Introduction

mmode is a tool to enable super fast compilation ability in an easy way. This framework automatically set configurations of distcc to achieve better performance out of box then using distcc directly. It supports ccache, distcc and ccache+distcc modes.

Ccache is compiler cache to accelerate the speed of compilation by caching the compiled data. Recompile linux kernel in less than 5s!!!

Distcc is distributed cc. It's a stateless distributed compilation framework. With about 2 Xeon servers(24 threads), distcc reduces about 60% of time on compiling Linux kernel.

mmode supports both bash and zsh shells!!

Why Should I Use This?

1. This framework automatically set proper parameter of distcc to achieve better performance out of box then using distcc directly.
2. This framework provides both server side container with multiple gcc version for your needs. :D
3. This framework automatically set the correct configurations for you.
4. No need to type long command. All you need to type is mmode distcc!
5. It's FreeBSD License!!

Attention!

If you are using the DockerFile and mmode this repository provided and your Linux is not using latest gcc, ex: Ubuntu users, please enable the auto-version-detection in the mmode.sh. See more information: Automatically gcc version detection.

Usage

• mmode distcc: Set to distcc compiling mode
• mmode ccache: Set to ccache compiling mode
• mmode both: Set both modes simultaneously
• mmode reset: Reset to normal mode Execute mmode --help to see more information of the commands.

After changing the mode, you can simply execute make to compile your projects without -j. mmode automatically choose the optimal number for your compilation. If you want to override the number of parallel compilation, execute make -jN instead, where N is the number you specify.

Prerequests

• distcc
• ccache

Normally, you can install them by your package manager.

Settings

distcc

You have to specify DISTCC_HOSTS in the script in order to connect distcc server. You can also use DISTCC_HOSTS environment variable to specify the distcc servers. Here is an example: export DISTCC_HOSTS='1.1.1.1/8,lzo sample.server.url/12,lzo localhost/2'

• 1.1.1.1/8,lzo: 1.1.1.1 is the IP address of distcc server. 8 is the number of cores provided by that server. lzo is using lzo compression algorithm on the file before sending it.
• sample.server.url/12,lzo: "sample.server.url" is the URL of distcc server. 12 is the number of cores provided by that server. lzo is using lzo compression algorithm on the file before sending it.
• localhost/2: means locally provide 2 cores for compilation. lzo is not needed since it's localhost.

Compiler (Version)

You can change the default compiler by changing M_CC and M_CXX in the script. Then, source ~/.bashrc to update the shell env vars.

Color

You can change the color code M_BASH_COLOR and M_ZSH_COLOR to a proper color. The color codes are listed here.

• bash
• zsh: Execute spectrum_ls and spectrum_bls for foreground and background colors, respectively.

Position of state info in PS1

Set M_PUT_BEFORE_PS1 to y if you want to change the position of state info to the beginning.

Automatically gcc version detection

Set M_AUTO_VERSION_DETECTION to y if you use the docker image. This could be very useful when your default compiler is not the same as the server's default compiler.

To make your distcc server more general/compatible for different clients, you can run the docker image mentioned below.

Docker Image

Distcc does not work properly when the compiler versions of the client and servers did not match. When you enable this feature, the script will detect your gcc version and add suffix on calling gcc. Distcc will then dispatch post-processing job to remote server and call the specific version of gcc to compile. Thus, I build a docker image containing multiple gcc versions for setting up distcc server easily.

There is a Dockerfile in this repo to download docker image and install newest gcc. The original gcc version in this docker image is gcc-5.3. If you don't want to install the newest gcc, simply remove the RUN pacman -Sy line in Dockerfile.

On your server, in the mmode repository folder, simply run two commands to build and host a distcc server.

sudo docker build -t distcc_server .
sudo docker run --rm -t -i -p 3632:3632 distcc_server 127.0.0.1/24

• 127.0.0.1/24 should be set to a IP range you want to allow a connection.
• 3632:3632 is the port forwarding(HOST:CONTAINER). The default port is 3632. Normally you don't need to change the port number.

Installation

Your computer

• Copy mmode.sh to ~/.mmode.sh by cp ./mmode.sh ~/.mmode.sh
• Add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, etc.

source ~/.mmode.sh

• If you want to specify servers by env vars add export before the source ~/.mmode.sh

export DISTCC_HOSTS='localhost/2'
source ~/.mmode.sh

• Enable/disable features in the script ~/.mmode.sh
• Then, execute source ~/.bashrc (Your shell config file).

Distcc Server

1. Install distcc by package manager or compile it by your own.
2. Run distccd --daemon --log-stderr --no-detach --allow 127.0.0.1/24. 127.0.0.1/24 is the address range you want to allow for connection.

Alternatively, follow the steps listed in Docker Image above.

License

FreeBSD License