Question to Gentoo Users

Dustpuppy

Hi all people using gentoo linux.
Is there anyone interested to build a distcc-cluster over the internet?
Everybody who want's to get into this cluster has to setup the distccd with a central stored list of all other systems with the distccd. If someone want's to emerge a new packet on a system can use this cluster for compilling it.
If we get enough people, it's really fast.
3 systems with a distccd running are compilling twice as fast as a single system using gcc standalone.

maxheadroom

Don't you need really really high speed internel links for that to work effectively?

red vex

That would makie it distributed compiling. That wouldnt be a cluster. Count me in if what your talking about works. Im creating a cluster at the moment and i really wanted to try dist-cc on it....so cool

oscarBravo

Sounds interesting - I wouldn't mind giving it a go, see how it works out.

maxheadroom

I'm willing to give it a shot too - but my gentoo machine is a desktop box, and not on 24 / 7. How does would the distcc setup cope with nodes dropping off and reapperaing?

Dustpuppy

the distccd needs a file named /etc/distcc/hosts. in this file all systems that runs the distcc will be given. if a system is offline or disconnects during an operation. the compilling system will handel this.
the distcc sends parts of the source to the other systems in the hosts-file and they send back the result. that's all what it is doing.
the only thing we need is a place to store a list with all systems that everybody who want's can copy as /etc/distcc/hosts to get connected.

maxheadroom

Dustpuppy wrote:

the distccd needs a file named /etc/distcc/hosts. in this file all systems that runs the distcc will be given. if a system is offline or disconnects during an operation. the compilling system will handel this.
the distcc sends parts of the source to the other systems in the hosts-file and they send back the result. that's all what it is doing.
the only thing we need is a place to store a list with all systems that everybody who want's can copy as /etc/distcc/hosts to get connected.

ok - sounds good. What kind of upload bandwidth is something like that going to need though? I'd imagine on a slow line like mine (only 128 upload) that its going to be painful if its compiling something huge like xorg or KDE?

Dustpuppy

I have the same upload (128). While compilling Apache, i use Voice over Ip to phone and 2 people can listen to a mp3-stream running on one of my server without problems.
I think that's not too bad:-)

Typedef

But... of what use would the compile-farm really be?

Dustpuppy

If you emerge a packet it takes a long time to compille it. with the distcc-farm you can use the resources of all systems and the installation will be much faster.

nadir

Im not sure how effective it would be though, I think we would need high speed connections and even then, I'm not sure how much it would speed up compiles. How does it work for like compiling on different arch? like can you compile 64 arch over distccd, considering most machines are 32 arch, wouldn't it be way faster on like a native 64 arch machine, or am I thinking about this totally wrong. Also would it impare performance on our machines, if they were compiling when we were trying to do other stuff? I really dont know, Its something I havn't thought about. Well I dont even have a high speed connection, so Im afraid im not in until I get myself sorted out.

Sounds interesting , but could you explain it more maybe, what you have in mind, cause I dont know anything about sharing compilation over different machines, a million questions come to mind, heh/