Symbol Mangling

Zynx uses a custom mangling scheme inspired by the Itanium C++ ABI to support namespacing, overloading, and interoperation with C toolchains.

General Format

_ZN <scope> <name> E <params>

• _ZN: Prefix for all Zynx mangled symbols.
• <scope>: One or more name segments (module, struct/interface) encoded as <len><name>.
• <name>: The function name (or operator code).
• E: Terminates the nested name portion.
• <params>: Mangled types of the function parameters. Use v if there are no parameters.

Name Encoding

• Regular names: Encoded as <len><name>.
• Dotted names: Each segment is encoded separately (e.g., foo.bar -> 3foo3bar).
• Operators: Use two-letter codes (e.g., + -> pl, - -> mi).

Type Mangling Codes

Type	Code	Type	Code
i8	a	u8	h
i32	i	u32	j
i64	l	u64	m
f32	f	f64	d
str	Di	bool	b
void	v	usize	y

Type Modifiers

• Reference (&T): R
• Pointer (*T): P
• Array (T[]): A_
• Nullable (T?): u

Examples

Functions

• fn foo() in module main: _ZN4main3fooEv
• fn add(a: i32, b: i32) in module math: _ZN4math3addEii

Structs

• struct Point in module geo: _ZN3geo5PointE
• struct Wrapper<i32> in module util: _ZN4util7WrapperIiEE

Verification

Since Zynx's mangling scheme is heavily inspired by the Itanium C++ ABI, standard tools like c++filt can be used to decode and verify mangled names:

echo <mangled name> | c++filt -n

For example:

echo _ZN4math3addEii | c++filt -n
# Output: math::add(int, int)

See also

• Memory Model - ownership rules and lifetime behavior that influence symbol lifetimes.
• Compiler Internals - how mangling fits into the overall compilation pipeline and C code generation.
• C Interoperability Overview - how mangled Zynx symbols coexist with C symbols at the ABI boundary.