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When did they switch to Clang? The about:buildconfig of my Developer Edition (Ubuntu) shows GCC 6.4.0, without -flto obviously. On a related note, I wish they

When did they switch to Clang? The about:buildconfig of my Developer Edition (Ubuntu) shows GCC 6.4.0, without -flto obviously. On a related note, I wish they would add the information about the Rust compiler used to compile the components written in Rust.

spystath 8y ago
Probably this refers only to the pre-compiled builds offered by Mozilla? The distribution packagers build Firefox from source before pushing them to the repository so it would make sense to use the default compiler for the distribution. On a relevant note, is there any linux distribution that defaults to clang instead of GCC? Up until a couple of years ago the kernel would not even build with clang.
- archi42 8y ago
  IIRC some article claimed OpenSUSE would now use clang with lto. That must have been about a month or two ago.
swsieber 8y ago
Do you mean which version they use (e.g. 1.28, stable, beta, nightly, etc.)? They have a dedicated page for required versions: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Rust_Update_Policy_for_Firefox https://wiki.mozilla.org/Rust_Update_Policy_for_Firefox The tables are confusing, but it seems like they require the most recent stable as of 2 weeks before the firefox release.
abrowne 8y ago
This is for Mozilla's own builds. If you add a .desktop file¹, they work great, and they include a built-in updater (like the updater on Mac or Win). 1: https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/01/22/335/ https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/01/22/335/
- ris 8y ago
  > and they include a built-in updater (like the updater on Mac or Win) Oh joy! Sign me up!
  - majewsky 8y ago
    I guess having the app update itself may have some appeal for LTS and enterprise distros, where you cannot get the latest-greatest release from the distro vendor. On something like Arch Linux, it's pretty pointless and actually counter-productive: By the time, the package lands in the stable channel of the distro, you know that it works well with all your system libraries because someone tested it.
cptskippy 8y ago
It's all in the first 3 sentences of the article. > You might have read that Mozilla recently switched Windows builds to clang-cl... As of next nightly (as of writing, obviously), all tier-1 platforms are now built with clang with LTO enabled.
- ainar-g 8y ago
  What I meant is, when did they start the switch, and which versions have already switched.
  - dblohm7 8y ago
    Nightly is based off of mozilla-central, our trunk. When Nightly switches, that means that the version currently being developed (64), is the first version that has been switched.
  - rebelwebmaster 8y ago
    Fx63 (on Beta and Developer Edition) is on track to ship with clang-cl as the Windows compiler too.
    - cptskippy 8y ago
      Windows builds were switched to clang back in July before Linux. MacOS was already using it.
rebelwebmaster 8y ago
Developer Edition builds are based on their current Beta version (Fx63 at this point) and this change just landed on Nightly, which is tracking Fx64.

spystath 8y ago

Probably this refers only to the pre-compiled builds offered by Mozilla? The distribution packagers build Firefox from source before pushing them to the repository so it would make sense to use the default compiler for the distribution. On a relevant note, is there any linux distribution that defaults to clang instead of GCC? Up until a couple of years ago the kernel would not even build with clang.

archi42 8y ago
IIRC some article claimed OpenSUSE would now use clang with lto. That must have been about a month or two ago.

swsieber 8y ago

Do you mean which version they use (e.g. 1.28, stable, beta, nightly, etc.)? They have a dedicated page for required versions: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Rust_Update_Policy_for_Firefox https://wiki.mozilla.org/Rust_Update_Policy_for_Firefox The tables are confusing, but it seems like they require the most recent stable as of 2 weeks before the firefox release.

abrowne 8y ago

This is for Mozilla's own builds. If you add a .desktop file¹, they work great, and they include a built-in updater (like the updater on Mac or Win). 1: https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/01/22/335/ https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/01/22/335/

ris 8y ago
> and they include a built-in updater (like the updater on Mac or Win) Oh joy! Sign me up!
- majewsky 8y ago
  I guess having the app update itself may have some appeal for LTS and enterprise distros, where you cannot get the latest-greatest release from the distro vendor. On something like Arch Linux, it's pretty pointless and actually counter-productive: By the time, the package lands in the stable channel of the distro, you know that it works well with all your system libraries because someone tested it.

cptskippy 8y ago

It's all in the first 3 sentences of the article. > You might have read that Mozilla recently switched Windows builds to clang-cl... As of next nightly (as of writing, obviously), all tier-1 platforms are now built with clang with LTO enabled.

ainar-g 8y ago
What I meant is, when did they start the switch, and which versions have already switched.
- dblohm7 8y ago
  Nightly is based off of mozilla-central, our trunk. When Nightly switches, that means that the version currently being developed (64), is the first version that has been switched.
- rebelwebmaster 8y ago
  Fx63 (on Beta and Developer Edition) is on track to ship with clang-cl as the Windows compiler too.
  - cptskippy 8y ago
    Windows builds were switched to clang back in July before Linux. MacOS was already using it.

rebelwebmaster 8y ago

Developer Edition builds are based on their current Beta version (Fx63 at this point) and this change just landed on Nightly, which is tracking Fx64.