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A library still requires a begin/end. main body

Measured 2026-09-05, HEAD ce19e5482, binary 9bcfd2b4da30:

library nomain;
function f(n: Integer): Integer; cdecl;
begin f := n; end;
exports f;
end.



$ ./compiler/pascal26 --shared nomain.pas nomain.so
pascal26:5: error: expected 'begin' before 'end'
  near: ; end ; exports f ; >>> end . unit

The FPC oracle takes the same source (3.2.2, fpc -Px86_64): "5 lines compiled", Linking libfpclib.so. Adding begin end. makes pxx accept it and the resulting .so exports the routine, so this is purely about what the parser will accept.

Why it is compat and prio 30 rather than a bug

Nothing computes a wrong answer and no program is silently broken — pxx refuses, loudly, at the right line. Per CLAUDE.md that is "FPC accepting what we reject is compat, ranked by how much real code uses it".

On the ranking: a library whose main body has nothing to do is the ordinary case, not an edge — a .so that only exposes a few cdecl routines has nothing to initialise, and loading it does not run the main body anyway (see docs/reference/objects.md, "No initialisation runs here either"), so an author who knows that has an active reason to omit it. Against that, the workaround is two words and mechanical, and every Delphi-generated .dpr-shaped library does write begin end.. Hence 30, not higher.

Where the fix goes

ParseProgram in compiler/pasparser_prog.inc — the same place that already knows IsLibrary, which today is read only to gate exports. Making the statement part optional when IsLibrary is the narrow form; a program must keep requiring it.

Not fixed here because I am Track D and compiler/** is not mine to edit.

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