Clang

Chromium ships a prebuiltclang binary. It's just upstream clang built at a known-good revision that we bump every two weeks or so.

This is the only supported compiler for building Chromium.

Using gcc on Linux

is_clang = false will make the build use system gcc on Linux. There are no bots that test this and there is no guarantee it will work, but we accept patches for this configuration.

Mailing List

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/clang/topics

Using plugins

Thechromium style plugin is used by default when clang is used.

If you're working on the plugin, you can build it locally like so:

1. Run./tools/clang/scripts/build.py --without-android --without-fuchsia to build the plugin.
2. Runninja -C third_party/llvm-build/Release+Asserts/ to build incrementally after making changes.
3. Run(cd tools/clang/plugins/tests && ./test.py ../../../../third_party/llvm-build/Release+Asserts/bin/clang) to test the plugin after making changes.
4. Build Chromium with clang as usual, but, if you use reclient, disable it.

The local plugin will then be used for local builds until the nextgclient sync restores the default toolchain.

Since the plugin is rolled with clang changes, behavior changes to the plugin should be guarded by flags to make it easy to roll clang without introducing unexpected breakage. A general outline:

1. Implement new plugin behavior behind a flag, disabled by default.
2. Wait for a compiler roll to bring in the flag.
3. Start passing the new flag inGN and verify the new behavior.
4. Enable the new plugin behavior unconditionally and update the plugin to ignore the flag.
5. Wait for another compiler roll.
6. Stop passing the flag fromGN.
7. Remove the flag completely.

Using the clang static analyzer

Seeclang_static_analyzer.md.

Windows

clang is the default compiler on Windows. It uses MSVC's SDK, so you still need to have Visual Studio with C++ support installed.

Using a custom clang binary

Setclang_base_path in your args.gn to the llvm build directory containingbin/clang (i.e. the directory you ran cmake). This must be an absolute path. You also need to disable chromium's clang plugin.

Here's an example that also disables debug info and enables the component build (both not strictly necessary, but they will speed up your build):

clang_base_path = getenv("HOME") + "/src/llvm-build"clang_use_chrome_plugins = falseis_debug = falsesymbol_level = 1is_component_build = true

On Windows, forclang_base_path use something like this instead:

clang_base_path = "c:/src/llvm-build"

You can then look inout/gn/toolchain.ninja and check that therule cc andrule cxx commands run your clang binary. If things look good, runninja -C out/gn to build.

Chromium tries to be buildable with its currently pinned clang, and with clang trunk. Setllvm_force_head_revision = true in your args.gn if the clang you‘re trying to build with is closer to clang trunk than to Chromium’s pinned clang (whichtools/clang/scripts/update.py --print-revision prints).

Related documents

• Toolchain support gives an overview of clang rolls, and documents when to revert clang rolls and how to file good toolchain bugs.

• Updating clang documents the mechanics of updating clang, and which files are included in the default clang package.

• Clang Sheriffing contains instructions for how to debug compiler bugs, for clang sheriffs.

• Clang Tool Refactoring has notes on how to build and run refactoring tools based on clang's libraries.

• Updating Clang format binaries has notes on how to update clang-format.