Re: [MLUG] Multithreaded compile using apt?

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Jack Smith wrote:
> I have a quick question here and Google wasn't very helpful. I want to
> be able to use both CPU cores when I compile a Debian source package
> using apt. I can get things to compile just fine, but gcc only spawns
> one thread. How would I go about getting it to spawn more threads? I
> already tried to export MAKEOPTS="-j3" in the terminal to get gcc to
> spawn three threads, but apparently apt spoon-feeds gcc instructions.
>
> --Jack

I was under the impression that "-j3" is an option that is given to 
make, not to gcc.  It causes make to spawn three gcc's (or other 
compilation services) at a time.

I use it all the time when compiling the FreeBSD kernel, but my 
impression is that the Makefile has to be quite carefully written for it 
to work properly.  It would not surprise me if the Makefile's for many 
source packages were not "-j??" friendly.

My personal experience with multithreading is that you always gain 
efficiency by doing the threading as at high a level as possible.  So, 
for example, you could have a multithreaded gcc.  But a multithreaded 
make would be more efficient.  And running three totally separate 
compilations (i.e. building three separate packages) simultaneously is 
the very best way.

Stephen


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