Zig accepts a Fil-C-inspired fully memory-safe compilation mode

Sources: Zig issue 36237 (Codeberg), HN discussion
Summary: Andrew Kelley opened and accepted a proposal on 2026-07-20 for a new fil ABI, alongside the existing musl and gnu ABIs, that compiles Zig with the Fil-C runtime memory-safety model: pointer-provenance checks (invisicaps), syscall wrapping, and no unsafe escape hatch. Violations panic at runtime rather than being prevented statically. Initial scope is x86_64 Linux only, all linked objects must use the fil ABI, and the proposal estimates roughly 1x to 6x overhead depending on pointer usage.
Why it matters: A first-party runtime memory-safe mode would give Zig a distinct safety story from Rust's compile-time model and extend the Fil-C approach beyond C and C++.