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