I have a dual PPro and when I compile a new kernel I usually use "make -j4" However I have 128MB of ram and I think I can do better. is there a study/report/survey out there on what N I should put in "make -jN"? Or does everyone just use the brute force method?
On my BP6 (256mb) and Tyan Thunder 100 (128mb) using N = (2 * number of installed processors) generally gives me close to 190% cpu usage, increasing N does not provided sufficient benifits and could cause the system to page. I have found that N = number of processors does not saturate the CPU's enough, possibly contentions with the shell, X, and system daemons which are 'tickled' every time Make writes to stdout.
The above formula also holds true for uni processor systems.
Cheers
Dave
David Cheney
Network Administrator, Information Systems & Services
Faculty of
Law
PH: (03) 8344 4927
University of Melbourne
Parkville VIC
3010
Fax: (03) 8347 2392
EMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
