Build Acceleration

Build acceleration

Reduce C/C++ build times: measure first, then apply caching (ccache, sccache), distributed compilation (distcc), unity builds, precompiled headers, split DWARF, and include pruning.

Contract

Inputs

• Build system (required): CMake, Make, Meson, or Bazel; gathered from the tree.
• Compiler (required): GCC or Clang; affects flag support.
• Bottleneck evidence (optional): existing timings or a profiler report.
• Cache or distribution infrastructure (optional): shared cache directory, distcc workers, sccache storage backend.

Procedure

1. Measure before changing anything. A speedup claim without a baseline is not a claim. Done when: a baseline build time is recorded.

time cmake --build build -j"$(nproc)"

# Per-translation-unit cost, GCC and Clang
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-ftime-report"
cmake --build build 2>&1 | grep "Total" | sort -t: -k2 -rn | head -20

# Ninja keeps per-edge timings in build/.ninja_log; inspect with
# ninja -d stats or feed the log to ninjatracing for a Chrome trace
ninja -C build -d stats

2. Set up ccache for compiler caching. Done when: ccache -s shows hits on a rebuild.

apt-get install ccache   # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install ccache      # macOS
ccache -s                # hit rate
ccache --set-config=max_size=20G
ccache -C                # clear cache

find_program(CCACHE_PROGRAM ccache)
if(CCACHE_PROGRAM)
    set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER   ${CCACHE_PROGRAM})
    set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER ${CCACHE_PROGRAM})
endif()

3. Use sccache when the cache must live on shared or cloud storage. sccache supports S3, Redis, Memcached, GCS, GitHub Actions cache, Azure, and WebDAV backends. Done when: sccache --show-stats reports hits.

cargo install sccache    # or: brew install sccache
export RUSTC_WRAPPER=sccache
export CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=sccache
export CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=sccache

# S3 backend
export SCCACHE_BUCKET=my-build-cache
export SCCACHE_REGION=us-east-1
sccache --start-server
sccache --show-stats

4. Add precompiled headers for large stable headers (STL, Boost, Qt). Skip PCH for headers that change often; each change rebuilds every consumer. Done when: target_precompile_headers is set on the heavy targets.

# CMake 3.16+
target_precompile_headers(mylib PRIVATE
    <vector>
    <string>
    <unordered_map>
    "myproject/common.h"
)

# Share one PCH across targets
target_precompile_headers(myapp REUSE_FROM mylib)

5. Enable unity builds where ODR-safe. Unity builds batch several .cpp files into one translation unit, cutting repeated header parsing. Watch for anonymous namespaces, using namespace in headers, and duplicate internal-linkage symbols. Done when: the unity build compiles and links cleanly.

set_target_properties(mylib PROPERTIES UNITY_BUILD ON)
set_target_properties(mylib PROPERTIES UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE 16)  # default 8
set_source_files_properties(problem.cpp PROPERTIES SKIP_UNITY_BUILD_INCLUSION ON)

6. Cut link time with split DWARF. -gsplit-dwarf moves debug info into .dwo sidecar files so the linker does not process it. The link-time win depends on how much debug info the build carries; measure it on the project rather than trusting a fixed multiplier. Done when: link time is measured with and without the flag.

gcc -g -gsplit-dwarf -Wl,--gdb-index -o prog main.c
# Optional: bundle .dwo files for distribution
dwp -o prog.dwp prog

add_compile_options(-gsplit-dwarf)

7. Distribute compilation with distcc when spare machines exist. Done when: distcc jobs run on the configured hosts.

apt-get install distcc
distccd --daemon --allow 192.168.1.0/24 --jobs 8   # on each worker

export DISTCC_HOSTS="localhost/4 worker1/8 worker2/8"
make -j20 CC="distcc gcc"

Stack ccache in front so local hits never reach the network: CC="ccache distcc gcc".

8. Prune includes with IWYU once the build is otherwise fast. Done when: the IWYU report is produced and fixes are applied or deferred. See include-what-you-use for the full workflow.

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_CXX_INCLUDE_WHAT_YOU_USE=iwyu
cmake --build build 2>&1 | tee iwyu.log
fix_include < iwyu.log --nosafe_headers

For ccache configuration details see references/ccache-config.md.

Failure and recovery

• ccache hit rate stays low: check ccache -s -v miss reasons; absolute paths need base_dir, __DATE__/__TIME__ need time_macros in sloppiness.
• Unity build fails on duplicate symbols: exclude the file with SKIP_UNITY_BUILD_INCLUSION or fix the internal-linkage collision.
• PCH rebuilds constantly: the precompiled header changes too often; remove project headers from the PCH list.
• distcc saturates the network or is slower: reduce DISTCC_HOSTS slots or drop distcc; remote compile only pays when the network is faster than local compile.
• split-DWARF breaks debugger or packaging: ship .dwo files beside the binary or run dwp to bundle them.
• No measured improvement: revert the change; report the measured delta, not the expectation.

Output

A configured acceleration technique (cache, PCH, unity, split DWARF, or distcc) plus the measured before/after build time. For diagnosis-only tasks, a ranked list of the slowest translation units or link steps with the recommended technique per bottleneck.