[arch-general] Default value of "j" in makeflags of makepkg.conf

[Paul Gideon Dann]

On Friday 03 Jan 2014 15:33:05 Martti Kühne wrote:
> Because I have a strong opinion about this. Also to prevent people
> from running into this who are not that experienced in making things
> work.

If someone makes more than a few packages, they will have encountered makepkg.conf, to 
at least set their e-mail address.  When I started using Arch, I think I discovered 
makepkg.conf and added the -j to makeflags pretty much on day one of experimenting with 
PKGBUILDs.  But I think it comes down to this:

1) If someone knows that the -j flag exists, it won't take them long to figure out how to add 
it to makeflags, and then the responsibility is with them to ensure they know it can (rarely!) 
break some builds.

2) If the -j flag is added by default, builds may break unpredictably, and users will not know 
why.  They may not be aware of -j, and may not make the connection to makepkg.conf at all.

Option 1 seems a safer default to me.  However, I think this should be properly documented 
in makepkg.conf: there should be an actual suggestion to add -j, along with a warning that 
in rare cases it may cause breakage.  Just a single-line comment, possibly with a link to the 
wiki, would be enough.

Paul