scripts/cache-lib.sh

@@ -523,10 +523,15 @@ unshare_mutable_paths() {
   # Measured 2026-08-27 on cargo 1.93.1 stable, 1.96.0-nightly, 1.98.0-nightly
   # (layout v1) and 1.100.0-nightly (e8cb624d5, layout v2), mold and the
   # default linker alike: a `cargo test --no-run` binary in a `cp -al` clone
-  # rewrote the SOURCE's copy of itself in place, under both layouts. Hardlink
-  # count at link time is NOT what decides it — measured 2 in both a rewritten
-  # and an intact case, and two test binaries of one crate at `nlink == 1`
-  # behaved differently from each other. See gitdan-actions#17.
+  # rewrote the SOURCE's copy of itself in place, under both layouts.
+  #
+  # What separates that from the executables measured INTACT is not
+  # established. Every intact case observed was one Cargo has to re-create
+  # anyway to maintain an uplift hardlink — a bin target's
+  # `deps/<bin>-<hash>`, twinned at `<profile>/<bin>`. Whether the twin is the
+  # mechanism or a correlate of it was not determined, and the rule below does
+  # not depend on the answer: exempting twinned executables would recover no
+  # bytes this function newly copies. See gitdan-actions#17.
   #
   # The executable bit is the discriminator because it is the linker's own
   # output that is at risk, not the directory it happens to land in — `.rlib`,

scripts/hardlink-clone-selftest.sh

@@ -587,9 +587,10 @@ echo "=== a linked TEST binary, which nothing uplifts and nothing replaces ==="
 # dep-info mutations the previous scenario already covers, and the scenario
 # pinned nothing. A bin-only crate with a unit test does exhibit the rewrite,
 # on cargo 1.93.1 stable and on 1.98.0-nightly and 1.100.0-nightly, so that is
-# what this builds. `nlink` does not predict which is which — two test binaries
-# of one crate, both at 1, behaved differently — so the shape is chosen by
-# measurement rather than derived.
+# what this builds. The shape is chosen by measurement rather than derived:
+# what separates a rewritten executable from an intact one is not established,
+# so the only crate shape this scenario may rest on is one observed to exhibit
+# the rewrite.
 mkbincrate() {
   local dir="$1" marker="$2"
   mkdir -p "$dir/src"