Is it true that the released version cannot load third-party plugins?

[Krysl]

I wrote a plugin and discovered that among the recent versions, only 3.2.25116.2104 seems capable of loading my plugin, while others cannot.

Using DependenciesGui.exe to inspect the exported symbols of SystemInformer.exe,
I found that in all versions (except 3.2.25116.2104), the symbols have been transformed into forms like Original_\d\d\d\d.
However, the exported symbols of the SystemInformer.exe I compiled all have original function names.

I noticed that it seems to be the function ExportDefinitions in tools\CustomBuildTool\Build.cs that processes the exported symbols:

systeminformer/tools/CustomBuildTool/Build.cs

Lines 1706 to 1770 in 08dbe56

	public static void ExportDefinitions(bool ReleaseBuild)
	{
	List<int> ordinals = [];
	StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
	StringBuilder output_header = new StringBuilder();
	var content = Utils.ReadAllText("SystemInformer\\SystemInformer.def");
	var lines = content.Split("\r\n");
	int total = lines.Length;
	if (ReleaseBuild)
	{
	while (ordinals.Count < total)
	{
	var value = Random.Shared.Next(1000, 1000 + total);
	if (!ordinals.Contains(value))
	{
	ordinals.Add(value);
	}
	}
	}
	else
	{
	while (ordinals.Count < total)
	{
	ordinals.Add(1000 + ordinals.Count + 1);
	}
	}
	output_header.AppendLine(ExportHeader);
	foreach (string line in lines)
	{
	var span = line.AsSpan();
	if (span.IsWhiteSpace())
	{
	output.Append(span);
	output.AppendLine();
	}
	else
	{
	if (span.StartsWith(" ", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
	{
	var ordinal = ordinals[0]; ordinals.RemoveAt(0);
	var name_end = span.Slice(4).IndexOf(' ');
	if (name_end == -1)
	name_end = span.Slice(4).Length;
	var name = span.Slice(4, name_end).ToString();
	if (span.IndexOf(" DATA", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) != -1)
	output.AppendLine($" {name,-55} @{ordinal,-5} NONAME DATA");
	else
	output.AppendLine($" {name,-55} @{ordinal,-5} NONAME");
	output_header.AppendLine($"#define EXPORT_{name.ToUpper(),-55} {ordinal}");
	}
	else
	{
	output.Append(span);
	output.AppendLine();
	}
	}
	}

In the release versions, the exported symbols are random, which seems to prevent third-party plugins from locating the correct function positions.

Does this mean that developing plugins must require merging into the official codebase?
I am not very skilled in Windows and C++, so the plugin I created uses Dart/Flutter-related technologies. Therefore, I feel that merging it into the official repository is unlikely.

[dmex]

I found that in all versions (except 3.2.25116.2104), the symbols have been transformed into forms like Original_\d\d\d\d.

The names were causing false positives since they shared the same prefix as the SDK from Process Hacker.

However, the exported symbols of the SystemInformer.exe I compiled all have original function names.

Debug builds have named exports to make debugging easier

In the release versions, the exported symbols are random, which seems to prevent third-party plugins from locating the correct function positions.

We were testing this with the canary branch but it's disabled.

Does this mean that developing plugins must require merging into the official codebase?

No