Is -j safe to use when building or updating ports?

[David Wolfskill]

Given current trends in system architecture, I have the impression that
expecting significantly faster CPUs than (say) 3 GHz is fairly
unrealistic, certainly for most of us.  On the other hand, dual- &
quad-core CPUs have pretty much achieved commodity status -- and folks
who make CPUs have indicated that the trend is toward more cores (or so
I understand).

How "safe" is it to (try to?) make constructive use of multiple cores
(or CPUs) when building ports?  Or running portmaster?

So far, I've been pretty conservative, and have avoided using -j when I
make(1) a port -- or a kernel, for that matter.  But this is causing
upgrades to take long enough to be rather painful, especially for a
machine that is performing a significant role at the time.

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
Depriving a girl or boy of an opportunity for education is evil.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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