Re: speedup build time

On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 07:00:17PM -0500, Maku Bex wrote:
> ...
> I'm trying to figure out a way to decrease build time of -CURRENT and/or
> -STABLE but it is not working out that well. 
> I've tried the following:
> *	Tuning /etc/make.conf and /etc/src-env.conf based on their manpages
> (make.conf(5), make(1), src.conf(5)).
> *	Removed certain options from GENERIC, which reduced the kernel build
> time significantly. 
> 
> Hardware specs:
> *	I7-10700T 8C/16T @2.0GHz.
> *	16GB RAM.
> *	256GB NVMe.
> 
> Currently, 'make buildworld' has been running for 7hrs and counting. Is
> there anything else I can do to speed up world build?
> ....

First, some questions -- whether or not you wish to share the answers, I
believe that answering the questions (if only for yourself) may be
helpful:

* What (if any) "max_jobs" (make's "-j" parameter) are you using?  For a
  16T system, I expect I would start with a value of around 28.

* Are you using make's "meta" mode?  I do.

* Can you get more memory for that system?

Some context:  I am in the (definitely peculiar; perhaps unfortunate)
habit of "tracking" FreeBSD head and latest stable branch on a small
collection of machines ... daily.  One of those is the laptop that I use
for normal "desktop" stuff, as well as accessing all other machines on
the planet that I access.  (Oh: I also update ports daily, too -- though
I let my dedicated "build machine" handle chromium.)

That laptop has 4C/8T & 32 GB RAM.  This morning, it took:

* 17:46 for stable/14-n269310-bbd018d0aaaf -> stable/14-n269315-b21c677ed28a
  (0:02 to update /usr/src; 17:44 to build; 0:00 to delete old libraries)

* 24:03 for main-n273250-9d585fc395c3 -> main-n273270-cadb71e4b013
  (0:03 to update /usr/src; 23:59 to build; 0:01 to delete old libraries)

* Updating ports (other than www/chromium) took 1:52.

(Those times are "mm:ss" in case it wasn't obvious.)

The above is fairly classic "sample size of 1" -- it's not necessarily
representative.  Folks who are "sufficiently interested" are welcome
to trawl through the logs at
https://www.catwhisker.org/~david/FreeBSD/history/ to get a rough
idea of how long it is before the "uname" output from a successful
build is logged; there is probably some correlation to build times.

I also recently acquired a replacement "build machine": 64C/128T; 256 GB
RAM; a fistful of SATA SSDs (build/boot on one; the rest is a poudriere
play area in a zraid).  That's a wee bit faster than the laptop. :-)

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill                              david@catwhisker.org
It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite
correct; it merely rhymes. -- Theodor Reik

See https://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.