I am interested to use NetBSD as the operating system on my server. I have not used a system where security updates are performed by source, but have read enough in the guide to feel comfortable trying it. However, I do not know how long this operation is likely to take.Given a fairly modest server of say 1 processor core and 0.5 to 1.0 GB RAM, how long might it be expected to take to build the userland and kernel of an x86_64 system, following the directions of Chapter 33. Updating an existing system from sources in the guide?Also, how much local disk space does this operation require? I have not seen mention of that in the guide.
How long might it take to build NetBSD userland and kernel?
compiling;upgrade;bsd;netbsd
I would suggest that any decent not-so-modern x86_64 true server should be able do a full build in a couple of hours or maybe less, including xsrc.My NetBSD-current build server is a Xen domU with 8GB RAM and 8 VCPUs running on a Dell PE2950 8-core (Xeon E5440 @2.83GHz) with 32GB RAM and with a decently fast set of SAS disks on the integrated PERC 6/i controller (with the build output going to a RAID-0 partition).  That machine only cost me about $650[us], used of course.  It can do an NetBSD-5/i386 build of everything to final ISOs, with everything static-linked (i.e. requiring a lot more disk IO and linker memory than a dynamic-linked build), from NFS-mounted sources on another domU on the same server, in less than 2 hours (with -j12).  A kernel build (amd64 GENERIC) after a reboot (nothing cached) takes under 5min (with -j12).At the moment my /build partition has 102GB used and contains objects, binaries, and ISOs for three -current builds (amd64, i386, evbarm) and two 5.x builds (amd64 and i386).  Keep in mind that's all separately static-linked binaries -- dynamic-linked builds are much smaller.  A static-linked full install (i.e. with xsrc and comp and everything else) takes about 6.6 GB.