The seven second kernel compile (es.tldp.org)

Please append the date on old posts like this

What are compile times like right now, with modern hardware?

One the one hand, we have Moore's law. On the other hand, kernel compilation time. Since compilation time is monotonically increasing, do we observe exponential compilation complexity in the kernel?

I remember back in 2000 or so when I declined the invitation to a party because I wanted to compile a new kernel in the evening.

I remember starting a 1.2 kernel compile on my 486 with 4 MB of RAM, going to bed, then going to school, and finding that it had finished when I came back home.

Back in pre-module days, Slackware shipped with "big" kernel with lots of drivers compiled in. The advantage was that this way the kernel could boot on a wide range of hardware. But it was very bloated (for the time) and the users were expected to recompile the kernel with unnecessary drivers removed. I remember compiling it on Pentium 60 with 16MB of RAM. Took 1-2 hours or so.

I just measured and built the latest 9front AMD64 kernel in 15.4 seconds using a Celeron J1900 with a SATA SSD. I also posted this from 9front.

Some say Gentoo's Stage 1 is still compiling..