Parallel compilation in jtmake
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2026 1:57 am
I'm trying to improve our CI build performance. Our application consists of around 1,000 projects, and the build machine has a 16-core CPU. I'm trying to find a way to fully utilize it to speed up the build.
I noticed that jtmake supports the -parallel option when building a project group, but testing it on a project group containing about 200 projects doesn't seem to have any noticeable impact. While monitoring the build in Task Manager, I observed that only one project was being compiled at a time.
Many of our projects are very small (2–5 source files), while others are larger (30+ source files).
I also found forum posts stating that running multiple jtmake instances in parallel for different projects is not supported.
So I would like to know:
I noticed that jtmake supports the -parallel option when building a project group, but testing it on a project group containing about 200 projects doesn't seem to have any noticeable impact. While monitoring the build in Task Manager, I observed that only one project was being compiled at a time.
Many of our projects are very small (2–5 source files), while others are larger (30+ source files).
I also found forum posts stating that running multiple jtmake instances in parallel for different projects is not supported.
So I would like to know:
- What exactly does the `-parallel` option do?
- Is there a recommended way to utilize all 16 cores when building an application consisting of hundreds of relatively small projects?