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distcc(1)                                                                                          distcc(1)



NAME
       distcc - distributed C/C++/ObjC compiler with distcc-pump extensions

SYNOPSIS
       distcc <compiler> [COMPILER OPTIONS]

       distcc [COMPILER OPTIONS]

       <compiler> [COMPILER OPTIONS]

       distcc [DISTCC OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION
       distcc  distributes compilation of C code across several machines on a network.  distcc should always
       generate the same results as a local compile, it is simple to install and use, and it is  often  much
       faster than a local compile.

       This version incorporates plain distcc as well as an enhancement called pump mode or distcc-pump.

       For each job, distcc in plain mode sends the complete preprocessed source code and compiler arguments
       across the network from the client to a compilation server.  In pump mode, distcc  sends  the  source
       code  and  recursively included header files (excluding those from the default system header directo-ries), directories),
       ries), so that both preprocessing and compilation can take place on  the  compilation  servers.  This
       speeds up the delivery of compilations by up to an order of magnitude over plain distcc.

       Compilation  is driven by a client machine, which is typically the developer's workstation or laptop.
       The distcc client runs on this machine, as does make, the preprocessor (if distcc's pump mode is  not
       used),  the  linker,  and other stages of the build process.  Any number of volunteer machines act as
       compilation servers and help the client to build the program, by running  the  distccd(1)  daemon,  C
       compiler and assembler as required.

       distcc  can run across either TCP sockets (on port 3632 by default), or through a tunnel command such
       as ssh(1).  For TCP connections the volunteers must run the distccd(1) daemon either directly or from
       inetd.  For SSH connections distccd must be installed but should not be listening for connections.

       TCP  connections  should  only  be used on secure networks because there is no user authentication or
       protection of source or object code.  SSH connections are typically 25% slower because  of  processor
       overhead  for  encryption,  although this can vary greatly depending on CPUs, network and the program
       being built.

       distcc is intended to be used with GNU Make's -j option, which runs several compiler  processes  con-currently. concurrently.
       currently.   distcc  spreads  the  jobs across both local and remote CPUs.  Because distcc is able to
       distribute most of the work across the network, a higher concurrency level can be used than for local
       builds.   As a rule of thumb, the -j value should be set to about twice the total number of available
       server CPUs but subject to client limitations.  This setting allows for maximal interleaving of tasks
       being blocked waiting for disk or network IO. Note that distcc can also work with other build control
       tools, such as SCons, where similar concurrency settings must be adjusted.

       The -j setting, especially for large values of -j, must take into account the CPU load on the client.
       Additional measures may be needed to curtail the client load.  For example, concurrent linking should
       be severely curtailed using auxiliary locks.  The effect of other build activity, such as Java compi-lation compilation
       lation  when building mixed code, should be considered.  The --localslots_cpp parameter is by default
       set to 16.  This limits the number of concurrent processes that  do  preprocessing  in  plain  distcc
       (non-pump)  mode.   Therefore,  larger -j values than 16 may be used without overloading a single-CPU
       client due to preprocessing.  Such large values may speed up parts of the build that do not involve C
       compilations, but they may not be useful to distcc efficiency in plain mode.

       In  contrast, using pump mode and say 40 servers, a setting of -j80 or larger may be appropriate even
       for single-CPU clients.

       It is strongly recommended that you install the same compiler version on all  machines  participating
       in a build.  Incompatible compilers may cause mysterious compile or link failures.

QUICKSTART
       1      For each machine, download distcc, unpack, and install.

       2      On each of the servers, run distccd --daemon with --allow options to restrict access.

       3      Put the names of the servers in your environment:
              $ export DISTCC_HOSTS='localhost red green blue'

       4      Build!
              $ make -j8 CC=distcc

QUICKSTART FOR DISTCC-PUMP MODE
       Proceed as above, but in Step 3, specify that the remote hosts are to carry the burden of preprocess-ing preprocessing
       ing and that the files sent over the network should be compressed:

              $ export DISTCC_HOSTS='--randomize localhost red,cpp,lzo green,cpp,lzo blue,cpp,lzo'

       The --randomize option enforces a uniform usage of compile servers.  While you will get some  benefit
       from distcc's pump mode with only a few servers, you get increasing benefit with more server CPUs (up
       to the hundreds!).  Wrap your build inside the pump command, here assuming 10 servers:

              $ pump make -j20 CC=distcc

HOW PLAIN (NON-PUMP) DISTCC WORKS
       distcc only ever runs the compiler and assembler remotely.  With plain distcc, the preprocessor  must
       always run locally because it needs to access various header files on the local machine which may not
       be present, or may not be the same,  on  the  volunteer.   The  linker  similarly  needs  to  examine
       libraries and object files, and so must run locally.

       The compiler and assembler take only a single input file (the preprocessed source) and produce a sin-gle single
       gle output (the object file).  distcc ships these two files across the network and can therefore  run
       the compiler/assembler remotely.

       Fortunately, for most programs running the preprocessor is relatively cheap, and the linker is called
       relatively infrequent, so most of the work can be distributed.

       distcc examines its command line to determine which of these phases are being  invoked,  and  whether
       the job can be distributed.


HOW DISTCC-PUMP MODE WORKS
       In pump mode, distcc runs the preprocessor remotely too.  To do so, the preprocessor must have access
       to all the files that it would have accessed if had been running locally.  In pump  mode,  therefore,
       distcc gathers all of the recursively included headers, except the ones that are default system head-ers, headers,
       ers, and sends them along with the source file to the compilation server.

       In distcc-pump mode, the server unpacks the set of all source files in a temporary  directory,  which
       contains a directory tree that mirrors the part of the file system that is relevant to preprocessing,
       including symbolic links.

       The compiler is then run from the path in the temporary directory that  corresponds  to  the  current
       working directory on the client.  To find and transmit the many hundreds of files that are often part
       of a single compilation, pump mode uses an  incremental  include  analysis  algorithm.   The  include
       server  is  a  Python  program  that  implements this algorithm.  The pump command starts the include
       server so that throughout the build it can answer include queries by distcc commands.

       The include server uses static analysis of the macro language to deal  with  conditional  compilation
       and  computed includes.  It uses the property that when a given header file has already been analyzed
       for includes, it is not necessary to do so again if all the  include  options  (-I's)  are  unchanged
       (along with other conditions).

       For  large  builds,  header  files are included, on average, hundreds of times each. With distcc-pump
       mode each such file is analyzed only a few times, perhaps just once, instead  of  being  preprocessed
       hundreds of times.  Also, each source or header file is now compressed only once, because the include
       server memoizes the compressed files.  As a result, the time used for preparing compilations may drop
       by up to an order of magnitude over the preprocessing of plain distcc.

       Because  distcc  in pump mode is able to push out files up to about ten times faster, build speed may
       increase 3X or more for large builds compared to plain distcc mode.


RESTRICTIONS FOR PUMP MODE
       Using pump mode requires both client and servers to use release 3.0 or later of  distcc  and  distccd
       (respectively).

       The  incremental  include analysis of distc-pump mode rests on the fundamental assumption that source
       and header files do not change during the build process.  A few complex build systems, such  as  that
       for Linux kernel 2.6, do not quite satisfy this requirement.  To overcome such issues, and other cor-ner corner
       ner cases such as absolute filepaths in includes, see the include_server(1) man page.

       Another important assumption is that the include configuration of all  machines  must  be  identical.
       Thus the headers under the default system path must be the same on all servers and all clients.  If a
       standard GNU compiler installation is used, then this requirement  applies  to  all  libraries  whose
       header  files are installed under /usr/include or /usr/local/include/.  Note that installing software
       packages often lead to additional headers files being placed in subdirectories of either.

       If this assumption does not hold, then it is possible to  break  builds  with  distcc-pump  mode,  or
       worse,  to get wrong results without warning.  Presently this condition is not verified, and it is on
       our TODO list to address this issue.

       An easy way to guarantee that the include configurations are identical is  to  use  a  cross-compiler
       that defines a default system search path restricted to directories of the compiler installation.

       See the include_server(1) manual for more information on symptoms and causes of violations of distcc-pump distccpump
       pump mode assumptions.


OPTION SUMMARY
       Most options passed to distcc are interpreted as compiler options.  The following options are  under-stood understood
       stood  by distcc itself.  If any of these options are specified, distcc will not invoke the compiler.


       --help Displays summary instructions.


       --version
              Displays the distcc client version.


       --show-hosts
              Displays the host list that distcc would use.  See the Host Specifications section.


       --scan-includes
              Displays the list of files that distcc would send to the remote machine, as  computed  by  the
              include  server.   This is a conservative (over-)approximation of the files that would be read
              by the C compiler.  This option only works in pump mode.  See the "How Distcc-pump Mode Works"
              section for details on how this is computed.

              The list output by distcc --scan-includes will contain one entry per line.  Each line contains
              a category followed by a path.  The category is one of FILE, SYMLINK, DIRECTORY, or SYSTEMDIR:

              FILE indicates a source file or header file that would be sent to the distcc server host.

              SYMLINK indicates a symbolic link that would be sent to the distcc server host.

              DIRECTORY  indicates  a directory that may be needed in order to compile the source file.  For
              example, a directory "foo"  may  be  needed  because  of  an  include  of  the  form  #include
              "foo/../bar.h".  Such directories would be created on the distcc server host.

              SYSTEMDIR  indicates  a  system include directory, i.e. a directory which is on the compiler's
              default include path, such as "/usr/include"; such directories are assumed to  be  present  on
              the distcc server host, and so would not be sent to the distcc server host.


       -j     Displays  distcc's concurrency level, as calculated from the host list; it is the maximum num-ber number
              ber of outstanding jobs issued by this client to all servers.  By default this  will  be  four
              times  the  number  of  hosts  in the host list, unless the /LIMIT option was used in the host
              list.  See the Host Specifications section.

INSTALLING DISTCC
       There are three different ways to call distcc, to suit different circumstances:

              distcc can be installed under the name of the real compiler, to intercept calls to it and  run
              them  remotely.  This "masqueraded" compiler has the widest compatibility with existing source
              trees, and is convenient when you want to use distcc  for  all  compilation.   The  fact  that
              distcc is being used is transparent to the makefiles.

              distcc  can  be  prepended  to  compiler  command  lines,  such  as  "distcc cc -c hello.c" or
              CC="distcc gcc".  This is convenient when you want to use distcc for only some compilations or
              to  try  it  out, but can cause trouble with some makefiles or versions of libtool that assume
              $CC does not contain a space.

              Finally, distcc can be used directly as a compiler.  "cc" is always used as the  name  of  the
              real  compiler  in  this  "implicit"  mode.   This  can be convenient for interactive use when
              "explicit" mode does not work but is not really recommended for new use.

       Remember that you should not use two methods for calling distcc at the same time.  If you are using a
       masquerade  directory,  don't  change  CC  and/or CXX, just put the directory early on your PATH.  If
       you're not using a masquerade directory, you'll need to either change CC and/or CXX,  or  modify  the
       makefile(s) to call distcc explicitly.

MASQUERADING
       The  basic  idea is to create a "masquerade directory" which contains links from the name of the real
       compiler to the distcc binary.  This directory is inserted early on the PATH, so that  calls  to  the
       compiler are intercepted and distcc is run instead.  distcc then removes itself from the PATH to find
       the real compiler.

       For example:

              # mkdir /usr/lib/distcc/bin
              # cd /usr/lib/distcc/bin
              # ln -s ../../../bin/distcc gcc
              # ln -s ../../../bin/distcc cc
              # ln -s ../../../bin/distcc g++
              # ln -s ../../../bin/distcc c++

       Then, to use distcc, a user just needs to put the directory /usr/lib/distcc/bin early  in  the  PATH,
       and have set a host list in DISTCC_HOSTS or a file.  distcc will handle the rest.

       Note  that  this masquerade directory must occur on the PATH earlier than the directory that contains
       the actual compilers of the same names, and that any auxiliary programs  that  these  compilers  call
       (such as as or ld) must also be found on the PATH in a directory after the masquerade directory since
       distcc calls out to the real compiler with a PATH value that has all directory up  to  and  including
       the masquerade directory trimmed off.

       It  is  possible  to  get  a "recursion error" in masquerade mode, which means that distcc is somehow
       finding itself again, not the real compiler.  This can indicate that you have two masquerade directo-ries directories
       ries on the PATH, possibly because of having two distcc installations in different locations.  It can
       also indicate that you're trying to mix "masqueraded" and "explicit" operation.

       Recursion errors can  be  avoided  by  using  shell  scripts  instead  of  links.   For  example,  in
       /usr/lib/distcc/bin create a file cc which contains:

              #!/bin/sh
              distcc /usr/bin/gcc "$@"

       In  this  way, we are not dependent on distcc having to locate the real gcc by investigating the PATH
       variable. Instead, the compiler location is explicitly provided.


USING DISTCC WITH CCACHE
       ccache is a program that speeds software builds by caching the results of  compilations.   ccache  is
       normally  called before distcc, so that results are retrieved from a normal cache.  Some experimenta-tion experimentation
       tion may be required for idiosyncratic makefiles to make everything work together.

       The most reliable method is to set

              CCACHE_PREFIX="distcc"

       This tells ccache to run distcc as a wrapper around the real compiler.  ccache still  uses  the  real
       compiler to detect compiler upgrades.

       ccache  can then be run using either a masquerade directory or by setting

              CC="ccache gcc"

       As of version 2.2, ccache does not cache compilation from preprocessed source and so will never get a
       cache hit if it is run from distccd or distcc.  It must be run only on the  client  side  and  before
       distcc to be any use.

       distcc's pump mode is not compatible with ccache.

HOST SPECIFICATIONS
       A  "host  list"  tells  distcc  which machines to use for compilation.  In order, distcc looks in the
       $DISTCC_HOSTS environment variable, the user's $DISTCC_DIR/hosts file, and the system-wide host file.
       If no host list can be found, distcc emits a warning and compiles locally.

       The  host  list  is a simple whitespace separated list of host specifications.  The simplest and most
       common form is a host names, such as

              localhost red green blue

       distcc prefers hosts towards the start of the list, so machines should be listed in descending  order
       of  speed.   In  particular,  when  only  a  single  compilation can be run (such as from a configure
       script), the first machine listed is used (but see --randomize below).

       Placing localhost at the right point in the list is important to getting good  performance.   Because
       overhead  for running jobs locally is low, localhost should normally be first.  However, it is impor-tant important
       tant that the client have enough cycles free to run the local jobs and the  distcc  client.   If  the
       client  is slower than the volunteers, or if there are many volunteers, then the client should be put
       later in the list or not at all.  As a general rule, if the aggregate CPU speed of the client is less
       than one fifth of the total, then the client should be left out of the list.

       If  you have a large shared build cluster and a single shared hosts file, the above rules would cause
       the first few machines in the hosts file to be tried first even though they are likely to  be  busier
       than  machines  later  in the list.  To avoid this, place the keyword --randomize into the host list.
       This will cause the host list to be randomized, which should improve performance slightly  for  large
       build clusters.

       There  are  two  special  host names --localslots and --localslots_cpp which are useful for adjusting
       load on the local machine.  The --localslots host specifies how many jobs that cannot be run remotely
       that  can  be  run  concurrently  on the local machine, while --localslots_cpp controls how many pre-processors preprocessors
       processors will run in parallel on the local machine.  Tuning these values can  improve  performance.
       Linking  on  large projects can take large amounts of memory.  Running parallel linkers, which cannot
       be executed remotely,  may force the machine to swap, which reduces performance over just running the
       jobs  in  sequence without swapping.   Getting the number of parallel preprocessors just right allows
       you to use larger parallel factors with make, since the local machine now has some machanism for mea-suring measuring
       suring local resource usage.

       Finally there is the host entry

       Performance  depends on the details of the source and makefiles used for the project, and the machine
       and network speeds.  Experimenting with different settings for  the  host  list  and  -j  factor  may
       improve performance.

       The syntax is

         DISTCC_HOSTS = HOSTSPEC ...
         HOSTSPEC = LOCAL_HOST | SSH_HOST | TCP_HOST | OLDSTYLE_TCP_HOST
                               | GLOBAL_OPTION
                               | ZEROCONF
         LOCAL_HOST = localhost[/LIMIT]
                    | --localslots=<int>
                    | --localslots_cpp=<int>
         SSH_HOST = [USER]@HOSTID[/LIMIT][:COMMAND][OPTIONS]
         TCP_HOST = HOSTID[:PORT][/LIMIT][OPTIONS]
         OLDSTYLE_TCP_HOST = HOSTID[/LIMIT][:PORT][OPTIONS]
         HOSTID = HOSTNAME | IPV4
         OPTIONS = ,OPTION[OPTIONS]
         OPTION = lzo | cpp
         GLOBAL_OPTION = --randomize
         ZEROCONF = +zeroconf

       Here are some individual examples of the syntax:

       localhost
              The  literal  word  "localhost"  is interpreted specially to cause compilations to be directly
              executed, rather than passed to a daemon on the local machine.  If you do want to connect to a
              daemon  on the local machine for testing, then give the machine's IP address or real hostname.
              (This will be slower.)

       IPV4   A literal IPv4 address, such as 10.0.0.1

       HOSTNAME
              A hostname to be looked up using the resolver.

       :PORT  Connect to a specified decimal port number, rather than the default of 3632.

       @HOSTID
              Connect to the host over SSH, rather than TCP.  Options for the SSH connection can be  set  in
              ~/.ssh/config

       USER@  Connect to the host over SSH as a specified username.

       :COMMAND
              Connect  over SSH, and use a specified path to find the distccd server.  This is normally only
              needed if for some reason you can't install distccd into a directory on the default  PATH  for
              SSH connections.  Use this if you get errors like "distccd: command not found" in SSH mode.

       /LIMIT A  decimal  limit  can  be added to any host specification to restrict the number of jobs that
              this client will send to the machine.  The limit defaults to four per  host  (two  for  local-host), localhost),
              host), but may be further restricted by the server.  You should only need to increase this for
              servers with more than two processors.

       ,lzo   Enables LZO compression for this TCP or SSH host.

       ,cpp   Enables distcc-pump mode for this host.  Note: the build command must be wrapped in  the  pump
              script in order to start the include server.

       --randomize
              Randomize the order of the host list before execution.

       +zeroconf
              This  option  is only available if distcc was compiled with Avahi support enabled at configure
              time.  When this special entry is present in the hosts list, distcc will  use  Avahi  Zeroconf
              DNS  Service  Discovery (DNS-SD) to locate any available distccd servers on the local network.
              This avoids the need to explicitly list the host names or IP addresses of  the  distcc  server
              machines.  The distccd servers must have been started with the "--zeroconf" option to distccd.
              An important caveat is that in the current implementation, pump mode (",cpp") and  compression
              (",lzo") will never be used for hosts located via zeroconf.

       Here is an example demonstrating some possibilities:

              localhost/2 @bigman/16:/opt/bin/distccd oldmachine:4200/1
              # cartman is down
              distant/3,lzo

       Comments  are  allowed  in host specifications.  Comments start with a hash/pound sign (#) and run to
       the end of the line.

       If a host in the list is not reachable distcc will emit a warning and ignore that host for about  one
       minute.

COMPRESSION
       The  lzo  host option specifies that LZO compression should be used for data transfer, including pre-processed preprocessed
       processed source, object code and error messages.  Compression  is  usually  economical  on  networks
       slower than 100Mbps, but results may vary depending on the network, processors and source tree.

       Enabling  compression makes the distcc client and server use more CPU time, but less network traffic.
       The added CPU time is insignificant for pump mode.  The compression ratio is typically 4:1 for source
       and 2:1 for object code.

       Using  compression  requires both client and server to use at least release 2.9 of distcc.  No server
       configuration is required: the server always responds with compressed replies to compressed requests.

       Pump mode requires the servers to have the lzo host option on.

SEARCH PATHS
       If the compiler name is an absolute path, it is passed verbatim to the server and the compiler is run
       from that directory.  For example:

              distcc /usr/local/bin/gcc-3.1415 -c hello.c

       If the compiler name is not absolute, or not fully  qualified,  distccd's  PATH  is  searched.   When
       distcc  is run from a masquerade directory, only the base name of the compiler is used.  The client's
       PATH is used only to run the preprocessor and has no effect on the server's path.

TIMEOUTS
       Both the distcc client and server impose timeouts on transfer of data across the  network.   This  is
       intended  to detect hosts which are down or unreachable, and to prevent compiles hanging indefinitely
       if a server is disconnected while in use.  If a client-side timeout expires, the job will  be  re-run
       locally.

       The timeouts are not configurable at present.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Error  messages or warnings from local or remote compilers are passed through to diagnostic output on
       the client.

       distcc can supply extensive debugging information when the verbose option  is  used.   This  is  con-trolled controlled
       trolled  by  the  DISTCC_VERBOSE  environment variable on the client, and the --verbose option on the
       server.  For troubleshooting, examine both the client and server error messages.

EXIT CODES
       The exit code of distcc is normally that of the compiler: zero for successful  compilation  and  non-zero nonzero
       zero otherwise.

       distcc  distinguishes between "genuine" errors such as a syntax error in the source, and "accidental"
       errors such as a networking problem connecting to a volunteer.  In the  case  of  accidental  errors,
       distcc will retry the compilation locally unless the DISTCC_FALLBACK option has been disabled.

       If the compiler exits with a signal, distcc returns an exit code of 128 plus the signal number.

       distcc internal errors cause an exit code between 100 and 127.  In particular

       100    General distcc failure.

       101    Bad arguments.

       102    Bind failed.

       103    Connect failed.

       104    Compiler crashed.

       105    Out of memory.

       106    Bad Host SPEC

       107    I/O Error

       108    Truncated.

       109    Protocol Error.

       110    The  given compiler was not found on the remote host.  Check that $CC is set appropriately and
              that it's installed in a directory on the search path for distccd.

       111    Recursive call to distcc.

       112    Failed to discard privileges.

       113    Network access denied.

       114    In use by another process.

       115    No such file.

       116    No hosts defined and fallbacks disabled.

       118    Timeout.

FILES
       If $DISTCC_HOSTS is not set, distcc reads a host list from either $DISTCC_DIR/hosts or a  system-wide
       configuration  file  set  at  compile  time.   The file locations are shown in the output from distcc
       --help

       distcc creates a number of temporary and lock files underneath the temporary directory.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       distcc's behaviour is controlled by a number of environment variables.  For most cases  nothing  need
       be set if the host list is stored in a file.

       DISTCC_HOSTS
              Space-separated list of volunteer host specifications.

       DISTCC_VERBOSE
              If  set  to 1, distcc produces explanatory messages on the standard error stream or in the log
              file.  This can be helpful in debugging problems.  Bug reports should include verbose  output.

       DISTCC_LOG
              Log file to receive messages from distcc itself, rather than stderr.

       DISTCC_FALLBACK
              By  default  distcc  will  compile  locally  if  it  fails to distribute a job to the intended
              machine, or if no host list can be found.  If this variable is set to  0  then  fallbacks  are
              disabled  and  those compilations will simply fail.  Note that this does not affect jobs which
              must always be local such as linking.

       DISTCC_SAVE_TEMPS
              If set to 1, temporary files are not deleted after use.  Good for debugging, or if your  disks
              are too empty.

       DISTCC_TCP_CORK
              If  set to 0, disable use of "TCP corks", even if they're present on this system.  Using corks
              normally helps pack requests into fewer packets and aids performance.  This should normally be
              left enabled.

       DISTCC_SSH
              Specifies the command used for opening SSH connections.  Defaults to "ssh" but may be set to a
              different connection command such as "lsh" or "tsocks-ssh"  that  accepts  a  similar  command
              line.  The command is not split into words and is not executed through the shell.

       DISTCC_DIR
              Per-user  configuration  directory to store lock files and state files.  By default ~/.distcc/
              is used.

       TMPDIR Directory for temporary files such as preprocessor output.  By default /tmp/ is used.

       UNCACHED_ERR_FD
              If set and if DISTCC_LOG is not set, distcc errors are written to the file descriptor  identi-fied identified
              fied  by  this  variable.  This variable is intended mainly for automatic use by ccache, which
              sets it to avoid caching transient errors such as network problems.

       DISTCC_ENABLE_DISCREPANCY_EMAIL
              If set, distcc sends an email when a  compilation  failed  remotely,  but  succeeded  locally.
              Built-in heuristics prevent some such discrepancy email from being sent if the problem is that
              a local file changed between the failing remote compilation and the succeeding local  compila-tion. compilation.
              tion.

       DCC_EMAILLOG_WHOM_TO_BLAME
              The email address for discrepancy email; the default is "distcc-pump-errors".

CROSS COMPILING
       Cross  compilation  means building programs to run on a machine with a different processor, architec-ture, architecture,
       ture, or operating system to where they were compiled.  distcc supports cross compilation,  including
       teams  of  mixed-architecture  machines,  although  some  changes  to the compilation commands may be
       required.

       The compilation command passed to distcc must be one that will execute properly  on  every  volunteer
       machine  to  produce  an object file of the appropriate type.  If the machines have different proces-sors, processors,
       sors, then simply using distcc cc will probably not work, because that will normally invoke the  vol-unteer's volunteer's
       unteer's native compiler.

       Machines with the same CPU but different operating systems may not necessarily generate compatible .o
       files.

       Several different gcc configurations can be installed side-by-side on any machine.  If you build  gcc
       from  source,  you  should use the --program-suffix configuration options to cause it to be installed
       with a name that encodes the gcc version and the target platform.

       The recommended convention for the gcc name is TARGET-gcc-VERSION such as i686-linux-gcc-3.2  .   GCC
       3.3  will  install itself under this name, in addition to TARGET-gcc and, if it's native, gcc-VERSION
       and gcc .

       The compiler must be installed under the same name on the client and on every volunteer machine.

BUGS
       If you think you have found a  distcc bug, please see the file reporting-bugs.txt in  the  documenta-tion documentation
       tion directory for information on how to report it.

       Some  makefiles  have  missing  or  extra  dependencies that cause incorrect or slow parallel builds.
       Recursive make is inefficient and can leave processors unnecessarily idle  for  long  periods.   (See
       Recursive Make Considered Harmful by Peter Miller.)  Makefile bugs are the most common cause of trees
       failing to build under distcc.  Alternatives to Make such as SCons can give much  faster  builds  for
       some projects.

       Using  different  versions  of  gcc  can  cause confusing build problems because the header files and
       binary interfaces have changed over time, and some distributors have  included  incompatible  patches
       without  changing  the  version number.  distcc does not protect against using incompatible versions.
       Compiler errors about link problems or declarations in system header files are usually  due  to  mis-matched mismatched
       matched or incorrectly installed compilers.

       gcc's -MD option can produce output in the wrong directory if the source and object files are in dif-ferent different
       ferent directories and the -MF option is not used.  There is no perfect solution because of incompat-ible incompatible
       ible  changes  between  gcc versions.  Explicitly specifying the dependency output file with -MF will
       fix the problem.

       TCP mode connections should only be used on trusted networks.

       Including slow machines in the list of volunteer hosts can slow the build down.

       When distcc or ccache is used on NFS, the filesystem  must  be  exported  with  the  no_subtree_check
       option to allow reliable renames between directories.

       The compiler can be invoked with a command line gcc hello.c to both compile and link.  distcc doesn't
       split this into separate parts, but rather runs the whole thing locally.

       distcc-pump mode reverts to plain distcc mode for source files that contain  includes  with  absolute
       paths (either directly or in an included file).

       Due  to  limitations  in gcc, gdb may not be able to automatically find the source files for programs
       built using distcc in some circumstances.  The gdb directory command can be used.  For distcc's plain
       (non-pump) mode, this is fixed in gcc 3.4 and later.  For pump mode, the fix in gcc 3.4 does not suf-fice; suffice;
       fice; we've worked around the gcc limitation by rewriting the object files  that  gcc  produces,  but
       this is only done for ELF object files, but not for other object file formats.

       The  .o  files produced by discc in pump mode will be different from those produced locally: for non-ELF nonELF
       ELF files, the debug information will specify compile directories of the  server.   The  code  itself
       should be identical.

       For  the  ELF-format,  distcc  rewrites  the  .o files to correct compile directory path information.
       While the resulting .o files are not bytewise identical to what would have been produced by compiling
       on the local client (due to different padding, etc), they should be functionally identical.

       In  distcc-pump  mode,  the  include  server  is  unable  to handle certain very complicated computed
       includes as found in parts of the Boost library. The include server will time  out  and  distcc  will
       revert to plain mode.

       In  distcc-pump  mode, certain assumptions are made that source and header files do not change during
       the build.  See discussion in section DISTCC DISCREPANCY SYMPTOMS of include_server(1().

       Other known bugs may be documented on http://code.google.com/p/distcc/

AUTHOR
       distcc was written by Martin Pool  <mbp@sourcefrog.net>,  with  the  co-operation  of  many  scholars
       including  Wayne  Davison,  Frerich  Raabe,  Dimitri  Papadopoulos and others noted in the NEWS file.
       Please report bugs to <distcc@lists.samba.org>.  See pump(1) for the authors of pump mode.

LICENCE
       You are free to use distcc.  distcc (including this manual) may be copied,  modified  or  distributed
       only  under  the terms of the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later.  distcc comes with abso-lutely absolutely
       lutely no warrany.  A copy of the GPL is included in the file COPYING.

SEE ALSO
       distccd(1),     pump(1),      include_server(1),      gcc(1),      make(1),      and       ccache(1).
       http://code.google.com/p/distcc/ http://ccache.samba.org/



                                                 9 June 2008                                       distcc(1)

Reporting Problems

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Content errors
Report errors in the content of this documentation with the feedback links below.
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Report bugs in the functionality of the described tool or API through Bug Reporter.
Formatting problems
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