Parallel Make Output

Question

When running a CMake generated Makefile with multiple processes (make -jN), the output often gets messed up like this:

[  8%] [  8%] [  9%] Buil         


        

Answer 1

The specific CMake bug related to interleaved make output using -jN with N>1 is CMake bug 0012991: "Parallel build output mess". It is still open in the "backlog" state waiting to be fixed.

This bug is actually annoying enough that it's a strong reason to switch to Ninja instead of make. Plus the fact that Ninja is faster than make. Ninja also uses an appropriate number of parallel jobs based on the number of CPU cores present. Also cool is how Ninja is, by default, very quiet: all progress happens on a single line in the terminal unless the build process emits messages or a build step fails. If a build step fails, Ninja prints the full command line that invoked it and displays the output. It's really nice since it makes any warning or error messages stand out. Although currently there is no colored terminal output: that would be a nice improvement but for me the advantages of Ninja over make are tremendous.