DByte Native Link Contract

DByte 12.0 · Deep reference

SOURCE MIRROR. CONTENT BELOW IS RENDERED FROM THE TAGGED V12 SOURCE DOCUMENT. WEBSITE PROSE DOES NOT OVERRIDE THIS CONTRACT.

The i686-dbyte-none systems path compiles every source module independently:

.dby -> shared lexer/parser/AST -> systems type checking -> typed IR
     -> bounded i686 encoder -> ELF32 ET_REL object

The in-process DByte linker reads those objects, resolves their symbols and relocations, lays out the final image, adds the Multiboot entry and bounded bootstrap stack, and writes an ELF32 ET_EXEC. It does not invoke ld, lld, an assembler, a C compiler, LLVM, or Cranelift.

Module and symbol model§

import "relative.dby" as name creates a compile-time dependency. Resolution is relative to the importing source file, filesystem-only, cycle checked, and ordered deterministically. There is no network, package-manager, or runtime module loading.

pub fn, pub static, and pub const are visible to importing modules. Unqualified definitions remain object-local. Duplicate strong exports and undefined final symbols are link errors; weak and dynamic symbols are not part of this profile.

ELF32 object contract§

Objects are ELFCLASS32, little-endian, ET_REL, EM_386 files. Depending on content they carry .text, .rodata, .data, .bss, .symtab, .strtab, .shstrtab, and the relevant .rel.* sections. Symbols and relocations use a canonical, source-independent order.

The supported i386 REL relocations are deliberately small:

• R_386_PC32 for cross-object relative calls.
• R_386_32 for string, static/global, and other absolute addresses required by generated code.

REL addends live in the relocated bytes. The linker validates the object class, machine, sections, string and symbol tables, relocation indices and offsets, arithmetic, and final layout bounds before it writes output.

DBYTE32 cross-object ABI§

• Arguments are evaluated and pushed left to right.
• Every scalar argument occupies one 32-bit stack word.
• The callee copies parameters to deterministic EBP-negative slots.
• The caller removes arguments after the call.
• Scalar results are returned in EAX.
• EAX, ECX, and EDX are caller-saved.
• EBX, ESI, EDI, and EBP are preserved whenever generated code uses them.
• EBP is the frame pointer and each return restores ESP exactly.

Systems layouts§

Arithmetic wraps at the declared integer width. Mixed-width arithmetic and implicit narrowing are rejected. Explicit as casts are required; only usize may convert explicitly to or from a pointer.

array[T, N] has exactly N declaration-order elements and the alignment of T. Literal out-of-range indices are compile errors. Dynamic indexing in this low-level profile is intentionally unchecked at runtime.

Normal structs place fields in declaration order with natural alignment and tail padding to the maximum field alignment. packed struct is an explicit opt-in with alignment one and no inserted padding. size_of(Type) and align_of(Type) are compile-time constants.

Commands§

dbytec build serial.dby --target i686-dbyte-none --emit obj -o serial.o
dbytec link arch_x86.o serial.o numbers.o memory.o kernel.o -o kernel.elf
dbytec build kernel.dby --target i686-dbyte-none --emit elf -o kernel.elf

The integrated ELF build resolves the module graph, emits deterministic in-memory objects, and invokes the same linker library used by dbytec link. --emit obj writes only the requested root module object; its imports remain undefined ELF symbols for the final link. Compile and link failures use a temporary sibling and leave an existing output unchanged.

Deliberate exclusions§

There is no heap, dynamic array, 64-bit arithmetic, dynamic linking, weak symbol, runtime module loading, scheduler, filesystem, driver framework, or self-hosted compiler in this foundation release.

Source mirror: source-docs/v12.0.0/DBYTE_NATIVE_LINK.md