&A[i]`; a use
OUTSIDE the loop (record_giv, loop.c:4437 -> emit_insn_after at loop.c:3945); and the biv increment
LAST, so the reduced giv's addiu lands in the loop-back delay slot (i++ at the top costs +1 insn).
- L5 KEEP TAILS APART: two structurally identical loops must differ in a REGISTER or cross_jump merges
their tails — give each its own pointer pseudo. (§8's cross-jump lever, inverted.)
Confirms the tier doctrine: cheap-Opus applying the documented §31 map cracked the game's heaviest core;
Fable5 was not needed. R17 held — "wrong BYTES" -> read the real gcc-2.7.2 passes.
- BUG: the guard `not ln.rstrip().endswith(";")` misses m2c's declaration form
`M2C_UNK func_80178D40(s32, s32); /* extern */` — the raw line ends in `*/`, not `;`, so a
DECLARATION was accepted as a DEFINITION and the forward brace-scan swallowed the NEXT
function's body, handing remap_hseq a garbage unit.
- BLAST RADIUS (measured): 15 of 35 substantial-family exemplars were phantom "matches" — all
still INCLUDE_ASM stubs (incl. func_80178D40 and the carried-queue func_801670E4); 3 more
anchored on the Phase-17 canonical-sig layer's `extern … /* match-first, arity N */` decls and
templated garbage, leaving those families SILENTLY UNBANKABLE. The whole-binary byte-gate
rejected every one — no wrong match was ever banked (G3/P9 held) — but the engine burned a
build per sibling and every extract_unit-based readiness analysis was wrong.
- FIX: strip trailing comments before the `;` test.
- REGRESSION-GATED over the whole corpus (6,286 family exemplars, .run/_eu_before.json):
15 phantom exemplars now correctly refused; 3 garbage units corrected to the REAL definition
(found in the right region file); 0 real definitions lost; 0 unit contents otherwise changed.
src/ and config/ untouched, so the committed build is unaffected.
- cookbook §40: the trap + the general lesson — this is the phase's FOURTH silent-skip bug
(find_site braces, overlay_files splits, reconcile_decls fn-ptr regex, now this). A tool that
silently no-ops on input it cannot parse is indistinguishable from one that had nothing to do.
- ROOT CAUSE (R14 — the session-7 diagnosis was half right): the isolated region builds [ OK ]
WITHOUT the body, so §8b isolation was never implicated. `family_remap.gather_externs` prepends
carried decls at FILE scope; D_801812A4 is a fn-ptr dispatch table the sibling declares FOUR
incompatible ways at BLOCK scope inside its own later functions, so the carried file-scope decl
ESTABLISHES A GLOBAL THE TU NEVER HAD and every later block-scope extern must now agree with it.
Byte-proven asymmetry: BLOCK(int)->BLOCK(struct*)->FILE(void*) builds; FILE(void*)->BLOCK(int)
errors. It was the ONLY hard error in the build — all 27 carried function externs were fine raw.
- THE FIX (demote, don't reconcile): tools/scope_data_externs.py emits a carried D_ extern at BLOCK
scope inside the function body when the TU has no file-scope decl of it above the insertion point.
Byte-neutral (an extern emits no code; type + access opcodes unchanged) and never worse than raw,
so it needs no oracle, no type comparator, no fn-ptr parser. Restores fidelity — the original
declares these symbols at block scope in exactly this way. Wired into jtbl_family_bank as the
`scoped` stage: raw -> scoped -> recovered -> reconciled (scoped is the base for the later stages).
- reconcile_decls is the WRONG instrument for this class, twice: its oracle answers "what does the
FLEET call this symbol" when the question is "what can THIS TU see", and its DATA_DECL_LINE_RE
cannot parse `extern void (*D_x[])(void *);` — silently skipping the very symbols that were
failing (the phase's third silent-skip bug, after find_site braces + overlay_files splits).
- R17 TRIAGE RULE, first real test, held: `conflicting types` = the compiler REFUSED TO COMPILE =
a C front-end diagnostic = our Python. Reading cse.c/global.c would have taught nothing.
- RESULT: func_8015AE2C (562 ins, reach 134) swept 133/133 siblings, 0 failures. R22 clean-fleet
136/136 BYTE-IDENTICAL (534 changed src files); dedup-check 1813 validated / 0 failed; 0
NON_MATCHING (G4). instr-weighted 63.0 -> 63.6%; distinct-code 39.1 -> 40.5% (+256 unique fns /
+79,957 ins) — one core, ~0 agent tokens.
- knowledge captured during the producing session (R30/R31/R21): cookbook §8d, decision-log
2026-07-13 session 8, SETUP tool-inventory row; CURRENT_PHASE session-8 checkpoint.
Drew asked whether the x133 sweep blocker warrants a gcc-2.7.2 source read. It does not,
and the distinction is worth pinning down because it routes every future residual:
- The sweep blocker is a C FRONT-END diagnostic (conflicting types: two incompatible
file-scope decls of one identifier in one TU). gcc is correctly rejecting plain C89.
The bug is in reconcile_decls (fleet-majority oracle vs the TU's visible decl).
Reading cse.c/loop.c/global.c would tell you nothing.
- func_8017BEBC (close=2) is the opposite: it compiles fine and emits the wrong bytes, and
the cause is localized to global.c's allocno-priority tie. THAT is the R17/§45-B target
(gdb-on-cc1 read of allocno_live_length) — 2 instructions from a 107K-ins bank.
Rule: 'wrong BYTES' -> read the compiler (R17). 'won't COMPILE' -> read our Python.
cookbook §31-triage + the CURRENT_PHASE NEXT block annotated with the routing.
- NEW "recovered" stage between raw and reconciled: cast_call_sites + reconcile_decls run
against THIS sibling's TU. The recovery must be redone per sibling because the conflicting
symbols are largely PER-OVERLAY (D_801812A4 in ov_SC01_000 vs D_800D4F8C in ov_SC01_077),
so the exemplar's recovered decls do not transfer through the remap.
- The stage loop no longer aborts a sibling when a stage cannot PRODUCE a candidate. It skips
to the next one. canon_sig_reconcile raises on a K&R definition (it expects an ANSI
signature), and a K&R def is MANDATORY whenever a zero-arg engine_core.h thunk calls the
function (func_8015AE2C) — so that must not kill the bank.
- gate-fail now reports the last stage error instead of an empty string.
STATUS (P9): the func_8015AE2C x133 sweep is still BLOCKED and this commit does not close it.
Remaining blocker, precisely diagnosed: the remapped body's DATA externs conflict with the
sibling's §8b carried decl layer (which carries the macro externs of earlier regions and
faithfully reproduces the original TU's declaration environment). reconcile_decls resolves
against a FLEET-MAJORITY canonical oracle, not against the TU's actually-visible decl, so it
picks a type that still conflicts. Fix direction: reconcile the body's externs against the
TU's carried layer (authoritative) — or drop body externs the layer already provides and cast
at use. The exemplar itself is banked and green.
Exemplar banked byte-identical (d19c9580); R22 clean-fleet 136/136.
Fable5 crack: MATCH 562/562, pin-free, jump table verified.
THREE REAL BUGS the bank exposed in jr_isolate_all (each byte-proven; each would have
silently corrupted every future heavy-core bank):
1. --only filtered `banked` as well as the cut set, so already-banked jr went untracked
and their carves were never followed. --only selects what to CUT; it must not erase
the record of what is already banked.
2. carve ownership was read from splat .s — but splat emits NO .s for a MATCHED function
(its .c holds real C), so the lookup found nothing. Now resolved from the extracted
IMAGE via family_remap.reloc_targets (byte-exact: func_801734BC -> 0x801d8c68 etc).
3. THE STRUCTURAL ONE: a region may host at most ONE .rodata carve, because an object's
.rodata is a single CONTIGUOUS section. Cutting at func_8015AE2C (jtbl 0x801D8B54)
left the banked func_801734BC (jtbl 0x801D8C68) inside the same region, so the object
emitted a 0x34 .rodata spanning BOTH tables (image +33 B). Every already-banked jr in
a cut object is now cut too -> exactly one carve per object. Cookbook 8b's "bank
same-subseg families ASCENDING" note warned about this; it is now enforced by
construction instead of left to discipline.
Also required (per the crack's own analysis, all byte-verified):
- engine_core.h: DEFINE_func_8015BEC4's zero-arg thunk returns func_8015AE2C(), so the
extern must drop its (void) prototype and the def must stay K&R/unprototyped.
Byte-neutral across all 136 (R22 green).
- recovery chain: cast_call_sites (27 callees) + reconcile_decls (3 data syms). The raw
body declares callees with types that conflict with their real engine_core.h defs; the
original never redeclares them, it CASTS at the call site (cookbook 20).
Layout now exact: .rodata 0x801d8b54/0x1c (7 entries, pad trimmed) + 0x801d8c68/0x14 +
0x801d92a0/0x20 — one table per object, each at its true address.
Second silent no-op of the §G class, found while permuting func_8017BEBC (close=2):
- hide_asm() is built for __asm__ STATEMENTS and `register __asm__("$sN")` pins inside a
function body (it scans back to the previous ;{} and forward to the next top-level ;).
A draft whose GTE ops are #defines CONTAINING __asm__ (the PsyQ inline_c.h convention,
i.e. most renderer code) therefore had its macro DEFINITIONS chewed up, swallowing the
function itself -> pycparser 'Function <fn> not found in base.c' -> decomp-permuter
no-op'd in 0s. base.c contained ZERO occurrences of the target function.
FIX: cpp_expand_macros() pre-expands with `cpp -P` so each GTE op becomes an inline
__asm__ statement hide_asm can carry via the b64 pragma. Applied ONLY when a
'#define ... __asm__' is present -> macro-free drafts byte-untouched.
- p16_permute was hardcoded to OV=ov_SC01_077's MAIN object, so no core in another overlay
or split object could be permuted at all. Added --asm-subdir (threaded explicitly: a
def-time default arg cannot see a mutated global).
LESSON (cookbook): permuter 'no match (0s)' is a TOOLING failure signature, never a real
search result. Verify workers actually ran.
Verified: base.c now holds the function; 16 workers searching on func_8017BEBC.
A trailing `.word 0x00000000` under a jtbl dlabel is the ORIGINAL TU's intra-rdata
.align 3 padding, NOT a table entry (0x00000000 is not a jump target). The true entry
count is the fn's `sltiu <n>` bound: func_8015AE2C has sltiu 0x7 = 7 entries yet its
raw dlabel spans 8 words.
maspsx drops all .align, so a C-emitted jump table can never reproduce the pad. Carving
to the next dlabel would reserve 8 words while the compiled object supplies 7 ->
.rodata under-fills by 4 B -> every later symbol shifts +4 (the same image-corruption
class as §41d). jtbl_range now trims trailing zero words, leaving the pad in the raw
post-carve data piece.
Retroactively explains the §8a func_80159C84 '5 words vs the real 6' false-MATCH.
Existing carves are parsed from CONFIG, not re-derived, so committed banks are
unaffected (verified: the 3 carved jtbls are absent from the raw data asm). The build
never invokes jtbl_carve, so the fleet is inert to this change until the next bank.
Found by the Fable5 crack of func_8015AE2C (562 ins x134, MATCH, pin-free).
Sibling sweep via jtbl_family_bank: ov_SC02_000 + ov_SC02_003 (cross-address, the
fn lives at 0x8017FCB0 in both) BANKED byte-identical. With the exemplar that is the
complete family (3/3).
This closes the de-risk: the lazy jr bank composition now runs end-to-end on a real
cracked core — lazy isolate -> jtbl_carve into the isolated subseg -> cross-address
remap -> raw-first two-stage gate -> whole-binary byte-gate -> x-members.
R22 clean-fleet 136/136 byte-identical; 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
Two bugs the func_80182268 sibling sweep exposed (both would have silently capped
every future jr family bank):
- extract_unit walks BACKWARD from a definition absorbing preceding extern/comment
lines as the fn's preamble. The §8b carried decl layer sits directly above the
FIRST item of an isolated region, so the unit swallowed the whole layer -> the
template dragged ~140 unrelated externs into each sibling (some naming types the
sibling TU lacks) -> gate-fail. jr_isolate_all now emits an explicit end-marker and
extract_unit stops at it (also guards the Phase-17 canonical-sig layer).
- jtbl_family_bank passed the EXEMPLAR's name to the sibling's carve/isolate/stub
lookup. Cross-address families (same engine fn at a different vram per overlay)
therefore never resolved: ov_SC01_077 @0x80182268 -> ov_SC02_000/003 @0x8017FCB0.
The sibling's name is now derived from to_addr. The first two banked jr families
were same-address, so this had never surfaced.
ov_SC01_077 d19c9580 byte-identical; R22 clean-fleet 136/136.
End-to-end proof of the §8b lazy bank composition on a real cracked jr core:
lazy isolate -> jtbl_carve into the isolated subseg -> C body -> whole-binary gate
-> d19c9580 BYTE-IDENTICAL; R22 clean-fleet 136/136.
- func_80182268 (31-ins jr, ov_SC01_077_after) MATCHED first try: shared-tail
fallthrough (jtbl cases 3+7 enter case 4's tail) + the u16-shift sign-extend idiom
((s8)(*(u16*)(p+0x70) >> 8) -> lhu/sll16/sra24). Carve collided with the committed
func_801734BC carve -> lazy isolation fired exactly as designed.
- R14 FINDING (cookbook §41d): the Phase-17 canonical convention "void->s32 return is
byte-neutral (§3a-1)" is FALSE for a void body with no `return` — it costs ONE extra
instruction. canon_sig_reconcile applies it unconditionally, so it turned a perfect
31-ins MATCH into 32 ins. That extra word made the isolated object's .text 4 B long,
shifting EVERY data symbol +4 -> ~271k differing bytes, image +5 B. match_one said
MATCH; only the whole-binary gate caught it (G3/P9).
- FIX (generalizes the §19 sig_unify lesson): every recovery pass is a FALLBACK, never
unconditional. jtbl_family_bank now gates RAW first, reconciled only on failure.
- 136/136 byte-identical from a clean tree (R22); 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
The full 54-jr isolate-all on ov_SC01_077 now builds d19c9580 BYTE-IDENTICAL
(R22 clean-fleet 136/136) — the configuration session 5 could not build. The
heavy-jr harvest (191 cores / 5.53M templatable ins) is unblocked.
- R14 CORRECTION: session-5's "gcc-2.7.2 block-scope-extern TU-persistence" root
cause was WRONG. There is no gcc quirk — DEFINE_func_* macros expand at FILE
scope, so their leading externs are genuine file-scope decls that merely live in
engine_core.h, invisible to any col-0 .c scan (1377 macros / 3929 lines / 1462 syms).
- REJECTED the approved "global symbol->type map + shadow set" design: the engine is
loosely typed (func_80173544 is DEFINED `s32 f(void*)` yet declared `extern void
f(void);` inside func_801734BC's body), so declaring every USED symbol hoists that
block-scope shadow to file scope and CREATES the conflict a shadow-set then dodges.
Instead reconstruct the original TU's file-scope decl environment and carry it
strictly FORWARD — conflict-free by construction (every carried decl already
coexisted with every definition in the one original TU; compatibility is
order-symmetric; shadows stay in bodies and travel with their item).
- The byte-gate found two MORE lost decl sources, not predicted: (a) a definition is
itself a declaration for everything below it in its TU (func_8012B2CC undeclared);
(b) file-local typedefs used by a carried prototype (parse error, Vec3s). K&R defs
must render `extern T f();` (unprototyped), never f(void).
- LAZY per-core isolation wired into jtbl_family_bank (Drew's call — upfront-x134 =
~7,200 region files): jtbl_carve NON-CONTIGUOUS fail-loud -> jr_isolate_all --only
<core> -> re-extract -> re-carve. Proven on func_80178D40 (890x134, heaviest core):
carve blocked -> isolated (byte-neutral d19c9580) -> carve in its own subseg.
- TWO LATENT BUGS fixed (both would have corrupted the heavy sweeps):
* jtbl_carve.func_subseg derived the owning subseg from the ASM TREE, which `make
extract` never prunes -> after an isolation it returned the STALE owner and
silently re-created the very collision the isolation removed. Now config-derived.
* jtbl_family_bank/jtbl_carve revert() DELETED the shared overlays.mk carve var
unconditionally -> would destroy a COMMITTED carve (all 134 overlays have one) on
any failed sibling. Now restored to its committed value; only region files created
by this attempt are removed; dirty-tree preflight refuses to start a sweep.
- docs: cookbook §8b RESOLVED + new §8c "splitting a TU means rebuilding its
DECLARATION ENVIRONMENT, not moving text"; decision-log 2026-07-13 (R30/R31).
- parser selftest 404/404; R22 clean-fleet 136/136; 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
Session-4 same-subseg handling (the de-risk preamble's harder half; byte-proof of
the merged build + isolation deferred to Stage 2 with concrete cores):
- jtbl_carve.py: MERGE adjacent same-subseg carves into one spanning .rodata piece
(a code object emits its jtbls contiguous, so two matched jr-fns in one subseg are
byte-correct iff their jtbls abut). BOUND-FIX: a new jtbl's end is bounded by the
next raw dlabel OR the next existing carve start (an already-carved adjacent jtbl
is gone from the data asm -> raw dlabels over-extend it -> false "non-contiguous").
Config-proven (func_80171B4C 801D8C48 merges with func_801734BC 801D8C68). NO-OP
for family-1/cross-subseg (single carve per subseg) -> committed configs unaffected.
- jr_isolate.py (scaffold, NOT yet functional): the non-contiguous case — split a fn
into its own code subseg (whale _o0b precedent) so its jtbl carves independently.
BLOCKED on split_src_region, which can't partition the overlay .c (global canonical-
sig extern layer + per-fn callee-externs + DEFINE_func macros + @class annotations,
~922 non-address items). Stage-2 build item (overlay-.c-aware source split).
- cookbook §8b (the --order sandwich + the two same-subseg cases + the blocker);
CURRENT_PHASE session-4 checkpoint updated with the Stage-2 unblock decision.
- ld_interleave.py --order: address-ordered N-piece data->rodata->data sandwich
for overlays with 2+ matched jr-functions; legacy --front/--tail path is byte-
untouched (main EXE + the 133 single-carve func_8012ACE0 siblings unaffected)
- jtbl_carve.py rewritten additive/regenerate-from-config: parse the tail data
region + existing .rodata carves, split the containing data piece for the new
jtbl, re-emit the address-ordered pieces + the --order arg; same-subseg carve
collision fails loud (-> jr isolation); idempotent
- jtbl_family_bank.py: `make extract` BEFORE the carve (asm must match the reverted
committed config; the old error-string retry was fragile) + revert-on-carve-fail
- family-1: func_801734BC (34-ins PURE jr, ov_SC01_077_after) matched in ov077
(shared-tail switch idiom) + banked 133/133 siblings = x134 — CROSS-subseg
multi-jtbl (func_8012ACE0 in _a + func_801734BC in _after)
- R22 clean-fleet 136/136 byte-identical (~52s); 0 NON_MATCHING (G4)
- Drew's sequencing (agreed): do the 45 small jr families FIRST — not for byte-weight (~+1% instr,
129K ins) but to de-risk + harden the §8 x134 pipeline before the heavy Fable5 cores bet on it.
- decisive technical reason: jtbl_carve only built the single-jtbl carve; func_8012ACE0 is now
matched in all 133 siblings, so family #2 forces the multi-jtbl address-ordered `ld_interleave
--order` carve -> build & prove it on cheap 30-ins targets first. Also needs no Fable5.
- guardrail kept explicit: small tier = MEANS (harden pipeline + build multi-jtbl), NOT the
objective; the 191 heavy jr families (5.53M ins) remain THE byte-weight target -> pivot after.
- CURRENT_PHASE.md SESSION-3 checkpoint updated to Stage 1 (small + build multi-jtbl) -> Stage 2
(heavy 191, Fable5 un-paused). decision-log addendum with the forcing-function wiki lesson.
- decision-log (R31): §8 unblocked the SINGLE heaviest byte-weight chunk of the game — 9 of
the 10 heaviest unmatched family cores are switch (jr) functions (func_80178D40 890x134 =
477K ins alone); jr substantial = 191 fams / 5.53M templatable ins. My "45 small jr families"
recommendation (129K ins) was a light-tail trap — Drew caught it against the endgame plan
(heaviest-byte-weight-first). Corrected next play: Fable5 crack the heavy jr cores -> §8 x134
bank -> parallel R22 verify; needs Task 7 (Fable5) un-paused (§8 makes that worth it now).
- CURRENT_PHASE.md: SESSION-3 checkpoint as the fresh-session resume point (4 commits this
session: tiny-band commit:0531, §8 PoC commit:0532, §8 x134 commit:0533, R22 parallel commit:0534;
distinct-code 30.3->39.1%, instr-weighted 58.2->63.0%, R22 now ~50s)
- profiled the clean-fleet R22: extract-all ~6m11s (136 serial `splat split`) + check-all
~2m58s (136 serial builds) = ~9 min, all serial on a 32-core box
- the only shared WRITE is the 4 generated include/*.inc macros at extract time (identical
content per binary); everything else is per-binary-disjoint and include/ is read-only during
a build -> concurrent builds/extracts don't race
- Makefile: JOBS ?= 16 + `make extract-all` (seed main serial for the macros, then parallel-
extract the rest via xargs -P) + parallel `make check-all` (xargs -P), correctness-gated
- MEASURED: `make clean && make extract-all && make check-all` = ~50s, check-all 136/136
BYTE-IDENTICAL (== the serial result) -> ~10.5x. Compounds across the endgame (R22 per commit)
- new R22 recipe: `make clean && make extract-all && make check-all` (was the serial for-loop)
- the jr-function ×134 harvest pipeline, proven end-to-end: per family sibling,
jtbl_carve (per-sibling jtbl-rodata carve, computed from THAT sibling's own jtbl
address — the fn is at the same vram across overlays but its jtbl floats) -> make
extract (auto ld_interleave) -> remap_hseq + canon_sig_reconcile -> whole-binary gate
- tools/jtbl_carve.py: per-overlay §8 carve generator (config data-tail split +
<ov>_JTBL_INTERLEAVE var)
- tools/jtbl_family_bank.py: the sibling sweep driver (idempotent, revert-on-fail, byte-gated)
- tools/family_remap.py: extract_unit now carries single-line typedefs (jr-function bodies
define local `typedef struct{} Foo_<addr>;` that must template with the body — the
propagation cap for these; additive, byte-gate-protected)
- func_8012ACE0 family: 133/133 siblings BANKED, 0 failures; R22 clean-fleet 136/136
byte-identical; 0 NON_MATCHING (G4)
- metrics: distinct-code 39.1% (50,698 unique fns), instr-weighted 63.0%
- opportunity (has_mid_jr families): 237 total (5,805 members) = 46 small mid/tiny
(771 members, same mechanical pipeline) + 191 substantial (the Fable5 cores, Task 7 paused)
- NEXT: R22 profiling/parallelization; then the other 45 small jr families
- overlay jr-functions can now bank as C: gcc switch jump tables form a .rodata island at
the overlay TAIL; carve a matched fn's jtbl into a dotted [.rodata, <code-subseg>] subseg
+ ld_interleave (data->rodata->data sandwich) places it byte-exact. cookbook §8a + SETUP.
- tools/ld_interleave.py: --section .<binary> param (derives the <binary>_TEXT/DATA/RODATA/
DATA2/BSS symbol prefix); default .main = the EXE, byte-identical (backward-compat proven)
- Makefile + config/overlays.mk: <bin>_JTBL_INTERLEAVE hook + a $(strip)-guarded extract
branch (gotcha caught: a trailing #comment on the := left whitespace -> non-empty -> the
branch misfired on resident with the EXE defaults)
- PoC: func_8012ACE0 (25-ins jr-fn in ov_SC01_077) reconciled (canon_sig_reconcile) + banked
BYTE-IDENTICAL d19c9580 -- the first overlay jr-function matched through the C pipeline
- R22 FULL-FLEET clean rebuild: 136 passed, 0 failed (main 143dbb89 unaffected by the
ld_interleave change); 0 NON_MATCHING in any default build (G4)
- P9 findings: func_80159C84/func_8015444C (the 2 carried Fable5 jr bodies) are rtu_match
FALSE-matches (incomplete jtbls: 52B vs 56B -> never bank); the maspsx "hang" scare was a
truncated experimental-file artifact (real pipeline builds in ~1s)
- metrics: distinct-code 39.1% (50,572 unique fns), instr-weighted 62.9%
- NEXT: the ×134 automation (generate the per-overlay carve + template the reconciled body)
Drew T