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Hardening Matrix

This chapter translates the large GERC generation suite into an explicit hardening ladder.

The point is not to count tests. The point is to make it obvious which surfaces are carrying confidence for lowering, emission, and build-output generation.

Tier 1: Hermetic Canonical Baselines

These should stay green everywhere:

  • source-only sqlite3 lowering
  • source-only zlib lowering
  • source-only libpng lowering
  • deterministic emitted crate output on vendored fixtures
  • large internal corpus fixtures and root API tests
  • source-only incomplete-handle lowering
  • keyword-safe placeholder emission on unresolved named types

These surfaces prove that GERC can:

  • ingest its own source model
  • gate declarations conservatively
  • lower accepted declarations deterministically
  • emit stable Rust and build artifacts

Tier 2: Host-Dependent High-Value Ladders

These strengthen confidence on real native environments:

  • OpenSSL link-directive generation
  • libxml2 link-directive generation
  • Apple framework link-directive generation
  • Windows system-library link-directive generation
  • combined Linux event-loop link-directive generation
  • libc and system-library evidence-aware generation families

These surfaces matter because they prove that GERC can use real upstream evidence without taking a library dependency on upstream crates.

Tier 3: Conservative-Rejection Surfaces

These are good failures, not bad coverage:

  • anonymous-type lowering fallback and refusal when by-value naming is not honest
  • bitfield-by-value and representation-sensitive record rejection
  • unsupported layout or ABI-sensitive gating
  • source-only degradation when link evidence is absent
  • explicit rejection of declarations that would produce unsound Rust

Those tests should remain:

  • deterministic
  • diagnostic
  • easy to point to in release discussions

Determinism Anchors

The most important repeat-run anchors right now are:

  • source-only zlib projection
  • source-only libpng projection
  • source-only sqlite3 projection
  • emitted crate output on deterministic fixtures
  • libxml2 link directives when available
  • Apple framework link directives
  • Windows system-library link directives
  • incomplete-handle lowering
  • keyword-placeholder emission
  • OpenSSL link directives when available
  • combined Linux event-loop link directives when available