I've used the -j switch to make for years without any problems building world or kernel. Usually my desktop does a -j12 on a dual cored Pentium D; on my slower single CPU systems, usually -j4. If work loads are heavier then my abusive multi-tasking, I reduce the jobs (e.g. -j8). The only time I've ever gotten a bad kernel out of the deal is with a bad config, and I have never had any built kernel fail to boot and run stably.
Whenever I've forgotten to specify the -j switches like above, the builds take much longer to complete. Making a FreeBSD 7.0 release kernel under -j12 takes about 10-15 min on the main box here, without it, the kernel takes closer to 45 minutes to build.
of course, YMMV
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Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
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