[Boost-build] [Boost.Build] bjam takes very long before start of compilation (of boost iostreams)

Subject: [Boost-build] [Boost.Build] bjam takes very long before start of compilation (of boost iostreams)
From: Boris Dušek (boris.dusek_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-10-06 05:21:55

Hello,

I am building boost 1.34.1 iostreams library using bjam 3.1.16-1-ntx86
(downloaded executable), with MSVC 9 SP1 on Windows XP SP3, 512 MB
RAM, Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz (only  1 core), inside VMware Fusion 2.0,
boost directory on VMware shared folder.

I measured the time that it takes to compile:
 * it takes 3.5 minutes before the "...patience... ...found 488
targets... ...updating 11 targets..." message appears
 * it then takes 20 seconds to 1 minute for the compilation to
actually compile and link the library (depending on the exact
configuration, i.e. with or without zlib and bzip2)

What troubles me is the initial 3.5 minutes, I think it's too long
compared to the time the actual build takes. The CPU is on 100% during
that phase. Or am I doing something wrong? My config can be both of
these (one complicated, one simple, but both build only 1 DLL
configuration, i.e. only 1 DLL file), and the initial 3.5 minute time
is the same in both cases:

1.
"..\..\..\boost-jam-3.1.16-1-ntx86\bjam.exe" --toolset=msvc-9.0
--with-iostreams link=shared runtime-link=shared variant=release stage
"-sZLIB_LIBPATH=Z:\Downloads\zlib123-dll\lib"
"-sZLIB_INCLUDE=Z:\Downloads\zlib123-dll\include" "-sZLIB_BINARY=zdll"
"-sBZIP2_BINARY=bz2-vc90-mt"
"-sBZIP2_LIBPATH=Z:\Downloads\bzip2-1.0.5\Release"
"-sBZIP2_INCLUDE=Z:\Downloads\bzip2-1.0.5"

2.
"..\..\..\boost-jam-3.1.16-1-ntx86\bjam.exe" --toolset=msvc-9.0
--with-iostreams link=shared runtime-link=shared variant=release stage

Thanks for any suggestions on how to reduce the initial waiting time.

Boris Dušek