From 9f2aee8f7d1842be08da860e45265d30dba0d1f7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rong Xu Date: Fri, 29 May 2026 11:53:46 -0700 Subject: kbuild: distributed build support for Clang ThinLTO Add distributed ThinLTO build support for the Linux kernel. This new mode offers several advantages: (1) Increased flexibility in handling user-specified build options. (2) Improved user-friendliness for developers. (3) Greater convenience for integrating with objtool and livepatch. Note that "distributed" in this context refers to a term that differentiates in-process ThinLTO builds by invoking backend compilation through the linker, not necessarily building in distributed environments. Distributed ThinLTO is enabled via the `CONFIG_LTO_CLANG_THIN_DIST` Kconfig option. For example: > make LLVM=1 defconfig > scripts/config -e LTO_CLANG_THIN_DIST > make LLVM=1 oldconfig > make LLVM=1 vmlinux -j <..> The build flow proceeds in four stages: 1. Perform FE compilation, mirroring the in-process ThinLTO mode. 2. Thin-link the generated IR files and object files. 3. Find all IR files and perform BE compilation, using the flags stored in the .*.o.cmd files. 4. Link the BE results to generate the final vmlinux.o. NOTE: This patch currently implements the build for the main kernel image (vmlinux) only. Kernel module support is planned for a subsequent patch. Tested on the following arch: x86, arm64, loongarch, and riscv. The earlier implementation details can be found here: https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-distributed-thinlto-build-for-kernel/85934 Signed-off-by: Rong Xu Co-developed-by: Masahiro Yamada Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada Tested-by: Piotr Gorski Tested-by: Nathan Chancellor Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260529185347.2418373-4-xur@google.com Signed-off-by: Nathan Chancellor --- scripts/Makefile.lib | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) (limited to 'scripts/Makefile.lib') diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.lib b/scripts/Makefile.lib index 0718e39cedda..86e1428cc55d 100644 --- a/scripts/Makefile.lib +++ b/scripts/Makefile.lib @@ -249,6 +249,13 @@ ifdef CONFIG_LTO_CLANG cmd_ld_single = $(if $(objtool-enabled)$(is-single-obj-m), ; $(LD) $(ld_flags) -r -o $(tmp-target) $@; mv $(tmp-target) $@) endif +ifdef CONFIG_LTO_CLANG_THIN_DIST +# Save the _c_flags, sliently. +quiet_cmd_save_c_flags = + saved_c_flags = $(_c_flags) $(modkern_cflags) + cmd_save_c_flags = printf '\n%s\n' 'saved_c_flags_$@ := $(call escsq,$(saved_c_flags))' >> $(dot-target).cmd +endif + quiet_cmd_cc_o_c = CC $(quiet_modtag) $@ cmd_cc_o_c = $(CC) $(c_flags) -c -o $@ $< \ $(cmd_ld_single) \ @@ -256,6 +263,7 @@ quiet_cmd_cc_o_c = CC $(quiet_modtag) $@ define rule_cc_o_c $(call cmd_and_fixdep,cc_o_c) + $(call cmd,save_c_flags) $(call cmd,checksrc) $(call cmd,checkdoc) $(call cmd,gen_objtooldep) -- cgit v1.2.3