CI: master is unbuildable both from a clean checkout and on already-patched trees — the #36250 guard demands exactly one `replaceVariablesByCfgWalk` (a correctly patched file has two) and the pass-manager patch no longer lands on old trees, so every AOT build dies in the new light-opt step (script/apply-patches.sh, patches/php-cfg-simplifier-use-chain.patch, patches/php-llvm-module-createfunctionpassmanager.patch) (re-#36250, re-#36213, re-#36229)

[PurHur]

Category

Regression: · the patch mechanism, third distinct master breakage in 36 h · child of #36188

Problem (master 1edb103c34, 2026-09-02, pinned image)

Clean checkout: rm -rf vendor && composer install --ignore-platform-reqs && script/apply-patches.sh →

php-cfg-simplifier-use-chain: expected exactly one replaceVariablesByCfgWalk
apply-patches rc=1

Pristine Simplifier.php contains 0 occurrences; git apply --check -p0 patches/php-cfg-simplifier-use-chain.patch applies cleanly and leaves 2 (the definition and its call). The guard added by the #36250 fix (6a…, "fix Simplifier use-chain guard for July-5 partial trees") encodes the July-5 partial state, not the correct end state, so every fresh tree — including every GitHub Actions run — fails in setup. Compiler gate and Bootstrap spine gate: 0 green runs on master in the last 60; the last 30 failures all die in apply-patches.sh.

Already-patched tree (the maintainer's, patched 2026-09-01): apply-patches.sh → ERROR: failed to apply php-llvm-module-createfunctionpassmanager.patch (the #36213 PR rewrote the patch to bind LLVMCreateFunctionPassManagerForModule, but the vendored Module.php:113 still calls the non-existent LLVMCreatePassManagerForModule), and because #36213 made the light pass pipeline default, every phpc build now dies:

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined method llvm\llvm::LLVMCreatePassManagerForModule() in vendor/ircmaxell/php-llvm/lib/LLVMAbstract/Module.php:113
#0 lib/JIT/Context.php(3460): Module->createFunctionPassManager()
#1 lib/JIT/Context.php(3444): Context->runLightModuleOptimizationPasses()
aot-smoke: 0 passed, 9 failed

So the two populations of trees are broken in two different ways by two different wave-1 PRs, and dev-verify-fast/aot-smoke on the authors' boxes were green only because their vendor happened to be in a third state. This is exactly the failure #36229 (open, unclaimed) describes; each per-patch fix has produced the next breakage (#36143 → #36209 → #36250 → this).

PHP implementation target

1. Immediate (S): guard = "file matches the patch's post-image" (git apply --check -R succeeds), never a marker count; verify both from pristine (patches/pristine-snapshots/) and from the current post-image. Run apply-patches.sh --verify-pristine on all patches in CI setup, not two.
2. lib/JIT/Context.php::runLightModuleOptimizationPasses must not assume the vendor binding exists: check method_exists($lib, 'LLVMCreateFunctionPassManagerForModule') and fail with a message naming the patch, or fall back to the module pass manager.
3. Then 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) #36229: fork php-cfg / php-types / php-llvm into PurHur/* and consume tags; delete the overlay machinery. Until that lands, the CONTRIBUTING rule for every PR touching patches/: prove with a fresh composer install in the pinned image, and paste the apply-patches.sh --verify-pristine output.
4. Branch protection requiring Compiler gate the moment it is green, so this class cannot merge again.

Repro

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/compiler" -w /compiler php-compiler:22.04-dev bash -lc 'rm -rf vendor && composer install -q --ignore-platform-reqs && script/apply-patches.sh; echo rc=$?'

Done when

• The command above exits 0 and script/aot-smoke.sh is 9/9 on the resulting tree and on a tree patched before 2026-09-01
• Compiler gate green on master (link the run); branch protection enabled
• apply-patches.sh --verify-pristine covers every patch; the guard-by-count is gone

[PurHur]

claim: implementer-worker-lane-b — starting this run (lane overflow: #36143–#36146 closed; clean checkout apply-patches fails on simplifier-use-chain overlay)