to make or add a package

[Mike Meyer]

[Text formatting corrected.]

In <20030122091717.C6226 at asu.edu>, David Bear <David.Bear at asu.edu> typed:
> I'm very impressed with the ports collection.

[Pat jkh on the back, though it's a long reach from here.]

> I have found there are two was to install a port, through pkg_add or
> the make.  I was wondering that if a port were a make, if the
> compiler would do any optimizations on the final executable,
> therefore giving me a faster/smaller/whatever application.  Maybe
> there would be no significant difference.  But, if I have the time
> to wait, is it worth it?

You can set CFLAGS in /etc/make.conf, and those optimizations/machine
types will be used at build time. Whether that makes a difference to
you is up to you.

You can also set build options to change the location where the
executables live - though that tends to cause some ports to fail - or
specify what parts of the package you do/don't want built.

Personally, I always build from ports. If nothing else, having the
source handy is worth a little extra time.

	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.