Clang is a compiler with many desirable features (outlined on their website).
Chrome can be built with Clang. It is now the default compiler on Mac and Linux for building Chrome, and it is currently useful for its warning and error messages on Android and Windows.
See the open bugs.
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Get clang (happens automatically during gclient runhooks
on Mac and Linux):
tools/clang/scripts/update.sh
(Only needs to be run once per checkout, and clang will be automatically updated
by gclient runhooks
.)
We don't have bots that test this, but building with gcc4.8+ should still work on Linux. If your system gcc is new enough, use this to build with gcc if you don't want to build with clang:
GYP_DEFINES=clang=0 build/gyp_chromium
Regenerate the build files (clang=1
is on by default on Mac and Linux):
If you use gyp: GYP_DEFINES=clang=1 build/gyp_chromium
If you use gn, run gn args
and add is_clang = true
to your args.gn file.
Build: ninja -C out/Debug chrome
http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/clang/topics
The chromium style plugin is used by default when clang is used.
If you're working on the plugin, you can build it locally like so:
- Run
./tools/clang/scripts/update.sh --force-local-build --without-android
to build the plugin. - Build with clang like described above.
TODO: writing_clang_plugins does not exist.
To run other plugins, add these to your
GYP_DEFINES
:
clang_load
: Absolute path to a dynamic library containing your pluginclang_add_plugin
: tells clang to run a specific PluginASTAction
So for example, you could use the plugin in this directory with:
GYP_DEFINES='clang=1 clang_load=/path/to/libFindBadConstructs.so clang_add_plugin=find-bad-constructs' gclient runhooks
Experimental!
clang can be used as compiler on Windows. Clang uses Visual Studio's linker and SDK, so you still need to have Visual Studio installed.
Things should compile, and all tests should pass. You can check these bots for how things are currently looking: http://build.chromium.org/p/chromium.fyi/console?category=win%20clang
python tools\clang\scripts\update.py
set GYP_DEFINES=clang=1
python build\gyp_chromium
# or, if you use gn, run `gn args` and add `is_clang = true` to your args.gn
ninja -C out\Debug chrome
Current brokenness:
- Goma doesn't work.
- Debug info is very limited.
- To get colored diagnostics, you need to be running ansicon.
If you want to try building Chromium with your own clang binary that you've
already built, set make_clang_dir
to the directory containing bin/clang
(i.e. the directory you ran cmake in, or your Release+Asserts
folder if you
use the configure/make build). You also need to disable chromium's clang plugin
by setting clang_use_chrome_plugins=0
, as it likely won't load in your custom
clang binary.
Here's an example that also disables debug info and enables the component build (both not strictly necessary, but they will speed up your build):
GYP_DEFINES="clang=1 fastbuild=1 component=shared_library \
clang_use_chrome_plugins=0 make_clang_dir=$HOME/src/llvm-build" \
build/gyp_chromium
You can then run head out/Release/build.ninja
and check that the first to
lines set cc
and cxx
to your clang binary. If things look good, run ninja -C out/Release
to build.
If your clang revision is very different from the one currently used in chromium
- Check
tools/clang/scripts/update.sh
to find chromium's clang revision - You might have to tweak warning flags. Or you could set
werror=
in the line above to disable warnings as errors (but this only works on Linux).