Don’t waste unused CPU cycles — put them to work compiling software? Rod Smith shows you how to use distcc to harness the power of distributed computing to speed up your compile time.
Distributed computing is an increasingly important and popular idea. Most computers sit idle most of the time; even when you’re typing furiously in a desktop computer’s word processor, for example, that computer’s CPU will be mostly idle, assuming you’re not running other CPU-intensive tasks in the background. Enabling one computer to use another computer’s unused CPU cycles can be an effective way to speed up certain tasks. On a very large and very public scale, projects such as SETI@Home and Folding@Home do just this, using CPU time donated from countless desktop systems to perform CPU-intensive scientific computations.
Distributed computing need not be limited to big scientific projects, though; you can use this technique yourself to speed up some of your own computing tasks. One useful tool in this category is distcc, a set of programs that enables the distribution of C, C++, Objective C, or Objective C++ compilation tasks to multiple computers. When you deploy distcc on your own network, you can greatly reduce the time required to compile large programs. If you compile your own kernel or other programs frequently, or if you develop programs yourself in these languages, and if you’ve got access to even just a couple of networked computers, distcc may save you time.
Why Use distcc?
I’ve just outlined the main reason to use distcc: It can save you time. The principle is simple enough: If you’ve got two computers with equal CPU speed, distcc can split the job of compiling a program across those…
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