# How to get information about compile options?



## Blackbird (Jul 8, 2010)

Hi,

I'm compiling all my things from ports and so I often see compile options I've never heard of before. Then I switch to Google or Wikipedia of course, but often I think that I would have to become an expert in that thing to understand whether I should enable that compile option or not...

So here's my question: Where can I get some tips for specific compile options?
I came from Gentoo, and there mostly there were some tips, e.g. "If you do not want to ***, you can disable this." or "This increases the build speed on fast systems. If you have a fast system, you can enable this."

But I didn't find something similar here for FreeBSD. 

For example, there are options for python26 like "Use a larger thread stack" or "Enable floating point exception handling", which I can't surely decide about without external help.

Do you have an idea for people like me from where to get such help?


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## SirDice (Jul 8, 2010)

Whether or not you can turn options on or off depends on what you want. Most are relatively obvious, some are more obscure. You will need to google for them and experiment a little. Usually you can find some answers in the documentation of the port itself. I tend not to play with the obscure ones, just to be on the safe side


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## Blackbird (Jul 8, 2010)

Yes, but often I don't know what I want! :e

For example this "Enable floating point exception handling". Even after googling I don't know wether that is good for me or bad, and what effects it has for me if I enable/disable it. And there are hundreds of other examples like this.


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## zeiz (Jul 8, 2010)

Default set of options is created to satisfy most users (average user). Some exceptions exist and they are documented. Check a port's Makefile for the start.

So SirDice's advice is pretty good: if you know what are you doing - do it, if you don't - don't do it unless it's exactly your goal to see what happens next and learn this way


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