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Use x86 Boxes to Compile Mac OS X Binaries

Posted by pudge on from the ooo-i-have-an-extra-x86-computer dept.

IceFox writes "While working on the KDE on Darwin project I have only had one Mac to do development with. At the same time I have been playing around with distcc for Linux/x86 compiling. Combining the two projects I built a Mac OS X cross-compiler (for Linux/x86) and have created the DistccPPCKnoppix distribution. DistccPPCKnoppix is a 46MB Knoppix distribution based on distccKnoppix; with it you can use your extra x86 computers to build Linux/x86 or Mac OS X/PPC binaries. It might not be as shiny as an Xserve cluster, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper."

5 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is news? by Ranger+Rick · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason it's news is that GNU has no support for Mach-O, Apple has their own assembler and linker. Making them work on linux is a real pain in the ass.

    --

    WWJD? JWRTFM!!!

  2. Works in reverse, too...I think! by cbiagini · · Score: 4, Informative
    Well, I'd like to say that I think it's really cool that a Mac developer is so enthusiastic about his project that he's going this far to get the product out.

    But check out this excerpt from gcc's man pages:
    -arch arch
    Compile for the specified target architecture arch. The allowable
    values are i386 and ppc. Multiple options work, and direct the
    compiler to produce ``fat'' binaries including object code for each
    architecture specified with -arch. This option only works if
    assembler and libraries are available for each architecture speci-
    fied. (APPLE ONLY)
    Aww man...all my moderation's going to be undone in this discussion now. Well, to the person who said something funny up there: Good job.
    1. Re:Works in reverse, too...I think! by cremes · · Score: 5, Informative

      Specifying '-arch i386' on MacOS X doesn't work though. OSX doesn't ship with fat libraries, so it isn't possible to generate an x86 executable using the gcc switches. To make this work, you need to recompile several system frameworks and libraries and install them on your box. This is hairy. I saw instructions on how to do this about 2 years ago somewhere...

      Compiling ppc on x86 or x86 on ppc is actually a bit easier using OpenDarwin. You can run this fat on your hardware and emit fat executables just as the man page suggests.

      cr

  3. The iso download by IceFox · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hehe I learned my lesson before. I'll be putting the 46MB iso up later tonight, but if someone wants to host it you can e-mail me or im (aim: icefox2) me and I can get you the file.

    -Benjamin Meyer

    --
    Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
  4. Re:One more thing... by snowtigger · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's almost compatible already. XCode uses standard GNU gcc, g++, etc. for compiling.

    In XCode, the equivalent of a Makefile is called project.pbxproj (it's a text file) and the equivalent of make is a command called pbxbuild.

    So everything you need to do is to create the utility that parses project.pbxproj and compiles.

    Of course, make with a Makefile works perfectly fine, but XCode doesn't create those files for you.