windows-gnullvm: always link libunwind statically

[mati865]

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• I did not use an LLM to create a change in this PR.
• I used an LLM to create a change in this PR, and I have explained below how it was used.

Previously shared library was used by default, meaning that programs and libraries couldn't be loaded if libunwind.dll was missing from the PATH. Using Wine (on Linux) because it better shows the problem (and is more convenient):

❯ cargo new hello &> /dev/null

❯ cargo rustc --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm &> /dev/null

❯ wine target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/debug/hello.exe
0024:err:module:import_dll Library libunwind.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\tmp\\hello\\target\\x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm\\debug\\hello.exe") not found
0024:err:module:loader_init Importing dlls for L"Z:\\tmp\\hello\\target\\x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm\\debug\\hello.exe" failed, status c0000135

❯ llvm-readobj --coff-imports target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/debug/hello.exe
...
Import {
  Name: libunwind.dll
  ImportLookupTableRVA: 0x3D308
  ImportAddressTableRVA: 0x3D678
  Symbol: _GCC_specific_handler (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_DeleteException (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_GetDataRelBase (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_GetIPInfo (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_GetLanguageSpecificData (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_GetRegionStart (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_GetTextRelBase (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_RaiseException (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_Resume (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_SetGR (0)
  Symbol: _Unwind_SetIP (0)
}
...

Optionally libunwind could be linked statically via +crt-static:

❯ cargo rustc --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm -- -C target-feature=+crt-static &> /dev/null

❯ wine target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/debug/hello.exe
Hello, world!

❯ llvm-readobj --coff-imports target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/debug/hello.exe | rg 'libunwind.dll' || echo "doesn't depend on shared libunwind"
doesn't depend on shared libunwind

After a discussion of approach in #159782 with @bjorn3 (thanks BTW!), I changed the proposed approach to always link static libunwind.

I don't have a good solution for #121794 that will resurface. I guess the user has three options:

• symlink libunwind.dll.a as libunwind.a
• add --unwindlib=none -lunwind to the linker args
• create linker wrapper
• use self-contained mode which is likely is undesirable

I think the ease of use (not having to deal with additional DLL dependency) outweights the benefit of working with incomplete C toolchain.

The size bloat is also not a problem, sizes (in bytes) of the binary for the literal hello world project:

• debug build:
  • shared libunwind 4194816
  • static libunwind 4323328
• release build:
  • shared libunwind 382464
  • static libunwind 423424

Debug diff +125.5 KiB, release diff: +40 KiB.
Size of libunwind.dll that has to be provided when linking shared libunwind: 204288 bytes (199.5 KiB).

[mati865]

@bors try jobs=*llvm-mingw

[rust-bors]

☀️ Try build successful (CI)
Build commit: bd01f2e (bd01f2e7c0afdde70b5a1f7027b6e1c37637bdd1)
Base parent: 65bcac4 (65bcac45b3d8a8b2126e5cc844cf6fff5795d32a)

[rustbot]

Some changes occurred in src/doc/rustc/src/platform-support

cc @Noratrieb

[rustbot]

r? @petrochenkov

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[mati865]

I'm not sure what kind of approval this change will require (r+, FCP, MCP+second?).

[petrochenkov]

After a discussion of approach in #159782 with @bjorn3 (thanks BTW!)

Where is the discussion? #159782 doesn't have it.

[petrochenkov]

Is it correct to link multiple copies of libunwind.a together when you link a dylib (with one copy of libunwind) into an executable (another copy of libunwind)?

For non-gnullvm windows-gnu targets it's apparently not ok (unwinding across DLL boundaries breaks), that's why we have flags like late_link_args_dynamic and late_link_args_static, and -lgcc_s is used if there's any dynamic library in the graph, and -lgcc_eh is used otherwise. cc #71651 (comment)

[bjorn3]

After a discussion of approach in #159782 with @bjorn3 (thanks BTW!)

Where is the discussion? #159782 doesn't have it.

That was in a zulip DM.

Is it correct to link multiple copies of libunwind.a together when you link a dylib (with one copy of libunwind) into an executable (another copy of libunwind)?

According to @mati865 for as long as 32bit libgcc_s isn't involved as unwinder, multiple unwinder copies will interact just fine with each other. In the case of -gnullvm, we already always use libunwind rather than libgcc_s as unwinder.

[petrochenkov]

That was in a zulip DM.

Then my question is what are the downsides of supporting the static vs dynamic choice under an option like in #159782.

[bjorn3]

Unlike on -gnu there is no breakage that would occur from not supporting it. It only increases the size of dylibs by 40KiB by adding a copy of libunwind, but in doing so makes distribution of the dylibs easier by not having to ship libunwind.dll as user.

[mati865]

Is it correct to link multiple copies of libunwind.a together when you link a dylib (with one copy of libunwind) into an executable (another copy of libunwind)?

For non-gnullvm windows-gnu targets it's apparently not ok (unwinding across DLL boundaries breaks), that's why we have flags like late_link_args_dynamic and late_link_args_static, and -lgcc_s is used if there's any dynamic library in the graph, and -lgcc_eh is used otherwise. cc #71651 (comment)

On Windows with 32-bit libgcc built with Dwarf-2 exception model? Not at all.
I'm not entirely sure about 32-bit libgcc built with SjLj exception model, but 64-bit libgcc (SEH) and any version of libunwind will be fine*.

[*] IIRC, on 32-bits libunwind will break if specific libgcc_{eh,s} symbols are present in the binary.

Then my question is what are the downsides of supporting the static vs dynamic choice under an option like in #159782.

Unlike on -gnu there is no breakage that would occur from not supporting it. It only increases the size of dylibs by 40KiB by adding a copy of libunwind, but in doing so makes distribution of the dylibs easier by not having to ship libunwind.dll as user.

Just like Bjorn wrote, but remember that they no longer need to ship libunwind.dll that is ~100 KiB, so this actually reduces distribution size for the most popular cases.

---

Decided to double-check if memory serves me right to avoid potentially misleading everyone. Heck, libgcc is even worse than I remembered (or it has regressed).

32-bit GCC preparation:

❯ cat dll.cc
#include <stdexcept>

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void foo() { throw std::runtime_error("foo"); }

❯ cat main.cc
#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>

extern "C" __declspec(dllimport) void foo();

int main() {
  std::cout << "entered main" << std::endl;
  try {
    foo();
  } catch (const std::runtime_error &e) {
    std::cout << "caught: " << e.what() << std::endl;
    return 0;
  }
  std::cout << "no exception" << std::endl;
  return 1;
}

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -shared -o dll_shared_libgcc.dll dll.cc -Wl,--out-implib=libdll_shared_libgcc.dll.a

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -shared -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o dll_static_libgcc.dll dll.cc -Wl,--out-implib=libdll_static_libgcc.dll.a

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ main.cc -o shared_main_static_dll.exe -L. -ldll_static_libgcc

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ main.cc -o shared_main_shared_dll.exe -L. -ldll_shared_libgcc

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ main.cc -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o static_main_shared_dll.exe -L. -ldll_shared_libgcc

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-g++ main.cc -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o static_main_static_dll.exe -L. -ldll_static_libgcc

Runing libgcc case:

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH ./static_main_shared_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
exit code: 3

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH ./static_main_shared_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
exit code: 3

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH ./static_main_static_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
  what():  foo
exit code: 3

❯ PATH=/mingw32/bin:$PATH ./shared_main_shared_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
caught: foo
exit code: 0

Don’t even get me started on what happened here, instead I'll move to something sane.
I didn't bother changing library names but it's using libunwind, not libgcc.

32-bit Clang preparation

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ -shared -o dll_shared_libgcc.dll dll.cc -Wl,--out-implib=libdll_shared_libgcc.dll.a

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ -shared -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o dll_static_libgcc.dll dll.cc -Wl,--out-implib=libdll_static_libgcc.dll.a

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ main.cc -o shared_main_static_dll.exe -L. -ldll_static_libgcc

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ main.cc -o shared_main_shared_dll.exe -L. -ldll_shared_libgcc

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ main.cc -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o static_main_shared_dll.exe -L. -ldll_shared_libgcc

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/bin:$PATH i686-w64-mingw32-clang++ main.cc -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o static_main_static_dll.exe -L. -ldll_static_libgcc

Running libunwind case:

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:$PATH ./static_main_shared_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
caught: foo
exit code: 0

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:$PATH ./static_main_static_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
caught: foo
exit code: 0

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:$PATH ./shared_main_shared_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
caught: foo
exit code: 0

❯ PATH=/opt/llvm-mingw-20251216-ucrt-x86_64/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:$PATH ./shared_main_static_dll; echo exit code: $status
entered main
caught: foo
exit code: 0