[PATCH 16/23] kbuild: batch module finalisation
From: "Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-09-08 20:58:32
Also in:
linux-arch, linux-doc, linux-efi, linux-kbuild, linux-riscv, lkml, llvm
Subsystem:
kernel build + files below scripts/ (unless maintained elsewhere), the rest · Maintainers:
Nathan Chancellor, Nicolas Schier, Linus Torvalds
Module finalisation on allmodconfig builds consists of a large number of
very short-lived jobs, and the make job dispatcher cannot possibly dispatch
jobs fast enough.
For allmodconfig x86-64 this can be on the order of ~22,000 jobs of a few
milliseconds in duration each.
However per-job cost grows with the variables the instance holds, here the
savedcmd_* of every .mod.o and .ko read back from the .cmd files, since it
walks them all to build each child's environment.
This makes module finalisation very inefficient when large numbers of
modules are being built.
Fix this by splitting modules.order into chunks of 128 at a time, run in
parallel.
Each instance holds only its own modules' variables and the top-level one
reads no per-module .cmd files at all, the same rules serve both levels,
and an instance is told its chunk with modfinal-first=<index>.
"make modules" with every *.mod.o and *.ko deleted goes from 28.9s to 15.9s
with clang 22. No-op "make modules" goes from 5.6s to 4.8s, as checking the
22,000 targets is spread over the chunks too.
Whole build, 128-thread Threadripper 9980X, best of N runs:
before after delta
-------------------------------
x86 allmodconfig, no-op make, gcc 1.9s 1.2s -0.74s (-39%)
x86 allmodconfig, no-op make, clang 2.4s 1.6s -0.77s (-32%)
x86 allmodconfig, clean, gcc 304.5s 291.4s -13.1s (-4%)
x86 allmodconfig, clean, clang 301.7s 297.0s -4.7s (-2%)
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
---
scripts/Makefile.modfinal | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
scripts/mod/sumversion.c | 4 ++--
2 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.modfinal b/scripts/Makefile.modfinal
index 75e9effdf02c..858fa798090b 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.modfinal
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.modfinal@@ -13,9 +13,30 @@ include $(srctree)/scripts/Makefile.lib # find all modules listed in modules.order modules := $(call read-file, modules.order) +modfinal-chunk-size := 128 + +ifdef modfinal-first + +# this instance handles the chunk of modules.order starting at $(modfinal-first) +modules := $(wordlist $(modfinal-first), $(words $(modules)), $(modules)) +modules := $(wordlist 1, $(modfinal-chunk-size), $(modules)) + __modfinal: $(modules:%.o=%.ko) @: +else + +modfinal-chunks := $(addprefix chunk-, $(shell seq 1 $(modfinal-chunk-size) $(words $(modules)))) + +PHONY += $(modfinal-chunks) +$(modfinal-chunks): .module-common.o + $(Q)$(MAKE) -f $(srctree)/scripts/Makefile.modfinal modfinal-first=$(@:chunk-%=%) + +__modfinal: $(modfinal-chunks) + @: + +endif + # modname and part-of-module are set to make c_flags define proper module flags modname = $(notdir $(@:.mod.o=)) part-of-module = y
@@ -58,7 +79,10 @@ ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF_MODULES endif +$(call cmd,check_tracepoint) -targets += $(modules:%.o=%.ko) $(modules:%.o=%.mod.o) .module-common.o +targets += .module-common.o +ifdef modfinal-first +targets += $(modules:%.o=%.ko) $(modules:%.o=%.mod.o) +endif # Add FORCE to the prerequisites of a target to force it to be always rebuilt. # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/scripts/mod/sumversion.c b/scripts/mod/sumversion.c
index 2cbadd3cd97d..5501d6aa0bea 100644
--- a/scripts/mod/sumversion.c
+++ b/scripts/mod/sumversion.c@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ static int parse_comment(const char *file, unsigned long len) /* FIXME: Handle .s files differently (eg. # starts comments) --RR */ static bool stop_char[256]; -static void init_stop_chars(void) +static void sumversion_init(void) { static bool done; int chr;
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ static int parse_file(const char *fname, struct md4_ctx *md) len = strlen(file); if (!len) goto out_file; - init_stop_chars(); + sumversion_init(); buf = xmalloc(len); /* File output buffer. */ for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
--
2.55.0