Speed up build phase with "make -j"

[Markus Weissmann]

On 31.10.2007, at 15:45, Anders F Björklund wrote:

>> Parallell builds are an optional feature, and will never be  
>> disabled by default.
>
> *enabled* by default, darnit.
>

So the discussion has narrowed to:
1.) disabled by default on an "per-installation" option:
Can be toggled system-wide (with default "off"); ports have to  
actively deny a parallel build attempt;

2.) disabled by default on a per-port option
Can be toggled system-wide (with default ?); ports have to actively  
declare to be build-able in parallel;

The point is: The primary goal when building software is working  
installations, everything else is of less priority. For getting the  
build time reduced, you get defunct software, which is a bad trade-off.
Therefore even the power-user with an 8-core Xeon will rather wait a  
bit longer than get defunct software. So enabling parallel builds  
will suck, as stuff starts to break.
I'd rather give them a real benefit that IF they enable parallel  
builds, they get working software _always_.

Therefore I think 2.) is the option of choice so everyone gets happy.  
The default in 2.) can be set manually or with some auto-number-of- 
cores detection, I dont care specifically.


-Markus

--
Markus W. Weissmann
http://www.mweissmann.de/