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[ANNOUNCEMENT] Cygwin/XFree86 Cross Compiling


The many patches to allow cross compiling Cygwin/XFree86 under another
operating system, say Linux, were checked into the XFree86 CVS tree this
morning.  Cross compiling Cygwin/XFree86 saves developers lots of time, as
'make World' completes in roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of time required
to build on Cygwin proper, and it also lets developers get some good use out
of their older hardware.

---------------------------------------------------------
Example:

Box-A has a P3-550, 256 MB of PC133 RAM, and a 5400 RPM ATA/66 HD.

Box-B has an Athlon 1.2 GHz, 266 MHz FSB, 512 MB DDR PC2100 RAM, and a 7200
RPM ATA/100 HD.

Box-A, running Windows 2000, used to take over 90 minutes to build; running
Linux, Box-A now takes 30 minutes to build.  Box-B has, so far, only run
Windows 2000 and it takes 50 minutes to build.  As you can see, I can now
throw less than half of the hardware at building Cygwin/XFree86 and reduce
the build time by 40%!  Yippee!
---------------------------------------------------------

I will be documenting the cross compilation process in the Cygwin/XFree86
Contributor's Guide within the next week or so.

Thanks to Alexander Gottwald, Christopher Faylor, and Alan Hourihane for
answering my many annoying questions about cross compiling.  Extra special
thanks to Alexander Gottwald for having the idea to cross compile and for
taking the initial steps towards making it happen.

Enjoy,

Harold


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