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[dotnet] Default to the trimmable-static registrar for NativeAOT on .NET 11 - #26346

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[dotnet] Default to the trimmable-static registrar for NativeAOT on .NET 11#26346
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@rolfbjarne rolfbjarne commented Jul 29, 2026

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Stacked on top of #26345 — review that one first.

On .NET 11+, default Registrar to trimmable-static (instead of managed-static) for NativeAOT, and enable the PrepareAssemblies / PostProcessAssemblies flow by default for NativeAOT.

All three are set at evaluation time (in Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.props) rather than in the SelectRegistrar target, because the static _SkipILLink / _PostprocessAssembliesAfterIlc gates read them at evaluation time. PostProcessAssemblies normally defaults to $(PrepareAssemblies) in Xamarin.Shared.targets, but that default runs later than the gate reads it, so the same default is applied here too.

This is a no-op on .NET 10 — every condition requires TargetFrameworkVersion >= 11.0. Verified: all AppSizeTest NativeAOT and NativeAOT_TrimmableStatic expected sizes are unchanged on main (within ±5 bytes), so no expected files needed updating.

Why NativeAOT only?

⚠️ This deliberately does not change the default for CoreCLR. The measurements don't support it — iOS, Release, ios-arm64, measured on the net11.0 branch:

Configuration App bundle size
CoreCLR + ReadyToRun, managed-static (current default) 11,069,079 B
CoreCLR + ReadyToRun, trimmable-static 31,622,327 B
CoreCLR + ReadyToRun, managed-static, MtouchLink=Full 11,263,711 B
CoreCLR + ReadyToRun, trimmable-static + PrepareAssemblies + MtouchLink=Full 11,304,991 B

With the default trim mode (SDK-only) trimmable-static is ~3x larger, and even in the best case (full linking + PrepareAssemblies, which is not the default) it's still 41 KB larger than managed-static in the same trim mode. macOS CoreCLR-Interpreter shows the same pattern (246.9 MB → 255.9 MB).

The reason is that the size win of trimmable-static comes from the post-ILC registrar reorder, which lets us drop the native code for the UnmanagedCallersOnly trampolines that ILC trimmed away. There is no equivalent on CoreCLR/Mono, so the whole registered NSObject surface is kept.

Changing the CoreCLR default should be revisited once the registered surface can actually be trimmed there.

🤖 Pull request created by Copilot

rolfbjarne and others added 5 commits July 29, 2026 15:39
…-static type maps

The types named by our type-map entries only show up in the custom attribute
blobs, as assembly-qualified names. Nothing else in the generated type map
assembly refers to them from IL, so Cecil doesn't emit a TypeRef row for them.

That's valid metadata: ECMA-335 II.23.3 only requires a System.Type custom
attribute argument to be stored as a SerString holding the type's canonical name,
and neither the CustomAttribute (II.22.10) nor the TypeRef (II.22.38) validity
rules require a matching TypeRef row. The runtime agrees - it resolves these
types by parsing the string, not by looking at the TypeRef table - and the type
map design explicitly says the assembly name in TypeMapAssemblyTargetAttribute
doesn't need a matching AssemblyRef row either.

crossgen2 nonetheless assumes the TypeRef row is there. It fails all four lookups
in ModuleTokenResolver.GetModuleTokenForType (the type doesn't version with the
compilation, there's no TypeRef in the input, and nothing has added it to the
manifest module), and falls through to a bare
`throw new NotImplementedException (type.ToString ())`, so ReadyToRun-compiling
an app with the trimmable-static registrar fails:

    System.NotImplementedException: [Microsoft.macOS]UserNotificationsUI.IUNNotificationContentExtension
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.ModuleTokenResolver.GetModuleTokenForType(TypeDesc, Boolean, Boolean)
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.SignatureContext.GetTargetModule(TypeDesc)
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.TypeFixupSignature.GetData(NodeFactory, Boolean)
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.ImportSectionNode.MaterializeSignature(NodeFactory)
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.ManifestMetadataTableNode.ComputeLastSetOfModuleIndices()
       at ILCompiler.DependencyAnalysis.ReadyToRun.ManifestAssemblyMvidHeaderNode.GetData(NodeFactory, Boolean)

Work around it by adding an unused method to each generated type map assembly
that does an `ldtoken` for every externally defined type the maps name. That's
enough for Cecil to emit the TypeRef rows, and crossgen2 then resolves the types
through `TryGetModuleTokenForExternalType`. `ldtoken` is used rather than a field
or parameter because it also works for open generic types. The method is never
called, so it's trimmed away again by ILLink.

Only CoreCLR needs this, so the other runtimes don't pay for it. In particular
NativeAOT app size is unaffected (bit-for-bit identical). For CoreCLR it adds
~64 KB per runtime identifier to the platform type map assembly.

Reported upstream as dotnet/runtime#131527, and tracked
for removal in #26343.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
The workaround emits TypeRef rows for every type map entry into the generated
type map assemblies when using CoreCLR, which makes those assemblies (and thus
the app) slightly bigger.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
The previous commit was generated on a local machine whose build produces a
slightly different Info.plist / Microsoft.macOS.dll / executable than CI does
(a pre-existing ~5.9 KB difference that also shows up in the unmodified
CoreCLR_Interpreter test). Keep only the delta actually caused by this change:
+64,000 bytes per RID in the generated type map assembly.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
…NET 11.

On .NET 11+, default the registrar to 'trimmable-static' (instead of
'managed-static') for NativeAOT, and enable the PrepareAssemblies flow by default
for NativeAOT. Both are set at evaluation time (in Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.props) so the
static _SkipILLink / _PostprocessAssembliesAfterIlc gates see them; PostProcessAssemblies
gets the same $(PrepareAssemblies) default here too because that gate reads it earlier
than the default in Xamarin.Shared.targets runs.

Scoped to NativeAOT on purpose: the trimmable-static registrar only produces a smaller
app under NativeAOT (where the TypeMap feature and the post-ILC registrar reorder let us
trim the registered binding surface). On Mono/CoreCLR it keeps the whole registered
NSObject surface and makes apps 2-3x larger, so those runtimes keep managed-static.

This is a no-op on .NET 10 (the condition requires TargetFrameworkVersion >= 11.0).

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
The same note is added by "[dotnet] Fix latent trimmable-static registrar bugs on
non-NativeAOT runtimes", so adding it here too would just cause a merge conflict.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
rolfbjarne and others added 2 commits July 29, 2026 16:27
Two different assemblies can contain types with the same full name, in which case
deduplicating on the full name alone would skip a TypeRef we need.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 6aeeddfd-3bd8-4129-ad90-7292860c4b66
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rolfbjarne marked this pull request as ready for review July 29, 2026 14:47
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 29, 2026 14:47
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Pull request overview

This PR updates the .NET SDK MSBuild defaults so that, on .NET 11+ NativeAOT publishes, the build uses the trimmable-static registrar and enables the PrepareAssemblies/PostProcessAssemblies pipeline early (at evaluation time) to satisfy existing static gating logic in the SDK targets.

Changes:

  • Default $(Registrar) to trimmable-static for NativeAOT publishes on .NET 11+.
  • Default $(PrepareAssemblies) to true for NativeAOT publishes on .NET 11+.
  • Default $(PostProcessAssemblies) to $(PrepareAssemblies) at evaluation time for NativeAOT publishes on .NET 11+ (so evaluation-time gates observe the intended value).

Comment thread dotnet/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.props
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Base automatically changed from dev/rolf/crossgen2-typemap-workaround to main July 30, 2026 14:24
@rolfbjarne
rolfbjarne requested a review from dalexsoto as a code owner July 30, 2026 14:24
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✅ API diff for current PR / commit

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✅ API diff vs stable

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Generator Diff: vsdrops (html) vsdrops (raw diff) gist (raw diff) - Please review changes)

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 5b41cc2558d4075cfe8d4ec23632f28a1938b6de [PR build]

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🚀 [CI Build #5b41cc2] Test results 🚀

Test results

✅ All tests passed on VSTS: test results.

🎉 All 203 tests passed 🎉

Tests counts

✅ assembly-processing: All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ cecil: All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (iOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (MacCatalyst): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (macOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (Multiple platforms): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (tvOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ framework: All 2 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ fsharp: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ generator: All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ interdependent-binding-projects: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ introspection: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ linker (iOS): All 15 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ linker (MacCatalyst): All 15 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ linker (macOS): All 21 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ linker (tvOS): All 15 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (iOS): All 19 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (MacCatalyst): All 18 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (macOS): All 19 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (tvOS): All 19 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ msbuild: All 2 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ sharpie: All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ windows: All 3 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ xcframework: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ xtro: All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download

macOS tests

✅ Tests on macOS Monterey (12): All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ Tests on macOS Ventura (13): All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ Tests on macOS Sonoma (14): All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ Tests on macOS Sequoia (15): All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ Tests on macOS Tahoe (26): All 5 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download

Linux Build Verification

Linux build succeeded

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 5b41cc2558d4075cfe8d4ec23632f28a1938b6de [PR build]

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