Optimising FreeBSD

[Richard Danter]

Hi all,

I'm still fairly new to this, so I hope you all don't mind another
question. Actually, several questions!!!!

First let me explain what I have, then what I want to do.

I have 2 machines which I want to run FreeBSD on. So far I have set one
of them up, a P-II machine, as a file & print server. Next set up a
P-III machine for day to day use as a workstation.

Since neither of these machines are particularly powerful I want to be
able to optimise the performance of them both. I don't mind sitting and
waiting for compiles now it if means better performance later.
Particularly on the workstation as I will be doing some fairly intensive
things on it (eg multimedia).

So on the P-II machine I installed 5.3-RELEASE with no problems. I then
re-built the kernel with the I686_CPU option set and a load of
unnecessary drivers removed. This saved about 4MB right away. I then
used CVSup to update the ports and installed Samba and one or two
others. I thought I was doing pretty well since I can print and read
files from both Windows and other *NIX machines, but I have since
realised that I probably don't have the best optimisations in place.

Having spent some more time reading the handbook and various bits on the
web I think I know what to do, but would really appreciate some
independent confirmation.

First, I think I need to edit the /etc/make.conf file. This is what I
think I should have in place:

CPUTYPE ?= p2 # or p3 on my workstation
CFLAGS = -O -pipe # O2 and above not recommended?
COPTFLAGS= -O -pipe

I am not sure I understand the difference between CFLAGS and COPTFLAGS.
Am I right in saying that COPTFLAGS is used for kernel builds and CFLAGS
is used for everything else? If so, should they be set the same, or can
I safely increase the -O setting in CFLAGS?

Is there anything else I need to set?

Assuming the settings above are right, now I guess I can rebuild my
kernel again without changing the configuration but I should now have p2
specific code? Is there anything in the kernel config file I need to
check? Do I even need to rebuild since I had the I686_CPU setting?

Next I guess I need to re-build the rest of the userland apps. Is it
simply a case of building world, or do I have to go through the whole
upgrade procedure as described in the Handbook?

I want to stick to -RELEASE, does this change (bug/security fixes)? If
so, how do I update? I can see CVSup config files for -CURRENT and
-STABLE, but not for -RELEASE.

I guess the last step is to recompile the ports I have installed. Is
there a quick way to rebuild just the ports I have installed or do I
need to go through them all one by one and 'make install clean' them?

Anything else I have missed?

Sorry for so many questions in one go!

Many thanks in advance,
Rich

[RW]

On Sunday 27 February 2005 16:32, Richard Danter wrote:

>...
> I guess the last step is to recompile the ports I have installed. Is
> there a quick way to rebuild just the ports I have installed or do I
> need to go through them all one by one and 'make install clean' them?
>

The easiest way is to use portupgrade

portupgrade -fa will work, but I tend to use something like this:

portupgrade -f '<2005-02-27 16:40'

which means force a rebuild of ever port built before the given time. This can
be restarted if a build fails or you need to stop and restart.

[Subhro]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email]owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org[/email] [mailto:owner-freebsd-
> [email]questions@freebsd.org[/email]] On Behalf Of Richard Danter
> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 22:03
> To: [email]freebsd-questions@freebsd.org[/email]
> Subject: Optimising FreeBSD
>
> First, I think I need to edit the /etc/make.conf file. This is what I
> think I should have in place:
>
> CPUTYPE ?= p2 # or p3 on my workstation
> CFLAGS = -O -pipe # O2 and above not recommended?
> COPTFLAGS= -O -pipe

Make that CPUTYPE=p2 instead of CPUTYPE?=p2. The later is used if you build
for p2 on a different platform. CFLAGS and COPTFLAGS look ok. You can try
-O2 for COPTFLAGS but expect some instabilities.

>
> I am not sure I understand the difference between CFLAGS and COPTFLAGS.
> Am I right in saying that COPTFLAGS is used for kernel builds and CFLAGS
> is used for everything else?

That's correct

>
> Is there anything else I need to set?

Go through /usr/local/sys/i386/conf/NOTES. Read through the different
processor flags.

>
> Assuming the settings above are right, now I guess I can rebuild my
> kernel again without changing the configuration but I should now have p2
> specific code? Is there anything in the kernel config file I need to
> check? Do I even need to rebuild since I had the I686_CPU setting?

Just rebuilding the kernel after modifying make.conf should be enough.

>
> Next I guess I need to re-build the rest of the userland apps. Is it
> simply a case of building world, or do I have to go through the whole
> upgrade procedure as described in the Handbook?

Yeh a rebuild of world is necessary. Well, not necessary but definitely
recommended.

>
> I want to stick to -RELEASE, does this change (bug/security fixes)? If
> so, how do I update? I can see CVSup config files for -CURRENT and
> -STABLE, but not for -RELEASE.

RELENG_X means FreeBSD X-STABLE, RELENG_X_Y means FreeBSD X.Y-RELEASE.
Read through the "make world" section of the handbook again.

>
> I guess the last step is to recompile the ports I have installed. Is
> there a quick way to rebuild just the ports I have installed or do I
> need to go through them all one by one and 'make install clean' them?
>
> Anything else I have missed?

The simplest way I would do is pkg_delete -ad. This would delete *all* the
installed ports. Then selectively rebuild the ports as required.

> Sorry for so many questions in one go!

You don't learn something unless you have the guts to ask, so be proud about
it. :-)

Regards,
S.

Indian Institute of Information Technology
Subhro Sankha Kar
Block AQ-13/1, Sector V
Salt Lake City
PIN 700091
India