rustbuild: Compile rustc twice, not thrice

This commit switches the rustbuild build system to compiling the
compiler twice for a normal bootstrap rather than the historical three
times.

Rust is a bootstrapped language which means that a previous version of
the compiler is used to build the next version of the compiler. Over
time, however, we change many parts of compiler artifacts such as the
metadata format, symbol names, etc. These changes make artifacts from
one compiler incompatible from another compiler. Consequently if a
compiler wants to be able to use some artifacts then it itself must have
compiled the artifacts.

Historically the rustc build system has achieved this by compiling the
compiler three times:

* An older compiler (stage0) is downloaded to kick off the chain.
* This compiler now compiles a new compiler (stage1)
* The stage1 compiler then compiles another compiler (stage2)
* Finally, the stage2 compiler needs libraries to link against, so it
  compiles all the libraries again.

This entire process amounts in compiling the compiler three times.
Additionally, this process always guarantees that the Rust source tree
can compile itself because the stage2 compiler (created by a freshly
created compiler) would successfully compile itself again. This
property, ensuring Rust can compile itself, is quite important!

In general, though, this third compilation is not required for general
purpose development on the compiler. The third compiler (stage2) can
reuse the libraries that were created during the second compile. In
other words, the second compilation can produce both a compiler and the
libraries that compiler will use. These artifacts *must* be compatible
due to the way plugins work today anyway, and they were created by the
same source code so they *should* be compatible as well.

So given all that, this commit switches the default build process to
only compile the compiler three times, avoiding this third compilation
by copying artifacts from the previous one. Along the way a new entry in
the Travis matrix was also added to ensure that our full bootstrap can
succeed. This entry does not run tests, though, as it should not be
necessary.

To restore the old behavior of a full bootstrap (three compiles) you can
either pass:

    ./configure --enable-full-bootstrap

or if you're using config.toml:

    [build]
    full-bootstrap = true

Overall this will hopefully be an easy 33% win in build times of the
compiler. If we do 33% less work we should be 33% faster! This in turn
should affect cycle times and such on Travis and AppVeyor positively as
well as making it easier to work on the compiler itself.

Author: alexcrichton

.travis.yml

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ matrix:
     - env: IMAGE=i686-gnu-nopt
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-freebsd
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu
+    - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-full-bootstrap
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-cargotest
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-debug
     - env: IMAGE=x86_64-gnu-nopt

configure

@@ -693,6 +693,7 @@ opt_nosave manage-submodules 1 "let the build manage the git submodules"
 opt_nosave clang 0 "prefer clang to gcc for building the runtime"
 opt_nosave jemalloc 1 "build liballoc with jemalloc"
 opt elf-tls 1 "elf thread local storage on platforms where supported"
+opt full-bootstrap 0 "build three compilers instead of two"
 
 valopt_nosave prefix "/usr/local" "set installation prefix"
 valopt_nosave local-rust-root "/usr/local" "set prefix for local rust binary"

src/bootstrap/check.rs

@@ -341,12 +341,22 @@ pub fn krate(build: &Build,
     println!("{} {} stage{} ({} -> {})", test_kind, name, compiler.stage,
              compiler.host, target);
 
+    // If we're not doing a full bootstrap but we're testing a stage2 version of
+    // libstd, then what we're actually testing is the libstd produced in
+    // stage1. Reflect that here by updating the compiler that we're working
+    // with automatically.
+    let compiler = if build.force_use_stage1(compiler, target) {
+        Compiler::new(1, compiler.host)
+    } else {
+        compiler.clone()
+    };
+
     // Build up the base `cargo test` command.
     //
     // Pass in some standard flags then iterate over the graph we've discovered
     // in `cargo metadata` with the maps above and figure out what `-p`
     // arguments need to get passed.
-    let mut cargo = build.cargo(compiler, mode, target, test_kind.subcommand());
+    let mut cargo = build.cargo(&compiler, mode, target, test_kind.subcommand());
     cargo.arg("--manifest-path")
          .arg(build.src.join(path).join("Cargo.toml"))
          .arg("--features").arg(features);
@@ -380,7 +390,7 @@ pub fn krate(build: &Build,
     // Note that to run the compiler we need to run with the *host* libraries,
     // but our wrapper scripts arrange for that to be the case anyway.
     let mut dylib_path = dylib_path();
-    dylib_path.insert(0, build.sysroot_libdir(compiler, target));
+    dylib_path.insert(0, build.sysroot_libdir(&compiler, target));
     cargo.env(dylib_path_var(), env::join_paths(&dylib_path).unwrap());
 
     if target.contains("android") {
@@ -399,10 +409,10 @@ pub fn krate(build: &Build,
 
     if target.contains("android") {
         build.run(&mut cargo);
-        krate_android(build, compiler, target, mode);
+        krate_android(build, &compiler, target, mode);
     } else if target.contains("emscripten") {
         build.run(&mut cargo);
-        krate_emscripten(build, compiler, target, mode);
+        krate_emscripten(build, &compiler, target, mode);
     } else {
         cargo.args(&build.flags.cmd.test_args());
         build.run(&mut cargo);

src/bootstrap/compile.rs

@@ -33,14 +33,14 @@ use {Build, Compiler, Mode};
 /// This will build the standard library for a particular stage of the build
 /// using the `compiler` targeting the `target` architecture. The artifacts
 /// created will also be linked into the sysroot directory.
-pub fn std<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
-    println!("Building stage{} std artifacts ({} -> {})", compiler.stage,
-             compiler.host, target);
-
+pub fn std(build: &Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler) {
     let libdir = build.sysroot_libdir(compiler, target);
     let _ = fs::remove_dir_all(&libdir);
     t!(fs::create_dir_all(&libdir));
 
+    println!("Building stage{} std artifacts ({} -> {})", compiler.stage,
+             compiler.host, target);
+
     // Some platforms have startup objects that may be required to produce the
     // libstd dynamic library, for example.
     build_startup_objects(build, target, &libdir);
@@ -65,29 +65,30 @@ pub fn std<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
 
     build.run(&mut cargo);
     update_mtime(&libstd_stamp(build, &compiler, target));
-    std_link(build, target, compiler.stage, compiler.host);
 }
 
 /// Link all libstd rlibs/dylibs into the sysroot location.
 ///
-/// Links those artifacts generated in the given `stage` for `target` produced
-/// by `compiler` into `host`'s sysroot.
+/// Links those artifacts generated by `compiler` to a the `stage` compiler's
+/// sysroot for the specified `host` and `target`.
+///
+/// Note that this assumes that `compiler` has already generated the libstd
+/// libraries for `target`, and this method will find them in the relevant
+/// output directory.
 pub fn std_link(build: &Build,
-                target: &str,
-                stage: u32,
-                host: &str) {
-    let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
-    let target_compiler = Compiler::new(compiler.stage, host);
+                compiler: &Compiler,
+                target_compiler: &Compiler,
+                target: &str) {
+    println!("Copying stage{} std from stage{} ({} -> {} / {})",
+             target_compiler.stage,
+             compiler.stage,
+             compiler.host,
+             target_compiler.host,
+             target);
     let libdir = build.sysroot_libdir(&target_compiler, target);
     let out_dir = build.cargo_out(&compiler, Mode::Libstd, target);
 
-    // If we're linking one compiler host's output into another, then we weren't
-    // called from the `std` method above. In that case we clean out what's
-    // already there.
-    if host != compiler.host {
-        let _ = fs::remove_dir_all(&libdir);
-        t!(fs::create_dir_all(&libdir));
-    }
+    t!(fs::create_dir_all(&libdir));
     add_to_sysroot(&out_dir, &libdir);
 
     if target.contains("musl") && !target.contains("mips") {
@@ -137,7 +138,7 @@ fn build_startup_objects(build: &Build, target: &str, into: &Path) {
 /// This will build libtest and supporting libraries for a particular stage of
 /// the build using the `compiler` targeting the `target` architecture. The
 /// artifacts created will also be linked into the sysroot directory.
-pub fn test<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
+pub fn test(build: &Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler) {
     println!("Building stage{} test artifacts ({} -> {})", compiler.stage,
              compiler.host, target);
     let out_dir = build.cargo_out(compiler, Mode::Libtest, target);
@@ -147,19 +148,13 @@ pub fn test<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
          .arg(build.src.join("src/rustc/test_shim/Cargo.toml"));
     build.run(&mut cargo);
     update_mtime(&libtest_stamp(build, compiler, target));
-    test_link(build, target, compiler.stage, compiler.host);
 }
 
-/// Link all libtest rlibs/dylibs into the sysroot location.
-///
-/// Links those artifacts generated in the given `stage` for `target` produced
-/// by `compiler` into `host`'s sysroot.
+/// Same as `std_link`, only for libtest
 pub fn test_link(build: &Build,
-                 target: &str,
-                 stage: u32,
-                 host: &str) {
-    let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
-    let target_compiler = Compiler::new(compiler.stage, host);
+                 compiler: &Compiler,
+                 target_compiler: &Compiler,
+                 target: &str) {
     let libdir = build.sysroot_libdir(&target_compiler, target);
     let out_dir = build.cargo_out(&compiler, Mode::Libtest, target);
     add_to_sysroot(&out_dir, &libdir);
@@ -170,7 +165,7 @@ pub fn test_link(build: &Build,
 /// This will build the compiler for a particular stage of the build using
 /// the `compiler` targeting the `target` architecture. The artifacts
 /// created will also be linked into the sysroot directory.
-pub fn rustc<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
+pub fn rustc(build: &Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler) {
     println!("Building stage{} compiler artifacts ({} -> {})",
              compiler.stage, compiler.host, target);
 
@@ -222,20 +217,13 @@ pub fn rustc<'a>(build: &'a Build, target: &str, compiler: &Compiler<'a>) {
         cargo.env("CFG_DEFAULT_AR", s);
     }
     build.run(&mut cargo);
-
-    rustc_link(build, target, compiler.stage, compiler.host);
 }
 
-/// Link all librustc rlibs/dylibs into the sysroot location.
-///
-/// Links those artifacts generated in the given `stage` for `target` produced
-/// by `compiler` into `host`'s sysroot.
+/// Same as `std_link`, only for librustc
 pub fn rustc_link(build: &Build,
-                  target: &str,
-                  stage: u32,
-                  host: &str) {
-    let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
-    let target_compiler = Compiler::new(compiler.stage, host);
+                  compiler: &Compiler,
+                  target_compiler: &Compiler,
+                  target: &str) {
     let libdir = build.sysroot_libdir(&target_compiler, target);
     let out_dir = build.cargo_out(&compiler, Mode::Librustc, target);
     add_to_sysroot(&out_dir, &libdir);
@@ -259,6 +247,17 @@ fn compiler_file(compiler: &Path, file: &str) -> PathBuf {
     PathBuf::from(out.trim())
 }
 
+pub fn create_sysroot(build: &Build, compiler: &Compiler) {
+    // nothing to do in stage0
+    if compiler.stage == 0 {
+        return
+    }
+
+    let sysroot = build.sysroot(compiler);
+    let _ = fs::remove_dir_all(&sysroot);
+    t!(fs::create_dir_all(&sysroot));
+}
+
 /// Prepare a new compiler from the artifacts in `stage`
 ///
 /// This will assemble a compiler in `build/$host/stage$stage`. The compiler
@@ -269,18 +268,17 @@ pub fn assemble_rustc(build: &Build, stage: u32, host: &str) {
     if stage == 0 {
         return
     }
+
+    println!("Copying stage{} compiler ({})", stage, host);
+
     // The compiler that we're assembling
     let target_compiler = Compiler::new(stage, host);
 
     // The compiler that compiled the compiler we're assembling
     let build_compiler = Compiler::new(stage - 1, &build.config.build);
 
-    // Clear out old files
-    let sysroot = build.sysroot(&target_compiler);
-    let _ = fs::remove_dir_all(&sysroot);
-    t!(fs::create_dir_all(&sysroot));
-
     // Link in all dylibs to the libdir
+    let sysroot = build.sysroot(&target_compiler);
     let sysroot_libdir = sysroot.join(libdir(host));
     t!(fs::create_dir_all(&sysroot_libdir));
     let src_libdir = build.sysroot_libdir(&build_compiler, host);

src/bootstrap/config.rs

@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ pub struct Config {
     pub docs: bool,
     pub vendor: bool,
     pub target_config: HashMap<String, Target>,
+    pub full_bootstrap: bool,
 
     // llvm codegen options
     pub llvm_assertions: bool,
@@ -134,6 +135,7 @@ struct Build {
     vendor: Option<bool>,
     nodejs: Option<String>,
     python: Option<String>,
+    full_bootstrap: Option<bool>,
 }
 
 /// TOML representation of various global install decisions.
@@ -264,6 +266,7 @@ impl Config {
         set(&mut config.docs, build.docs);
         set(&mut config.submodules, build.submodules);
         set(&mut config.vendor, build.vendor);
+        set(&mut config.full_bootstrap, build.full_bootstrap);
 
         if let Some(ref install) = toml.install {
             config.prefix = install.prefix.clone();
@@ -393,6 +396,7 @@ impl Config {
                 ("NINJA", self.ninja),
                 ("CODEGEN_TESTS", self.codegen_tests),
                 ("VENDOR", self.vendor),
+                ("FULL_BOOTSTRAP", self.full_bootstrap),
             }
 
             match key {

src/bootstrap/config.toml.example

@@ -100,6 +100,13 @@
 # Indicate whether the vendored sources are used for Rust dependencies or not
 #vendor = false
 
+# Typically the build system will build the rust compiler twice. The second
+# compiler, however, will simply use its own libraries to link against. If you
+# would rather to perform a full bootstrap, compiling the compiler three times,
+# then you can set this option to true. You shouldn't ever need to set this
+# option to true.
+#full-bootstrap = false
+
 # =============================================================================
 # General install configuration options
 # =============================================================================

src/bootstrap/doc.rs

@@ -137,6 +137,11 @@ pub fn std(build: &Build, stage: u32, target: &str) {
     let out = build.doc_out(target);
     t!(fs::create_dir_all(&out));
     let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
+    let compiler = if build.force_use_stage1(&compiler, target) {
+        Compiler::new(1, compiler.host)
+    } else {
+        compiler
+    };
     let out_dir = build.stage_out(&compiler, Mode::Libstd)
                        .join(target).join("doc");
     let rustdoc = build.rustdoc(&compiler);
@@ -160,6 +165,11 @@ pub fn test(build: &Build, stage: u32, target: &str) {
     let out = build.doc_out(target);
     t!(fs::create_dir_all(&out));
     let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
+    let compiler = if build.force_use_stage1(&compiler, target) {
+        Compiler::new(1, compiler.host)
+    } else {
+        compiler
+    };
     let out_dir = build.stage_out(&compiler, Mode::Libtest)
                        .join(target).join("doc");
     let rustdoc = build.rustdoc(&compiler);
@@ -182,6 +192,11 @@ pub fn rustc(build: &Build, stage: u32, target: &str) {
     let out = build.doc_out(target);
     t!(fs::create_dir_all(&out));
     let compiler = Compiler::new(stage, &build.config.build);
+    let compiler = if build.force_use_stage1(&compiler, target) {
+        Compiler::new(1, compiler.host)
+    } else {
+        compiler
+    };
     let out_dir = build.stage_out(&compiler, Mode::Librustc)
                        .join(target).join("doc");
     let rustdoc = build.rustdoc(&compiler);

src/bootstrap/lib.rs

@@ -572,9 +572,7 @@ impl Build {
         let mut cmd = Command::new(self.tool(&compiler, tool));
         let host = compiler.host;
         let mut paths = vec![
-            self.cargo_out(compiler, Mode::Libstd, host).join("deps"),
-            self.cargo_out(compiler, Mode::Libtest, host).join("deps"),
-            self.cargo_out(compiler, Mode::Librustc, host).join("deps"),
+            self.sysroot_libdir(compiler, compiler.host),
             self.cargo_out(compiler, Mode::Tool, host).join("deps"),
         ];
 
@@ -880,6 +878,30 @@ impl Build {
     fn python(&self) -> &Path {
         self.config.python.as_ref().unwrap()
     }
+
+    /// Tests whether the `compiler` compiling for `target` should be forced to
+    /// use a stage1 compiler instead.
+    ///
+    /// Currently, by default, the build system does not perform a "full
+    /// bootstrap" by default where we compile the compiler three times.
+    /// Instead, we compile the compiler two times. The final stage (stage2)
+    /// just copies the libraries from the previous stage, which is what this
+    /// method detects.
+    ///
+    /// Here we return `true` if:
+    ///
+    /// * The build isn't performing a full bootstrap
+    /// * The `compiler` is in the final stage, 2
+    /// * We're not cross-compiling, so the artifacts are already available in
+    ///   stage1
+    ///
+    /// When all of these conditions are met the build will lift artifacts from
+    /// the previous stage forward.
+    fn force_use_stage1(&self, compiler: &Compiler, target: &str) -> bool {
+        !self.config.full_bootstrap &&
+            compiler.stage >= 2 &&
+            self.config.host.iter().any(|h| h == target)
+    }
 }
 
 impl<'a> Compiler<'a> {