[distcc] too many SSH connections

[Martin Pool]

On 31 Oct 2003, Phil R Lawrence <prlawrence at Lehigh.EDU> wrote:
> Lisa Seelye <lisa at gentoo.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2003-10-31 at 07:18, Phil R Lawrence wrote:
> > > When I try to emerge using distcc over SSH, it keeps logging
> > > me back on and off the other box.
> >
> > [lots snipped]
> > 
> > You might want to look into adding a passphrased SSH key on your
> > volunteer machine, and use Keychain[1] ...
> 
> OK.  Did that.  Here are my results for time emerge xlockmore!  Question follows!  :-)
> 
> I have a dual Xeon 2.40GH IBM server (Fast!) and a 500 MHz Celeron
> IBM X20 laptop (Not Fast!).

You didn't say how long it normally takes for you to build on just the
laptop.

SSH encryption is probably killing the laptop.  You might want to see
if you can use network-level security so that it doesn't need to do
SSH.

> VOLUNTEERS: me@<Xeon>:/home/me/opt/bin/distccd localhost
> # turns into -j1 because of "no jobserver" error  :-(
> -j 4  
> real    7m7.246s
> user    3m22.650s
> sys     1m19.670s
> 
> VOLUNTEERS: me@<Xeon>:/home/me/opt/bin/distccd localhost
> # with -j
> real    8m21.787s
> user    6m3.500s
> sys     1m38.690s
> 
> # let's get rid of the dog...
> VOLUNTEER: me@<Xeon>:/home/me/opt/bin/distccd
> # with -j
> real    5m53.935s
> user    3m54.610s
> sys     1m33.180s
> 
> VOLUNTEER: me@<Xeon>:/home/me/opt/bin/distccd
> # with -j 3 .. turned into -j1
> real    6m37.346s
> user    3m22.330s
> sys     1m18.050s
> 
> So...  I'm thinking distcc may not for me, because right now I only
> have one machine worth compiling on!

It can still be worthwhile to shift work off the laptop, but perhaps
not if you have to use SSH.

> :-) Might I do better to somehow emerge on my server with the X20 as
> a target?  How would I do that?  (RH 7.3 server) Would I have to
> create a User Mode Linux for Gentoo and do it from in there?

If Gentoo can do that it would probably make more sense.

> Actually, though, I will soon have a nice P4 desktop up and running
> again.  That might help, but still it sounds faster to just do all
> compiling on the server.  I know I am amazed evrytime I compile
> something for /usr/local on it.  Opinions?

-- 
Martin 
                               linux.conf.au -- Adelaide, January 2004