Introduction

distcc can distribute compilations across a network, greatly reducing compile times. Even if you only have one other computer available, it can already make a noticeable difference.

Usage instructions

The following instructions assume your main development machine is running Haiku and the helper machines run Linux.

Preparing helper machines

• Install ​distcc, using the package manager or from source

• Check out the build tools

  svn co http://svn.haiku-os.org/haiku/buildtools/trunk buildtools
  

• Check out partial Haiku tree

  svn co --depth=immediates http://svn.haiku-os.org/haiku/haiku/trunk haiku
  svn update --set-depth infinity build headers/config headers/os headers/posix
  

• Build the cross-compilers

  mkdir generated.x86gcc2
  mkdir generated.x86gcc4
  cd generated.x86gcc2
  ../configure --use-32bit --alternative-gcc-output-dir ../generated.x86gcc4 --build-cross-tools ../../buildtools/
  cd ../generated.x86gcc4
  ../configure --use-32bit --alternative-gcc-output-dir ../generated.x86gcc2 --build-cross-tools-gcc4 x86 ../../buildtools/
  cd ..
  

• Make the cross-compilers available under a verbose name. Run gcc -v to find out the exact version. Verify that they are the same as on the Haiku machine.

  mkdir bin && cd bin
  ln -s ../generated.x86gcc2/cross-tools/i586-pc-haiku/bin/gcc i586-pc-haiku-gcc-2.95.3-haiku-100818
  ln -s ../generated.x86gcc4/cross-tools/i586-pc-haiku/bin/gcc i586-pc-haiku-gcc-4.4.4-haiku-101111
  cd ..
  

• Start the distcc daemon

  PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH distccd --allow <IP of Haiku machine>
  

Preparing the Haiku machine

• Get the Haiku distcc ​binaries. Information on the port is ​here

• Make GCC 2 and 4 available under the verbose names.

  ln -s /boot/develop/abi/x86/gcc2/tools/current/bin/gcc /boot/common/bin/i586-pc-haiku-gcc-2.95.3-haiku-100818
  ln -s /boot/develop/abi/x86/gcc4/tools/current/bin/gcc /boot/common/bin/i586-pc-haiku-gcc-4.4.4-haiku-101111
  

• Adjust generated.x86gcc2/build/BuildConfig

  HAIKU_CC ?= distcc i586-pc-haiku-gcc-2.95.3-haiku-100818 ;
  

• Adjust generated.x86gcc4/build/BuildConfig

  HAIKU_CC ?= distcc i586-pc-haiku-gcc-4.4.4-haiku-101111 ;
  

• Add hostname or IP addresses of the helpers to /boot/common/etc/distcc/hosts Optionally add localhost. If this machine is slower than the helpers, it might slow down the build. You can easily find out by means of a quick benchmark. Even if you don't add localhost, it will still be busy distributing running jam, distributing jobs and linking.

Now you can run jam as usual, but you should pass twice the total number of cores in the distcc network to the -j option. During a build, you can see what is happening by running

distccmon-text 1

If you want to use distcc in combination with with colorgcc, you can mask simply the distcc executable

cd /boot/common/bin
mv distcc distcc_real
wget http://dev.haiku-os.org/raw-attachment/wiki/DevelopmentTools/DistCC/distcc
chmod +x distcc

References

• ​distcc on HaikuPorts
• ​distcc and cross-compilers
• ​Using distcc (www.distcc.org) to speed up building Haiku