PPC-DistCC

Distributed compilation system for PowerPC Macs running Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), Leopard (10.5), and Sorbet Leopard.

Overview

PPC-DistCC distributes C/C++ compilation jobs across multiple PowerPC Macs on your network, dramatically speeding up large builds like LLVM, GCC, or the Linux kernel.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    COORDINATOR MAC                           │
│  make -j8 CC=ppc-gcc CXX=ppc-g++                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
   ┌──────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┐
   │                          │                          │
   ▼                          ▼                          ▼
┌─────────┐            ┌─────────────┐            ┌─────────┐
│ G5 Mac  │            │ POWER8 S824 │            │ G5 Mac  │
│ 2x 970  │            │ 128 threads │            │ 2x 970  │
└─────────┘            │ (cross-comp)│            └─────────┘
                       └─────────────┘

Features

Python 2.5+ Compatible - Works on Tiger (10.4) and later
Automatic Load Balancing - Sends jobs to fastest available machine
Local Fallback - Falls back to local compile if workers unavailable
Drop-in Replacement - Use ppc-gcc instead of gcc
Multi-compiler Support - GCC, Clang, G++, Clang++

Prerequisites

All worker machines must have matching development environments:

Requirement	Description
Compiler	Same compiler version (e.g., gcc-10) on all machines
Headers	System headers and SDK at compatible versions
Libraries	Required libraries (libiconv, libstdc++, etc.)
Source Tree	For complex builds, source at same relative path

Known Compatibility Issues

Machine	Issue	Solution
G4 (Tiger/Leopard)	libiconv 5.0 (gcc-10 needs 7.0)	Install libiconv 7.0 or use gcc-7
G5 (Leopard)	Works with gcc-10	✓ Ready

Setting Up G4 Machines for gcc-10

# Option 1: Install newer libiconv
curl -O https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libiconv/libiconv-1.17.tar.gz
tar xzf libiconv-1.17.tar.gz && cd libiconv-1.17
./configure --prefix=/usr/local && make && sudo make install

# Option 2: Use gcc-7 instead (already compatible with Tiger/Leopard)
# Configure build with: CC=ppc-gcc-7 CXX=ppc-g++-7

Quick Start

1. Start Workers (on each Mac)

# Copy worker script to each machine
scp ppc_compile_worker.py user@192.168.0.130:~/

# SSH to each machine and start worker
ssh user@192.168.0.130
python ~/ppc_compile_worker.py &

2. Install Wrapper (on build machine)

# Copy wrapper
sudo cp ppc_compile_wrapper.py /usr/local/bin/

# Create symlinks
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ppc_compile_wrapper.py /usr/local/bin/ppc-gcc
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ppc_compile_wrapper.py /usr/local/bin/ppc-g++
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ppc_compile_wrapper.py /usr/local/bin/ppc-clang
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ppc_compile_wrapper.py /usr/local/bin/ppc-clang++

3. Build!

# Simple usage
ppc-gcc -O2 -c hello.c -o hello.o

# With make
make CC=ppc-gcc CXX=ppc-g++ -j8

# With cmake
cmake .. -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=ppc-gcc -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=ppc-g++
make -j8

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`PPC_DISTCC_HOSTS`	Comma-separated worker IPs	See config.py
`PPC_DISTCC_FALLBACK`	Fall back to local on failure	`1`
`PPC_DISTCC_VERBOSE`	Show verbose output	unset
`PPC_DISTCC_DISABLED`	Disable distribution	unset
`PPC_DISTCC_COMPILER`	Override compiler	from script name

Example

export PPC_DISTCC_HOSTS="192.168.0.130,192.168.0.179,192.168.0.125"
export PPC_DISTCC_VERBOSE=1
make CC=ppc-gcc -j12

Supported Machines

Machine	CPU	Weight	Notes
IBM POWER8 S824	POWER8 (128 threads)	10.0	Cross-compiler, Linux ppc64le
Power Mac G5	PPC 970 (2.0-2.7GHz)	2.0	Dual-core recommended
Power Mac G4 (MDD)	PPC 7447 (1.25-1.42GHz)	1.5	Dual-processor
PowerBook G4	PPC 7447/7455	1.0	Single core
iMac G4/G5	Various	1.0-1.5
Mac mini G4	PPC 7447 (1.25-1.5GHz)	1.0

POWER8 Cross-Compilation (Linux → Darwin/PPC)

The IBM POWER8 can cross-compile Darwin/PPC code from Linux, providing massive parallelism (128 hardware threads) to accelerate builds.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              POWER8 S824 (Linux ppc64le)               │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  cctools (powerpc-apple-darwin9-as, ld, etc.)   │   │
│  │  GCC 10.5.0 cross-compiler                       │   │
│  │  Target: powerpc-apple-darwin9 (Mac OS X)       │   │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│         128 hardware threads (SMT8)                    │
│         576 GB RAM                                     │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

How It Works

The POWER8 runs Linux (ppc64le) but uses a cross-compiler to produce Mach-O object files for Mac OS X (powerpc-apple-darwin9). The worker script receives source files, compiles them with the cross-compiler, and returns Darwin-compatible .o files.

Quick Setup

# On the POWER8 (Ubuntu 20.04 ppc64le):
./setup_power8_crosscompiler.sh

# This installs:
# - cctools (Apple binutils: as, ld, etc.)
# - GCC 10.5.0 (powerpc-apple-darwin9-gcc)
# - Worker daemon (ppc_compile_worker_power8.py)
# - systemd service (ppc-distcc-worker)

# Start the worker:
sudo systemctl start ppc-distcc-worker

# Add POWER8 to your coordinator's wrapper hosts:
export PPC_DISTCC_HOSTS="192.168.0.50,192.168.0.130,192.168.0.179"

Manual Installation

If the script fails or you need custom configuration:

# 1. Install dependencies
sudo apt-get install build-essential libgmp-dev libmpfr-dev libmpc-dev \
    texinfo bison flex libtool automake wget clang llvm-dev

# 2. Build cctools
wget https://github.com/tpoechtrager/cctools-port/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
unzip master.zip && cd cctools-port-master/cctools
./autogen.sh
./configure --target=powerpc-apple-darwin9 --prefix=$HOME/darwin-cross-ppc/toolchain
make -j$(nproc) && make install

# 3. Create 'as' symlink (GCC needs it)
ln -sf powerpc-apple-darwin9-as $HOME/darwin-cross-ppc/toolchain/bin/as

# 4. Build GCC cross-compiler
wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-10.5.0/gcc-10.5.0.tar.xz
tar xf gcc-10.5.0.tar.xz && cd gcc-10.5.0
contrib/download_prerequisites
mkdir ../gcc-build && cd ../gcc-build
../gcc-10.5.0/configure \
    --target=powerpc-apple-darwin9 \
    --prefix=$HOME/darwin-cross-ppc/toolchain \
    --enable-languages=c,c++ \
    --disable-bootstrap --disable-multilib --disable-nls
make -j$(nproc) all-gcc && make install-gcc

Testing the Cross-Compiler

export PATH=$HOME/darwin-cross-ppc/toolchain/bin:$PATH

# Compile a test file
echo 'int main() { return 42; }' > test.c
powerpc-apple-darwin9-gcc -c test.c -o test.o

# Verify it's a Mach-O object
file test.o
# Output: test.o: Mach-O ppc_7400 object

Known Issues (POWER8)

Issue	Solution
Type conflicts (int64_t redefinition)	Script patches cctools headers automatically
fixincludes error during GCC build	Script creates dummy fixinc.sh
Wrong assembler used	Script creates `as` symlink in toolchain/bin
Ubuntu 22.04+ not supported	Use Ubuntu 20.04 (last POWER8-supported)

Performance with POWER8

With POWER8 (128 threads) + 2x G5 (4 threads each):

Build	Without POWER8	With POWER8	Speedup
LLVM 3.9	~3 hours	~45 min	4x
GCC 10	~4 hours	~1 hour	4x

The POWER8 handles the bulk of compilation jobs while G5s process overflow.

Compilers Supported

GCC 4.0.1 (system default on Leopard)
GCC 7.5.0 (via Tigerbrew)
GCC 10.5.0 (custom build)
Clang 3.4.2 (custom build)
Clang 3.9.1 (custom build)

Files

File	Description
`ppc_compile_worker.py`	Worker daemon (runs on each Mac)
`ppc_compile_coordinator.py`	Coordinator library/daemon
`ppc_compile_wrapper.py`	Drop-in gcc/clang replacement
`sync_generated_files.sh`	Sync generated .inc/.def files to workers
`config.py`	Worker configuration
`setup_power8_crosscompiler.sh`	NEW: One-script POWER8 cross-compiler setup

Systemd/Launchd Service

launchd (Mac OS X)

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ppc-distcc.worker.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.ppc-distcc.worker</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/python</string>
        <string>/Users/sophia/ppc_compile_worker.py</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Load with:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ppc-distcc.worker.plist

Performance

Typical speedup with 7 PPC Macs (3x G4, 4x G5):

Build	Single Mac	Distributed	Speedup
LLVM 3.4	~8 hours	~1.5 hours	5.3x
GCC 10	~12 hours	~2 hours	6x
Linux kernel	~4 hours	~45 min	5.3x

Troubleshooting

Worker not responding

# Check if worker is running
ps aux | grep ppc_compile_worker

# Test connection
python -c "import socket; s=socket.socket(); s.connect(('192.168.0.130', 5555)); print('OK')"

Compilation fails on remote

# Enable verbose mode
export PPC_DISTCC_VERBOSE=1
ppc-gcc -c test.c -o test.o

Headers not found

The system currently doesn't transfer headers. Use -I with absolute paths to system headers.

Building Complex Projects (LLVM, etc.)

For projects that generate intermediate files (.inc, .def, .gen) during compilation, you need to:

1. Deploy Source to All Workers

Each worker needs the source tree at the same relative path:

# Package source on coordinator
cd ~ && tar czf project-src.tar.gz project-src project-build/include

# Copy to each worker
scp project-src.tar.gz user@192.168.0.179:~
ssh user@192.168.0.179 'cd ~ && tar xzf project-src.tar.gz'

2. Sync Generated Files Periodically

Generated files are created during build and must be synced to workers:

# Set up workers
export PPC_DISTCC_WORKERS="selenamac@192.168.0.179"
export PPC_DISTCC_PASSWORD="your_password"

# Start sync script (syncs every 2 minutes)
./sync_generated_files.sh ~/llvm-3.9-build 120 &

# Start build
make -j4

Path Translation

The worker automatically translates paths between machines. Paths like /Users/sophia/... on the coordinator are translated to /Users/selenamac/... on the worker (based on $HOME).

Configure additional translations in ppc_compile_worker.py:

PATH_TRANSLATIONS = [
    ('/Users/sophia/', LOCAL_HOME + '/'),
    ('/Users/selenamac/', LOCAL_HOME + '/'),
]

TODO

Cross-machine path translation
Generated file sync script
POWER8 cross-compiler support (128 threads!)
Automatic header dependency tracking
Precompiled header support
SSH-based worker auto-start
Web dashboard for monitoring
Pump mode (preprocessing on coordinator)

Related Projects & Documentation

PPC Compiler Builds

Project	Description	Link
LLVM 3.4.2 PPC	Pre-built LLVM/Clang for Leopard	GitHub
GCC 10 PPC	Building GCC 10 for PowerPC	Coming soon
Tigerbrew	Package manager for Tiger/Leopard	GitHub

Setup Guides

Leopard Development Setup - Install Xcode, Tigerbrew, and modern compilers
Tiger Compatibility - Working with Python 2.3/2.5 limitations
Cross-Compilation - Building PPC binaries on modern Macs

Building the Compilers

Before using ppc-distcc, each worker needs compilers installed:

# Install Tigerbrew (on each Mac)
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mistydemeo/tigerbrew/go/install)"

# Install GCC 7 (works on Tiger/Leopard)
brew install gcc@7

# For GCC 10, build from source (Leopard G5 only, or G4 with libiconv update)
# See: https://github.com/Scottcjn/gcc-10-ppc-build (coming soon)

AltiVec Optimization

PowerPC G4/G5 chips have AltiVec (Velocity Engine) SIMD instructions. When building compilers, enable AltiVec for faster compilation:

# GCC configure with AltiVec
./configure --with-cpu=G4 --enable-altivec

# Or for G5 (also has AltiVec)
./configure --with-cpu=970 --enable-altivec

# CFLAGS for AltiVec-optimized builds
export CFLAGS="-O3 -maltivec -mabi=altivec -mcpu=7450"  # G4
export CFLAGS="-O3 -maltivec -mabi=altivec -mcpu=970"   # G5

Potential speedups: String operations, hashing, and certain compiler internals can benefit from AltiVec vectorization.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 15 Commits
patches		patches
BCOS.md		BCOS.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
config.py		config.py
ppc_compile_coordinator.py		ppc_compile_coordinator.py
ppc_compile_worker.py		ppc_compile_worker.py
ppc_compile_wrapper.py		ppc_compile_wrapper.py
setup_power8_crosscompiler.sh		setup_power8_crosscompiler.sh
sync_generated_files.sh		sync_generated_files.sh

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PPC-DistCC

Overview

Features

Prerequisites

Known Compatibility Issues

Setting Up G4 Machines for gcc-10

Quick Start

1. Start Workers (on each Mac)

2. Install Wrapper (on build machine)

3. Build!

Configuration

Environment Variables

Example

Supported Machines

POWER8 Cross-Compilation (Linux → Darwin/PPC)

How It Works

Quick Setup

Manual Installation

Testing the Cross-Compiler

Known Issues (POWER8)

Performance with POWER8

Compilers Supported

Files

Systemd/Launchd Service

launchd (Mac OS X)

Performance

Troubleshooting

Worker not responding

Compilation fails on remote

Headers not found

Building Complex Projects (LLVM, etc.)

1. Deploy Source to All Workers

2. Sync Generated Files Periodically

Path Translation

TODO

Related Projects & Documentation

PPC Compiler Builds

Setup Guides

Building the Compilers

AltiVec Optimization

Network Requirements

License

Credits

Inspired by distcc and icecc. Built for the PowerPC Mac preservation community.

Part of the Elyan Labs Ecosystem

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