The rolling-bootstrap smoke probe ran `$cc --source s.pas --output s` with no
unit-path, relying on the binary finding the RTL beside itself. That worked
while the RTL was an archive (FindRTL looks beside the binary), but once a
commit makes the compiler source-build the RTL, the boot/carried binary is not
beside its compiler/ source tree, so RTLSourceDir (binary-relative, then
CWD-relative) misses and the probe fails with "RTL source directory not found".
Point the probe at the worktree's RTL source via $BLAISE_RTL_SRC and the unit
path. Backward-compatible: pre-source-build commits ignore $BLAISE_RTL_SRC and
still link the archive copied beside the binary; the extra unit paths are
harmless for a program that uses no units.
The internal linker silently emitted a runtime-less binary when blaise_rtl.a
could not be found beside the compiler (RTLPath empty): every RTL symbol became
an undefined dynamic import, so the binary linked but died at runtime with
`undefined symbol: _SetArgs`.
scripts/rolling-bootstrap.sh hit exactly this: it carried each step's binary
forward as _carry_blaise with its RTL as _carry_rtl.a, but FindRTLArchive looks
for `blaise_rtl.a` beside the binary (CompilerBinDir) — a name it never used —
so the next step linked the compiler with no runtime archive and SMOKE_FAILED.
- Carry the binary + RTL into a dedicated _carry/ dir as blaise + blaise_rtl.a,
so FindRTLArchive resolves it. Rolling bootstrap reaches HEAD again.
- Make an empty RTLPath a hard error on both link paths (internal and external
cc) instead of producing a broken binary.
- Regression test TInternalLinkerE2ETests.TestLink_MissingRTL_FailsLoudly:
runs a symlinked compiler from an RTL-free dir and asserts a non-zero exit, a
message naming blaise_rtl.a, and no output binary.
The four fixpoint scripts missed this because fixpoint-native.sh links the .s
via gcc, never exercising the internal-linker + FindRTL path on a carried
binary layout.
v0.12.0 is the clean rolling-bootstrap anchor — the broken v0.11.0->v0.12.0
commit range sits before it, so the replay range (v0.12.0..HEAD) is entirely
native-default with the internal assembler + linker and needs no external tools.
scripts/rolling-bootstrap.sh:
- build_step / smoke_test now compile straight to an executable with the native
default backend (`--source ... --output ...`): no --emit-ir, no QBE, no gcc.
- Dropped the QBE_BIN requirement and the QBE= make var from the RTL build.
.github/workflows/bootstrap.yml:
- STAGE1_TAG v0.10.0 -> v0.12.0 (the new cold-start anchor).
- Removed the "Build QBE" and "Expose QBE to the compiler" steps and the QBE=
make var from the -pre RTL rebuild — the bootstrap chain no longer needs them.
- Branch-scoped validate-only triggers (ci/**, feature/**, bootstrap/**) and
master-only cache writes were already in place (Step 3d-bis).
These reference the v0.12.0 tag/release asset, which the cut creates next.
Add scripts/rolling-bootstrap.sh to rebuild the self-hosting chain from
the last release binary up to the checked-out revision. A released binary
can only compile source up to its own feature set, so between releases it
can no longer cold-bootstrap master directly — the moment a feature is
taught to the parser in one commit and used in the runtime/compiler in a
later commit, the gap opens. The script replays the chain commit-by-commit
(each step built by the previous step's binary), carrying the binary
forward, and installs the result as releases/v<version>-pre/.
It runs in a throwaway git worktree, so the live tree (including
uncommitted changes) is untouched; it passes QBE= and BLAISE= into the
runtime Makefile and uses the main repo's built QBE; and it smoke-tests
each step. A failed step names the exact commit (BOOTSTRAP_BROKEN),
making it usable as a CI check that the two-step discipline holds.
Document the prerequisite (place the last release binary under
releases/vX.Y.Z/, which is gitignored) and usage in scripts/BOOTSTRAP.adoc,
with a pointer from README.adoc.
mzhoot
