It changes the memory allocation pattern based on the number / names? of the
cache files, making it very hard to get deterministic output from malloc.

They were handled as a "assert 0; jump to loop that doesn't return".
Instead, just allow "assert 0" to be a block terminator.

And use it to hunt down a tricky ref issue.  We were creating more "static constants"
during shutdown.

Rather than trying to avoid them or to support them, just break
them on-demand if they come up.

add parser module