Adopt NormalizePath everywhere + ban raw PathBuf/Path via dylint

[zackees]

Background

PR #436 (closing #428) ran into a Windows-only test failure:

left:  Some(\"/bin\\avr-nm\")
right: Some(\"/bin/avr-nm\")

Root cause: PathBuf::from(\"/bin/avr-size\").parent().join(\"avr-nm\") uses the platform separator (\ on Windows), so the in-memory string form drifts from the literal \"/...\" form fbuild builds path-like JSON strings out of. Same bytes in build_info.json mean different things on Linux vs Windows — and different cache keys when those strings feed cache hashing later.

zccache already solved this with core::path::NormalizedPath: an
Arc<Path> + Arc<str> precomputed comparison key that:

• canonicalises separators (\ → /) on Windows,
• case-folds on case-insensitive filesystems (Windows / default macOS),
• is Hash/Eq/Ord on the cached key — no per-op allocation,
• is Clone = 2× refcount bump (zero heap),
• gives stable cache keys across platforms.

Source: https://github.com/zackees/zccache/blob/main/crates/zccache/src/core/path.rs (≈300 LOC).

Proposal

1. Vendor (or depend on) NormalizedPath

Option A: pub use zccache_core::NormalizedPath (already in our dep tree
via soldr/zccache integration).
Option B: vendor a copy into fbuild-core::path::NormalizedPath so we
own the API. Preferred for stability, since zccache is allowed to evolve
its internal types.

Either way, the public type lives in fbuild-core so every crate can
import it without breaking the dep graph.

2. Migrate fbuild to use NormalizedPath for stored / hashed paths

Targets (in priority order):

• fbuild_build::build_info::BuildInfo — prog_path, cc_path,
  cxx_path, ar_path, objcopy_path, size_path, nm_path,
  cppfilt_path, readelf_path, objdump_path, and every entry of the
  aliases block. Today these are String with whatever separator the
  source PathBuf::join chose; fixing them is what motivated this
  issue.
• fbuild_build::pipeline cache fingerprints (FileStamp,
  BinArtifactCache, SizeArtifactCache) — anywhere a path is stamped
  into a cache key.
• fbuild_packages toolchain / library directory keys.
• fbuild_serial device path identifiers.

Locals on the stack and arguments to subprocess invocations can stay
Path / PathBuf — the lint targets stored / hashed / serialized
paths, not throwaway ones.

3. Enforce via dylint

We already have a custom-dylint pipeline (dylints/ban_raw_subprocess

• .github/workflows/dylint.yml), so adding a second lint is the
  established pattern.

New lint: fbuild_normalize_path (or ban_raw_pathbuf).

Bans:

• struct X { p: PathBuf } / struct X { p: String } where the field
  name matches *_path / *_dir / *_file.
• serde::Serialize-derived structs with PathBuf / String path
  fields.
• HashMap<PathBuf, _> / HashSet<PathBuf> / DashMap<PathBuf, _>.

Replacement guidance:

• Stored or hashed: NormalizedPath.
• Local / argument: &Path, &PathBuf, or &NormalizedPath.

Allow-list for places where the raw type is legitimate (subprocess
argv, FFI boundaries, tempfile internals).

CI gate: cargo dylint --all -- --workspace -- -D warnings.

4. Migration plan

Phase 1: land NormalizedPath in fbuild-core + add the dylint with
#[allow] on every existing call site (so CI still passes).

Phase 2: per-crate migration sprints (one PR per crate) removing the
#[allow]s.

Phase 3: drop the allow-list machinery once everything is migrated.

Acceptance

• NormalizedPath exists in fbuild-core and Hash/Eq on it
  produce identical bytes for \"C:\\Users\\x\\a\" and
  \"C:/Users/x/a\".
• BuildInfo's nine path fields are NormalizedPath, and
  build_info.json emits the canonical (slash-form, case-folded)
  string on every platform.
• cargo dylint --all errors on any new pub p: PathBuf /
  pub p: String in a *_path slot.
• fbuild symbols regression test from PR feat(symbols): ingest toolchain paths from build_info.json #436 passes on Linux,
  macOS, and Windows with the exact same string assertions (no
  pj() helper needed).

Related

• PR feat(symbols): ingest toolchain paths from build_info.json #436 (the Windows-separator bug that motivated this).
• Issue Meta: fbuild bloat — first-class, end-to-end bloat analysis with build_info-driven toolchain resolution (no manual nm/c++filt, no PlatformIO, no side scripts) #434 (the fbuild bloat meta — Phase 3 default-output path
  printing is exactly the kind of place separator drift bites).
• zccache core::path::NormalizedPath — reference implementation.
• dylints/ban_raw_subprocess/ — established custom-dylint pattern.

🤖 Filed by Claude Code on behalf of @zackees during PR #436.