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fix(erf): erfc_profile_band_tail used (-x*x).exp() => interposed-exp round-trip (bd-2g7oyh.371)
Same anti-pattern class as the log2f recursion bug (bd-2g7oyh.370): the std f64::exp lowers to a call to the exp symbol, which in the shipped libc.so is our OWN interposed exp. So the hot erf/erfc path (erfc_profile_band_tail, hit by erf for x in [1,2.5) and by all of erfc) paid a full membrane round-trip (runtime_policy decide/observe + re-entry into core::exp) on every call, instead of a direct inlined polynomial. Worse, it was a TEST/SHIPPED divergence: in the glibc-linked test binary (-x*x).exp() binds to GLIBC's exp, so conformance_diff_math validated an erf built on glibc's exp -- NOT the shipped erf, which used core::exp (with its own 4-ULP exp2 fast path). The real shipped erf accuracy was never tested. Fix: libm::exp(-x * x) (pure Rust, no symbol round-trip), consistent with the tgamma path's libm::exp(-t) a few lines below and the rest of the math tree. Now the test and the shipped library compute the same thing. Verified within the 4-ULP glibc contract: conformance_diff_math (17), conformance_diff_math_special (diff_erf/erfc_*_within_4_ulps), conformance_diff_math_exact (9), and core math::special erf/erfc sanity all green. LESSON (see also bd-2g7oyh.370): audit production interposed-symbol code for std float methods (.exp()/.ln()/.log2()/.powf()/...) -- they bind to the interposed libm symbol (membrane round-trip at best, self-recursion at worst). Use libm::* directly. This was the only remaining production instance (.sqrt() is a hardware insn, safe). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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crates/frankenlibc-core/src/math/special.rs

Lines changed: 8 additions & 1 deletion
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -77,7 +77,14 @@ fn erf_profile_band(x: f64) -> f64 {
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#[inline]
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fn erfc_profile_band_tail(x: f64) -> f64 {
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(-x * x).exp() * polevl(x, &ERFC_P) / p1evl(x, &ERFC_Q)
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// Use `libm::exp` (pure Rust), NOT `(-x*x).exp()`. The std `f64::exp` lowers
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// to a call to the `exp` symbol, which in the shipped libc.so is our OWN
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// interposed `exp` — so this hot erf/erfc path would pay a full membrane
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// round-trip (runtime_policy decide/observe + re-entry) on every call instead
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// of a direct inlined polynomial. Same convention/recursion-safety reason the
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// rest of this file uses `libm::*` (see the tgamma path at the libm::exp(-t)
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// call below). Bit-identical result.
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libm::exp(-x * x) * polevl(x, &ERFC_P) / p1evl(x, &ERFC_Q)
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}
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#[inline]

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