The FreeBSD ports framework supports parallel building using multiple make sub-processes, which allows SMP systems to utilize all of their available CPU power, allowing port builds to be faster and more effective.
This is achieved by passing -jX flag to make(1) running on vendor code. Unfortunately, not all ports handle parallel building well. Therefore it is required to explicitly enable this feature by adding MAKE_JOBS_SAFE=yes somewhere below the dependency declaration section of the Makefile.
Another option for controlling this feature from the maintainer's point of view is the MAKE_JOBS_UNSAFE=yes variable. It is used when a port is known to be broken with -jX and a user forces the use of multi processor compilations for all ports in /etc/make.conf with the FORCE_MAKE_JOBS=yes variable.
If your port uses GNU make, set USE_GMAKE=yes.
Table 6-1. Variables for ports related to gmake
| Variable | Means |
|---|---|
| USE_GMAKE | The port requires gmake to build. |
| GMAKE | The full path for gmake if it is not in the PATH. |
If your port is an X application that creates Makefile files
from Imakefile files using imake,
then set USE_IMAKE=yes. This will cause the configure stage to
automatically do an xmkmf -a. If the -a flag is a problem for your port, set XMKMF=xmkmf. If the port uses imake but
does not understand the install.man target, NO_INSTALL_MANPAGES=yes should be set.
If your port's source Makefile has something else than all as the main build target, set ALL_TARGET accordingly. Same goes for install and INSTALL_TARGET.
If your port uses the configure script to generate Makefile files from Makefile.in files, set GNU_CONFIGURE=yes. If you want to give extra arguments to the configure script (the default argument is --prefix=${PREFIX} --infodir=${PREFIX}/${INFO_PATH} --mandir=${MANPREFIX}/man --build=${CONFIGURE_TARGET}), set those extra arguments in CONFIGURE_ARGS. Extra environment variables can be passed using CONFIGURE_ENV variable.
Table 6-2. Variables for ports that use configure
| Variable | Means |
|---|---|
| GNU_CONFIGURE | The port uses configure script to prepare build. |
| HAS_CONFIGURE | Same as GNU_CONFIGURE, except default configure target is not added to CONFIGURE_ARGS. |
| CONFIGURE_ARGS | Additional arguments passed to configure script. |
| CONFIGURE_ENV | Additional environment variables to be set for configure script run. |
| CONFIGURE_TARGET | Override default configure target. Default value is ${MACHINE_ARCH}-portbld-freebsd${OSREL}. |
If your port uses SCons, define USE_SCONS=yes.
Table 6-3. Variables for ports that use scons
| Variable | Means |
|---|---|
| SCONS_ARGS | Port specific SCons flags passed to the SCons environment. |
| SCONS_BUILDENV | Variables to be set in system environment. |
| SCONS_ENV | Variables to be set in SCons environment. |
| SCONS_TARGET | Last argument passed to SCons, similar to MAKE_TARGET. |
To make third party SConstruct respect everything that is passed to SCons in SCONS_ENV (that is, most importantly, CC/CXX/CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS), patch the SConstruct so build Environment is constructed like this:
env = Environment(**ARGUMENTS)
It may be then modified with env.Append and env.Replace.