Re: Configuring and building the kernel using clang

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 11:28:38AM -0400, Darryl L. Pierce wrote: > I'm trying to get up to speed with Linux kernel development and have a > few questions: > > 1. According to the book I'm reading (_Linux Kernel Development_ by > Robert Love) the current kernel's configuration can be found at > /proc/config.gz. But on Fedora, that's not the case, and it's in /boot/ > as config-{VERSION}. How do I use this in the same way that I would have > used /proc/config.gz? It's the same format, but the one in boot isn't gzipped, and doesn't use up kernel memory.

> 2. On the kernel-janitors mailing list I asked how to get started, and > was recommended to use clang to build the kernel and submit patches to > fix errors reported. Has anybody successfully built the kernel usin > clang packaged for Fedora? If so, how? I tried: > > make cc=clang > > and the build immediately failed on inline assembler code. I'd > appreciate a recommendation on how to approach building that way. If you're just starting out, I'd advise something simpler until you're comfortable working on the kernel. This isn't a small amount of work and there's plenty of other low-hanging fruit.

If you're determined however, I'd start by reading up at http://llvm.linuxfoundation.org/index.php/Main_Page The stock kernel.org tree lacks some of the work already done. (I've no idea on the state/quality of the patches already done, and whether they're even mergable upstream)