Re: Hardened toolchain

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi Maxime,

On Mon, 02 May 2022 at 18:25, Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> wrote:
> zimoun schreef op vr 29-04-2022 om 12:31 [+0200]:
>> > Stack smashing protection (SSP) may incur measurable run-time
>> > overhead
>> > though so enabling that one by default may be less consensual.
>> 
>> That’s true and it could be an issue for HPC practitioners.  [...]
>
> I'm not sure if this wasn't already mentioned, but HPC practicioners
> can already use --tune.  Maybe HPC practicioners can have --without-
> hardening.  However, in the computing I do that needs to be high
> performance (*), it seems that the expensive computations are matrix
> multiplications, eigenvector decompositions and the like.  I wouldn't
> expect those kind of things to be hindered by hardening.
>
> (*) In my case, this is not about supercomputers or computer clusters,
> but about having software run fast enough on the hardware that is
> available.  In some situations, that's a fancy supercomputer, but often
> a simple laptop can do ... if the software is sufficiently optimised.

I agree that HPC practitioners can burn some CPU cycles and recompile the
world if they care so much about run-time performances.

To me, it is the same trade-off by HPC folks as custom / performance vs
portable / pre-built. :-)


Cheers,
simon