Builddir 114 GB when compiling Rust-1.70.0-GCCcore-12.3.0.eb inside Rocky-8.9 container

[sassy-crick]

I am currently in need to install HOOMD-blue v4.9.1 (see PR #22013) as I need the LLVM version from PR #20902 and thus I need to use EasyBuild-5.
Part of the installation is Rust-1.70.0-GCCcore-12.3.0.eb.

During the installation I noticed the build directory is getting larger and larger. In the end I had 114 GB in it:

$ du -sh /home/easybuild/tmp/Rust/1.70.0/GCCcore-12.3.0/rustc-1.70.0-src/
114G   /home/easybuild/tmp/Rust/1.70.0/GCCcore-12.3.0/rustc-1.70.0-src/

This does not look right to me. A bit further drilling gives me this:

$ du -sh /home/easybuild/tmp/Rust/1.70.0/GCCcore-12.3.0/rustc-1.70.0-src/build
/
111G   /home/easybuild/tmp/Rust/1.70.0/GCCcore-12.3.0/rustc-1.70.0-src/build/

Once I got enough space, it is installing ok, all the tests are passing. I know that Rust requires quite a bit of space when building but that is frankly just insane. Something seems to go wrong here.
I have not tried it with the latest Easybuild-4.9.4 version, outside a container.
I still have the log file of the build, happy to upload it here if that helps. Also happy to answer any questions.

[Thyre]

Related PR: easybuilders/easybuild-framework#4688
This will likely also affect other large projects like LLVM.

I feel like this should be something people need to be aware of. Debug symbols can increase the required size for software significantly. I will certainly need to turn off this feature immediately, since I'm working with max. 1TB of disk size for software (on my personal systems).

[sassy-crick]

Related PR: easybuilders/easybuild-framework#4688 This will likely also affect other large projects like LLVM.

I feel like this should be something people need to be aware of. Debug symbols can increase the required size for software significantly. I will certainly need to turn off this feature immediately, since I'm working with max. 1TB of disk size for software (on my personal systems).

I agree. I am suing my laptop as a build system, so gain limited disc space.
Judging from the problems I had when build Clang I came to the same conclusion that switching off the debug-symbols per default might be a better way forward, at least for those software projects where we know they are running out of proportion. So far, I think it is fair to say it is LLVM, Rust and Clang at least. Maybe more to come?

[boegel]

@sassy-crick Can you check whether you're also seeing this huge build directory when using eb --disable-keep-debug-symbols? See also:

• add --keep-debug-symbols configuration option to set default value of 'debug' toolchain option, and enable it by default so -g is included in $CXXFLAGS & co easybuild-framework#4688

[Thyre]

Based on his comment on Slack, Clang did show a significant difference when using the option.
From ~100GB to 11GB (5.1GB installed size). Rust probably behaves the same way.

Which compiled, on one core, overnight, using more than 100 GB of space in my builddirectory so consequently I moved the install directory to my file server.

I finished my build and guess what: The disc space used in the build-directory was only a mere 11 GB! So 1/10th of what it was before. The same goes for the final install:
5.1 GB!

[gkaf89]

I can confirm that --disable-keep-debug-symbols reduces the size of the build directory significantly. We had some builds failing due to lack of space in a REL 8.10 system; the build directory was placed in a fast file system with 68GB capacity.

The problem did not appear with --disable-keep-debug-symbols.

[sassy-crick]

Just to add to this: Rebuilding Rust without debug symbols, i.e. with --disable-keep-debug-symbols does yield a significantly smaller build directory of around 14 GB.