If you have a multicore processor in your Mac, then instead of doing the traditional compile and install steps for a *nix program... $ ./configure $ make $ make install ...use this version instead: $ ./configure $ make -j n $ make install The n in the second line is the number of jobs you want make to start. So to reduce compile time, replace n with the total number of cores in your Mac. [robg adds: At some point, I'd like to test this with a large compile, but I haven't had the time as of yet. If you've done any testing on compile time reductions versus cores used, please post your results in the comments. I think this should work on multi-core G5s and all the Intel Macs...]

	Read more at MacOsxHints
	www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070524074057479