Re: distributed compilation with gcc: distcc

[Aldy Hernandez <aldyh at redhat dot com>]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org> writes:

 > I've written a small wrapper around gcc that allows the work of
 > compilation to be distributed across several machines on a network.

 >   http://distcc.samba.org/

 > access, a gcc patch, and in general does not require modifications to
 > your source or Makefiles.  It has a reasonably complete manual and a

hi martin.

I've been playing with distcc, and it requires some infrastructure
work before it can really satisfy our needs.

Only a minimal part of gcc is built with the system compiler.  For
example, once a minimal compiler is built, the rest of the bootstrap
process uses the new compiler.  So not only do Makefiles have to be
tweaked, but distcc has to be altered to either handle a path to the
new compiler, or be sent the entire [new] compiler and assembler as
part of the compilation request (in case you don't want to use NFS).

Bootstraps of gcc generally take 2 hours on my system, and distcc will
only speed up the first stage, which just takes about 15 minutes.
What ends up happening is that a "make -jxx", will cause the first
stage to be built distributed, and the rest of the build (since it's
using the new compiler and distcc knows nothing about it) will end up
thrashing on the parent build host.

I'd be delighted to use distcc for building gcc, if it could handle
bootstraps.  Hint hint.  ;-)

Aldy