3. The distccd Server

The distccd server may be started either from a super-server such as inetd, or as a stand-alone daemon.

distccd does not need to run as root and should not.

distccd does not have a configuration file; it's behaviour is controlled only by command-line options and requests from clients.

3.1 Invoking distccd

These options may be used for either inetd or standalone mode.

--help

Explains usage of the daemon and exits.

--version

Shows the daemon version and exits.

-N, --nice NICENESS

Makes the daemon more nice about giving up the CPU to other tasks on the machine. NICENESS is a value from 0 (regular priority) to 20 (lowest priority). This option is good if you want to run distccd in the background on a machine used for other purposes.

-p, --port PORT

Set the TCP port to listen on. (Standalone mode only.)

-P, --pid-file FILE

Save daemon process id to file.

--verbose

Include debug messages in log.

--no-fork

Don't fork or detach (for debugging).

--no-fifo

Send input to the compiler by writing to a temporary file, rather than using a pipe. This is required when the server's temporary directory is on NFS, on at least some machines. It may be faster in some circumstances, but probably is not.

--log-file=FILE

Send messages here instead of syslog.

--log-stderr

Send log messages to stderr, rather than to a file or syslog. This is mainly intended for use in debugging.

--inetd

Serve a client connected to stdin/stdout. As the name suggests, this option should be used when distccd is run from within a super-server like inetd. distccd assumes inetd mode when stdin is a socket.

--daemon

Bind and listen on a socket, rather than running from inetd. This is used for standalone mode. distccd assumes daemon mode at startup if stdin is a tty, so --daemon should be explicitly specified when starting distccd from a script or in a non-interactive ssh connection.

3.2 distccd Exit Codes

As for distcc exit .

3.3 distccd Environment Variables

DISTCC_SAVE_TEMPS

If set to 1, temporary files are not deleted after use. Good for debugging.