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Fran
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Joined: 29 Feb 2004
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Location: Coruña (Spain)
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 Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:54 pm Post subject: CFLAGS for 4 different PCs using binary packages? |
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I have 4 computers (2 amdfam10, 1 core2, 1 corei7-avx) and I want them to use the same binary packages to reduce compiling times and energy consumption. Which CFLAGS should I use? At first I thought of -mtune=generic -O2, but that's a bit conservative. Then I took a look at the options enabled by gcc for each one when using -march=native, which are:
| Code: | | march=core2 mcx16 msahf mno-movbe mno-aes mno-pclmul mno-popcnt mno-abm mno-lwp mno-fma mno-fma4 mno-xop mno-bmi mno-bmi2 mno-tbm mno-avx mno-avx2 mno-sse4.2 mno-sse4.1 mno-lzcnt mno-rdrnd mno-f16c mno-fsgsbase -param l1-cache-size=32 -param l1-cache-line-size=64 -param l2-cache-size=2048 mtune=core2 |
| Code: | | march=corei7-avx mcx16 msahf mno-movbe maes mpclmul mpopcnt mno-abm mno-lwp mno-fma mno-fma4 mno-xop mno-bmi mno-bmi2 mno-tbm mavx mno-avx2 msse4.2 msse4.1 mno-lzcnt mno-rdrnd mno-f16c mno-fsgsbase -param l1-cache-size=32 -param l1-cache-line-size=64 -param l2-cache-size=6144 mtune=corei7-avx |
| Code: | | march=amdfam10 mcx16 msahf mno-movbe mno-aes mno-pclmul mpopcnt mabm mno-lwp mno-fma mno-fma4 mno-xop mno-bmi mno-bmi2 mno-tbm mno-avx mno-avx2 mno-sse4.2 mno-sse4.1 mlzcnt mno-rdrnd mno-f16c mno-fsgsbase -param l1-cache-size=64 -param l1-cache-line-size=64 -param l2-cache-size=512 mtune=amdfam10 |
which would yield a common of -mtune=generic -O2 -mcx16 -msahf (I assume the -mno-xxx are included by default) but then I don't know which options are enabled by each respective -march=xxx that don't show there. For example, I assume that -msse3 is included in all three -marches, since all of them support them, so maybe there are other options supported by all of them that aren't included.
Yeah, I know the difference in performance may be <1%, but IT IS >0%, right?  . So, any way to get the real lowest common denominator between those arches? |
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DaggyStyle
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Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5909
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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you have 4 machines with different cpu type and want to compile on one and use binpkg install on the rest, imho, go for a binary based distro, you are trying to do basicly the same thing and thus loosing a main feature of gentoo.
if you must use gentoo, try one of the bin derivatives.
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein |
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Fran
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Joined: 29 Feb 2004
Posts: 530
Location: Coruña (Spain)
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| DaggyStyle wrote: | | and thus loosing a main feature of gentoo. |
Uh, no. My reasons to use gentoo instead of any other distro could be:
33% -> I can apply custom patches to any package
33% -> I can add an unsupported package simply by coding an ebuild
33% -> I choose the dependencies
1% -> I can use compile-time optimizations
I don't mind losing that 1%. But the more I can minimize that loss, the better (it's free). Hence this thread. |
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DaggyStyle
Watchman
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5909
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Fran wrote: | | DaggyStyle wrote: | | and thus loosing a main feature of gentoo. |
Uh, no. My reasons to use gentoo instead of any other distro could be:
33% -> I can apply custom patches to any package
33% -> I can add an unsupported package simply by coding an ebuild
33% -> I choose the dependencies
1% -> I can use compile-time optimizations
I don't mind losing that 1%. But the more I can minimize that loss, the better (it's free). Hence this thread. |
hence go for either the gentoo bin derivatives or even arch.
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein |
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ulenrich
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Joined: 10 Oct 2010
Posts: 1480
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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@Fran, please try calculate and report here from your binary experience.
I am curious and just on the brink to try that Gentoo derivative in a vm.
How do they provide bins?
As of Sabayon having a whole parallel package manager universe, coming with incompatibilities with Gentoo, I heard Calculate has a better solution to the issue. |
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NeddySeagoon
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Joined: 05 Jul 2003
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Location: 56N 3W
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Fran,
You are on the right track. Go through the settings you obtained from each machine and cross out any that do not appear in all three.
Whats left is common and therefore what you can use in CFLAGS on all of them.
If one happens to be a desktop that you want to use multimedia applications on that would benefit for the SIMD extensions, you can enable them on a per package per machine basis if its worth the performance increase.
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NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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Fran
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Joined: 29 Feb 2004
Posts: 530
Location: Coruña (Spain)
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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| ulenrich wrote: | | @Fran, please try calculate and report here from your binary experience. |
Nah. While I don't see any drawbacks in a "compile-once-install-everywhere" model, I have no interest whatsoever in going full binary. I seriously doubt there is a binary distro with packages compiled with some of my current USEs (-udisks -upower -consolekit -policykit -gstreamer -pulseaudio -gnome -kde, for example  ). Or a distro where patching the window manager to my liking is as simple as dropping a patch in /etc/portage/patches/x11-wm/yaddayadda (yeah, I do that frequently). For me THOSE are the best things about gentoo, NOT CFLAGS.
| NeddySeagoon wrote: | You are on the right track. Go through the settings you obtained from each machine and cross out any that do not appear in all three.
Whats left is common and therefore what you can use in CFLAGS on all of them. |
Yeah, but what about -msse3, for example? I know for sure it's supported by all three, and in fact it's enabled by default when using -march={core2,corei7-avx,amdfam10} even though it doesn't appear there. Are there any other flags implicit by all three -marches, apart from -mmmx, -msse, -msse2 and -msse3?
For now I'm using "-mtune=generic -mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -mcx16 -msahf -O2 -pipe", to ensure I don't get any "Illegal instruction" when running something. |
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NeddySeagoon
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Joined: 05 Jul 2003
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Location: 56N 3W
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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Fran,
Check FLAGS in /proc/cpuinfo all the instruction set extensions get CPU flags there.
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NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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