From 119ed2297bf8140461d231ccd3a9b043a5f44db1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: David Zbarsky <dzbarsky@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:38:06 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Remove the legacy whole-archive heuristic

--incompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive was introduced disabled in Bazel in February 2019 by e5735fd27d and enabled by default in September 2019 by 799328f8e0. The legacy heuristic has therefore been disabled by default since Bazel 1.0.

Remove the unreachable compatibility heuristic. Explicit whole_archive requests and alwayslink libraries continue to set is_whole_archive.
---
 cc/private/link/finalize_link_action.bzl     | 45 +-------------------
 tests/integration/cc_shared_library_tests.sh |  1 -
 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 45 deletions(-)

diff --git a/cc/private/link/finalize_link_action.bzl b/cc/private/link/finalize_link_action.bzl
index eb2aef5da..943f0c1f0 100644
--- a/cc/private/link/finalize_link_action.bzl
+++ b/cc/private/link/finalize_link_action.bzl
@@ -98,13 +98,7 @@ def finalize_link_action(
     Returns:
       None
     """
-    need_whole_archive = whole_archive or _need_whole_archive(
-        feature_configuration,
-        linking_mode,
-        link_type,
-        user_link_flags,
-        cc_toolchain._cpp_configuration,
-    )
+    need_whole_archive = whole_archive
 
     must_keep_debug = any([lib._must_keep_debug for lib in libraries_to_link])
 
@@ -419,43 +413,6 @@ def _can_split_command_line(
     # This should be unreachable:
     return False
 
-def _need_whole_archive(feature_configuration, linking_mode, link_type, linkopts, cpp_config):
-    """The default heuristic on whether we need to use whole-archive for the link."""
-    shared_linkopts = is_dynamic_library(link_type) or "-shared" in linkopts or "-shared" in cpp_config.linkopts
-
-    # Fasten your seat belt, the logic below doesn't make perfect sense and it's full of obviously
-    # missed corner cases. The world still stands and depends on this behavior, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
-    if not shared_linkopts:
-        # We are not producing shared library, there is no reason to use --whole-archive with
-        # executable (if the executable doesn't use the symbols, nobody else will, so --whole-archive
-        # is not needed).
-        return False
-
-    if feature_configuration.is_requested("force_no_whole_archive"):
-        return False
-
-    if cpp_config.incompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive():
-        # --incompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive has been flipped, no --whole-archive for the
-        # entire build.
-        return False
-
-    if linking_mode != LINKING_MODE.STATIC:
-        # legacy whole archive only applies to static linking mode.
-        return False
-
-    if feature_configuration.is_requested("legacy_whole_archive"):
-        # --incompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive has not been flipped, and this target requested
-        # --whole-archive using features.
-        return True
-
-    if cpp_config.legacy_whole_archive():
-        # --incompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive has not been flipped, so whether to
-        # use --whole-archive depends on --legacy_whole_archive.
-        return True
-
-    # Hopefully future default.
-    return False
-
 def _quote_replacement(s):
     if "\\" not in s and "$" not in s:
         return s
diff --git a/tests/integration/cc_shared_library_tests.sh b/tests/integration/cc_shared_library_tests.sh
index 437fce83e..420b9a41e 100755
--- a/tests/integration/cc_shared_library_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/integration/cc_shared_library_tests.sh
@@ -100,7 +100,6 @@ cc_shared_library(
 EOF
 
   bazel build \
-    --noincompatible_remove_legacy_whole_archive \
     --experimental_cc_shared_library \
     //foo:foo_shared >& "${TEST_log}" || fail "Expected build to succeed"