[Nix-dev] Re: proposal: in build parallelization policies

[Marc Weber]

> I don't like this approach, because the semantics of "often" are vague
> and imprecise.

Yes. Intentionally. They serve documentation purposes.
Eg If a package builds often in parallel but not always you can document
exactly that behaviour. Then users who run make -j4 once seeing it works
will not set it to "always" for exactly that reason.
Neither will they build it 10 times to see whether it is "often" rather
than always.

So its meant to prevent commit loops

always -> never -> always ->never
- "but for me it works"
- "but for me it doesn't"

Does knowing about the original purpose change your liking?

Marc Weber