Re: announce: egcs benchmark suite, alpha release

[Arvind Sankar <arvinds at mit dot edu>]

hi! I tried checking out the benchmarks a while back.
When I do make check, the first test (c++/oopack) works properly, but
then everything else bums with LINK ERROR.
If I try to run make check again, make bums with this queer error:
gcc   bench.o bench.sum   -o bench
/usr/bin/ld:bench.sum: file format not recognized; treating as linker script
/usr/bin/ld:bench.sum:2: parse error
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [bench] Error 1

Apparently, make finds an implicit rule bench: bench.o, and that causes
it do stuff like this. Shouldn't a lot of the targets be made .PHONY?
Right now, bench.sum has no dependents, so it is always up-to-date.


On Sat, Jan 16, 1999 at 06:52:08AM +0100, Marc Lehmann wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce the first public release of the egcs benchmark suite.
> 
> WHAT IS IT?
> 
>    The egcs benchmark suite is a collection of individual tests used to
>    determine relative performance changes of specific optimizations. There are
>    tests that check performance of different datatypes on the same problem,
>    tests that measure the C++ abstraction penalty, tests measuring function
>    inlining/call overhead and more...
> 
>    Regular benchmarking will also allow to detect optimization problems.
> 
> WHAT IS IT _NOT_?
> 
>    It's not a general purpose benchmark library. It's unsuitable for comparing
>    performance of one machine/os to another, and it's also unsuitable to compare
>    performance between different compilers. Its sole purpose is to measure speed
>    enhancements (or deficiencies) between egcs compiler revisions.
> 
>    In short, what the testsuite is for compiler correctness, is the benchmark
>    suite for optimizer quality.
> 
> WHAT WE NEED
> 
>    at the moment are people that alpha test the release, give compatibility
>    hints, detect problems with the setup.
> 
>    if the suite turns out to be useful, we need regular testers so we can fill
>    the benchmark database and write cute perl programs that draw even cuter
>    graphs ;)
> 
>    Also we need input on how to handle compiler switches, i.e. should
>    we run a single test with -O2, or multiple tests with -O2, -O3, -O3
>    -funroll-loops etc. (and how do we keep the results comparable in the
>    latter case)
> 
> WHERE TO GET IT?
> 
>    At the moment its "only" available via cvs. Instead of checking out the
>    "egcs" directory you can check out the "benchmarks" directory. (Just follow
>    the instructions for checking out "egcs" but replace it by "benchmarks")
> 
> HOW TO USE IT?
> 
>    Yes, the README is not quite up-to-date, but everything you should have to do is to type:
> 
>    make
> 
>    which will compile & run all benchmarks and automatically mail me the
>    results, testing everything in the package.
> 
> THANKS
> 
>    OH YES, thanks a lot to Jan Hubicka, who not only had the original idea to
>    create the benchmark suite, but also delivered all the initial tests and
>    programmed the initial testing framework.
> 
> 
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>       ---==---(_)__  __ ____  __       Marc Lehmann      +--
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