Updating Platform Toolchains

For the latest version of this doc, please make sure to visit: Android Clang/LLVM Toolchain Prebuilts Doc

Picking a good upstream revision

We generally like to follow along with upstream LLVM's Google stable tag:

http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/tags/google/stable/

You can use git/svn to query the latest tagged version to see what we will be validating next.

Updating Toolchain Source

The following process is done in the Android LLVM tree. To fetch the sources:

repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b llvm

# Googlers, use
repo init -u \
    persistent-https://android.git.corp.google.com/platform/manifest -b llvm

Loop over llvm, clang, compiler-rt (in this order):

  1. We are working from a separate untracked/merged branch called aosp/dev.

     git branch -D working_dev
     repo start working_dev .
    
  2. OPTIONAL FIXUPS. These aren't really necessary if you remember to always keep aosp/dev and aosp/master synchronized otherwise, but very often someone will forget to merge back a change.

    1. Grab the squashed commit that went into aosp/master and mark it committed to aosp/dev too.

      Note: If there were changes to aosp/master before the squashed commit, grab those changes (using step 2), before applying this step, and finally repeat step 2 for changes after the squashed commit.

      git branch -D clean_master
      git checkout -b clean_master <SHA_FOR_SQUASH>
      git checkout working_dev
      git merge -s ours clean_master
      git push aosp refs/heads/working_dev:refs/heads/dev
      git branch -D clean_master
      
    2. Grab all outstanding changes that went into aosp/master and put them into aosp/dev too.

      git branch -D clean_master
      git checkout -b clean_master aosp/master
      git checkout working_dev
      git merge clean_master
      git push aosp refs/heads/working_dev:refs/heads/dev
      git branch -D clean_master
      
  3. Merge the upstream branch. Use git log aosp/upsteam-master to browse upstream commits and find a SHA.

    git merge <upstream_sha>
    
  4. Fix conflicts.

  5. Update build rules and commit that patch on top.

  6. Test everything before pushing.

  7. Submit your work to aosp/dev.

    git push aosp refs/heads/working_dev:refs/heads/dev
    
  8. Squash your work for aosp/master.

    repo start update_38 .
    git merge --squash working_dev
    git commit -a
    repo upload .
    
  9. Test everything before submitting the patch from the previous step.

  10. Grab the squashed commit and replay it in aosp/dev.

    repo sync .
    git remote update
    git branch -D clean_master
    git checkout -b clean_master aosp/master
    git checkout working_dev
    

    Use -s ours to ensure that we skip the squashed set of changes. If/when we forget this, we have to do it later.

    git merge -s ours clean_master
    git push aosp refs/heads/working_dev:refs/heads/dev
    git branch -D clean_master
    
  11. Clean up after our working branch.

    git checkout --detach
    git branch -D working_dev
    

This works better because we can keep full history in aosp/dev, while maintaining easy reverts/commits through aosp/master.

Generating New Prebuilts

  1. Run the toolchain build script. This will perform a two stage build and create a tarball of the final toolchain.

     python external/clang/build.py
    
  2. The just built toolchain can be tested in an existing AOSP tree by invoking make with:

     make \
         LLVM_PREBUILTS_VERSION=clang-dev \
         LLVM_PREBUILTS_BASE=/path/to/llvm/out/install
    

    This will use the just built toolchain rather than the one in prebuilts/. If you used something other than the default for --build-name, use clang-$BUILD_NAME instead of clang-dev.

  3. Once the updates have been verified, upload to gerrit, review, submit. The build server will pick up the changes and build them. The LLVM build page is http://go/clang-build. Sorry, Googlers only (for now) :(

  4. To update the platform compiler, download the selected package from the build server and extract them to the appropriate prebuilts directory. The new directory will be named "clang-BUILD_NUMBER".

  5. Update LLVM\_PREBUILTS\_VERSION in build/core/clang/config.mk to match the new prebuilt directory. We typically keep around two versions of the toolchain in prebuilts so we can easily switch between them in the build system rather than needing to revert prebuilts. This also allows developers that need new toolchain features to take advantage of them locally while validation for the new compiler is still in progress.

  6. Rebuild/test everything one more time to ensure correctness.

    Make sure you check goog/master as well as aosp/master.

    There may be necessary fixups here, to handle .ll reading or other projects where new warnings/errors are firing.

     m -j48 checkbuild
    
  7. Upload the changes produced in prebuilts/clang/host. This may entail more than a simple git commit -a, so look at git status before finally uploading/committing.

    repo start updated_toolchain .
    git add clang-BUILD_NUMBER
    git commit
    repo upload --cbr .
    
  8. Submit CLs.

Testing Checklist

  1. Do a checkbuild.

  2. Go to external/llvm and run ./android_test.sh (no known failures as of 2015-10-08).

  3. Ensure successful build for all architectures: 32- and 64- bit ARM, x86 and Mips.

  4. Run ART host tests. This was broken by a rebase once, and worth testing after every rebase.

    croot && cd art && mma -j40 test-art-host
    
  5. Run ART device tests.

    croot && cd art && mma -j4 test-art-device
    

Checklist for CLs

The following projects will almost always have CLs as a part of the rebase. Depending on the changes in LLVM, there might be updates to other projects as well.

  • External projects

    • external/clang
    • external/compiler-rt
    • external/llvm
  • Prebuilts

    • prebuilts/clang/host/darwin-x86/
    • prebuilts/clang/host/linux-x86/
    • prebuilts/clang/host/windows-x86/