title: When should I use GCC's -pipe option?
body: <p>The <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.1.2/gcc/Overall-Options.html" rel="noreferrer">GCC 4.1.2 documentation</a> has this to say about the <code>-pipe</code> option:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>-pipe</p>
    
    <p>Use pipes rather than temporary files for communication between the various stages of compilation. This fails to work on some systems where the assembler is unable to read from a pipe; but the GNU assembler has no trouble.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I assume I'd be able to tell from error message if my systems' assemblers didn't support pipes, so besides that issue, when does it matter whether I use that option? What factors should go into deciding to use it?</p>