Optimising FreeBSD

[Richard Danter]

Hi all,

I'm still fairly new to this, so I hope you all don't mind another 
question. Actually, several questions!!!!

First let me explain what I have, then what I want to do.

I have 2 machines which I want to run FreeBSD on. So far I have set one 
of them up, a P-II machine, as a file & print server. Next set up a 
P-III machine for day to day use as a workstation.

Since neither of these machines are particularly powerful I want to be 
able to optimise the performance of them both. I don't mind sitting and 
waiting for compiles now it if means better performance later. 
Particularly on the workstation as I will be doing some fairly intensive 
things on it (eg multimedia).

So on the P-II machine I installed 5.3-RELEASE with no problems. I then 
re-built the kernel with the I686_CPU option set and a load of 
unnecessary drivers removed. This saved about 4MB right away. I then 
used CVSup to update the ports and installed Samba and one or two 
others. I thought I was doing pretty well since I can print and read 
files from both Windows and other *NIX machines, but I have since 
realised that I probably don't have the best optimisations in place.

Having spent some more time reading the handbook and various bits on the 
web I think I know what to do, but would really appreciate some 
independent confirmation.

First, I think I need to edit the /etc/make.conf file. This is what I 
think I should have in place:

   CPUTYPE ?= p2 		# or p3 on my workstation
   CFLAGS   = -O -pipe		# O2 and above not recommended?
   COPTFLAGS= -O -pipe

I am not sure I understand the difference between CFLAGS and COPTFLAGS. 
Am I right in saying that COPTFLAGS is used for kernel builds and CFLAGS 
is used for everything else? If so, should they be set the same, or can 
I safely increase the -O setting in CFLAGS?

Is there anything else I need to set?

Assuming the settings above are right, now I guess I can rebuild my 
kernel again without changing the configuration but I should now have p2 
specific code? Is there anything in the kernel config file I need to 
check? Do I even need to rebuild since I had the I686_CPU setting?

Next I guess I need to re-build the rest of the userland apps. Is it 
simply a case of building world, or do I have to go through the whole 
upgrade procedure as described in the Handbook?

I want to stick to -RELEASE, does this change (bug/security fixes)? If 
so, how do I update? I can see CVSup config files for -CURRENT and 
-STABLE, but not for -RELEASE.

I guess the last step is to recompile the ports I have installed. Is 
there a quick way to rebuild just the ports I have installed or do I 
need to go through them all one by one and 'make install clean' them?

Anything else I have missed?

Sorry for so many questions in one go!

Many thanks in advance,
Rich