march, m, x, arch..can someone untangle this for me

[Alexander_S_2]

I struggle to see the exact division between the compiler options -march, -m, -arch and -x

What I got so far: using -x will generate code that only runs on Intel CPUs. E.g. using -xCORE-AVX2 will produce code that does not run on non-Intel CPUs, regardless of the instruction sets these CPUs claim to be capable of. Am I right so far?

Now for -m and -march, I got them to produce code that runs on nun-Intel CPUs. But where exactly do these two options differ? Is it only a different set of supported instruction sets? For example, I can't find an equivalent option for -mavx in the list of -march arguments. Vice-versa, I find no equivalent for -march=core-avx2 in the list of -m arguments.

I guess this boils down to 2 questions from my side:

1) What exactly is the difference between -m and -march and -arch?

2) Since both -m and -march produce code that runs on non-Intel CPUs, can I be sure that the instruction set will actually be used?

[Devorah_H_Intel · Accepted solution]

 See page 5 in https://software.intel.com/en-us/download/quick-reference-guide-to-optimization-with-intel-c-and-fortran-compilers for details.

[TroyLowry]

The above link does not resolve, and is as bad of a solution as "DM'd you the fix".

Can someone post an actual answer?

[andrew_4619]

RTFM

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/fortran-compiler/developer-guide-reference/2024-0/arch.html