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It runs the preprocessor locally, then sends that out to a volunteer node. https://www.distcc.org/distcc-lca-2004.html:

“The client is invoked as a wrapper around the compiler by Make. Because distcc is invoked in place of gcc, it needs to understand every pattern of command line invocations. If the arguments are such that the compilation can be run remotely, distcc forms two new sets of arguments, one to run the preprocessor locally, and one to run the. compiler remotely. If the arguments are not understood by distcc, it takes the safe default of running the command locally. Options that read or write additional local files such assembly listings or profiler tables are run locally”

Scalability:

“Reports from users indicate, distcc is nearly linearly scalable for small numbers of CPUs. Compiling across three identical machines is typically 2.5 to 2.8 times faster than local compilation. Builds across sixteen machines have been reported at over ten times faster than a local builds. These numbers include the overhead of distcc and Make, and the time for non-parallel or non-distributed tasks”



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