gentoo-amd64  

Re: [gentoo-amd64] Assembler USE flag unmaskings

Daniel Iliev
Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:05:35 -0700

Simon Stelling wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Back in May 2005 we made the decision to not use the assembler USE
> flags because AMD64 was not affected by the "lots of sub-arches"
> problem and instead just enable SIMD code where possible. As a result
> of this, the 3dnow, 3dnowext, mmx, mmxext, sse and sse2 USE flags got
> masked.
> This decision turned out to be not the best. Intel's EM64T processors
> don't support 3dnow and 3dnowext, there are AMD64s with and without
> SSE3 support. The "one size fits all" idea simply is no longer true.
> Starting with portage 2.1.2_pre3-r4, there is support to force USE
> flags on or off on a per-package basis. This means less ebuild hackery
> for us, and so I went and checked the ~50 packages with mentioned USE
> flags.
>
> The result is that the assembler USE flags convey their actual meaning
> again IF AND ONLY IF you use >=portage-2.1.2_pre3-r4. I suggest you to
> stick at least "mmx mmxext sse sse2" into your USE flags, as this is
> the common denominator of all AMD64s. If your processor supports it,
> 3dnow and 3dnowext might be worth adding too.
>
> *For users of portage versions prior to 2.1.2_pre3-r4 nothing
> changes*, but I'd still recommend to add the USE flags. They will
> become effective as soon as you upgrade portage.
>
> In a nutshell:
>
> 1. add "mmx mmxext sse sse2" to your USE flags
> 2. emerge -u portage
> 3. emerge -NuD world
>
> If you experience any build failures, please file a bug report on
> http://bugs.gentoo.org/
>
> Thank you for your attention, the team wishes you a convenient flight.
>

What about enabling those extensions via C[XX]FLAGS? Is this still a bad
idea?

-- 
Best regards,
Daniel


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