Identify the version of the microarchitecture of a CPU
The different versions of the microarchitecture of a CPU offer different optimisations during the compilation of a package and thus possibly advantages when running the application. Some distributions are now considering upgrading to x86-64-v3 or have already done so.
Now there are some users who still use old computers whose CPU only supports x86-64-v2, for example. The question now is, how can one check this? There are several possibilities. For example, the following script.
#!/bin/sh
flags=$(< /proc/cpuinfo grep flags | head -n 1 | cut -d: -f2)
v2='awk "/cx16/&&/lahf/&&/popcnt/&&/sse4_1/&&/sse4_2/&&/ssse3/ {found=1} END {exit !found}"'
v3='awk "/avx/&&/avx2/&&/bmi1/&&/bmi2/&&/f16c/&&/fma/&&/abm/&&/movbe/&&/xsave/ {found=1} END {exit !found}"'
v4='awk "/avx512f/&&/avx512bw/&&/avx512cd/&&/avx512dq/&&/avx512vl/ {found=1} END {exit !found}"'
echo "$flags" | eval "$v2" || exit 2 && echo "The CPU supports x86-64-v2"
echo "$flags" | eval "$v3" || exit 3 && echo "The CPU supports x86-64-v3"
echo "$flags" | eval "$v4" || exit 4 && echo "The CPU supports x86-64-v4"
If I run the script on the computer I am currently using to create this post, I get the following output.
./cpuv3.sh
The CPU supports x86-64-v2
The CPU supports x86-64-v3
So the CPU installed (AMD Ryzen 5 2600X) supports version 2 and 3 but not version 4, whereby version 4 is rarely or never supported by a CPU. At least not for ordinary processors for average private users as far as I know.