Subject: Re: pkgsrc progress bar?
To: Teemu Rinta-aho <>
From: Dmitri Nikulin <>
List: current-users
Date: 01/21/2005 14:13:24
Teemu Rinta-aho wrote:

> Hi all,
> installing gmplayer I have no idea whether I have to wait
> Teemu
This doesn't actually belong in current-users@, but I'll answer anyway.

It would be a silly effort. To measure compile progress, you'd need a 
pre-set 'workload' (say, expected CPU cycles, or something equally 
stupid), and then measure this resource usage during the compile and 
hence determine the progress. This is impossible because of different 
CPUs, optimizations, compilers, options, etc...

There are other more sensible but equally impractical ways like 
checkpoints in Makefiles. For instance, you could count how many 
checkpoints have been passed out of how many are expected, and use this 
as a 'roundabout' measure of progress; but it would be hard to determine 
the actual time from this, because a checkpoints are hard to equally 
space. This also requires a lot of extra implementation. Not worth it.

Your best bet, which I find works for me, is to stop caring how long 
something will go for. Leave the machine on and get on with life. The 
annoying part is when something fails to compile at all, but that's part 
of using a 'minority' OS :(