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DroidDeck/docs
Kurt Himebauch 9294a60172 perf(proot): accelerate and cache glibc syscall relays (#1687)
Libc-internal file operations bypass the existing preload wrappers and
still stop in PRoot. Patch recognized ARM64 SVC sites in libc and the
runtime loader, reuse the current translator for 20 path syscall
numbers, and return declined calls to PRoot. Enabled by default after
the tracer-key check; `PROOT_FP_PATCH_SVC=0` remains the troubleshooting
opt-out.

The hardened implementation patches 47 sites on Thor's glibc 2.43.
Relays preserve general/SIMD registers, flags, FP state and errno, and
provide unwind metadata back to the original libc frame. Text is patched
through `/proc/self/mem` after relay pages become executable.
Initialization skips multiple live threads and SVE/SME. Alternate signal
stacks and insufficient remaining stack use PRoot; main-stack growth
respects the current limit. No proroot code or binaries are imported.

Robust-list set/get sites deliberately remain with PRoot/the kernel.
Device tests reproduced stale state when the earlier private-TLS
implementation mixed patched and raw callers. Removing that shortcut
fixes coherence and preserves the host's actual return policy; the
earlier thread-creation gain is retired. SDK forwarding still enables
faccessat2 ENOSYS fallback and clone3 ENOSYS only before Android 15.
Successful clone3 is never executed from the C relay. Existing fsync
handling is unchanged. No in-process RET_TRAP filter is added, so
SIGSYS-mask/handler machinery is not applicable.

Version-2 build-ID/API tables cache relative patch sites in `/tmp`.
Every hit revalidates executable bounds, alignment, instructions and
syscall numbers. Invalid/unsafe files rescan; publication uses a private
temporary file and atomic rename. The PRoot dependency fetch also gains
a mirror matching the existing pinned checksum, resolving upstream
availability failures without changing versions.

Five alternating pairs using the final bundled library on Thor/Android
13:

| operation | wrappers only | hardened relays |
|---|---:|---:|
| libc-internal stat | 49.6 us | 6.0 us |
| libc-internal open/close | 50.4 us | 7.8 us |
| libc faccessat | 49.7 us | 22.0 us |
| libc getcwd | 54.9 us | 5.0 us |
| thread create/join | 136 us | 144 us |
| complete tiny exec/wait | 4.44 ms | 5.60 ms |

An earlier five-pair hardened-library run measured stat 50.1 to 5.9 us
and open/close 51.9 to 7.1 us. The metadata gains survive the safety
checks. Neither run shows a thread-creation gain, and tiny execs retain
roughly 0.9-1.2 ms overhead.

Three full Steam startup pairs yielded Home-ready medians of 47.02 s off
/ 45.25 s on, with overlapping 43-50 s ranges. Steam/CEF-only PSS
medians were 1,223.1 / 1,233.9 MiB; the roughly 11 MiB difference is
smaller than observed variation, but does not establish zero memory
cost. Startup/memory used one unchanged signed bundled-library APK
without overrides; the final stack-gap guard only increases distance
reserved above other mappings. No reliable whole-client startup
improvement is claimed.

Earlier fresh Half-Life SD installs took 350/341 s off and 326/327 s on.
These are historical results from the preceding robust-list revision,
not a post-hardening download retest. Network/shader scheduling varied,
allocation did not reliably improve, and the repeat baseline committed
faster. This PR demonstrates metadata acceleration; it does not
demonstrate a reliable fix for Steam's SD allocation/commit bottleneck.

Validation on `2c3c135b` (production code unchanged since `4998b046`):

- Local release build, runtime/native-library checks, release signing
and four focused Android tests pass. [Final-head
CI](https://github.com/Droid-Deck/DroidDeck/actions/runs/40704837477)
passed: 1,431 Python/native tests (49 skips), 2,648 Android tests (zero
failures/skips), and 162 Rust tests. CodeRabbit is green on the same
head. The installed production APK forwards API 33 and patches 47 sites
with an unset enable flag and no override; Steam Home renders.
- Embedded and shared-PIC matrices pass on glibc 2.43; shared-PIC also
passes on separately loaded glibc 2.39. Coverage includes raw
results/errno/registers/FP state, path/flag/error and protected-pointer
cases, exact readlink boundaries, mixed raw/relay robust state,
concurrent threads, fork, thread churn, alternate-stack signals,
deferred/FIFO cancellation, signal siglongjmp recovery, forced unwind
with caller cleanup, and limited remaining stack.
- Four device test-process filters deny the memory patch file, relay
mapping, executable permission, or patch writes. Every case leaves
original syscall execution working. Host injection also verifies partial
installation after an individual site fails.
- Concurrent atomic symlink replacement passes 3,000 internal
stat/readlink iterations at default/zero TTL. Eight focused host tests
pass, covering instruction/branch limits, stack/limit fallback,
untrusted cache files and NDEBUG checks. API selection gives 45/47/46
sites for unknown/33/simulated-35; unset and explicit 1 agree, and 0
leaves sites untouched. This does not replace Android 15 hardware
testing.
- All bench tools compile with -DNDEBUG. Relative/absolute fixture
workloads agree, and thread/ABI/failure checks pass on Thor with those
builds.
- Earlier internal fts/realpath/NSS/dlopen and normalized read-path
equivalence pass. The write suite retains the existing wrapper SD
Unix-socket mismatch against PRoot.

CodeRabbit disposition: fixed relative fixture paths, prevented
benchmark checks disappearing under NDEBUG, corrected the
limited-fallback description, and narrowed memory-file denial so the
thread check still succeeds. The default-off recommendation was
addressed by fixing/testing the underlying guard and unwind issue while
retaining the requested default-on behavior. The readlink count
suggestion is intentionally not adopted: device boundary comparisons
reproduce current PRoot behavior, so changing that inherited policy
belongs in a separate correctness change.

This is not consequence-free instruction patching: constructor time,
private text copies and stack checks have costs. Android 15+ ARM64 and
16 KiB-page hardware, arbitrary asynchronous cancellation/non-local
exits, user-managed stacks, and attributable tracer-counter measurements
remain gaps. Loader calls before the constructor and arbitrary guest ELF
syscall sites remain outside scope.

Thor was restored to its original APK and bundled library, with app data
preserved and test settings, overrides, temporary files and version-2
test caches cleared.

Detailed evidence and revision boundaries: [proroot
analysis](https://github.com/Droid-Deck/DroidDeck/blob/2c3c135b52c3dd949ef5a99a67d8c12eba24406c/docs/development/proroot-analysis.md).
2026-10-28 10:53:26 -04:00
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