Re: Parallel building/compiling

Tarkin wrote:
Hi all,

I got to musing just now, after watching the
output of VICE being made, and recalled something
about GNU 'make' being optimized for 'parallel' builds.

Is parallel building like compiling separate object
files on different machines, at the same time?

No, that's distributed building. Parallel building is building more
than one target on the same machine, which is what the gnu make -J
option does.

If so, what are the various techniques for the final link?
Do the get sent to some central/master machine to
be held until they are all present, and then linked?

That's an implementation detail. The cleanest way is to use a common
(NFS mounted) output directory. The make tool knows the dependency
tree, so it can schedule jobs in the most efficient order.

Are there 'build farms', like 'render farms'?

Yes, I use one. Some tools (I use Sun dmake) provide support for
distributed as well as parallel building.

--
Ian Collins.
.