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Add an experimental flag-gated in-process compile path for hot reload sessions#20031

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NatElkins:hotreload-inprocess-compile
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Add an experimental flag-gated in-process compile path for hot reload sessions#20031
NatElkins wants to merge 22 commits into
dotnet:mainfrom
NatElkins:hotreload-inprocess-compile

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@NatElkins NatElkins commented Jul 3, 2026

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Adds the flag-gated in-process compile performance path for hot reload sessions. This is the last slice of the train and it is explicitly experimental: everything here is behind the FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_INPROCESS_COMPILE environment flag (plus the nested FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_INCREMENTAL_EMIT), and with the flags unset the session behaves exactly as in #20030 (one env read, otherwise zero cost).

What the flag does: instead of waiting for an external dotnet build per edit, the session compiles the edited project in process from the already-checked FCS project (CompileFromCheckedProject), serializes the assembly once in memory, parses the emitted bytes back, and feeds the delta emitter from those in-memory artifacts. The nested incremental flag additionally caches per-file optimized trees (keyed by CheckedImplFile reference identity) so only the edited file re-optimizes. Reference-equality gates scope the per-edit diff and request-side walks to changed files, failing open to the full walk whenever anything looks unusual (duplicate keys, added/removed/renamed files, missing baseline). Trace plumbing (FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_TRACE_TIMING, FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_DUMP_DELTAS, FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_TRACE_CLOSURENAMES) is included for diagnosing this path and is zero cost when off.

Why it exists: with the external build flow a hot reload edit can never be faster than the build it waits on. With this path, measured on the integration branch with a Release FCS and real dotnet watch: a 72-file app went from ~1.9-2.6s per plain build to ~1.6-2.1s per applied edit at 1s polling granularity (median ~0.5s once the polling tick was tightened to 200ms), and on Giraffe's EndpointRouting sample (real multi-project code) body edits applied in ~0.2s and a line-adding edit above the endpoints list in ~0.8s, all in place, no restarts. Caveats: small sample sizes, a light benchmark app, and the Release-synced fsc plain build measuring slower than the Debug one for reasons not yet pinned down (likely missing crossgen). The numbers support "faster than the build it replaces", not more than that.

Fail-closed framing is unchanged: this path only produces deltas the same emitter would produce; anything it cannot prove safe still surfaces as a rude edit and falls back to the external flow. A writer-side module is never handed to the symbol matcher; the emitted bytes are always parsed back first (a writer-side ILModuleDef is not matcher-equivalent to a read one).

Per earlier maintainer guidance (T-Gro), building from compiler caches cannot be a general productized feature; this slice keeps it hot-reload-scoped, internal, and flag-gated, and this PR is where the productization conversation (determinism scrutiny: flags, invocation order, state flow parity) should happen.

Tests: 428 passed, 0 failed service HotReload (includes the flag ON/OFF contract test), 236 passed, 0 failed component HotReload (2 expected skips), incremental-emit equivalence pinned as a regression test plus a cross-generation splice test, determinism guards 22 passed (this slice touches naming state install), SurfaceAreaTest green with no baseline change (everything new is internal).

Stacked PR: based on #20030 (which stacks on #20027, #20026, #20025, #20024, #20019, #20018, #20017). The only commit that belongs to this PR, viewable as a single diff:

Everything else in the commit list arrives from the dependency PRs via merges. The same slice rendered against its base branch: compare hotreload-session...hotreload-inprocess-compile.

Sequencing

This PR is part of splitting the F# hot reload work (#19941) into small, independently reviewable PRs. The planned order:

  1. Wave 1 (independent): Add ResetCompilerGeneratedNameState to compiler-generated name generators #20017, Add Roslyn-format EnC CustomDebugInformation codec and portable PDB method CDI emission #20018, Add ECMA-335 EnC metadata delta writer #20019, Add stable synthesized-name replay infrastructure for hot reload #20024, Add typed-tree differ and edit classification for hot reload #20025.
  2. Wave 2: Add hot reload baseline reading and recorded EnC state #20026 (baseline reading and recorded EnC state).
  3. Wave 3: Add the hot reload delta emitter and symbol matcher #20027 (the delta emitter and symbol matcher).
  4. Wave 4: Add the F# hot reload session and FCS service surface #20030 (the hot reload session, FCS surface, and the --test:HotReloadDeltas capture hook).
  5. Wave 5 (this PR, last, explicitly experimental): the flag-gated in-process compile perf path.

The dotnet-watch integration consuming this API is dotnet/sdk#55128.

NatElkins added 22 commits July 2, 2026 17:51
…ethod CDI emission

Adds an internal AbstractIL module implementing, byte for byte, the three Portable PDB
CustomDebugInformation blob formats Roslyn persists per method for Edit and Continue
(EnC Local Slot Map, EnC Lambda and Closure Map, EnC State Machine State Map), with
serializers, deserializers, a portable PDB read-back helper, and an occurrence-key
packing helper for deterministic syntax-offset slots.

Plumbs an optional methodCustomDebugInfoRows side channel through the IL binary writer
options into the portable PDB generator so a compilation can attach CDI rows to named
methods. Names that do not identify exactly one method row are dropped. All existing
writer call sites pass an empty map, so emitted PDBs are byte-identical to before.

No in-tree caller populates the map yet; the consumer is the F# hot reload work in
dotnet#19941, following the same pattern as dotnet#20017 (land isolated, test-covered
infrastructure first, wire the feature later).

Tests: blob round-trips, Roslyn golden-byte encodings, cross-validation against
CDI blobs emitted by a real Roslyn compilation, fail-closed occurrence-key packing
(including an int32-overflow regression where a wrapped negative key previously
escaped the bound check), and end-to-end synthetic PDB emission proving correct
MethodDef parenting, zero rows for an empty map, and no rows for absent or
ambiguous names.
…tors

Compiler-generated occurrence names (name@line-N) are allocated from process-wide
counters on CompilerGlobalState that accumulate across compilations. When a warm
checker re-emits the same project in-process, an unchanged closure therefore gets a
different occurrence suffix than the previous emit, so consumers that align generated
names across compilations (Edit-and-Continue delta emission, dotnet#19941)
cannot match them.

Add an internal ResetCompilerGeneratedNameState to NiceNameGenerator (clears the
per-(name, file) occurrence counters), StableNiceNameGenerator (clears the cached
stable names and the inner counters), and an aggregate on CompilerGlobalState that
resets all three generators, restoring the fresh-process name layout. Callers must
ensure no compilation is concurrently generating names.

No in-tree caller yet; the consumer is the hot reload emit path in dotnet#19941.
Covered by unit tests proving drift without reset, exact replay after reset, and that
the stable-name cache itself is cleared.
ProcessStartInfo.ArgumentList does not exist on net472, which the component tests
also target on Windows CI. Build the quoted argument string by hand instead.
Adds an internal, standalone ECMA-335 Edit-and-Continue metadata delta writer to
AbstractIL: delta #- table stream and heap construction (DeltaMetadataTables,
DeltaMetadataSerializer, DeltaTableLayout, DeltaIndexSizing), ECMA-335 II.24.2.6
coded-index encoding (DeltaMetadataEncoding), EncLog/EncMap emission, generation GUID
chaining, user-string and standalone-signature token calculators (IlxDeltaStreams),
and the coordinating writer (FSharpDeltaMetadataWriter) over a plain row-description
input model (DeltaMetadataTypes, ILDeltaHandles, ILMetadataHeaps).

The writer's inputs are row records (names, tokens, signatures, RVAs) plus heap
offsets; it has no dependency on any semantic diffing or session machinery. It
compiles with no in-tree consumer by design: the consumer is the F# hot reload work
in dotnet#19941, following the same upstreaming pattern as dotnet#20017 and dotnet#20018
(land isolated, test-covered infrastructure first, wire the feature in a later PR).

One line of ilwrite.fsi is touched to expose the pre-existing markerForUnicodeBytes
so the delta writer reuses the exact string-marker logic of the full writer. No
behavior change for any existing code path.

Tests (130): coded-index encodings asserted against the production definitions and
ECMA-335 II.24.2.6 order, System.Reflection.Metadata reader parity over emitted
deltas, EncLog/EncMap correctness, stream layout, heap and index sizing,
multi-generation heap-offset chaining asserted against computed expected values,
standalone-signature rows asserted at baseline+1 from a real seeded baseline, and
serializer failure paths.
xunit 3.2.2 no longer discovers internal test classes, so the module was
silently skipped after rebasing onto current main (pre-existing internal test
modules like CompilerService.Caches are likewise undiscovered there). Public
visibility restores discovery; 17 tests run and pass.
Add internal generated-name normalization and synthesized-name map replay support as a standalone slice. The new map state is side-channel based, all new compiler modules remain internal, and CompilerGlobalState preserves the existing no-map counter path while checking an accessor captured once per compiler state.

Route existing IlxGen generated-name allocations through inert helper wrappers, add pure name-map and normalizer tests, add a normal compilation determinism guard over emitted generated names, and document the extracted seams in P5_REPORT.md.

Verification: built FSharp.Compiler.Service, FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests, FSharp.Compiler.ComponentTests, and FSharpSuite.Tests in Release; ran the migrated service test classes, the component determinism class, FSharpSuite DeterministicTests, and the FCS SurfaceArea class successfully.
Add an internal TypedTreeDiff module that snapshots CheckedImplFile bindings and entities, then classifies body, signature, inline, declaration add/remove, and type layout changes without depending on hot reload sessions, runtime capability negotiation, EnC capability names, baseline state, or delta emission.

Add focused FCS tests for unchanged/reference-equal files, body edits, signature edits, additions, deletions, layout changes, and logical-name arity handling. Wire the module and tests into compile order, add a release note, and include P6_REPORT.md.

Verification:

- ./.dotnet/dotnet build src/Compiler/FSharp.Compiler.Service.fsproj -c Debug /p:BUILDING_USING_DOTNET=true

- ./.dotnet/dotnet test tests/FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests/FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests.fsproj -c Debug /p:BUILDING_USING_DOTNET=true -- --filter-class "*TypedTreeDiffTests*"

- ./.dotnet/dotnet test tests/FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests/FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests.fsproj -c Debug /p:BUILDING_USING_DOTNET=true -- --filter-class "*SurfaceAreaTest*"
Add standalone baseline PE and portable PDB readers for hot reload, including token maps and MVID/PDB table snapshots.

Carry the F# synthesized-name snapshot module CDI codec and portable PDB read path, with recorded snapshots taking precedence over IL reconstruction.

Add focused component tests for snapshot round-trip, direct module CDI reading, baseline token maps, recorded fallback behavior, and EnC closure-name reconstruction.
Add the internal hot reload delta emitter, symbol matcher, and direct emitter tests.

Keep session and service integration deferred.
…CI images

The Roslyn cross-validation test shells out to dotnet build to produce a
real Roslyn PDB. The process launch had two problems. It computed the
host path by hand from __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__, which misses on CI images
that carry no repo-local .dotnet at that depth, failing with
Win32Exception before the build starts. It also left UseShellExecute at
its default, which is true on net472 and rejects redirected streams, so
every Desktop test leg failed deterministically with
InvalidOperationException.

Resolve the host like the rest of the test framework via
TestFramework.initialConfig.DotNetExe, which prefers the repo-local
.dotnet and falls back to PATH, and set UseShellExecute to false
explicitly.

Verified: FSharp.Compiler.ComponentTests builds clean;
EncMethodDebugInformationTests 17 passed, 0 failed (net10.0); fantomas
clean on the touched file.
…erload

CI compiles the snapshot round-trip and baseline reader tests with
FS0193: the explicit Assert.Equal<string> type application commits
overload resolution to the scalar Equal(T, T) shape while both
arguments are string arrays. Use Assert.Equal<string[]>, the form the
neighboring name-map tests already use, so resolution lands on the
structural array comparison everywhere.

Verified: FSharp.Compiler.ComponentTests builds clean;
EncMethodDebugInformationTests 22 passed, 0 failed (net10.0); fantomas
clean on the touched file.
Problem: hot reload sessions still depended on an external rebuild to refresh the output assembly and PDB before delta emission, which left the perf path slower than a plain build and kept line-shift analysis tied to stale sibling PDB reads.

Mechanism: add an internal CompileFromCheckedProject path that reuses checked project data, normalizes assembly references through TcImports, runs the TAST-to-IL and binary write in process, parses the emitted bytes back into the read-module representation, and carries the emitted module, DLL bytes, PDB bytes, and token mappings into delta emission.

Gating: FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_INPROCESS_COMPILE enables the in-process compile. FSHARP_HOTRELOAD_INCREMENTAL_EMIT stays nested under that path and caches per-file optimized trees by CheckedImplFile identity. Timing, delta dump, and closure-name trace flags remain zero cost when disabled.

Semantics: the session fails open to the external path when the flag is off or the in-process compile cannot produce artifacts. Existing fail-closed edit validation is left intact. Emitted artifacts are optional on DeltaEmissionRequest, so external callers keep the old reserialization path.

Tests: FCS build, service test build, and component test build passed with 0 warnings and 0 errors. Service HotReload passed 428 of 428. Component HotReload passed 236 with 2 skipped. SurfaceArea passed 1 of 1 with no baseline change. Determinism guard passed 21 of 21 using the live determinism method filter because the requested DeterministicTests class filter matches zero tests in this checkout. Fantomas check passed over all touched source and test directories.
On CI the test projects fail to compile in shapes the local bootstrap
accepts: Assert.Equal<string> over string arrays commits overload
resolution to the scalar Equal shape (FS0193), and Assert.Equal<int[]>
over int arrays commits to a Span overload carrying an unmanaged
constraint (FS0001). Switch to the instantiations the rest of the suite
already uses, Assert.Equal<string[]> and Assert.Equal<int list>, which
resolve the same way under both compilers.

HotReloadCheckerTests loads baseline assemblies through
AssemblyLoadContext, which .NET Framework does not have, and
FSharp.Compiler.Service.Tests also compiles for net472 on the Windows
Desktop CI legs. Gate the file to .NET Core in the project file, the
same way the SurfaceArea test is gated.

The EnC CDI cross-validation test resolved the dotnet host by hand from
__SOURCE_DIRECTORY__, which misses on CI images that carry no
repo-local .dotnet at that depth. Resolve it through
TestFramework.initialConfig.DotNetExe like the rest of the framework.

Also repair two extraction oversights: the move of the EnC method debug
information tests to the HotReload namespace left the old
CompilerService copy in the tree uncompiled, so delete it, and the
ComponentTests project lost the EmittedIL CompilerGeneratedNameDeterminism
include during the hot reload test group reorganization, so restore it.

Verified: service HotReload 413 passed 0 failed, component HotReload
236 passed 0 failed 2 skipped, EncMethodDebugInformationTests 14
passed, CompilerGeneratedNameDeterminism 1 passed, SurfaceAreaTest
green with no baseline change, fantomas clean on touched files.
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github-actions Bot commented Jul 3, 2026

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❗ Release notes required

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✅ Found changes and release notes in following paths:

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No PR link found in some release notes, please consider adding it.

Change path Release notes path Description
src/Compiler docs/release-notes/.FSharp.Compiler.Service/11.0.100.md No current pull request URL (#20031) found, please consider adding it

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