xmake-distributed-compilation

Xmake Distributed Compilation

Xmake ships a built-in distributed compile service similar to distcc — but fully cross-platform (GCC, Clang, and MSVC) and tightly integrated with xmake's cache. Use it when a team or CI setup needs to pool compile resources.

Architecture at a glance

         ┌──── distcc server (linux)  9693 ─┐
client ──┼──── distcc server (macos)  9693 ─┤──── jobs scheduled + compiled remotely
         └──── distcc server (win)    9693 ─┘
local compile ─── small/fast files stay local after preprocessing
local cache  ────── cache hits short-circuit everything

• Any machine running xmake service --distcc is a server.
• Clients list the servers in client.conf; xmake schedules jobs across them automatically.
• Server platforms can be mixed (Linux + macOS + Windows). Cross toolchains on the server do the actual work.

1. Start a server

xmake service --distcc                 # foreground
xmake service --distcc -vD             # foreground + verbose
xmake service --distcc --start         # daemonize
xmake service --distcc --stop
xmake service --distcc --restart

First run generates ~/.xmake/service/server.conf and prints a token.

Server config

{
    distcc_build = {
        listen  = "0.0.0.0:9693",
        workdir = "/home/ruki/.xmake/service/server/distcc_build"
    },
    known_hosts = { },
    logfile     = "/home/ruki/.xmake/service/server/logs.txt",
    tokens      = { "590234653af52e91b9e438ed860f1a2b" }
}

• listen — host:port.
• workdir — scratch dir for per-job files.
• tokens — whitelist. Generate more with xmake service --gen-token.
• known_hosts — optional IP allowlist.

Cross toolchains on the server

If the server must cross-compile (e.g. Android from Linux, iOS from macOS), declare the toolchains in server.conf so the client doesn't need to ship them:

{
    distcc_build = {
        listen  = "0.0.0.0:9693",
        toolchains = {
            ndk = {
                ndk = "~/files/android-ndk-r26"
            },
            cross = {
                sdkdir = "~/files/arm-linux-musleabi-cross"
            }
        },
        workdir = "/home/ruki/.xmake/service/server/distcc_build"
    },
    tokens = { "..." }
}