# portmaster and make options



## tanked (Jul 7, 2009)

Hello,

I'm trying to pass make options when I use portmaster to build ports; according to the man page you use the -m option so in order to specify the number of jobs for *make* I tried the following:


```
portmaster -m j4 -d -p /path/to/port
```

however this doesn't work - can anyone tell me the correct syntax?


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## phoenix (Jul 7, 2009)

Does it work if you put quotes around the option, and include the - like so:
`# portmaster -m "-j4" -d /path/to/port`


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## tanked (Jul 7, 2009)

Thanks phoenix I just figured it out myself a couple of minutes ago - I was trying to install the zsh shell and the following command 'sort of' worked 


```
portmaster -m -j4 -p /usr/ports/shells/zsh
```

I say 'sort of' because when the port build presents the graphical config screen, using TAB to get to the OK button doesn't work so I can't get past there. Leaving out the make options allows the port to build normally :\


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## phoenix (Jul 7, 2009)

Forgot to mention this above:  You shouldn't specify -j when building ports.  The ports tree supports -j internally for the build target (the only target that actually compiles anything).  Have a search for MAKE_JOBS on the -ports mailing list for more details on how it all works.


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