The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has signed off on the plans for [1]Fedora 41 to build its Python using the "-O3" compiler optimization level rather than the "-O2" default for Fedora packages in the name of better performance.

There's been a proposal with Fedora 41 to use the -O3 compiler flag for better optimizations than the existing -O2 for the Python build. The -O3 optimization level is what upstream Python uses for its release builds and is proven that "it makes Python significantly faster" across a range of benchmarks/workloads. On a geo mean basis this makes Fedora's Python around 4% faster while some individual benchmarks see much more significant improvements.

The [2]change proposal is summed up as:

"Faster Python, faster Fedora."

FESCo has [3]approved the -O3 optimization level change for Python to happen with the in-development Fedora 41.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-41-O3-Python-Proposal

[2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Python_built_with_gcc_O3

[3] https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/3202