Realsig Codegen

--realsig+ Codegen (IlxGen)

Mental model

• --realsig- (legacy default): source private → IL assembly; internal → IL assembly. Visibility intent is hidden; almost everything intra-assembly is reachable.
• --realsig+: source private → IL private (type-scoped); internal → IL assembly. Matches C# expectations. Flag exists since F# 8 GA; documented in fsc --help.
• A compiler-synthesized helper (closure for an inner let rec, a task/async/seq state machine, a quotation-splice helper, or a TLR-lifted static) is emitted as its own IL type, nested under the type identified by eenv.cloc.
• ECMA-335: a nested type may access its enclosing type's private members; a sibling nested type may NOT. So under --realsig+, a synthesized helper that calls a private member must nest inside the declaring type, or the CLR throws MethodAccessException/FieldAccessException/TypeAccessException at first invocation.
• This is the usual root cause of "compiles clean, crashes only under --realsig+": the source is legal (the type checker allows private access from any lexical position within the type, including inner lambdas), but the helper landed beside the type instead of inside it.

Key code locations (src/Compiler/CodeGen/IlxGen.fs)

• GetIlxClosureFreeVars builds the closure type-ref: let ilCloTypeRef = NestedTypeRefForCompLoc eenv.cloc cloName. Whatever eenv.cloc is here decides nesting.
• GenMethodForBinding generates a member body; eenvForMeth is built from the incoming eenv. The body (and its closures) run lazily via DelayCodeGenMethodForExpr, capturing that env.
• AddEnclosingToEnv eenv enclosing name ns sets cloc.Enclosing = enclosing @ [name] (the canonical way to push a type onto cloc). mspec.MethodRef.DeclaringTypeRef gives a member's exact IL declaring-type path (Enclosing + Name).
• effectiveCloc / moduleCloc (PR #19882): TLR-lifted vals route to a stable module/init-class location; the TLR private-ref guard in InnerLambdasToTopLevelFuncs.SelectTLRVals refuses lifting an inner-rec that references a type-scoped private val under realsig+ (otherwise it would lose access when lifted to the module).
• ComputeMemberAccess hidden accessibility realsig (≈line 485): the single point that maps source accessibility → IL access under realsig.

Gotcha: the optimizer hides the bug in minimal repros

A trivial private member (e.g. = 1) is inlined away by the F# optimizer before codegen, so the call site disappears and the crash vanishes under --optimize+. To force a faithful repro, make the member non-inlinable: read mutable state (backing + 1) or mark it [<NoCompilerInlining>]. NOTE: [<NoCompilerInlining>] is the F# optimizer attribute; [<MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.NoInlining)>] is the JIT attribute — for compiler-inlining experiments use NoCompilerInlining.

Repro methodology

1. Use a shipped SDK fsc as a still-broken control: & "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\<ver>\FSharp\fsc.dll" (or dotnet <fsc.dll>). Compile the same source with --realsig+ and --realsig-; the bug is the delta.
2. Always pass --optimize+ (and a non-inlinable private) so the call survives to runtime.
3. Inspect IL with ildasm and read nesting by indentation: a .class … C at 2-space indent with a child .class … h@N at 4-space indent = nested (good). Same indent = sibling (the bug). Confirm with the full type name in field refs, e.g. M/C/h@8 (nested) vs M/h@8 (sibling).
4. Minimal repro shape (crashes only under --realsig+):

type C() =
    static let mutable backing = 0
    static member Set v = backing <- v
    static member private Secret() = backing + 1   // non-inlinable -> survives to runtime
type C with                                          // intrinsic augmentation
    member _.Run() =
        let rec h n = if n = 0 then C.Secret() else h (n - 1)
        h 5

5. Compile and run (runtimeconfig pins the shared runtime):

dotnet <fsc.dll> --target:exe --out:X.dll --realsig+ --optimize+ -r:FSharp.Core.dll X.fs
# X.runtimeconfig.json:
# {"runtimeOptions":{"tfm":"net10.0","framework":{"name":"Microsoft.NETCore.App","version":"10.0.9"}}}
dotnet X.dll

Instrumentation pattern

dprintf is not in scope in GetIlxClosureFreeVars; use eprintfn to stderr. To pin where two cases diverge, log the closure's enclosing cloc and the member identity, and capture a stack trace guarded by a predicate:

// in GenMethodForBinding, after `let m = v.Range`
eprintfn "MFBDBG v=%s ext=%b cloc=[%s] apparent=%s"
    v.LogicalName v.IsExtensionMember
    (String.concat "/" eenv.cloc.Enclosing)
    (match v.ApparentEnclosingEntity with Parent e -> e.LogicalName | ParentNone -> "<none>")
if v.LogicalName = "Run" then eprintfn "STACK:\n%s" System.Environment.StackTrace

Rebuild FCS + fsc Release, compile a minimal intrinsic-vs-augmentation pair, diff the logs. Remove all instrumentation before committing.

Worked example: #19933 (PR #19955)

Members declared in an intrinsic augmentation (type C with member ...) reached GenMethodForBinding with only the module in eenv.cloc (the augmentation is a separate definition group, so the type was not in the realsig dict-routing path that intrinsic members use), so their closures nested in the module as siblings of C → MethodAccessException under realsig+. Fix: normalize eenv.cloc to mspec.MethodRef.DeclaringTypeRef for every non-extension member under g.realsig at the top of GenMethodForBinding (idempotent for members that already have it; skip v.IsExtensionMember — real extension members live in their own module). Gating on g.realsig avoids perturbing realsig- IL baselines. One fix covers let rec, task/async, and quotation-splice closures because all go through the same NestedTypeRefForCompLoc eenv.cloc site.

Diagnostics reality (don't mis-cite)

• FS0193 is the catch-all default in CompilerDiagnostics.fs (| _ -> 193), not a specific check.
• FS0491 = csMemberIsNotAccessible2 (FSComp.txt, raised from ConstraintSolver.fs) on overload resolution finding 0 accessible candidates; its "from inner lambda expressions" clause is about protected, not private.
• There is no existing source-level guard for "private member captured into a lambda": an instance member private this.Secret called from let f () = this.Secret() inside another member compiles cleanly today.

Tests

• Live under tests/FSharp.Compiler.ComponentTests/EmittedIL/..., namespace EmittedIL.RealInternalSignature.
• Helpers: FSharp src |> withRealInternalSignature realsig |> asExe |> withOptimize |> ignoreWarnings, then compileExeAndRun |> shouldSucceed for runtime tests, or verifyILPresent / verifyILNotPresent for IL-structural assertions.
• Use [<Theory; InlineData(true); InlineData(false)>] so both realsig settings run and a regression in either path is caught.
• realsig baselines are the *.RealInternalSignatureOn.* / *.RealInternalSignatureOff.* .il.bsl pairs; regenerate with TEST_UPDATE_BSL=1 and pair every diff with its .fs + a one-line semantic summary (e.g. "closure renested under declaring type").
• IL shape changes can shift tests/ILVerify baselines — see the ilverify-failure skill.

Build/run on Windows (when the cwd is content-excluded)

If the powershell tool rejects commands because it validates the first token against the repo path, invoke executables by absolute path: & "C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe" …, & "C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe" build …. Run the built component-test dll directly: dotnet exec <…\FSharp.Compiler.ComponentTests.dll> --filter-class "*Pattern*" (xUnit v3 simple filters: --filter-class / --filter-method / --filter-namespace, * wildcard). Ensure the matching shared runtime exists under <repo>\.dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App\.