bAutoSaveLoadSymbols is about writing .ppsym files back out and reading them in
again. It had also come to gate reading debug info that's simply sitting next to
the game, which is a different thing and shouldn't need asking for: the main
ELF's own symbols were already loaded unconditionally, but the companion ELF's
symbols and all line info were not.
Now the ELF is always the baseline - main or companion, symbols and line info -
and the setting only adds the .ppsym half on top of it.
Line info also loads from the module being loaded, not just from a companion,
so an ELF launched directly brings its own. A PRX has no .debug section for it
to find (prxgen strips them), so that's a cheap no-op for the usual EBOOT case,
which the companion path still covers.
That second source needs the two shapes distinguished, so AddModule takes an
explicit address delta rather than assuming a base: a companion links at zero
and wants the module's base added, while an ELF loaded at the addresses it asked
for already has final ones (bRelocate is just e_type != ET_EXEC). Rows that
don't land inside the module after that are dropped either way, which is a
better check than the old "offset smaller than the module" one.
Splitting the companion's identity check out of the symbol loader lets line info
reuse it, and drops an accidental requirement along the way: it used to reject
any companion without a symbol table, so an ELF built with -g but stripped of
its symbols would have contributed no line numbers either.
Verified with --auto-save-load-symbols off: CrossCraft's companion app.elf loads
3734 symbols and 98383 line rows where it previously loaded neither.
The direct-ELF path is not verified at runtime - it needs a bootable ELF that
carries DWARF, and there isn't one to hand. Both candidates here (pspautotests'
.elf builds and CrossCraft's own app.elf) are linked at address 0 and fail to
boot on that alone, which is pre-existing loader behaviour and nothing to do
with this.
pspautotests 314/314, UnitTest 55/55.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GZq8ZtJmFY7bkX5FVkr3P9
Homebrew commonly ships its unstripped ELF next to the EBOOT, which is already
how the symbol loader turns z_un_08841f98 into a function name. That same ELF
carries a DWARF .debug_line section, so the addresses can be mapped to source
files and lines too - and a backtrace stops being four hex numbers:
08841f98 move sp,fp mesh.zig:163
0883afa4 li v0,0x0 MenuState.zig:821
088260d8 andi at,v0,0xFFFF State.zig:40
0882a27c andi at,v0,0xFFFF engine.zig:468
Surfaced in three places: per frame in hle.backtrace, in the "hit" object that
cpu.breakpoint.hit and cpu.stepping share, and appended to the disassembly
window's status bar. The breakpoint case keys on the pc rather than the address,
since for a memory breakpoint the useful source location is the instruction that
did the access, not the data it touched.
Storage is a plain sorted table of absolute addresses per module. SymbolMap
keeps module-relative addresses because its .ppsym files are meant to be
reloaded by a different game that pulls in the same module; none of this is ever
written anywhere - it's regenerated from the ELF each boot - so there'd be
nothing for relative addresses to buy. Each module owns its own rows and file
names outright and is keyed the way SymbolMap::UnloadModule is, so unloading one
module drops its lines and nobody else's.
The subtle part is end-of-sequence markers. Without them a lookup for an address
in a gap - a compilation unit built without debug info - confidently reports the
last line of an unrelated file. A prototype run over one test binary
mis-attributed 70 of its 349 functions that way, so sequence ends are recorded
as rows with line 0 and a lookup landing on one reports nothing instead.
DWARF 2 through 4 are decoded (psp-gcc emits 2, Zig 4). Version 5 re-encoded the
file table, so those units are skipped with a warning rather than mis-parsed -
nothing targeting the PSP produces it today.
Scope, since it's narrower than it sounds: PRX conversion strips every .debug
section. I checked all 437 pspautotests .prx and CrossCraft's own app.prx -
none have any. Of 24 installed homebrew EBOOTs, zero carry debug info; CrossCraft
only does because it ships app.elf separately. So this helps someone developing
homebrew, and does nothing at all for a commercial game.
Costs about 1.2 MB for a large Zig binary (98383 rows, 438 files) and nothing
for anything without debug info. Follows bAutoSaveLoadSymbols like the symbols
do.
pspautotests 314/314, UnitTest 55/55, CoreUWP builds.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GZq8ZtJmFY7bkX5FVkr3P9
