D024 - Linker scripts are checked against the crate

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-26

The linker scripts live in link/. selfish-elf::layout embeds them and asserts their segment types and constants match the crate's, and integration tests link a real object through them with ld.lld and read the result back. The link tests skip without clang and ld.lld; ./bin/selfish links and CI fail if they skipped.

Why: a linker script is the one artefact no compiler checks. A segment type that drifts from selfish-elf produces a module whose build succeeds and whose headers are wrong.

Rejected:

• Scripts in each consumer: the same constants in several unchecked copies.
• Failing the link tests without a toolchain: they are not build dependencies, and a test that fails on an ordinary machine teaches people to ignore failures.