Phase 5 E4-1: Free Wrapper ENV Snapshot (+3.51% GO, ADOPTED)

Target: Consolidate free wrapper TLS reads (2→1)
- free() is 25.26% self% (top hot spot)
- Strategy: Apply E1 success pattern (ENV snapshot) to free path

Implementation:
- ENV gate: HAKMEM_FREE_WRAPPER_ENV_SNAPSHOT=0/1 (default 0)
- core/box/free_wrapper_env_snapshot_box.{h,c}: New box
  - Consolidates 2 TLS reads → 1 TLS read (50% reduction)
  - Reduces 4 branches → 3 branches (25% reduction)
  - Lazy init with probe window (bench_profile putenv sync)
- core/box/hak_wrappers.inc.h: Integration in free() wrapper
- Makefile: Add free_wrapper_env_snapshot_box.o to all targets

A/B Test Results (Mixed, 10-run, 20M iters):
- Baseline (SNAPSHOT=0): 45.35M ops/s (mean), 45.31M ops/s (median)
- Optimized (SNAPSHOT=1): 46.94M ops/s (mean), 47.15M ops/s (median)
- Improvement: +3.51% mean, +4.07% median

Decision: GO (+3.51% >= +1.0% threshold)
- Exceeded conservative estimate (+1.5% → +3.51%)
- Similar efficiency to E1 (+3.92%)
- Health check: PASS (all profiles)
- Action: PROMOTED to MIXED_TINYV3_C7_SAFE preset

Phase 5 Cumulative:
- E1 (ENV Snapshot): +3.92%
- E4-1 (Free Wrapper Snapshot): +3.51%
- Total Phase 4-5: ~+7.5%

E3-4 Correction:
- Phase 4 E3-4 (ENV Constructor Init): NO-GO / FROZEN
- Initial A/B showed +4.75%, but investigation revealed:
  - Branch prediction hint mismatch (UNLIKELY with always-true)
  - Retest confirmed -1.78% regression
  - Root cause: __builtin_expect(..., 0) with ctor_mode==1
- Decision: Freeze as research box (default OFF)
- Learning: Branch hints need careful tuning, TLS consolidation safer

Deliverables:
- docs/analysis/PHASE5_E4_FREE_GATE_OPTIMIZATION_1_DESIGN.md
- docs/analysis/PHASE5_E4_1_FREE_WRAPPER_ENV_SNAPSHOT_NEXT_INSTRUCTIONS.md
- docs/analysis/PHASE5_E4_2_MALLOC_WRAPPER_ENV_SNAPSHOT_NEXT_INSTRUCTIONS.md (next)
- docs/analysis/PHASE5_POST_E1_NEXT_INSTRUCTIONS.md
- docs/analysis/ENV_PROFILE_PRESETS.md (E4-1 added, E3-4 corrected)
- CURRENT_TASK.md (E4-1 complete, E3-4 frozen)
- core/bench_profile.h (E4-1 promoted to default)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

core/box/hakmem_env_snapshot_box.h

@@ -60,9 +60,13 @@ extern int g_hakmem_env_snapshot_ctor_mode;
 // ENV gate: default OFF (research box, set =1 to enable)
 // E3-4: Dual-mode - constructor init (fast) or legacy lazy init (fallback)
 static inline bool hakmem_env_snapshot_enabled(void) {
-    // E3-4 Fast path: constructor mode (no lazy check, just global read)
-    // Default is OFF, so ctor_mode==1 is UNLIKELY.
-    if (__builtin_expect(g_hakmem_env_snapshot_ctor_mode == 1, 0)) {
+    // E3-4 Fast path: constructor mode (no lazy check, just global read).
+    // Important: do not put a static LIKELY/UNLIKELY hint here.
+    // - Default runs want ctor_mode==0 to be "fast"
+    // - CTOR runs want ctor_mode==1 to be "fast"
+    // Any fixed hint will be wrong for one of the modes and can induce steady-state mispredicts.
+    int ctor_mode = g_hakmem_env_snapshot_ctor_mode;
+    if (ctor_mode == 1) {
         return g_hakmem_env_snapshot_gate != 0;
     }