mirror of
https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse.git
synced 2026-03-20 13:24:44 +00:00
f77e3bc0ad
## Proposed Changes Add a new Cargo compilation profile called `maxperf` which enables more aggressive compiler optimisations at the expense of compilation time. Some rough initial benchmarks show that this can provide up to a 25% reduction to run time for CPU bound tasks like block processing: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15jHuZe7lLHhZq9Nw8kc6EL0Qh_N_YAYqkW2NQ_Afmtk/edit The numbers in that spreadsheet compare the `consensus-context` branch from #3604 to the same branch compiled with the `maxperf` profile using: ``` PROFILE=maxperf make install-lcli ``` ## Additional Info The downsides of the maxperf profile are: - It increases compile times substantially, which will particularly impact low-spec hardware. Compiling `lcli` is about 3x slower. Compiling Lighthouse is about 5x slower on my 5950X: 17m 38s rather than 3m 28s. As a result I think we should not enable this everywhere by default. - **Option 1**: enable by default for our released binaries. This gives the majority of users the fastest version of `lighthouse` possible, at the expense of slowing down our release CI. Source builds will continue to use the default `release` profile unless users opt-in to `maxperf`. - **Option 2**: enable by default for source builds. This gives users building from source an edge, but makes them pay for it with compilation time. I think I would prefer Option 1. I'll try doing some benchmarking to see how long a maxperf build of Lighthouse would take on GitHub actions. Credit to Nicholas Nethercote for documenting these options in the Rust Performance Book: https://nnethercote.github.io/perf-book/build-configuration.html.
53 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
53 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# Cross-compiling
|
|
|
|
Lighthouse supports cross-compiling, allowing users to run a binary on one
|
|
platform (e.g., `aarch64`) that was compiled on another platform (e.g.,
|
|
`x86_64`).
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Instructions
|
|
|
|
Cross-compiling requires [`Docker`](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/),
|
|
[`rustembedded/cross`](https://github.com/rust-embedded/cross) and for the
|
|
current user to be in the `docker` group.
|
|
|
|
The binaries will be created in the `target/` directory of the Lighthouse
|
|
project.
|
|
|
|
### Targets
|
|
|
|
The `Makefile` in the project contains four targets for cross-compiling:
|
|
|
|
- `build-x86_64`: builds an optimized version for x86_64 processors (suitable for most users).
|
|
- `build-x86_64-portable`: builds a version for x86_64 processors which avoids using some modern CPU
|
|
instructions that are incompatible with older CPUs.
|
|
- `build-aarch64`: builds an optimized version for 64-bit ARM processors (suitable for Raspberry Pi 4).
|
|
- `build-aarch64-portable`: builds a version for 64-bit ARM processors which avoids using some
|
|
modern CPU instructions. In practice, very few ARM processors lack the instructions necessary to
|
|
run the faster non-portable build.
|
|
|
|
For more information about optimized vs portable builds see
|
|
[Portability](./installation-binaries.md#portability).
|
|
|
|
### Example
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
cd lighthouse
|
|
make build-aarch64
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The `lighthouse` binary will be compiled inside a Docker container and placed
|
|
in `lighthouse/target/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release`.
|
|
|
|
## Feature Flags
|
|
|
|
When using the makefile the set of features used for building can be controlled with
|
|
the environment variable `CROSS_FEATURES`. See [Feature
|
|
Flags](./installation-source.md#feature-flags) for available features.
|
|
|
|
## Compilation Profiles
|
|
|
|
When using the makefile the build profile can be controlled with the environment variable
|
|
`CROSS_PROFILE`. See [Compilation Profiles](./installation-source.md#compilation-profiles) for
|
|
available profiles.
|