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From:   Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Date:   Wed, 2 Dec 2020 16:07:54 -0800
Message-ID: <CAKwvOdmfbsTN6GtHwvkgJ=12mBhUzmAgSGtnvA-bRw4tYYZ+BQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 02/16] kbuild: add support for Clang LTO
To:     Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
Cc:     Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
        Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>,
        Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
        "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>,
        clang-built-linux <clang-built-linux@googlegroups.com>,
        Kernel Hardening <kernel-hardening@lists.openwall.com>,
        linux-arch <linux-arch@vger.kernel.org>,
        Linux ARM <linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org>,
        Linux Kbuild mailing list <linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        PCI <linux-pci@vger.kernel.org>
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On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 1:37 PM Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com> wrote:
>
> This change adds build system support for Clang's Link Time
> Optimization (LTO). With -flto, instead of ELF object files, Clang
> produces LLVM bitcode, which is compiled into native code at link
> time, allowing the final binary to be optimized globally. For more
> details, see:
>
>   https://llvm.org/docs/LinkTimeOptimization.html
>
> The Kconfig option CONFIG_LTO_CLANG is implemented as a choice,
> which defaults to LTO being disabled. To use LTO, the architecture
> must select ARCH_SUPPORTS_LTO_CLANG and support:
>
>   - compiling with Clang,
>   - compiling inline assembly with Clang's integrated assembler,
>   - and linking with LLD.
>
> While using full LTO results in the best runtime performance, the
> compilation is not scalable in time or memory. CONFIG_THINLTO
> enables ThinLTO, which allows parallel optimization and faster
> incremental builds. ThinLTO is used by default if the architecture
> also selects ARCH_SUPPORTS_THINLTO:
>
>   https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThinLTO.html
>
> To enable LTO, LLVM tools must be used to handle bitcode files. The
> easiest way is to pass the LLVM=1 option to make:
>
>   $ make LLVM=1 defconfig
>   $ scripts/config -e LTO_CLANG
>   $ make LLVM=1
>
> Alternatively, at least the following LLVM tools must be used:
>
>   CC=clang LD=ld.lld AR=llvm-ar NM=llvm-nm
>
> To prepare for LTO support with other compilers, common parts are
> gated behind the CONFIG_LTO option, and LTO can be disabled for
> specific files by filtering out CC_FLAGS_LTO.
>
> Signed-off-by: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
> Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>

Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
-- 
Thanks,
~Nick Desaulniers