This is more or less what I would expect, BTW: cuddles:~/docs $ time gcc -c /cuddles/aph/gcc/gcc/gcc/testsuite/gcc.c-torture/compile/20001226-1.c real 0m30.297s user 0m29.760s sys 0m0.230s cuddles:~/docs $ time gcc -c /cuddles/aph/gcc/gcc/gcc/testsuite/gcc.c-torture/compile/20001226-1.c -pipe real 0m30.356s user 0m29.790s sys 0m0.200s Andrew.