# 0124 — 64K+ stack arrays emit whole-aggregate load/store ops that segfault LLVM ## Symptom Declaring a large (~64KB+) stack array in a function reachable from `main` crashes the compiler during native emission — a segfault inside libLLVM, not a diagnostic. - **Observed**: `Segmentation fault at address 0x16b...` (a stack address) under `sx build`, inside `DAGCombiner::visitMERGE_VALUES` → `SelectionDAG::ReplaceAllUsesWith` (via `LLVMTargetMachineEmitToFile`, src/ir/emit_llvm.zig:2894). - **Expected**: the program compiles; the array lives in the frame and is accessed in place. The crash threshold is DAG-shape dependent, not a clean size boundary (`[65535]u8` and `[65537]u8` compile, `[65536]u8`, `[66000]u8`, `[131072]u8` crash), because the real problem is the SelectionDAG node count: lowering materializes the array as a FIRST-CLASS LLVM value, and the legalizer scalarizes each whole-aggregate op into one node per element. Two emission shapes produce such ops: 1. `buf : [N]u8 = ---;` stores a whole-array undef constant (`store [N x i8] undef, ptr %alloca`) — a store of nothing, for an explicitly-uninitialized local. 2. `buf[i]` reads on a local array lower as `index_get` on the array VALUE: load the entire array as an SSA value, spill it to an `ig.tmp` alloca, GEP one element (the general-expression sibling of resolved issue 0110, which fixed only `lowerFor`'s element fetch). Besides the crash, this copies N bytes to read 1. Each shape crashes llc in isolation on the dumped IR; with both replaced by in-place access the module compiles. ## Reproduction ```sx #import "modules/std.sx"; f :: (fd: s32) { buf : [65536]u8 = ---; if buf[0] > 0 { out("x\n"); } } main :: () -> s32 { f(1); return 0; } ``` Observed at master 7f2b8b5: `sx build` segfaults in libLLVM with the stack trace above. `sx ir` shows the two whole-aggregate ops: ```llvm %alloca1 = alloca [65536 x i8], align 1 store [65536 x i8] undef, ptr %alloca1, align 1 %load = load [65536 x i8], ptr %alloca1, align 1 %ig.tmp = alloca [65536 x i8], align 1 store [65536 x i8] %load, ptr %ig.tmp, align 1 %ig.ptr = getelementptr [65536 x i8], ptr %ig.tmp, i64 0, i64 0 ``` ## Investigation prompt Two lowering sites produce the whole-aggregate ops; fix both: 1. `src/ir/lower/stmt.zig` `lowerVarDecl` (annotated branch): a `.undef_literal` initializer falls through to `lowerExpr(val)` → `constUndef(array type)` → `store`. `---` means explicitly uninitialized — emit NO store at all (keep the existing tuple zero-init carve-out above it). 2. `src/ir/lower/expr.zig` `lowerIndexExpr`: when the indexed object is an array with addressable storage (`getExprAlloca` hit, same guard as 0110's `lowerFor` fix), emit `index_gep` on the storage + a single-element `load` instead of `index_get` on the loaded array value. Storage-less arrays (rvalues) keep the `index_get` fallback. The object must NOT be lowered as a value on the storage path or the dead whole-array `load` still reaches the DAG. Verification: the repro builds and runs (prints nothing or `x` depending on stack garbage — gate on exit 0 of the build, not the read); `[65535]`/`[65537]`/`[131072]` variants all build. Pin a regression example that builds AND deterministically runs (write before read). `zig build && zig build test`, `bash tests/run_examples.sh` green; expect `.ir` snapshot churn from removed undef stores and the new gep+load shape — re-pin and review.