From: "Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>
To: "Linus Torvalds" <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
"Nathan Chancellor" <nathan@kernel.org>,
"Nicolas Schier" <nsc@kernel.org>,
"Nick Desaulniers" <ndesaulniers@google.com>,
"Bill Wendling" <morbo@google.com>,
"Justin Stitt" <justinstitt@google.com>,
"Geert Uytterhoeven" <geert@linux-m68k.org>,
"Luis Chamberlain" <mcgrof@kernel.org>,
"Petr Pavlu" <petr.pavlu@suse.com>,
"Daniel Gomez" <da.gomez@kernel.org>,
"Sami Tolvanen" <samitolvanen@google.com>,
"Aaron Tomlin" <atomlin@atomlin.com>,
"Josh Poimboeuf" <jpoimboe@kernel.org>,
"Peter Zijlstra" <peterz@infradead.org>,
"Miguel Ojeda" <ojeda@kernel.org>,
"Boqun Feng" <boqun@kernel.org>, "Gary Guo" <gary@garyguo.net>,
"Björn Roy Baron" <bjorn3_gh@protonmail.com>,
"Benno Lossin" <lossin@kernel.org>,
"Andreas Hindborg" <a.hindborg@kernel.org>,
"Alice Ryhl" <aliceryhl@google.com>,
"Trevor Gross" <tmgross@umich.edu>,
"Danilo Krummrich" <dakr@kernel.org>,
"Daniel Almeida" <daniel.almeida@collabora.com>,
"Tamir Duberstein" <tamird@kernel.org>,
"Alexandre Courbot" <acourbot@nvidia.com>,
"Onur Özkan" <work@onurozkan.dev>
Cc: ljs@kernel.org, linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, llvm@lists.linux.dev,
linux-m68k@lists.linux-m68k.org, linux-modules@vger.kernel.org,
rust-for-linux@vger.kernel.org, Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v5 05/11] kbuild: batch module finalisation
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:20:23 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261104-build-speedup-v5-5-0f6018be8dae@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261104-build-speedup-v5-0-0f6018be8dae@kernel.org>
With the .mod.S change in place, module finalisation on allmodconfig builds
consists of a large number of very short-lived jobs.
For allmodconfig x86-64 this can be on the order of ~22,000 jobs of a few
milliseconds in duration each.
Each job entails processing ~22k .cmd files, so the combination of heavy
overhead and small individual job results in a lot of unnecessary and
repeated work even with all cores being utilised.
The solution is to batch by a number of jobs. Determining which value makes
sense was done empirically.
On a 128-thread threadripper box doing an allmodconfig build, best of
2, *.ko, *.mod.o deleted each time:
modules per chunk instances wall
----------------- --------- ------
1 11171 10.22s
2 5586 6.72s
4 2793 4.97s
8 1397 4.26s
16 699 4.05s
32 350 4.05s
64 175 4.07s
128 88 4.05s
256 44 4.03s
512 22 4.18s
Wall time flattens for 16-256 module batches.
A slower/lower core machine will do better with fewer modules-per-batch, a
faster/higher core machine will do better with more modules-per-batch.
Therefore, take the midpoint which works in the most margin in either
direction - 128 modules per batch.
This naturally scales with module count too as the optimum gains are
obtained with higher module count, so fewer batches in this case costs less
overhead.
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>.
Only the top-level instance builds .module-common.o, to the chunks it is a
plain prerequisite, so no two instances ever write it.
"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 2.3s 1.4s -0.85s (-38%)
x86 allmodconfig, no-op make, clang 2.8s 1.8s -0.94s (-34%)
x86 allmodconfig, clean, gcc 306.6s 294.1s -12.6s (-4%)
x86 allmodconfig, clean, clang 290.2s 283.9s -6.4s (-2%)
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
---
scripts/Makefile.modfinal | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.modfinal b/scripts/Makefile.modfinal
index 75e9effdf02c..4d5e6e1a0ff9 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
@@ -29,8 +50,11 @@ quiet_cmd_as_mod_o = AS [M] $@
%.mod.o: %.mod.S FORCE
$(call if_changed,as_mod_o)
+# Built by the top-level instance alone, the chunks take it as a plain file.
+ifndef modfinal-first
.module-common.o: $(srctree)/scripts/module-common.c FORCE
$(call if_changed_rule,cc_o_c)
+endif
ifneq ($(WARN_ON_UNUSED_TRACEPOINTS),)
cmd_check_tracepoint = $(objtree)/scripts/tracepoint-update --module $<;
@@ -58,7 +82,11 @@ ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF_MODULES
endif
+$(call cmd,check_tracepoint)
-targets += $(modules:%.o=%.ko) $(modules:%.o=%.mod.o) .module-common.o
+ifdef modfinal-first
+targets += $(modules:%.o=%.ko) $(modules:%.o=%.mod.o)
+else
+targets += .module-common.o
+endif
# Add FORCE to the prerequisites of a target to force it to be always rebuilt.
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
2.56.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-11-04 18:21 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-11-04 18:20 [PATCH v5 00/11] kbuild: significantly speed up kernel builds Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 01/11] kbuild: calculate list, composite object state per object Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 02/11] kbuild: implement and use depcheck to check dependency timestamps Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 03/11] modpost: cache section relocation mismatch state Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 04/11] modpost: emit module descriptors as assembly Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) [this message]
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 06/11] objtool: do not hash DWARF relocations Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 07/11] objtool: cache relocations, do less work, eliminate relocation hash Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 08/11] objtool: size the instruction hash to the text Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 09/11] objtool: decode instructions and resolve branch targets in parallel Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 10/11] rust: make exports.o depend on the headers generated for it Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
2026-11-04 18:20 ` [PATCH v5 11/11] kbuild: build rust crates in parallel with the rest of the build Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)
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