Re: [gentoo-user] Hoping someone can help explain distcc to me

[victor romanchuk <rom@persimplex.net>]

>
>> i had noticed that distcc is peevish about CFLAGS: these should be
>> compatible on both client and server. in my case i made these similar on
>> both machines (laptop is core2duo and desktop is core2quad; both are
>> running  amd64 arch)
> I don't think this is true - as long as the CHOST is identical, there should 
> be no problem.

CHOST defines the arch (i686, amd64, arm ..) whilst CFLAGS control gcc behavior
and the binary code generation produced by compiler. in my case core2quad
(q8300) i'm using in the desktop supports sse4.1 instruction set and notebook
powered with core2duo (t7600) does not have that cpu feature. having option
`-msse4.1' set in CFLAGS at desktop side will causes frequent compilation
failures (initiated by distcc) or, in worst case - arbitrary crashes at notebook
when running binaries compiled in distributed distcc environment

>> yet another way to install packages on weak notebook running it on the
>> same arch as desktop runs, - is to create binaries at powerful machine
>> (while emerging or with quickpkg utility) and share $PKGDIR with laptop
> This means some extra work, and also use flags need to be compatible, but 
> the speedup would be much bigger than with just distcc.
>
> What about exporting the whole root file system and mounting it on the fast 
> desktop, chrooting and emerging?
>

i do not insist the distcc is the only or most efficient way to maintain gentoo
installation on a slow machine (having something more powerful nearby).  just
tried to explain how does distcc work

victor