There are three ways you can get information about compile times:
- Just using
time ninja installinstead ofninja installto time it overall. - Reading ninja's log files to get a per-file compile time.
- Enabling GCC or Clang flags to get a more detailed per-file breakdown of times for compiler passes within a file.
Ninja produces a handy log file that includes a per-cpp-file compilation time. This is useful for discovering which files take the most time, and so are good targets for speeding up the overall build time. A python3 script named ninjatracing converts the ninja log file into a JSON format that's readable by several profile viewers.
ninjatracing is available on GitHub
It requires python3, available at python. You can either create the symlink yourself, or just modify the ninjatracing file to say python3 instead of python.
You also need to make sure ninjatracing is marked as executable, and available from your PATH (or somewhere convenient where you can manually call it from).
First, we need to clean the build (and ccache if present) to make sure every file gets compiled and gives a meaningful time reading.
ninja clean
ccache --clearThen, execute ninja as normal:
ninjaThe log will be written to .ninja_log in the current directory by default. To convert it to the more useful JSON file, call ninjatracing from the directory you called ninja from:
ninjatracing .ninja_log > trace.json
You can then drag-and-drop the file onto Speedscope or any other compatible flamegraph visualizer.
Adding the -ftime-report flag to GCC will cause it to output a breakdown for each file it compiles, which looks like this:
GCC -ftime-report output
Time variable usr sys wall GGC
phase setup : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 1326k ( 2%)
phase parsing : 0.57 ( 61%) 0.19 ( 83%) 1.63 ( 65%) 59M ( 74%)
phase lang. deferred : 0.10 ( 11%) 0.03 ( 13%) 0.30 ( 12%) 8761k ( 11%)
phase opt and generate : 0.23 ( 25%) 0.01 ( 4%) 0.48 ( 19%) 10M ( 13%)
phase last asm : 0.03 ( 3%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.08 ( 3%) 539k ( 1%)
|name lookup : 0.11 ( 12%) 0.01 ( 4%) 0.25 ( 10%) 2004k ( 2%)
|overload resolution : 0.08 ( 9%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.26 ( 10%) 7900k ( 10%)
dump files : 0.02 ( 2%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0 ( 0%)
callgraph construction : 0.04 ( 4%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.06 ( 2%) 2677k ( 3%)
callgraph optimization : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 4752 ( 0%)
callgraph functions expansion : 0.15 ( 16%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.32 ( 13%) 6267k ( 8%)
callgraph ipa passes : 0.03 ( 3%) 0.01 ( 4%) 0.08 ( 3%) 1413k ( 2%)
ipa inheritance graph : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 3760 ( 0%)
ipa profile : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 0 ( 0%)
trivially dead code : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 224 ( 0%)
df reg dead/unused notes : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 104k ( 0%)
alias analysis : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 70k ( 0%)
preprocessing : 0.06 ( 6%) 0.03 ( 13%) 0.16 ( 6%) 1365k ( 2%)
parser (global) : 0.04 ( 4%) 0.04 ( 17%) 0.13 ( 5%) 6894k ( 8%)
parser struct body : 0.09 ( 10%) 0.03 ( 13%) 0.20 ( 8%) 9020k ( 11%)
parser function body : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 83k ( 0%)
parser inl. func. body : 0.03 ( 3%) 0.01 ( 4%) 0.05 ( 2%) 1567k ( 2%)
parser inl. meth. body : 0.11 ( 12%) 0.03 ( 13%) 0.30 ( 12%) 10M ( 13%)
template instantiation : 0.27 ( 29%) 0.08 ( 35%) 0.89 ( 36%) 25M ( 32%)
constant expression evaluation : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 356k ( 0%)
constraint satisfaction : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 130k ( 0%)
early inlining heuristics : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 21k ( 0%)
inline parameters : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.03 ( 1%) 146k ( 0%)
integration : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 564k ( 1%)
tree CFG cleanup : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 5768 ( 0%)
tree SSA other : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 13k ( 0%)
tree operand scan : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 429k ( 1%)
tree CCP : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 18k ( 0%)
expand : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.03 ( 1%) 1303k ( 2%)
varconst : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.04 ( 2%) 6744 ( 0%)
forward prop : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 3520 ( 0%)
CSE : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 1144 ( 0%)
loop fini : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 0 ( 0%)
branch prediction : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 4%) 0.00 ( 0%) 20k ( 0%)
combiner : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 138k ( 0%)
integrated RA : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 1112k ( 1%)
LRA reload inheritance : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 13k ( 0%)
LRA create live ranges : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.01 ( 0%) 8568 ( 0%)
reload CSE regs : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 100k ( 0%)
final : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.02 ( 1%) 323k ( 0%)
variable output : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 15k ( 0%)
symout : 0.09 ( 10%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.20 ( 8%) 13M ( 17%)
variable tracking : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.04 ( 2%) 471k ( 1%)
var-tracking dataflow : 0.02 ( 2%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.03 ( 1%) 18k ( 0%)
var-tracking emit : 0.00 ( 0%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.04 ( 2%) 117k ( 0%)
rest of compilation : 0.01 ( 1%) 0.00 ( 0%) 0.03 ( 1%) 1258k ( 2%)
TOTAL : 0.93 0.23 2.50 79M
[24/3139] Building CXX object Kernel/CMakeFiles/Kernel.dir/CommandLine.cpp.oDepending on whether you understand the internals of the compiler, this may or may not be helpful to you! Generally, this is not recommended.
Clang also supports -ftime-report, but I have not tested the output for it.
To add the flag, edit the CMakeLists.txt in the serenity root directory, and add add_compile_options(-ftime-report) to the list of compile options that start around line 220.
Additionally, you can add -ftime-report-details too, which again I have not tested.