Exporting symbols with 8445 characters or more gets them subdivided into multiple symbols on Windows
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Description
I tried this code (reproducer attached: test.rs.txt):
#[unsafe(no_mangle)]
fn AAAA....8445 As in total....A() {}
I expected to see this happen: It works.
Instead, this happened: It gets turned into two symbols:
error: linking with `link.exe` failed: exit code: 1120
|
= note: "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\18\\Insiders\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.50.35503\\bin\\HostX64\\x64\\link.exe" "/DEF:C:\\Users\\tokgeo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\rustc6LxeaL\\lib.def" "/NOLOGO" "C:\\Users\\tokgeo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\rustc6LxeaL\\symbols.o" "<2 object files omitted>" "<sysroot>\\lib\\rustlib\\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\\lib/{libstd-*,libpanic_unwind-*,libwindows_targets-*,librustc_demangle-*,libstd_detect-*,libhashbrown-*,librustc_std_workspace_alloc-*,libunwind-*,libcfg_if-*,librustc_std_workspace_core-*,liballoc-*,libcore-*,libcompiler_builtins-*}.rlib" "kernel32.lib" "kernel32.lib" "kernel32.lib" "ntdll.lib" "userenv.lib" "ws2_32.lib" "dbghelp.lib" "/defaultlib:msvcrt" "/NXCOMPAT" "/OUT:test.dll" "/OPT:REF,NOICF" "/DLL" "/IMPLIB:test.dll.lib" "/DEBUG" "/PDBALTPATH:%_PDB%" "/NATVIS:<sysroot>\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\intrinsic.natvis" "/NATVIS:<sysroot>\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\liballoc.natvis" "/NATVIS:<sysroot>\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\libcore.natvis" "/NATVIS:<sysroot>\\lib\\rustlib\\etc\\libstd.natvis"
= note: some arguments are omitted. use `--verbose` to show all linker arguments
= note: lib.def : error LNK2001: Nicht aufgelöstes externes Symbol "A".␍
lib.def : error LNK2001: Nicht aufgelöstes externes Symbol "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
followed by the rest of the As.
Keeping the symbol name at <= 8444 characters links with no issues.
Meta
rustc --version --verbose:
rustc 1.92.0-nightly (1d23d0680 2025-10-22)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 1d23d06800271f651fad07bf22bf5e298138972e
commit-date: 2025-10-22
host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
release: 1.92.0-nightly
LLVM version: 21.1.3
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First steps
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Research direction
Start with the attached test.rs.txt reproducer on x86_64-pc-windows-msvc using the reported nightly rustc and link.exe. Compare exported symbols at 8444 and 8445 characters, then trace the compiler's Windows symbol-export path to identify where the name is split. Done means the long symbol links as one symbol without breaking the existing shorter case.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100