Time to switch to clang

I actually wanted to start using clang a long time ago, but it didn't give enough warnings. Many important warnings, like not verifying printf() parameters, were completely missing. So I kept using gcc..

But in last few days this one guy started adding support for the missing gcc warnings. I also found out that printf() warnings were added within last few months also. So it looks like clang is finally potentially usable! I still have to actually start developing with it, but it looks promising.

This picture shows how much better clang's error and warning handling is compared to gcc.

I also did a few benchmarks with Dovecot:

• Dovecot compiled about 10% faster with clang. Based on clang's web page I expected much more, but I guess it's better than nothing.. (I used configure --enable-optimizations, didn't change anything else)


• Dovecot ran about 7% faster when I/O wasn't the limit (SSD disk, fsync_disable=yes).

Here's how I tested the 7% speed improvement (Dovecot v2.0 hg, Maildir):

imaptest seed=123 secs=300 msgs=100 delete=10 expunge=10 logout=1

1)
gcc version 4.4.3 20100108 (prerelease) (Debian 4.4.2-9)

Logi List   Stat Sele  Fetc  Fet2  Stor Dele Expu  Appe Logo
100%  50%    50% 100%  100%  100%   50%  10%  10%  100%   1%
                             30%                    5%     
674 31545 31442  674 63169 90559 30029 5419 6332 19773 1348
646 31725 31640  646 63270 90160 29987 5403 6163 20224 1292

2)
clang version 1.5 (trunk 98979)
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Logi List   Stat Sele  Fetc  Fet2  Stor Dele Expu  Appe Logo
100%  50%    50% 100%  100%  100%   50%  10%  10%  100%   1%
                             30%                    5%     
693 33927 33765  693 68032 96951 32356 5691 6786 21034 1386
674 33990 34027  674 68018 97428 32101 5823 6863 21260 1348