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Re: Minor suggestion
- From: Alex Hornby <alex at anvil dot com>
- To: Simon de Hartog <simon at dehartog dot nl>
- Cc: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 14:31:17 +0000
- Subject: Re: Minor suggestion
- References: <3FD5B104.9010206@dehartog.nl>
Simon de Hartog wrote:
Hi,
today I was thinking about the gcc compiler. I run a source
distribution (Gentoo Linux), and found out that simultaneous
compilation of multiple packages actually takes longer than compiling
them in sequence, because of scheduling overhead.
Then I asked myself: why does gcc not compile multiple source files in
one go, using threads? This reduces overhead and is still quicker,
mainly because for example header files only have to be compiled once,
and inter-source file dependencies can be resolved at an earlier
stage, and all the other possible optimizations you guys can think of.
I realise that this would mean a huge rewrite, if not a terrible
"start from scratch". However, it would (IMHO) change compiling
forever...
That's it for my wild idea. Whatever your answer, thank you guys for
this brilliant piece of work.
Cheers,
Simon
Hi Simon,
I think this is basically what the compile server work being done by
Apple sets out to do.
There is a paper on it at:
http://per.bothner.com/papers/GccSummit03-slides/
The mailing list archive should turn up some related posts as well.
Cheers,
Alex.