Cesarus85--ringfall-mjolnir-vr/docs/object_matching_logs/action_search_obj.md

action_search.obj exact-match strategy ledger

Outcome

source/ai/action_search.obj is strict-exact: all 9 functions and all 4 owned .rdata COMDAT sections match the January 2002 target in padded size, normalized bytes, relocation count, relocation address/type, and resolved destination/addend.

The reconstruction began from the HCEA-to-January bridge packet, but every prototype, field offset, constant, call, and source shape was independently gated against the January object. Cross-build evidence was used only as a map; January bytes remained the authority.

Final function inventory

Function	Padded bytes	Relocations	Result
action_search_setup_target	128	7	exact
action_search_setup_pursuit	256	10	exact
action_search_setup_undirected	112	7	exact
action_search_update	384	9	exact
action_search_flush_position_indices	48	2	exact
action_search_flush_structure_indices	48	2	exact
action_search_control	336	3	exact
action_search_begin	144	7	exact
action_search_perform	848	24	exact

Closeout discoveries

action_search_setup_pursuit

The initial reconstruction used an outer eligibility condition plus a nested firing-position guard. That produced the right behavior and size but the wrong cold-epilogue ordering. The exact source is one chained guard containing firing_position_index != NONE. VC7 then reuses BX for the firing-position index and automatically emits the three January return paths in the correct order. This also satisfies the project's preference for one source-level return.

General lesson: when several failed predicates share one machine epilogue, write them as one short-circuit condition before trying manual early returns or gotos. The compiler's SSA split may create multiple machine returns even when the C has one return.

action_search_perform

Three source details were required:

1. Keep the maximum-searcher comparison explicitly short. Without the cast, integer promotion creates a movsx and a 32-bit compare instead of the January 16-bit compare.
2. Write the movement dispatch as a flat chain beginning with if (at_destination), followed by the type-0 and type-1 branches. The semantically equivalent nested if (!at_destination) ... else ... makes VC7 share the two move-call suffixes in the opposite direction.
3. Declare one function-scope struct prop_datum *prop and reuse it for both prop lookups. Separate expression temporaries create an EAX/ECX mirror in the examined-pursuit block; the reused named local reproduces January's register coloring exactly.

The measured rejects included nested versus combined searcher conditions, integer-promoted thresholds, early returns, a switch, explicit shared-result gotos, declaration-order changes, register, and one- and two-barrier tail experiments. All were reverted when they failed strict comparison.

House-rule audit

• Parameters are one per line.
• Typed actor, prop, scenario, and tag-block accessors are used.
• Void functions end with explicit return; where their exact source permits.
• No inline assembly, volatile byte forcing, undefined behavior, compiler flag change, fuzzy credit, or comparator weakening is present.
• action_search_update retains its early machine-required exit; forcing a single source return would change exact codegen, so this is the documented exception to the preferred single-return rule.

Current-campaign revalidation (2026-08-13)

This atomic lane began at authoritative campaign tip ea55318e, where this translation unit was still a 38-line skeleton and reported 0/9 exact functions. Before reconstructing it again, the lane audited all local worktrees and branches and found Claude/Fable's completed but unintegrated object at commit bd438b42. Reusing that proven local result was both faster and safer than repeating the source-shape search above.

The commit was cherry-picked into a new isolated worktree, configured against the installed XDK 3911 compiler and pristine January executable, and rebuilt from source. The hardened comparator independently reproduced every function hash and relocation identity:

Function	Padded bytes	Relocations	Normalized SHA-256
action_search_setup_target	128/128	7/7	cbf6d948839e88e8e724d10a38ac71c300c6e37440a51b2882923df9dc0a3cff
action_search_setup_pursuit	256/256	10/10	4347d9f3a5b25001bcdbf6f61d729394de70ebb908f1688e459654c2f10778e3
action_search_setup_undirected	112/112	7/7	dd5c14cc93d1ad3a623a90cc663dd57f974c84bdf8416e95d97219b585f1d933
action_search_update	384/384	9/9	86d23b9bcdbf51d55040b1aeb6342c751a18fdf31f4350606d8b07386b444d64
action_search_flush_position_indices	48/48	2/2	0092a713331f5179dbbff0cc7a9c576e7ebbe07d887f6ba6661da5713a0acd53
action_search_flush_structure_indices	48/48	2/2	828e1700de76a884cac45684d4e9eb16164aac1d8554ab01f9491b715d870b62
action_search_control	336/336	3/3	0152f72402462585a66e38af4f580d73fb27cfebe5d70f432efbd0d105926951
action_search_begin	144/144	7/7	f60a7b46a9e6640afb10e4cc818304c1a6d499f7d9eed99aa42e25b4e29488b9
action_search_perform	848/848	24/24	91321b997bee74aa54c2fea51c3c3ba35c30bedf5e4856f88b259984597d267d

The object owns no .data or .bss. Its four target-owned .rdata COMDATs are the source path and the float constants 0.64f, 6.25f, and 0.49f; all four compare strict exact. Their normalized SHA-256 values are respectively cfd78efaa8180437a616198604af560523d4c0c77a2106385c170a77946efffd, 74fdba32aaac063fe5801c661ff89edff6e7852c241a36064ce88505748a5894, c1080e69acd873d362d47f9e25351f5237bcf82e3374c88040dc7140aa378747, and eeacb7c70a55988e1772bae66236c28b361bba5de119afb4075e752269a6890a. The state_data assertion string is target-external and candidate-owned due to ordinary COMDAT folding; its relocation spelling and bytes are nevertheless strictly resolved at every use by the hardened comparator.

The source was also manually re-audited against Berth's rules. Parameters are one per line; void functions end with explicit return;; actor, prop, tag, and tag-block access go through the typed subsystem interfaces; and the one early return in action_search_update is retained only because January's machine control flow requires it. No raw object/tag casts, alignment controls, assembly, volatile, forced inline, undefined behavior, magic byte forcing, or flag/comparator exception is present.