Re: Distributed build Issues
Re: Distributed build Issues
- Subject: Re: Distributed build Issues
- From: Israel Brewster <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:51:43 -0800
On Apr 11, 2006, at 10:28 AM, j o a r wrote:
If you combine the text with the information from figure 30-1, I
think it's pretty clear how it's suppose to work. But it might be
that it's just clear for me because I've worked with it so much.
File an enhancement request on the documentation if it doesn't
answer your questions.
You must be seeing something that I'm not. From the text and the
diagram, I see that the local machine calls distcc, which then farms
out the compilation tasks to the various available machines. But
that's the thing- when configured properly distcc DOES use the local
machine for compilations. I get this both from the distcc man page
(man distcc) as well as personal experince- I have used discc
directly on a number of compilations, and in all cases both of my
machines run compile tasks, fully utilizing the available computing
power. Only when I run a build through Xcode does it not use the iMac
to compile. If the Xcode documentation is trying to say that they
have it configured differently so the local machine doesn't run
compilations, then yes an enhancement request on the documentation is
in order, and the text does not state that the local machine will not
run compilations anywhere.
Well, they also have a section on how to get the most out of using
distributed builds. In that section they state that if you only
have a few machines available, you might not see a lot of benefit
in using distributed builds.
If your build servers are slower at compiling than your build
client is in serving out compilation requests, I would expect to
see the behaviour that you're reporting. You mention that your
PowerMac is "RAM starved". Does that mean that it's swapping?
Quite a bit, actually. And yes, I know this means it really isn't
helping all that much.
Distributed builds can improve your compile times a lot, but not
for all computer + network combinations. You need to benchmark your
setup to see if it gives you any improvements or not. If it
doesn't, invest your time in the other optimizations suggested by
the Xcode User Guide - or buy new hardware!
Here you do have a point- my setup probably isn't one where I would
see a lot of (if any) performance improvements from distributed
compilation. However, for me at least, that isn't really the point of
the exercise. I'm doing this primarily because I can, and I really
think that if it was working properly, both computers would be fully
utilized. Now if that means that the iMac wastes all its time dealing
with overhead, that's fine, but it really shouldn't be just sitting
there idle when there is plenty of work to be done :)
j o a r
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