Re: Prioritizing non-dependent targets in parallel make

[Paul Smith]

On Thu, 2009-12-24 at 01:08 -0800, tom honermann wrote:
> There are many valid orders in which the targets can be built.  When make
> is invoked with the parallel execution (-j) option, the order in which the
> non-dependent targets are scheduled has a significant impact on the total
> run time.

You can already completely control the order in which targets are
invoked, even when using -j.

At all times, make will try to build prerequisites starting with the
first one in the prerequisite list, and continuing in order to the last
one in the list.

Invoking a parallel make does not change this algorithm, the ONLY thing
it does is control how many jobs can be "in flight" at the same time.

So, if you list your prerequisites in order with the longest ones first
and the shortest ones last, then you will get the distribution you want.