Given that at least Clang's module binary format is designed for lazy
loading - copying this data around rather than being able to share constant
memory mapped files between multiple compilations on the same system seems
like it would be a loss (or at best "no better" - the compiler would read
all the data into memory and then treat it the same as if it'd mapped it
off disk).

What sort of filesystem race conditions do you have in mind?

On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 8:37 AM Lyberta via SG15 <sg15_at_[hidden]>
wrote:

> Another extension I would like to propose is to use module mapper to
> transfer BMIs directly without needing file system.
>
> In p1184 4.2 change the syntax to something like this:
>
> Query from compiler to build system:
>
> IMPORT $module
>
> Reply from build system:
>
> OK PATH $bmipath
>
> Then compiler uses file system as usual.
>
> Or:
>
> OK BLOB $bmicontents
>
> Then build system transfers raw bytes of BMI straight into compiler. The
> format of $bmicontents could be something simple like unsigned 64 bit
> integer holding the size (assuming BMIs larger than 4 GiB) followed by
> raw bytes.
>
> Or:
>
> ERROR $msg
>
> Next, query from compiler to build system:
>
> EXPORT $module
>
> Reply from build system:
>
> OK DEFAULT
>
> Then compiler does its default behavior which can be set via command
> line flags.
>
> Or:
>
> OK PATH $bmipath
>
> Then compiler writes the BMI to the given file system path. The response
> can be bikeshedded.
>
> Or:
>
> OK BLOB
>
> Then compiler transfers BMI directly to the build system. The response
> can be bikeshedded.
>
> I think this design avoids file system races and can make distributed
> builds faster because file system is usually slower than sockets and
> keeping data in RAM.
>
> Later we can expand this to a general purpose communication channel and
> avoid file system altogether by transferring source files and object
> files via sockets.
>
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