4.5.2 Saving time with the -j option

If your system has multiple CPUs, you can speed up compilation by adding ‘-jX’ to the make command, where ‘X’ is one more than the number of cores you have. For example, a typical Core2Duo machine would use:

make -j3

If you get errors using the -j option, and ‘make’ succeeds without it, try lowering the X value.

Because multiple jobs run in parallel when -j is used, it can be difficult to determine the source of an error when one occurs. In that case, running ‘make’ without the -j is advised.