> > using Gentoo or LFS (scary thought) for a production Linux server is > > probably the dumbest thing you'll ever do involving Linux... the > > maintenance nightmare alone... gcc optimisation levels don't make a > > massive difference from a lot of real-world POVs, I'd like to see some > > useful real benchmarks but it still wouldn't be worth the hassle of a > > re-building everything from source just to get that small improvement.. > > it would probably have to be worth 10-15% speed to make it worth the > > hassle.. you know you can also re-build RH and Debian with higher > > optimisations you could in theory get all the RH SRC RPM and --rebuild > > them with higher opts on ..
We used to have about 70, more or less, Linux and FreeBSD servers and gateways. We started to deploy these servers in 1993 when the fastest CPU was 386sx. We used Yggdrasill distro when Linux was version 0.98. Then, we switched to Slackware two years later when Linux was version 1.+. And we always build the kernel from scratch. It takes several hours like half a day or more to rebuild at that time. At this time, it takes less than an hour on fast PCs. We rebuild to optimise, i.e., take away the unnecessary bits and pieces or modules, to make the kernel leaner and faster. We also rebuild for security and to standardise administration. When the kernel is simpler there are less modules to be concerned about as far as security management is concerned. It is also simpler to administer because when things went wrong we focused our investigation on fewer modules rather than the entire range of modules that came with the distro including those we never hope to get understanding about. A third reason to rebuild was for specific configurations requirements. A number of our firewalls were running on these Linux and FreeBSD and our configuration requirements are to disable IP Forwarding and multicasting which is by default set to ON, amongst other requirements. We also build, rebuild, and upgrade servers on a periodic basis. Is it that difficult to manage ? Not at all. We had a toolbox of scripts that we used to rebuild depending on the configuration. Once, the distro is installed we run the specific script and leave the machine alone until the job is completed. I have not used the Gentoo myself but I've used a couple of their scripts which I grabbed from the Internet. These two scripts have saved me tremendous time and effort. So, after all, Gentoo's are like nice guys to me. And so, are most Linux distro's. Oscar Plameras http://www.acay.com.au/~oscarp/disclaimer.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
