Hello there,

            After having compiled gzip, I had looked at the Makefile “./configure” generated.

            Looking at CFLAGS=”” (system configuration section), not many compiler flags are specified for optimization. 

            The “Specific Targets” section sets different flags for different systems, which are set accordingly.

            Currently, I am looking at “CFLAGS= -O”.

            I noticed that some optimization flags were not set (curious as to why):

-         -march=native (pentium3, athlon64, etc) (produces code for the specific architecture specified)

-         -O2 (recommended level to use to increase code performance )

-         -pipe (makes compilation process faster)

-         -fomit-frame-pointer (reduces generated code size)

Also, I found this article http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gzip/2013-02/msg00000.html and it mentions setting –O2 and encountering an issue (it has since been fixed).

After running some tests after I recompiled (Linux), sometimes I noticed it to be a little bit faster (at times) on x86_64.

Note: There are many different conditions that cause the numbers to fluctuate, such as: # of processes running, ram usage, CPU power etc.

 

Thank You