Foundation: patches/ are no longer the source of truth — apply-patches.sh is 7,508 lines with 85 overlay functions and 412 grep guards, 92 of 183 patches neither apply nor reverse cleanly; fork php-cfg/php-types and keep patches only for php-llvm (patches/, script/apply-patches.sh)

[PurHur]

Category

Foundation: · dependency management (the failure class behind #36209 and the August php-cfg-bare-variable-read-stmt.patch outage) · child of #36188

Problem

Measured on master 4eed6a2785:

patches	183 files, 5,495 diff lines (avg 30); 8 contain zero hunks (e.g. php-cfg-instanceof-union.patch is one comment line)
script/apply-patches.sh	7,508 lines — 37 % larger than every patch combined; 85 hand-written overlay functions (bash/sed/python) bypass patch(1) entirely (40 dispatch branches at :6680-7010); 412 grep -q idempotency guards
audit vs the current vendor tree	3 apply cleanly, 88 reverse cleanly, 92 (50 %) neither
concentration	PHPCfg/Parser.php 50, PHPTypes/InternalArgInfo.php 35, TypeReconstructor.php 22, Type.php 22 — 129 of 183 touch four files
categories	php-cfg 78 (feature backports: enums, match, readonly, hooks…), php-types 76 (mostly arginfo data + docblock parsing), php-llvm 25 (binding fixes), parser/pre 4

The per-patch grep guard means a patch can be "applied" by marker while its hunks would fail or duplicate: php-llvm-structgep-assert.patch today applies hunk 1 with fuzz 2 and fails hunk 2 while both edits are already present — a non-dry-run would have duplicated the assert. Every fresh composer install (CI, a new box, a worktree) is a roll of the dice, and the .patch files cannot be reviewed as the change they claim to be.

PHP implementation target

• Fork ircmaxell/php-cfg and ircmaxell/php-types to PurHur/php-cfg / PurHur/php-types (MIT), land every overlay and patch as reviewed commits with tests, consume via composer VCS repositories pinned to tags; the prelinked/bootstrap-vendor/sources/ copies follow the same tags. Keep patches/ for php-llvm only (25 files) with per-hunk markers and --no-fuzz.
• Interim (this week): apply-patches.sh --verify-pristine in CI (from CI: all four workflows have been red on master since 2026-09-01 07:59 because php-llvm-structgep-assert.patch has fictional context and apply-patches.sh skips instead of verifying — setup failures are swallowed locally (patches/, script/apply-patches.sh, script/ci-memory-env.sh) (re-#36143) #36209), --no-fuzz on every patch(1) call, delete the 8 empty patches, fail loudly on partial application.
• docs/vendor-patches.md generated: one row per divergence from upstream with the reason and the upstream issue/PR if any (several are candidates to upstream).

Done when

• composer install --ignore-platform-reqs && script/apply-patches.sh on a clean checkout is deterministic; apply-patches.sh < 1,500 lines; zero overlay functions for php-cfg/php-types
• git apply --check clean for every remaining patch under --verify-pristine; the compliance/differential name-sets unchanged after the switch
• Bootstrap vendor prelink (make bootstrap-vendor-objects) re-proved object_ok against the forked sources

[PurHur]

claim: implementer-worker-lane-b — starting this run (lane B: #36229 % 3 == 1; interim: empty patches + --no-fuzz + fail-loud partial apply; north-star children closed)

[PurHur]

Partial merge: #36356 (interim honesty)

• Deleted 9 stub/stale overlay .patch files; overlays still run by name
• patch(1) path is -F0 only; partial applies fail; --verify-pristine rejects hunkless stubs
• docs/vendor-patches.md inventory (175 patches)
• Verified: apply-patches.sh 0, --verify-pristine OK, ApplyPatchesTest 42/42 (1 skip), north-star5-verify-fast OK

Still open on #36229: fork php-cfg/php-types, collapse overlays, shrink apply-patches.sh to <1500 lines.

[PurHur]

claim: cursor-agent maintainer — starting this run (#36143/#36144/#36146 closed; apply-patches 0; north-star5-verify-fast OK). Next #36229 slice: --verify-pristine must cover every php-llvm patch (not only structgep/icmp) and reverse-check the live post-image so skip-guards cannot hide drift.

[PurHur]

Merged #36500 (Part of #36229, re-#36143).

--verify-pristine now applies the full php-llvm stack (27/27) in apply_patch order to patches/pristine-snapshots/ircmaxell/php-llvm/ (composer.lock fb89dc0253). Isolated structgep/icmp + skip-on-missing-snapshot is gone. Refreshed stacked llvm patches; deleted unused php-llvm-passmanagerbuilder-signature.patch.

Still open: fork php-cfg/php-types, shrink apply-patches.sh, zero overlays. Not closing.

[PurHur]

claim: runtime-migration / build-architecture — starting this run (lane overflow: #36143–#36148 closed; #36387/#36386 claimed <48h). Next #36229 slice after #36500: shrink apply-patches.php-cfg/php-types overlay surface — delete or fold overlays whose end-state is already in vendor, fail-loud on remaining stale patch(1) hunks, document divergence count toward the <1500-line / zero-overlay Done-when.

[PurHur]

Merged #36511 (Part of #36229)

This slice:

• --verify-pristine rejects orphan patches/*.patch not referenced by apply_patch / apply_patch_file_direct
• Deleted 5 overlay-owned orphans (anonymous-class-name, enum-class-const, enum-trait-use, lazy-property, resolver-worklist .patch files — overlays still run by name)
• Wired php-types-file-array-false so file(): array|false lands (php-src ext/standard/file.stub.php); synced prelinked InternalArgInfo

Verify:

• apply-patches.sh / --verify-pristine → 0
• phpunit --filter ApplyPatchesTest → 44 tests
• aot-smoke → 9/9
• north-star5-verify-fast → OK

Remaining Done-when: apply-patches.sh < 1500 lines / zero php-cfg/php-types overlays; fork php-cfg/php-types; bootstrap-vendor prelink re-prove.

[PurHur]

claim: runtime-migration / build-architecture — continuing this run after #36511. Next slice: shrink php-cfg/php-types overlay surface toward <1500-line apply-patches.sh / zero-overlay Done-when (delete overlays whose end-state is already in vendor; fail-loud on stale hunks).