[RFC] Un-staticise the toolchain

[Chris Rees]

On 26 April 2012 20:15, Matthew Seaman <m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:
> On 26/04/2012 20:01, Chris Rees wrote:
>> hydra# cd /usr/ports && time make MAKE=~crees/bin/make-static index
>>
>> Generating INDEX-9 - please wait.. Done.
>> 729.770u 120.841s 7:45.10 182.8%        920+2676k 5251+116484io 7750pf+0w
>>
>> hydra# time make MAKE=~crees/bin/make-dynamic index
>>
>> Generating INDEX-9 - please wait.. Done.
>> 771.320u 133.540s 8:07.83 185.4%        609+2918k 474+116484io 570pf+0w
>>
>> We have a 10% slowdown (or 11% speedup, depending on your figures) when
>> using a dynamically loaded make.
>
> I don't think you can validly conclude much from just one sample of each
> type.  Try repeating those tests enough that you can do some decent
> statistics.
>
> Oh, and you should probably either discard the first few results, or
> else take pains to flush[*] the buffer cache between each run, so you
> end up measuring the same thing repeatably.

Had I done the tests the other way around, I may agree with you, but
the second test should benefit from any buffering, and it is *still*
slower.

Look, I know it's not a perfect benchmark, it was just some food for
thought-- a difference of 10% is pretty significant, and I don't think
you can blame that on a solar flare.

Chris