Tracking Issue for native link modifier `verbatim`

[petrochenkov]

This is a tracking issue for native link modifier verbatim, which is a part of RFC "Linking modifiers for native libraries" (#81490, rust-lang/rfcs#2951).
The feature gate for the issue is #![feature(native_link_modifiers_verbatim)].

About tracking issues

Tracking issues are used to record the overall progress of implementation.
They are also used as hubs connecting to other relevant issues, e.g., bugs or open design questions.
A tracking issue is however not meant for large scale discussion, questions, or bug reports about a feature.
Instead, open a dedicated issue for the specific matter and add the relevant feature gate label.

Steps

• Implement the RFC - Implement RFC 2951: Native link modifiers #83507
• Adjust documentation (see instructions on rustc-dev-guide)
• Stabilization PR (see instructions on rustc-dev-guide)

Unresolved Questions

-l:libfoo.a is not entirely verbatim, there's still no way to pass a library by full path (without the -l option), like /path/to/libfoo.a, while still respecting relative order of passed libraries, -C link-arg=/path/to/libfoo.a will put the option at the end of the command line instead.
-l link-arg=/path/to/libfoo.a (#99427) will likely help with this situation.

Implementation history

[petrochenkov]

Known issue: fn find_library in the compiler still falls back from "{target_staticlib_prefix}{name}{target_staticlib_suffix}"/"{name}" to "lib{name}.a" even if +verbatim is enabled, it shouldn't do that.

Update: this was fixed in #101806.

[dpaoliello]

Is there anything currently blocking the stabilization of this feature?

[petrochenkov]

I think it can be stabilized now, if the limitations and the caveat about full paths are well documented.
I can prepare the stabilization PR.