Slashdot Mirror
Should You Pre-Compile Binaries or Roll Your Own?
Jane Walker writes "The completion of pre-compiled packages and maximizing machine performance are two powerful incentives for Windows admins to use Linux and compile an OSS package." TechTarget has an article taking a look at some of the "why" behind rolling your own. What preferences have other Slashdot users developed, and why?
I feel that Gentoo Linux offers the best of both worlds, with their ebuilds. :-)
I have a feeling that this will turn into a general debian vs gentoo style debate, and we all have our preferences.
The big benefits of precompiling are that you don't need to support 1500 different sets of libraries in your development environments, and that the package will generally work right with minimum fuss.
The big benefits of source-based distros are the ability to tailor packages to each install (ie the ability to compile certain features in or out), to choose optimizations on each package (do you want -Os, -O2, -03, or are you really daring -> -ffast-math?).
There are some things that cut both ways - often a given package can be compiled using one or more different dependencies and if you want this flexibility then source-based might work better. On the other hand, it also means that if you have 500 different users of your distor you have 495 different configurations and bugs that are hard to reproduce.
As for me - I like source-based. However, if I had to build a linux email/browser box for a relative I'd probably use Debian stale...er...stable. The right tool for the right job.
Recompiling software gets you almost nothing. Maybe 10% more performance, at the very maximum.
There are special cases like when you want to use dynamic libraries instead of static (to save memory), or when there's a major architecture change (PPC -> x86 for Apple). In those cases you'll gain something.
Another case is rewriting your program to use CPU-specific instructions, like Altivec or SSE3. That, in certain circumstances, will speed up your program.
But if you're compiling OO.org or Mozilla because you think your 686 version will be 100% faster than the 386 version, you're wrong.
My other car is first.
Running "openssl speed" compiled with "-O3 -march=pentium4" gave about 3 times the performance of "-O" on my server. Being able to handle 3 times the number of SSL connections was certainly worth the 10 seconds required to put correct values in Gentoo's /etc/make.conf.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I've used both Debian and Gentoo. I am now (mostly) using Gentoo and not Debian. I hope you might find my perspective helpful. (But it should also be stated I also use ports on FreeBSD, and I have come to the conclusion that source-based distros are easier for me to use.)
How I'd love to have so much dead CPU time! If your computer's not doing anything for you, why bother having one? Truth be told, one can reap performance gains in more definitive ways than trying to have your compiler make different binaries. As you indicated, running few processes helps. As can swapping in a custom kernel and/or using a faster filesystem (both of which you can do on Deb fairly easily).
I don't usually see a huge advantage, but it does depend on the app. For desktop users, app launchtime is often significant. I do think using '-Os' to make smaller binaries (which get into memory faster) does usually create a noticeable benefit. And for workstation/server apps, every few percent for "faster" apps could be helpful to some people (but I agree that it is typically only a few percent). But just leaving apps open is often "good enough" for load time & perhaps there aren't many who really need the extra few percent.
Yes. Absolutely. Particularly when you have relatively common needs across all apps. Perhaps you want to run an X-less server? Or perhaps you want to have apps with only KDE/QT or only Gnome/GTK+ or what not. USE comes to the rescue.
You are typically correct. But the thing is that foo more often than not will have optional support for some feature. But some gentoo ebuilds do, indeed, have USE flags that aren't just ./configure flags for some applications. For example, you can install xpdf with the 'nodrm' use flag, which applies a patch to cause xpdf to ignore drm restrictions. Indeed, for making custom ebuilds, USE flags prove to be quite useful: you can use them to test multiple patches without the need to apply a given patch to all installations & can easily check which features a certain app has (by checking which flags it was emerged with).
Gentoo's approach gives the user more choice. It preserves your old files by default. You can choose to replace the old config with a newer config or, more useful, merge (typically using sdiff) in changes between the old and new config. It doesn't choose what is best for you.
Debian's defaults are normally sane. But not always.
doesn't compiling code with Intel's cc result in significantly better binaries than any flag you can throw at gcc??
3 20202
Not if you're running on an AMD64 it doesn't.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/12/1
A vast number of regularly updated packages. Put simply, I can emerge almost anything, whereas every other distribution I've used, sooner or later I come across a package I need which doesn't have an RPM or what have you, and I have to build my own complete with the dependency hell that can entail.
More than that, almost half the time you can install an updated package not yet in Portage by renaming the most recent ebuild to match the new version number.
If that fails, you can invest a few hours and learn how to write your own ebuilds... It's insane how easy it really can be to get any bleating edge bit of software running.
What does this button d$#%* NO CARRIER
Precompiled binaries suite most situations. IMO, it's silly (and time consuming) to compile everything from source all the time. However, if you need a newer version of a program or some specific settings comiling from source is the way to go. Arch linux approaches this well. They offer optimized, often completely up-to-date, precompiled binaries in pacman, but allow you to build from source with the Arch Build System if neccissary.