Hello,
After a good night's sleep, I think I've found a way to write down more
clearly the rationale that motivates me.
It's about the semantics gcc can derive from the command line arguments.
It's a very efficient way of specifying about the desired result of the
compilation, but less about how compilation should be done internally by
gcc.
It's possible to do so, for sure. For instance, we can tell gcc not to
compile a header file, but to use a pre-compiled header instead in the
command line. Still, this kind of specification is likely to be indistinctly
set throughout the execution of a make command.
It seems to me that (some) internal data for each execution of gcc (as it
builds itself throughout the execution of a makefile) could be made
available to all the gcc commands, with the help of the mmap() protocole.
Therefore, with the help of this unaltered semantic context, each gcc
command could assess what has been done before it and adjust its way of
performing its compilation sequence, without having to parse any external
file, but for the hits/misses the use of mmap() can induce.
I understand that, for a process, to assess the state of its environment and
make plans accordingly, is what is referred to by the phrase "intelligent
agent".
It could affect both duplicate compilation tasks throughout a makefile, but
also the good use of disk ressource, which is the slow physical part in the
compilation process.
I'm interested in merging ccache into gcc, because it seems to already
perform an assessment of compilation context. It could help me verify if
mmap() is a good tool for an intelligent agent approach, without having to
yet devise the difficult part of the agent, which I guess is the "context
assessment" part.
However, in terms of disk use, this merge could, as of now, improve the
ccache solution, as ccache relies on intermediary file output from gcc.
However, I still need to deepen a lot my knowledge of every part I mention
here. I think my first step should be to try to make available some simple
datum, like a "Hello, world!" string for instance, to all the make and gcc
processes launched in a make session with mmap().
Best regards,
Franck Z
