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

[Leonid Isaev]

On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 08:03:33 -0800
Anatol Pomozov <anatol.pomozov at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
> 
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 6:55 AM, Paul Gideon Dann <pdgiddie at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> But there always will be people who uses -jN (e.g. me). If we decide
> to keep broken PKGBUILD in AUR forever then it means sooner or later
> -jN people will be hit by this issues. So the choice is really:
> 
> 1) Keep the broken packages forever and care only about -j1 people
> (who is majority now).
> 2) Make -jN by default. It will speedup compilation but it also make
> the broken packages more visible.
> 
> IMHO #2 is better. It is better to highlight all the broken PKGBUILD
> and fix it thus make it working for everyone.

Why is the default "-j" such a big deal?

IMHO, the way things are currently is OK. You want to speedup compilation --
there is an option for that. FWIW, if you compile >1 package, you'll have to
change lots of things in makepkg.conf besides makeflags (sign, packager info,
CFLAGS) anyways.

Cheers,
-- 
Leonid Isaev
GnuPG key: 0x164B5A6D
Fingerprint: C0DF 20D0 C075 C3F1 E1BE  775A A7AE F6CB 164B 5A6D
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 490 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/attachments/20140103/43f82574/attachment.asc>