Re: Slim and optimized LLVM toolchains for building the Linux kernel

From: Nathan Chancellor
Date: Tue Mar 28 2023 - 15:09:13 EST


On Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 04:56:21PM -0700, Nathan Chancellor wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> To make building the Linux kernel with clang/LLVM easier and more
> accessible to people (since distributions tend to only package one
> version at a time and it may be old or have bugs that have since been
> fixed), I have uploaded some slim, profile guided optimized LLVM toolchains
> to my section of kernel.org/pub:
>
> https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/nathan/llvm/

This is now

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/tools/llvm/

so that they are no longer tied directly to my kernel.org account. I
have updated the README with additional information based on feedback
that I have received thus far.

> The landing page should have all the relevant information but if I need
> to clarify or expand on anything, I am more than happy to do so.
>
> Due to benchmarking the compilers against the kernel during PGO, they
> can handily beat distribution versions that have not been optimized:
>
> https://gist.github.com/nathanchance/8d1abed70077ac92cb198ef32389072e
>
> I aim to keep these up to date with the latest stable versions of LLVM
> as they are released (so 16.0.0 will be replaced with 16.0.1 when it is
> released, etc).

Cheers,
Nathan