[Dev] Is it possible to compile multiple packages at the same time with libremakepkg?

Isaac David isacdaavid at isacdaavid.info
Tue May 23 16:10:05 GMT 2017


yes, I can attest that compiling that many kernels every few weeks is
pure madness and bad for your electricity bills :)

do you have the -j MAKEFLAG equal the number of cores in your
/etc/makepkg.conf? if so, I don't think you would gain much from
having many packages compile at the same time, given that all of your
cores are already in use for the longest time. I can even imagine it
resulting in increased total compilation time because of extra amounts
of context switching, cache misses, who knows, don't take my word for
it.

as for ARM, we should investigate using a full cross-toolchain (or a
partial, non-linking cross-compiler on x86 + distcc running on a native
system like ALARM does[^1]) as a way to make the most of faster x86
hardware. there are caveats nonetheless compared to either
libretools+qemu or native libretools on ARM. namely, no support for it
in libretools and a different assortment of failing packages. assuming
there's enough RAM to finish the compilation, native is the best when
it comes to the amount of packages that can be successfully
compiled. the same may be true of a native farm + distcc, but I have
never tried such a thing.

[^1]: https://archlinuxarm.org/wiki/Distcc_Cross-Compiling
     ^ I used to follow this method before moving to qemu (for the
     extra packages that wouldn't compile)

-- 
Isaac David
GPG: 38D33EF29A7691134357648733466E12EC7BA943





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