Proposal

Currently, strip and split-debuginfo behave similarly on all platforms except MSVC. The reason why the two options behave so differently on MSVC is because they were added without consideration for each other. I'm proposing here to make the setup easier to understand and simpler.

Unify strip to strip debug information from the executable only (so that MSVC ignores this option), and change split-debuginfo to determine whether MSVC creates a PDB file.

This is necessary to improve cross-platform behavior consistency: if someone wanted debug information to be contained only in separate files on all platforms, they would set strip=symbols and split-debuginfo=packed, but this would result in no PDB files on MSVC.

rust-lang/rust#114215
rust-lang/rust#115120

Mentors or Reviewers

Reviewable by any compiler team member or compiler contributor.

Process

The main points of the Major Change Process are as follows:

• File an issue describing the proposal.
• A compiler team member or contributor who is knowledgeable in the area can second by writing @rustbot second.
  • Finding a "second" suffices for internal changes. If however, you are proposing a new public-facing feature, such as a -C flag, then full team check-off is required.
  • Compiler team members can initiate a check-off via @rfcbot fcp merge on either the MCP or the PR.
• Once an MCP is seconded, the Final Comment Period begins. If no objections are raised after 10 days, the MCP is considered approved.

You can read more about Major Change Proposals on forge.

Comments

This issue is not meant to be used for technical discussion. There is a Zulip stream for that. Use this issue to leave procedural comments, such as volunteering to review, indicating that you second the proposal (or third, etc), or raising a concern that you would like to be addressed.