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