Hi, I'm trying to recompile the llvm binaries used...

# compiler

[Ximing Chen]

Hi, I'm trying to recompile the llvm binaries used by Kotlin Native from source code.

I found that in the kotlin-native/konan/konan.properties file, there are two llvm binaries for one platform, which are distinguished by whether the file name contains the essentials keyword. I hope to understand the detailed differences between these two llvm versions, and how should I get two types of llvm binaries like llvm-11.1.0-aarch64-macos-essentials-60 and llvm-11.1.0-aarch64-macos-dev-60 on my MacBook through the kotlin-native/tools/llvm_builder/package.py script?

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

cc @svyatoslav.scherbina

[svyatoslav.scherbina]

Hi.
Please note that LLVM 11 in Kotlin/Native is obsolete. Kotlin 2.1.0 uses LLVM 16 and Kotlin 2.2.0 will use LLVM 19.

The difference between those artifacts is that dev includes additional development tools that are useful while developing and testing the compiler, while essentials includes only those parts that are necessary for the compiler to work. In other words, when compiling something with Kotlin/Native, only the essentials variant is downloaded.

To build the dev variant, you don't need to pass additional arguments to package.py, that's the default.
To build the essentials, add `--build-targets install-distribution --distribution-components $DISTRIBUTION_COMPONENTS`; see the documentation: https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/tree/master/kotlin-native/tools/llvm_builder#building-distribution-for-end-users

[Ximing Chen]

Thanks for your kind help!