Martin> 2. Assuming -Wl,+s -Wl,+k are warnings: ... They cause the +s and +k options to be passed to the linker. They could also be written as -Wl,+s,+k. Martin> 4. On the model selection options, I don't quite understand Martin> why you say that this set of options gives portable binaries. Martin> I would have thought that +DA1.1 +DS2.0 is the set of option Martin> that gives portable binaries. I found an HP-UX machine I could log into which has aCC installed. It's just a 10.20 machine. HP's are on the way out here. I didn't found any running HP-UX 11. About +DA and +DS the aCC man page has this to say: +DAarchitecture Generate code for a particular version of the PA- RISC architecture specified. Also specifies which version of the HP-UX math library to link when you have specified -lm. Note Object code generated for PA-RISC 2.0 will not execute on PA-RISC 1.1 systems. To generate code compatible across PA-RISC 1.1 and 2.0 workstations and servers, use the +DAportable option. For best performance use +DA with the model number or architecture where you plan to execute the program. See the file /opt/langtools/lib/sched.models for a list of model numbers and their PA-RISC architecture designations. If you do not specify this option, the default object code generated is determined automatically as that of the machine on which you compile. Examples +DA1.1 +DA867 +DA2.0 +DAportable The first two examples generate code for the PA- RISC 1.1 architecture. The third example generates code for the PA-RISC 2.0 architecture. The fourth example generates code compatible across PA-RISC 1.1 and 2.0 workstations and servers. +DSmodel Use the instruction scheduler tuned to the model specified. If this option is not used, the compiler uses the instruction scheduler for the architecture on which the program is compiled. The architecture is determined by uname() (see uname(2)). model can be a model number, PA-RISC architecture designation or PA-RISC processor name. See the file /opt/langtools/lib/sched.models for a list of model numbers and processor names. Obviously, due to the age of the OS on this machine, there's no mention of Itanium. >> Maybe there should also be some sort of option for expects who will >> not want Python to be compiled for generic processor; who might >> purposefully want to compile Python on their particular hardware and >> have it fully optimized for it to gain maximum performance. Martin> No, no, no. If you want to highly tune your build, you are Martin> expected to edit the makefile. Providing an explicit option for Martin> that will place a burden on users who are not able to answer Martin> difficult build questions (and, trust me, this is the majority Martin> of the users). It would also make the configure script that much more fragile. Skip