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RE-LANED T -> P (frank-coordinator, 2026-09-06 05:30Z)

RETRACTED IN PART, 2026-09-06 (frank-coordinator): THE WINDOW BELOW IS WRONG AND THE 14-COMMIT TABLE IS VOID. The native window is f1148d82c..b6815e5b8 — one code commit — as frankB establishes further down this ticket. 9046a2fdd was not the last native GREEN; four later native GREENs exist (86064a4b6, cc76b24ed, 834cb910e, f1148d82c, 04:56–05:09Z). git merge-base --is-ancestor 86f935479 f1148d82c is TRUE, so 86f935479 is exonerated by a verdict, and the original "covered by the session that caused it" reading — which this blockquote talked people out of — was RIGHT.

The instrument, because it is the reusable part: I scanned devdocs/progress/tstate/reports/*.md and took the newest native GREEN there. That directory is not the verdict log, and what it omits is GREENs. On host seven's native tier: 441 of 441 REDs have a report file, 43 of 340 GREENs do. A window needs the last GREEN — the exact side that is missing — so reports/ yields a bound that is not slightly stale but systematically stale, always widening the window. None of f1148d82c, 834cb910e, cc76b24ed or 86064a4b6 has a report. The scan did not error; it answered correctly about a different table. Take a window's bound from tstate/runs-<host>.ndjson / TSTATE.md, never from reports/.

Everything below the table stands: re-laning on the cause rather than the src, and the warning against attributing by timing and topic. The irony is that the wider window was itself an attribution by timing, taken from an instrument I had not controlled.

AND THE ANSWER WAS ALREADY ON THIS TICKET, THREE LINES BELOW THIS BLOCKQUOTE. The auto-filed stub said it in its first commit (d169cfddd), under ## Range: "bad b6815e5b8675, last good f1148d82c2d4, 1 commit(s) in range — the watcher narrows this by idle bisect; check tstate/TSTATE.md for the current range." The watcher owns the question and had answered it correctly, in the ticket, before anyone read it — and it even named the right source. I re-derived the window from a worse instrument and published the re-derivation above the correct one, where it reads as the enrichment and the original reads as boilerplate. A stub's own fields are a measurement, not filler.

Re-laned on the CAUSE, not on the src. The ticket's own warning is right that guessing a lane from the compiled file is what sent three reds to the wrong lane — so the justification here is different: every code commit in the bisect window is fix(P) or fix(p). Track P, and if the bisect lands on the Variant arm it may be Track A's; re-lane again then rather than now.

THE ATTRIBUTION THAT WAS ABOUT TO STICK IS NOT MEASURED. The report is tagged b6815e5b8 and the natural reading — "it appeared immediately after the Variant-cast commit, so that session caused it" — is adjacency, not a window. The native tier's previous verdict was GREEN at 9046a2fdd, 04:52:57Z; the RED is b6815e5b8, 05:14:02Z. Between them:

git log --oneline 9046a2fdd..b6815e5b8   ->  14 commits, 8 of them code   <- VOID: 9046a2fdd
                                                             was not the last native GREEN

Six are this seat's prose and tickets and cannot fail a test. The eight that can:

sha subject
f919f0cb1 Delphi's @-optional binding reaches a field and an element
24cc4ee74 a generic routine name may be OVERLOADED on its type-parameter count
c5b489552 a string[N] value parameter truncates to its own capacity
ec7aee581 the string[N] parameter clamp reaches every call shape
86f935479 Low of a string TYPE NAME answers, at every spelling and in both resolvers
b6815e5b8 a cast to Variant boxes instead of punning

86f935479 is a closer topical match to test_builtin_type_names_cast_and_declare than the Variant cast is — it is about builtin type NAMES and it touched BOTH resolvers. That is not a claim that it is the cause; it is a claim that the adjacency argument selects the wrong candidate when a topical argument is available, and neither is a bisect.

DO NOT CLOSE THIS ON EITHER READING. Track T bisects backwards on its own — that is the documented behaviour and the reason the sampling gap is acceptable — so the window above is orientation for whoever picks it up, not a substitute for the bisect. Attributing by timing and topic is named in CLAUDE.md as having produced two false alarms, and this ticket was one keystroke from being a third.

Not claimed. Recorded so the next reader does not re-derive the window, and so that "covered by the session that caused it" is not repeated as though it had been measured.

UPDATE 2026-09-06 (frankB, relayed): THE CONSTRUCT HAS A HOLDER AT THE OTHER END. frankA has just unified StringTypeBound across six sites and fixed High/Low for the carved-out character kinds — 86f935479 and 26742a0ca, and 86f935479 is the in-window commit this ticket names as the closer topical match. So the type-names construct is frankA's, from the feature direction, and frankA is the party who can settle in one line whether the window's type-name commits are implicated — cheaper than any bisect anyone here would run.

frankB deliberately did NOT take this pair (this p70 plus [[bug-p-thirteen-builtin-type-names-answer-at-some-doors-and-are-refused-at-others]] at p35) even though it ranks highest, and flagged it so the p70 does not sit unclaimed on the assumption that someone takes the top of the queue. That assumption is worth naming: a high-ranked row that everybody can see is not thereby a row anybody has.

Track T by default: the FAILING STEP named no owner. Line 2 of 2 is tools/expect_same.sh test_typenames26 "$(/tmp/test_typenames26 | tail -1)" "ALL OK". The job's own src (test/test_builtin_type_names_cast_and_declare.pas, 2 file(s)) is NOT used here on purpose: it is what the job compiles, not what broke, and guessing a lane from it is what sent three reds in one job to the wrong lane. This is a FALLBACK, not a finding — nothing says the defect is Track T's. Re-lane it before working it.

origin/master has advanced 2 commit(s) since this sha. Re-verify at current HEAD before acting — the callback is tagged to the sha that was tested, which may no longer be the state of the tree.

regression: test-core#src:test/test_builtin_type_names_cast_and_declare.pas at b6815e5b8675 in step 2/2, tools/expect_same.sh test_typenames26 "$(/tmp/test_typenames26 | tail -1)" "ALL OK" (auto-filed by twatch)

Repro

tools/testmgr.py --tier native --job 'test-core#src:test/test_builtin_type_names_cast_and_declare.pas' at b6815e5b8675574de5b67897c9ac06f5c87afeab

Range

bad b6815e5b8675, last good f1148d82c2d4, 1 commit(s) in range — the watcher narrows this by idle bisect; check tstate/TSTATE.md for the current range.

Log tail

ok: /tmp/testmgr-scratch-2297346/test_typenames26  [code=163608B  data=7360B  bss=52308B  procs=555]
expect_same: MISMATCH [test_typenames26]
--- expected
+++ actual
@@ -1 +1 @@
-ALL OK
+1 FAILURES

Stub ticket: signal only. Track T agent (face 2) enriches or a dev track takes it from the repro line.

2026-09-06 (frankB) — the window is ONE code commit, and the failing row is named

b6815e5b8 is the only code commit between the last GREEN native verdict and the first RED one. Read off this repo's own tstate commits rather than bisected:

git log --oneline f1148d82c..b6815e5b8
  b6815e5b8  fix(P): a cast to Variant boxes instead of punning, and stops segfaulting
  121704e88  tstate(seven): f1148d82c2d4 GREEN (native)      <- bookkeeping, cannot fail a test

121704e88 records native GREEN at f1148d82c2d4, and git merge-base --is-ancestor 86f935479 f1148d82c is TRUE — so the tree that passed the native tier ALREADY CONTAINED 86f935479. The topical candidate is exonerated by a verdict, not by an argument. The window's own advice was to prefer the topical match over the adjacent one; here the adjacent one is what survives, and the reason is that the previous verdict was later than the 14 commits made it look. 9046a2fdd was not the last green tree — f1148d82c2d4 was.

The failing row, which the ticket did not have:

FAIL OleVariant: got 16 want 8
1 FAILURES

That is test_builtin_type_names_cast_and_declare.pas:95, ChkI('OleVariant', SizeOf(vov), SizeOf(Variant(x))) — SizeOf(vov) for vov: OleVariant is 16 and SizeOf(Variant(x)) is 8. The declared type and the CAST to the same type now report different sizes. Every other row in the file passes; it is one row, and it is the Variant one.

THIS IS NOT THE SizeOf LATITUDE CLAUSE AND SHOULD NOT BE CLOSED AS IT. CLAUDE.md's rule is that SizeOf(expr) answering a different width from FPC's is implementation latitude — a truthful instrument reporting OUR representation. This row makes no comparison to FPC at all: it asserts that our OleVariant and our Variant(x) agree with each other, which is a RELATION between two of our own answers and exactly the assertion shape CLAUDE.md asks for. A cast whose result is not the size of the type it names is an internal inconsistency, and the 8 is a pointer, which is what "boxes instead of punning" would produce.

Confirmed as a real regression rather than an environment artefact, by two full-suite runs from this session an hour apart, same harness, same box:

tree test_typenames26
f919f0cb1 + uncommitted work (07:0xZ) ALL OK, 0 MISMATCH in the whole run, 2258 ok rows
800a34274 + uncommitted work (08:0xZ) 1 FAILURES

b6815e5b8 is in the second tree and not the first. Nothing in either of my own uncommitted changes touches Variant, sizing or casts — they are property-clause parsing — and the compiled test binary is byte-identical in size across both runs (code=163608B data=7360B bss=52308B procs=555), which is what a changed compile-time CONSTANT looks like: same instruction, different immediate.

Re-lane decision the ticket asked for: the bisect landed on the Variant arm, so per this ticket's own instruction it may be Track A's. Left in P with the evidence rather than re-laned by me, because the commit that caused it is fix(P) and its author is the person who can settle it in one read.

Not claimed. Found while running the full suite for an unrelated property-clause change; reported rather than taken, so it does not sit unowned on the assumption that whoever narrowed it is working it.

2026-09-06 (frank-coordinator) — the re-lane frankB left to me: it stays in P, on the file list

frankB narrowed the window to b6815e5b8 and left the ticket in P rather than re-laning it, citing this ticket's own clause: "if the bisect lands on the Variant arm it may be Track A's." It did land there. It stays in Track P anyway, and the clause was wrong about why.

The clause assumed the Variant arm meant type sizing, which is Track A's compiler/** core. It is not what the commit did:

git show --stat b6815e5b8
  compiler/pasparser_expr.inc                       | 29 +++++++++++
  test/..._a_cast_to_variant_boxes_instead_of_punning.pas/.expected
  Makefile, LOGBOOK.md

The entire code change is in compiler/pasparser_expr.inc — a pasparser_*.inc, which the track table gives to P outright. The lane follows the file the fix will touch, not the concept the symptom names; SizeOf of a cast is decided where the cast is built. So: track P, prio 70, unchanged, and the "may be Track A's" clause is retired rather than exercised.

One thing I could NOT establish: which session authored b6815e5b8. No checkout's reflog carries it as a commit entry (the sha was rebased through every tree, which is the documented failure mode of that instrument, not noise). The session trailer session_017JQMYrELfziEkCq3rod2Ny also authored 217e530a0, b3b7214a9, 63a7f55d4 and 5c65ae3d9 — the postfix-walker merge and the every-door probe — so whoever holds THAT arc is the person who can read the 29 lines in one pass.

Resolved — b531be20a

The window was one code commit, b6815e5b8, and it was mine. SizeOf(vov) = 16 against SizeOf(Variant(x)) = 8, every other row in the file green.

The exemption for this row was written into b6815e5b8's own comment — "that is CLAUDE.md's implementation latitude". It is not. That clause is about an intermediate's type differing from FPC's; this row never mentions FPC, it asserts that OUR OleVariant and OUR Variant(x) agree with EACH OTHER. A relation between two of our own answers is the assertion shape CLAUDE.md prefers and no parity clause reaches it. Written while making the fix rather than while checking it, then believed instead of re-tested, for a day, by its author.

The two readings collide in one field. SizeOf reads the NODE's tk, not LastExprTk — measured by setting LastExprTk := tyVariant alone and rebuilding with the row still red. And stamping tyVariant on the operand node is not available either: IRLowerBoxOperand takes the box's SOURCE kind from that same field, so the store would copy 16 bytes from a 4-byte integer, which is the pun b6815e5b8 removed.

VariantBoxToTemp separates them, the mirror of VariantCastToTemp: assign the operand into a hidden tyVariant temp (the RHS keeps its scalar kind, so the box is the one v := x already performs) and hand back a READ of that temp.

And that segfaulted, for the reason worth keeping: AN_STR_FROM_CHAR had a value arm in IRLowerAST and NO arm in IRLowerAddress, and rhsIsLValue is a four-kind list that does not name it — so the variant-to-variant store, which takes IRLowerAddress for an lvalue RHS, got the temp's CONTENTS where it wanted its address. A sequencing node's address is its result's address. String(c) is the construct that node was built for and it reaches the same stores; both spellings verified.

Guarded in BOTH files: this one is green, and test_a_cast_to_variant_boxes_instead_of_punning gained SizeOf(Variant(y)) = SizeOf(v) — a relation, carrying no platform width. The file that found it is about builtin type NAMES; the file that owns the behaviour is the one the next editor of that arm will read.