Symbol Visibility Migration

Table of Contents

Problem

The root CMakeLists.txt sets CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS ON, which causes every symbol compiled into any shared library to appear in the Windows PE export table. As the codebase grows this eventually exceeds the PE hard limit of 65 535 named exports per DLL.

The immediate failure (2026-05-13) is ores.refdata.core.dll, which reached 73 721 exported symbols after the convention-types work (PRs #728, #733, #734). The Linux and macOS builds are unaffected by the symbol count but will benefit from the resulting ABI hygiene.

Solution

Apply explicit visibility annotations to every shared library following the pattern already established in ores.qt.api (see Shared Library Symbol Visibility):

  1. Each library gains an export.hpp using boost/config.hpp macros.
  2. Public types are annotated with ORES_X_COMPONENT_EXPORT.
  3. -fvisibility=hidden is set per-target on GCC/Clang.
  4. WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS OFF is set on the target on Windows.
  5. CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS ON is removed from the root CMakeLists.txt once all libraries carry annotations.

Approach

Each component is migrated independently:

  1. Add include/ores.X.COMPONENT/export.hpp.
  2. Annotate every exported class and free function in public headers.
  3. Update src/CMakeLists.txt: add compile definition, visibility flags, and WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS OFF.
  4. Build the target locally: make -C build/output/linux-clang-debug-make -j$(nproc) ores.X.COMPONENT.lib (or equivalent target name).
  5. Run the component's tests.
  6. Move to the next component.

Deliver as a single PR. The PR description documents which components were migrated and what changed. After the PR is merged, perform a full manual bootstrap to verify the complete system runs correctly.

Per-CMakeLists.txt template

# In src/CMakeLists.txt, after add_library(...)

# Explicit symbol visibility — only exported types are visible to consumers.
target_compile_definitions(${lib_target_name} PRIVATE
    ORES_X_COMPONENT_LIBRARY)

if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "GNU|Clang")
    target_compile_options(${lib_target_name} PRIVATE
        -fvisibility=hidden -fvisibility-inlines-hidden)
endif()

if(WIN32)
    set_target_properties(${lib_target_name} PROPERTIES
        WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS OFF)
endif()

Export header template

Each library gets include/ores.X.COMPONENT/export.hpp: 

#pragma once
#include <boost/config.hpp>

#ifdef ORES_X_COMPONENT_LIBRARY
#  define ORES_X_COMPONENT_EXPORT BOOST_SYMBOL_EXPORT
#else
#  define ORES_X_COMPONENT_EXPORT BOOST_SYMBOL_IMPORT
#endif

What to annotate

Library type Annotate
ores.X.api All public structs, enums, free functions, classes
ores.X.core Registration entry point only (register_message_handlers)
Qt plugin DLL Nothing explicit; Qt macro handles plugin factory
Infrastructure / Foundation All public types and functions

Component checklist

Components are listed in bottom-up build order. Tick each item as it is completed.

Foundation layer

These libraries have no ores dependencies; annotation effort is low.

  • [ ] ores.utility → export macro ORES_UTILITY_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.platform → export macro ORES_PLATFORM_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.logging → export macro ORES_LOGGING_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.telemetry → export macro ORES_TELEMETRY_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.database → export macro ORES_DATABASE_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.security → export macro ORES_SECURITY_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.geo → export macro ORES_GEO_EXPORT

Infrastructure layer

  • [ ] ores.nats → export macro ORES_NATS_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.eventing → export macro ORES_EVENTING_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.testing → export macro ORES_TESTING_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.service → export macro ORES_SERVICE_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.storage → export macro ORES_STORAGE_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.connections → export macro ORES_CONNECTIONS_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.http.api → export macro ORES_HTTP_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.telemetry.database → export macro ORES_TELEMETRY_DATABASE_EXPORT

Variability

  • [ ] ores.variability.api → export macro ORES_VARIABILITY_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.variability.core → export macro ORES_VARIABILITY_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — reference data

  • [ ] ores.refdata.api → export macro ORES_REFDATA_API_EXPORT (all domain/messaging/generator types)
  • [ ]

    ores.refdata.core → export macro ORES_REFDATA_CORE_EXPORT (register_message_handlers only)

    Consumers to switch from core → api: ores.qt.analytics, ores.qt.refdata, ores.qt, ores.qt.mktdata, ores.qt.party, ores.qt.trading. Consumers that use core internals directly (ores.http.core, ores.synthetic.core, ores.wt.service, ores.iam.core) are addressed separately in their own steps below.

Domain — IAM

  • [ ] ores.iam.api → export macro ORES_IAM_API_EXPORT (all public types)
  • [ ] ores.iam.client → export macro ORES_IAM_CLIENT_EXPORT
  • [ ]

    ores.iam.core → export macro ORES_IAM_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

    ores.iam.core currently includes party_repository.hpp from ores.refdata.core. Before hiding refdata.core internals, audit whether the IAM handlers should call the refdata service over NATS instead of accessing the repository directly.

Domain — FpML / ORE

  • [ ] ores.fpml → export macro ORES_FPML_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.ore.api → export macro ORES_ORE_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.ore → export macro ORES_ORE_EXPORT

Domain — trading

  • [ ] ores.trading.api → export macro ORES_TRADING_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.trading.core → already STATIC on Windows; add -fvisibility=hidden on GCC/Clang and annotate the registration entry point.

Domain — market data

  • [ ] ores.marketdata.api → export macro ORES_MARKETDATA_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.marketdata.core → export macro ORES_MARKETDATA_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — analytics

  • [ ] ores.analytics.api → export macro ORES_ANALYTICS_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.analytics.core → export macro ORES_ANALYTICS_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — data quality

  • [ ] ores.dq.api → export macro ORES_DQ_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.dq.core → export macro ORES_DQ_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — reporting

  • [ ] ores.reporting.api → export macro ORES_REPORTING_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.reporting.core → export macro ORES_REPORTING_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — scheduler

  • [ ] ores.scheduler.api → export macro ORES_SCHEDULER_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.scheduler.core → export macro ORES_SCHEDULER_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — workflow

  • [ ] ores.workflow.api → export macro ORES_WORKFLOW_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.workflow → export macro ORES_WORKFLOW_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — synthetic

  • [ ] ores.synthetic.api → export macro ORES_SYNTHETIC_API_EXPORT
  • [ ]

    ores.synthetic.core → export macro ORES_SYNTHETIC_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

    ores.synthetic.core currently uses party_mapper.hpp from ores.refdata.core directly. Evaluate whether synthetic data generation should call the refdata service instead.

Domain — compute

  • [ ] ores.compute.api → export macro ORES_COMPUTE_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.compute.core → export macro ORES_COMPUTE_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — controller

  • [ ] ores.controller.api → export macro ORES_CONTROLLER_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.controller.core → export macro ORES_CONTROLLER_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Domain — assets

  • [ ] ores.assets.api → export macro ORES_ASSETS_API_EXPORT
  • [ ] ores.assets.core → export macro ORES_ASSETS_CORE_EXPORT (registration only)

Application — HTTP

  • [ ]

    ores.http.core → export macro ORES_HTTP_CORE_EXPORT

    Audited uses of ores.refdata.core (currency_service): consider routing through NATS or accept the core dependency as intentional.

Application — Qt (already done)

  • [X] ores.qt.api — already uses ORES_QT_API with boost/config.hpp.

Application — Qt plugins

For each plugin DLL, add -fvisibility=hidden and WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS OFF. Qt plugin factory export is handled by Q_PLUGIN_METADATA / Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN2; no manual annotation needed.

  • [ ] ores.qt.admin
  • [ ] ores.qt.analytics
  • [ ] ores.qt.compute
  • [ ] ores.qt.data_transfer
  • [ ] ores.qt.mktdata
  • [ ] ores.qt.party
  • [ ] ores.qt.refdata
  • [ ] ores.qt.scheduler
  • [ ] ores.qt.trading
  • [ ] ores.qt.workflow

Final step — remove global flag

  • [ ] Delete set(CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS ON) from root CMakeLists.txt.
  • [ ] Full local build (all platforms).
  • [ ] All tests green.
  • [ ] Manual full bootstrap.

Success criteria

  • Windows CI green; no DLL exceeds 65 535 exported symbols.
  • No library exports internal types (repositories, mappers, entities, services).
  • Consumers of ores.X.core are limited to service executables, ores.cli, and test executables, except where an explicit architectural decision permits cross-boundary access.
  • CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS is absent from the build system.
  • Full bootstrap passes manually after the PR is merged.