From 8adabaa4ed2321882e2ef04ebb2d9b621805aac2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: mlugg <mlugg@mlugg.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2025 11:18:45 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Zcu: don't tell linkers about exports if there are compile
 errors

In the best case, this is redundant work, because we aren't actually
going to emit a working binary this update. In the worst case, it causes
bugs because the linker may not have *seen* the thing being exported due
to the compile errors.

Resolves: #24417
---
 src/Compilation.zig                             | 10 +++-------
 src/Zcu/PerThread.zig                           | 17 ++++++++++++-----
 .../exported_function_uses_invalid_type.zig     | 13 +++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 test/cases/compile_errors/exported_function_uses_invalid_type.zig

diff --git a/src/Compilation.zig b/src/Compilation.zig
index 435919fce9..e340cb57f8 100644
--- a/src/Compilation.zig
+++ b/src/Compilation.zig
@@ -4254,14 +4254,10 @@ fn appendCompileLogLines(log_text: *std.ArrayListUnmanaged(u8), zcu: *Zcu, loggi
     }
 }
 
-fn anyErrors(comp: *Compilation) bool {
-    return (totalErrorCount(comp) catch return true) != 0;
-}
-
-fn totalErrorCount(comp: *Compilation) !u32 {
-    var errors = try comp.getAllErrorsAlloc();
+pub fn anyErrors(comp: *Compilation) bool {
+    var errors = comp.getAllErrorsAlloc() catch return true;
     defer errors.deinit(comp.gpa);
-    return errors.errorMessageCount();
+    return errors.errorMessageCount() > 0;
 }
 
 pub const ErrorNoteHashContext = struct {
diff --git a/src/Zcu/PerThread.zig b/src/Zcu/PerThread.zig
index 5a76760540..6d2da7afa4 100644
--- a/src/Zcu/PerThread.zig
+++ b/src/Zcu/PerThread.zig
@@ -3149,18 +3149,23 @@ pub fn processExports(pt: Zcu.PerThread) !void {
         }
     }
 
+    // If there are compile errors, we won't call `updateExports`. Not only would it be redundant
+    // work, but the linker may not have seen an exported `Nav` due to a compile error, so linker
+    // implementations would have to handle that case. This early return avoids that.
+    const skip_linker_work = zcu.comp.anyErrors();
+
     // Map symbol names to `Export` for name collision detection.
     var symbol_exports: SymbolExports = .{};
     defer symbol_exports.deinit(gpa);
 
     for (nav_exports.keys(), nav_exports.values()) |exported_nav, exports_list| {
         const exported: Zcu.Exported = .{ .nav = exported_nav };
-        try pt.processExportsInner(&symbol_exports, exported, exports_list.items);
+        try pt.processExportsInner(&symbol_exports, exported, exports_list.items, skip_linker_work);
     }
 
     for (uav_exports.keys(), uav_exports.values()) |exported_uav, exports_list| {
         const exported: Zcu.Exported = .{ .uav = exported_uav };
-        try pt.processExportsInner(&symbol_exports, exported, exports_list.items);
+        try pt.processExportsInner(&symbol_exports, exported, exports_list.items, skip_linker_work);
     }
 }
 
@@ -3171,6 +3176,7 @@ fn processExportsInner(
     symbol_exports: *SymbolExports,
     exported: Zcu.Exported,
     export_indices: []const Zcu.Export.Index,
+    skip_linker_work: bool,
 ) error{OutOfMemory}!void {
     const zcu = pt.zcu;
     const gpa = zcu.gpa;
@@ -3216,13 +3222,14 @@ fn processExportsInner(
             }
             break :failed false;
         }) {
-            // This `Decl` is failed, so was never sent to codegen.
-            // TODO: we should probably tell the backend to delete any old exports of this `Decl`?
-            return;
+            // This `Nav` is failed, so was never sent to codegen. There should be a compile error.
+            assert(skip_linker_work);
         },
         .uav => {},
     }
 
+    if (skip_linker_work) return;
+
     if (zcu.llvm_object) |llvm_object| {
         try zcu.handleUpdateExports(export_indices, llvm_object.updateExports(pt, exported, export_indices));
     } else if (zcu.comp.bin_file) |lf| {
diff --git a/test/cases/compile_errors/exported_function_uses_invalid_type.zig b/test/cases/compile_errors/exported_function_uses_invalid_type.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..62274236ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cases/compile_errors/exported_function_uses_invalid_type.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+export fn foo() void {
+    const S = struct { x: u32 = "bad default" };
+    const s: S = undefined;
+    _ = s;
+}
+
+// This test case explicitly runs on the LLVM backend as well as self-hosted, as
+// the original bug leading to this test occurred only with the LLVM backend.
+
+// error
+// backend=stage2,llvm
+//
+// :2:33: error: expected type 'u32', found '*const [11:0]u8'