feat: Implement SORT() directive for linker scripts by Abh10705 · Pull Request #1994 · wild-linker/wild

Abh10705 · 2026-05-28T15:57:50Z

Transitioned from hashmaps to flat vectors (Vec) for harvested sections. This ensures continuous memory layout and significantly improves L1 cache locality during the final layout binary search.
Fixes #1661

- Introduces Harvester engine in layout.rs to collect and sort sections lexicographically. - Implements physical section reordering in elf_writer.rs with O(1) skip logic for optimized performance. - Adds comprehensive integration test and 50k-section stress test verification. - Verified physical byte layout is contiguous and alphabetical via objdump. Benchmark (Warm cache): - GNU ld: 0.221s - wild: 0.093s Fixes wild-linker#1661

davidlattimore

I've only partially reviewed, but I just noticed that this is a new PR. Was there a reason to open a new PR rather than continuing with 1857? Also, I just noticed that some of the comments I made on that PR haven't yet been addressed in this PR, so it's probably worthwhile looking back at the comments on that PR

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:02:21Z

    let _span = debug_span!("write_file", filename = %object.input).entered();
    let _file_span = layout.args().common().trace_span_for_file(object.file_id);
+
+    // Fast O(1) lookup to skip harvested sections


Anything that involves a loop is unlikely to be O(1).

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:02:54Z

    let _file_span = layout.args().common().trace_span_for_file(object.file_id);
+
+    // Fast O(1) lookup to skip harvested sections
+    let epilogue = layout


I feel like there's an easier way to get the epilogue. Pretty sure we store the FileId of the epilogue somewhere

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:14:06Z

    // The actual build-id will be filled in later once all writing has completed. It's important
    // that we fill it with zeros now however, since if we're overwriting an existing file, there
    // might be other data there and we don't zero it, then the build ID will be hashing that data.
+


This extra blank line seems unnecessary and separates the above comment from the code it's referring to

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:19:52Z

+        harvested_sections_registry.push(sec.clone());
+    }
+
+    // Crucial: We MUST sort by the IDs here, otherwise the Binary Search in Step 3 will fail.


To what extent was this PR written by an LLM and to what extent do you understand the code that was produced? I ask here because referring to "step 3" seems like the kind of thing an LLM would do. There doesn't seem to be numbered "steps" defined anywhere.

yeh that was during the merge conflict i coudn't figure it out, so i pasted my file and the file from the wild repo and asked it to make a new merged file, it asked for some context as to what I was doing/ changing to the code and added these comments I should have paid more attention in removing them

if you go over our conversation on zulip, you should get the idea if I understand what Im doing, respectfully

Thanks for the explanation. Hope I didn't offend, it's just that I know this PR is a difficult undertaking for someone without previous experience in the codebase and I worry when I see signs of LLM use in those sorts of circumstances. That makes sense that you used it for fixing merge conflicts and that it introduced changes that were perhaps unintended.

wasn't offended at all, it didn't even merge those files properly I had to restart and fix those myself line by line, while i asked it to merge the file I also asked it to review my work and that is where the comments are from, I removed them as i was fixing the merge conflicts but ig this one got left

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:25:10Z

+    pub(crate) size: u64,
+    pub(crate) alignment: Alignment,
+    pub(crate) mem_offset: u64,
+    pub(crate) _name: &'data [u8],


Why is this here?

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:33:21Z

+
+__attribute__((used, section(".text.func_a"))) int func_a() { return 1; }
+
+__attribute__((used, section(".text.func_b"))) int func_b() { return 2; }


This test doesn't seem to actually be testing that the sections are sorted. If I disable sorting, e.g. by always setting SectionPattern.sorted to false, the test still passes. It'd also be good to test that sorted sections from multiple input objects get correctly sorted together.

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:36:36Z

+
+        Ok(SectionPattern { name, sorted: true })
+    } else {
+        // Original behavior: bare pattern


Documenting "original behaviour" makes sense from the perspective of reading a PR, but doesn't make sense for someone reading the code later, after the PR is merged. Comments should always be written with the future reader in mind. This comment is probably unnecessary.

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:37:38Z

+fn parse_pattern<'input>(input: &mut &'input BStr) -> winnow::Result<SectionPattern<'input>> {
+    // Handling SORT(...) wrapper: SORT is an alias for SORT_BY_NAME in GNU ld.
+    if input.starts_with(b"SORT") {
+        // Consume "SORT"


Comments like this don't really add anything. It's pretty much just repeating what the next line says.

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:38:05Z

-    Ok(pattern)
+fn parse_pattern<'input>(input: &mut &'input BStr) -> winnow::Result<SectionPattern<'input>> {
+    // Handling SORT(...) wrapper: SORT is an alias for SORT_BY_NAME in GNU ld.
+    if input.starts_with(b"SORT") {


I'm pretty sure there is a helper that checks starts_with and then consumes

davidlattimore · 2026-05-29T06:44:41Z

+        *(.text)
+
+        /* Protect our harvested sections from the GC! */
+        KEEP(*(SORT(.text.*)))


It'd be good to test both with and without KEEP and make sure that GC works as expected for sorted sections that aren't referenced.

Abh10705 · 2026-05-29T07:16:52Z

I've only partially reviewed, but I just noticed that this is a new PR. Was there a reason to open a new PR rather than continuing with 1857? Also, I just noticed that some of the comments I made on that PR haven't yet been addressed in this PR, so it's probably worthwhile looking back at the comments on that PR

yeh that just skipped my mind, i will close this one and go back to the previous one

Abh10705 added 7 commits April 23, 2026 03:56

got rid of hashmaps and optimized the code and added better test

f77fbb5

merge conflictsss

3de416e

Fixing test file layout

1f1c493

Fix CI errors

27d9355

fixing CI wild-linker#2

ae20f8f

satisfying RISC-V test

4d7f880

davidlattimore reviewed May 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

Abh10705 added 3 commits May 29, 2026 19:18

fixing random comments and adding more detailed test

599bfea

Epilogue lookup needed to me fixed

64de22d

trying to fix s frame errror

d075301


		__attribute__((used, section(".text.func_a"))) int func_a() { return 1; }

		__attribute__((used, section(".text.func_b"))) int func_b() { return 2; }

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Abh10705 commented May 29, 2026

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Abh10705 commented May 28, 2026 •

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