[llvm-dev] GN build roundtable summary; adding GN build files to the repo

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz via llvm-dev]

Hello!

On 10/31/18 7:18 PM, Nico Weber via llvm-dev wrote:
> At the LLVM conference, I gave a lightning talk [1] about using GN [2] to build LLVM and clang. cmake is great for many use cases, but in my opinion local day-to-day development isn't one of them. So I wrote GN build files for LLVM and clang, enough to make `ninja check-llvm check-clang check-lld` build everything needed for these three test suites and that all tests pass. This works on Linux, Mac, Win hosts targeting X86, ARM, AArch64. You can see them at [3].
> (...)
> Are there any concerns with checking in GN files? I've put some initial docs for the GN build at https://reviews.llvm.org/D53944 ; it describes what the GN build is and is not, what its advantages are (speed and easier configurability), and some points about the philosophy behind the LLVM GN build.

My personal experience with GN - last time I tested it - was that it was impossible to
build from source as the build procedure was anything but straight-forward and pretty
much architecture-locked in.

And I just tried it again on a POWER machine:

glaubitz at redpanda:/srv/glaubitz/gn$ python build/gen.py
Installing Debian root image from https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-linux-sysroot/toolchain/1015a998c2adf188813cca60b558b0ea1a0b6ced/debian_sid_amd64_sysroot.tar.xz
Downloading https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-linux-sysroot/toolchain/1015a998c2adf188813cca60b558b0ea1a0b6ced/debian_sid_amd64_sysroot.tar.xz
glaubitz at redpanda:/srv/glaubitz/gn$

Jepp, hasn't changed. If building your build system involves downloading a Debian
chroot with a hard-coded architecture, you're doing something wrong. And from my personal
experience with Google upstream, you can outright forget that they would accept patches
for any target that they are not using themselves.

I really wouldn't recommend using GN. It might be fast, but the whole design seems
to be tailored to Google's own needs.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz at debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz at physik.fu-berlin.de
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