Hack #42. Speed Up Compiles
While compiling, make full use of all of your computers with a distributed compiling daemon
Many other distribution users make fun of the Gentoo fanboys, because Gentoo users have to spend a lot of time compiling all of their code. And even though these compiles can take hours or days to complete, Gentooists still tout their distribution as being one of the fastest available. Because of their constant need to compile, Gentoo users have picked up a few tricks on making the process go faster, including using distcc to create a cluster of computers for compiling. distcc is a distributed compiling daemon that allows you to combine the processing power of other Linux computers on your network to compile code. It is very simple to set up and use, and it should produce identical results to a completely local compile. Having three machines with similar speeds should make compiling 2.6 times faster. The distcc home page at http://distcc.samba.org has testimonials concerning real user's experiences using the program. Using this hack, you can get distcc to work with any Linux distribution, which will make compiling KDE and GNOME from scratch quick and easy.
Tip
distcc does not require the machines in your compile farm to have shared filesystems, synchronized clocks, or even the same libraries and headers. However, it is a good idea to make sure you are on the same major version number of the compiler itself.
Before getting started with distcc, first you must know ...
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