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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."

2 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. 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