Currently make spends a significant amount of time on test/test_*_tests.o, even on a modern iMac this is annoyingly slow.
This causes me to often build with --disable-tests, and then run ./configure again when I do want to run the unit test suite. So I don't run the unit test suite less often than I should (the functional test suite doesn't have this issue).
It would be better if the tests are compiled as part of make check.
I think the tests are compiled as part of make check -- I assume you mean that it'd be better if the tests were not compiled except as part of make check, to speed up regular compilation?
Indeed, not compiling during make, only during make check.
FWIW you can skip those by specifying the target, for instance, make src/bitcoind.
I think it's pretty unconventional to only build the test at make check time.
BTW, from https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Standard-Targets.html, all should be the default target.
FWIW you can skip those by specifying the target, for instance,
make src/bitcoind.
Note that some targets (gut tests, fuzz binary, ...?) can not be build this way. I'd be happy if someone changed that.
I guess using make src/bitcoind isn't too bad, and it's also a good way to avoid building QT (I currently just have two separate folders).
But that won't build bitcoin-cli would it? Though that only matters when working on the RPC.
Maybe make daemon could do both files?
You can make multiple targets, for instance make -j src/bitcoind src/bitcoin-cli src/qt/bitcoin-qt.
TIL