Should Node.js be built with ClangCL under Windows?

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2024-05-02 20:00:05

Under Windows, when using Visual Studio to build C++ code, there are two possible compiler strategies. The Visual Studio compiler (often referred to as MSVC) is the default compiler provided by Microsoft for Windows development. In Debug mode, the regular Visual Studio compiler produces faster compilation times and more performant code compared to ClangCL. ClangCL is part of the Clang/LLVM project, which is an open-source compiler toolchain. ClangCL is compatible with the Visual Studio runtime and links with the Microsoft implementation of the Standard Library. It’s available as an optional component in Visual Studio 2019 and later versions.

In Debug mode, I find that the regular Visual Studio compiler builds faster. However, in release mode, I found empirically that ClangCL approach may provide more performant code. On some micro-benchmarks, the difference can be large (e.g., 40%) although I expect more modest gains on complex systems.

As of Chrome 64, Google Chrome for Windows is compiled with ClangCL. Thus Clang is now used to build Chrome for all platforms it runs on, including macOS, iOS, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Windows. Firefox switched to ClangCL in 2018. And at least some game developers have adopted ClangCL.