On Thu, 7 Dec 2023 15:52:46 GMT, Daniel Jeliński <djelin...@openjdk.org> wrote:
> I'd like to propose a new toolchain for Windows using the clang-cl compiler > frontend. > > Clang-cl is available as an optional feature in all Visual Studio editions, > including the free-for-OSS-development community edition. > > Clang-cl command line is mostly compatible with cl. However, clang-cl offers > a distinct set of diagnostic messages and warnings, which can be used to > improve code quality. > > In order to use the clang compiler: > - install Visual Studio 2022 > - install C++ Clang Compiler > (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/clang-support-msbuild?view=msvc-170) > - configure `--with-toolchain-type=clcl` > - compile as usual. > > Note: at this moment the code does not build; I plan to submit separate > patches that fix the build problems separately. For the impatient, [this > patch](https://github.com/djelinski/jdk/commit/d67a16244f4e6db8e6e8c59266bebd17827bc2a5) > should be enough to compile the JDK, and [this > one](https://github.com/djelinski/jdk/commit/1580e7cf54cca61d3ab58891619553994ea26b10) > is needed to get tier1 to pass. This is effectively creating a new port. That shouldn't be done lightly. Who needs this? (Real question, not rhetorical.) We've discussed things like this in the past (build for Windows using something other than MSVC), and it wasn't clear there was a user community sufficient to warrant the effort to develop and (especially) maintain such a port. Who is going to maintain this? Most "secondary" ports have an associated JDK project that is responsible for them. This provides a place for other developers to find the maintainers. Because there was only the one configuration, there have been places that conflate Windows (the OS) and MSVC (the compiler), both in the build system and in the source code. And for source code that means both HotSpot and native code elsewhere in the JDK. Julian has been cleaning up some of that, but I've no idea how much might be left. And things will quickly bit rot if there aren't active maintainers. ------------- PR Review: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/17019#pullrequestreview-1774237983
