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Nathan Chancellor df05c0e949 Documentation: Raise the minimum supported version of LLVM to 11.0.0
LLVM versions prior to 11.0.0 have a harder time with dead code
elimination, which can cause issues with commonly used expressions such
as BUILD_BUG_ON and the bitmask functions/macros in bitfield.h (see the
first two issues links below).

Whenever there is an issue within LLVM that has been resolved in a later
release, the only course of action is to gate the problematic
configuration or source code on the toolchain verson or raise the
minimum supported version of LLVM for building the kernel, as LLVM has a
limited support lifetime compared to GCC. GCC major releases will
typically see a few point releases across a two year period on average
whereas LLVM major releases are only supported until the next major
release and will only see one or two point releases within that
timeframe. For example, GCC 8.1 was released in May 2018 and GCC 8.5 was
released in May 2021, whereas LLVM 12.0.0 was released in April 2021 and
its only point release, 12.0.1, was released in July 2021, giving a
minimal window for fixes to be backported.

To resolve these build errors around improper dead code elimination,
raise the minimum supported version of LLVM for building the kernel to
11.0.0. Doing so is a more proper solution than mucking around with core
kernel macros that have always worked with GCC or disabling drivers for
using these macros in a proper manner. This type of issue may continue
to crop up and require patching, which creates more debt for bumping the
minimum supported version in the future.

This should have a minimal impact to distributions. Using a script to
pull several different Docker images and check the output of
'clang --version':

archlinux:latest: clang version 13.0.0

debian:oldoldstable-slim: clang version 3.8.1-24 (tags/RELEASE_381/final)
debian:oldstable-slim: clang version 7.0.1-8+deb10u2 (tags/RELEASE_701/final)
debian:stable-slim: Debian clang version 11.0.1-2
debian:testing-slim: Debian clang version 11.1.0-4
debian:unstable-slim: Debian clang version 11.1.0-4

fedora:34: clang version 12.0.1 (Fedora 12.0.1-1.fc34)
fedora:latest: clang version 13.0.0 (Fedora 13.0.0-3.fc35)
fedora:rawhide: clang version 13.0.0 (Fedora 13.0.0-5.fc36)

opensuse/leap:15.2: clang version 9.0.1
opensuse/leap:latest: clang version 11.0.1
opensuse/tumbleweed:latest: clang version 13.0.0

ubuntu:bionic: clang version 6.0.0-1ubuntu2 (tags/RELEASE_600/final)
ubuntu:latest: clang version 10.0.0-4ubuntu1
ubuntu:hirsute: Ubuntu clang version 12.0.0-3ubuntu1~21.04.2
ubuntu:rolling: Ubuntu clang version 13.0.0-2
ubuntu:devel: Ubuntu clang version 13.0.0-9

In every case, the distribution's version of clang is either older than
the current minimum supported version of LLVM 10.0.1 or equal to or
greater than the proposed 11.0.0 so nothing should change.

Another benefit of this change is LLVM=1 works better with arm64 and
x86_64 since commit f12b034afe ("scripts/Makefile.clang: default to
LLVM_IAS=1") enabled the integrated assembler by default, which only
works well with clang 11+ (clang-10 required it to be disabled to
successfully build a kernel).

Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/1293
Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/1506
Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/1511
Link: fa496ce3c6
Link: https://groups.google.com/g/clang-built-linux/c/mPQb9_ZWW0s/m/W7o6S-QTBAAJ
Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/misc-scripts
Signed-off-by: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
2021-12-02 17:24:32 +09:00
arch A single fix for a missing __init annotation of prepare_command_line(). 2021-11-28 09:24:50 -08:00
block block: call rq_qos_done() before ref check in batch completions 2021-11-26 09:53:23 -07:00
certs certs: Add support for using elliptic curve keys for signing modules 2021-08-23 19:55:42 +03:00
crypto Update to zstd-1.4.10 2021-11-13 15:32:30 -08:00
Documentation Documentation: Raise the minimum supported version of LLVM to 11.0.0 2021-12-02 17:24:32 +09:00
drivers vhost,virtio,vdpa: bugfixes 2021-11-28 11:58:52 -08:00
fs 5 ksmbd server fixes, 4 for stable 2021-11-27 14:49:35 -08:00
include vhost,virtio,vdpa: bugfixes 2021-11-28 11:58:52 -08:00
init kbuild: Fix -Wimplicit-fallthrough=5 error for GCC 5.x and 6.x 2021-11-14 18:59:49 -08:00
ipc shm: extend forced shm destroy to support objects from several IPC nses 2021-11-20 10:35:54 -08:00
kernel A single scheduler fix to ensure that there is no stale KASAN shadow state 2021-11-28 09:15:34 -08:00
lib parisc: Increase FRAME_WARN to 2048 bytes on parisc 2021-11-22 07:37:31 +01:00
LICENSES LICENSES/dual/CC-BY-4.0: Git rid of "smart quotes" 2021-07-15 06:31:24 -06:00
mm Fixes for 5.16 folios: 2021-11-25 10:13:56 -08:00
net vhost,virtio,vdpa: bugfixes 2021-11-28 11:58:52 -08:00
samples s390 updates for 5.16-rc2 2021-11-20 10:55:50 -08:00
scripts Documentation: Raise the minimum supported version of LLVM to 11.0.0 2021-12-02 17:24:32 +09:00
security selinux: fix NULL-pointer dereference when hashtab allocation fails 2021-11-19 16:11:39 -05:00
sound xen: branch for v5.16-rc3 2021-11-26 09:54:13 -08:00
tools Networking fixes for 5.16-rc3, including fixes from netfilter. 2021-11-26 12:58:53 -08:00
usr initramfs: Check timestamp to prevent broken cpio archive 2021-10-24 13:48:40 +09:00
virt Merge branch 'kvm-5.16-fixes' into kvm-master 2021-11-18 02:11:57 -05:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update with the latest for_each macro list 2021-05-12 23:32:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore Opt out of scripts/get_maintainer.pl 2019-05-16 10:53:40 -07:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: use 'dts' diff driver for dts files 2019-12-04 19:44:11 -08:00
.gitignore .gitignore: ignore only top-level modules.builtin 2021-05-02 00:43:35 +09:00
.mailmap MAINTAINERS: update email address of Christian Borntraeger 2021-11-18 17:50:54 +01:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: Move Daniel Drake to credits 2021-09-21 08:34:58 +03:00
Kbuild kbuild: rename hostprogs-y/always to hostprogs/always-y 2020-02-04 01:53:07 +09:00
Kconfig kbuild: ensure full rebuild when the compiler is updated 2020-05-12 13:28:33 +09:00
MAINTAINERS Networking fixes for 5.16-rc3, including fixes from netfilter. 2021-11-26 12:58:53 -08:00
Makefile Linux 5.16-rc3 2021-11-28 14:09:19 -08:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.