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= TODO: How to enable parallel building =

 * Audience: Users with multi-core systems
 * Requires: MacPorts >=1.6.0

== Introduction ==

Some ports in MacPorts ports tree can use make -j, a command which allows building parallel. This means, make will spawn multiple build jobs at the same time. With this, the full advantage of the multi core system can be utilized.

== Configuration ==

=== Step 1: '''Edit macports.conf''' ===

Open `/opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf` in your favorite editor. Find the line
{{{
buildmakejobs       1
}}}
and change it to the number of parallel build jobs you want to use. It is common to either use the number of cores or number of cores+1. If you set it to `0`, it will automatically take the number of cores you have.

That was it.

== Note == 

Please note that this is opt-in. It will only work with ports specifying `use_parallel_build  yes` as some developers are concerned it might break ports which have insufficient dependencies in their Makefiles.

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