D515 - A module starts when the guest starts it

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-03

A placed module's DT_INIT and DT_INIT_ARRAY run only when the guest calls sceKernelLoadStartModule for it. The loader records the initialiser array's runtime address and length at placement, and the function pointers in it are read at start time, after relocation.

Why: whether the platform runs an import-bound module's initialisers at load time is unmeasured, and starting every module to make a title progress would be inventing behaviour. Running every placed module's initialisers before entry was tried and breaks a run, because orbistoun's own libc is not usable at that point. Reading the pointers late means they are the relocated values by construction.

Amended 2026-10-10: a module the title ships that nothing imports - a plugin it loads by path, such as a Unity title's Media/Plugins/ - is placed with the others but not linked against by the title's own modules, since it is not loaded when they are linked; plugins bind to one another, as a plugin loads with what it needs. A second start of the same path answers its first handle and runs nothing. DT_INIT is handed the start's (args, argp) - guest-observed: a Unity plugin's init entry reads the block at argp first - and each init-array entry the program's argc, argv and environ, as FreeBSD's runtime linker calls one (rtld.c, call_init_pointer).

Rejected:

• Handing back a handle and running nothing: indistinguishable from a started module, and a guest reads null globals later.
• Starting every placed module before the entry point: unmeasured on hardware and destroys runs here.
• Reading the array contents at placement: records pointers before relocation has written them.