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<body class="article">
<div id="header">
<h1>CCACHE(1)</h1>
<span id="revnumber">version 3.1.10</span>
<div id="toc">
  <div id="toctitle">Table of Contents</div>
  <noscript><p><b>JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to display the table of contents.</b></p></noscript>
</div>
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_name">Name</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache - a fast C/C++ compiler cache</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_synopsis">Synopsis</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="verseblock">
<pre class="content"><strong>ccache</strong> [<em>options</em>]
<strong>ccache</strong> <em>compiler</em> [<em>compiler options</em>]
<em>compiler</em> [<em>compiler options</em>]                   (via symbolic link)</pre>
<div class="attribution">
</div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_description">Description</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache is a compiler cache. It speeds up recompilation by caching the result of
previous compilations and detecting when the same compilation is being done
again. Supported languages are C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache has been carefully written to always produce exactly the same compiler
output that you would get without the cache. The only way you should be able to
tell that you are using ccache is the speed. Currently known exceptions to this
goal are listed under <a href="#_bugs">BUGS</a>. If you ever discover an undocumented case
where ccache changes the output of your compiler, please let us know.</p></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_features">Features</h3>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Keeps statistics on hits/misses.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Automatic cache size management.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Can cache compilations that generate warnings.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Easy installation.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Low overhead.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Optionally uses hard links where possible to avoid copies.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Optionally compresses files in the cache to reduce disk space.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_limitations">Limitations</h3>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Only knows how to cache the compilation of a single
  C/C++/Objective-C/Objective-C++ file. Other types of compilations
  (multi-file compilation, linking, etc) will silently fall back to running the
  real compiler.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Only works with GCC and compilers that behave similar enough.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Some compiler flags are not supported. If such a flag is detected, ccache
  will silently fall back to running the real compiler.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_run_modes">Run modes</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>There are two ways to use ccache. You can either prefix your compilation
commands with <strong>ccache</strong> or you can let ccache masquerade as the compiler by
creating a symbolic link (named as the compiler) to ccache. The first method is
most convenient if you just want to try out ccache or wish to use it for some
specific projects. The second method is most useful for when you wish to use
ccache for all your compilations.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To use the first method, just make sure that <strong>ccache</strong> is in your <strong>PATH</strong>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To use the symlinks method, do something like this:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>cp ccache /usr/local/bin/
ln -s ccache /usr/local/bin/gcc
ln -s ccache /usr/local/bin/g++
ln -s ccache /usr/local/bin/cc
ln -s ccache /usr/local/bin/c++</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>And so forth. This will work as long as the directory with symlinks comes
before the path to the compiler (which is usually in <code>/usr/bin</code>). After
installing you may wish to run &#8220;which gcc&#8221; to make sure that the correct link
is being used.</p></div>
<div class="admonitionblock">
<table><tr>
<td class="icon">
<div class="title">Warning</div>
</td>
<td class="content">The technique of letting ccache masquerade as the compiler works well,
but currently doesn&#8217;t interact well with other tools that do the same thing.
See <a href="#_using_ccache_with_other_compiler_wrappers">USING CCACHE WITH OTHER COMPILER WRAPPERS</a>.</td>
</tr></table>
</div>
<div class="admonitionblock">
<table><tr>
<td class="icon">
<div class="title">Warning</div>
</td>
<td class="content">Do not use a hard link, use a symbolic link. A hard link will cause
&#8220;interesting&#8221; problems.</td>
</tr></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_options">Options</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>These options only apply when you invoke ccache as &#8220;ccache&#8221;. When invoked as
a compiler (via a symlink as described in the previous section), the normal
compiler options apply and you should refer to the compiler&#8217;s documentation.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-c, --cleanup</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Clean up the cache by removing old cached files until the specified file
    number and cache size limits are not exceeded. This also recalculates the
    cache file count and size totals. Normally, it&#8217;s not needed to initiate
    cleanup manually as ccache keeps the cache below the specified limits at
    runtime and keeps statistics up to date on each compilation. Forcing a
    cleanup is mostly useful if you manually modify the cache contents or
    believe that the cache size statistics may be inaccurate.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-C, --clear</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Clear the entire cache, removing all cached files.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-F, --max-files</strong>=<em>N</em>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Set the maximum number of files allowed in the cache. The value is stored
    inside the cache directory and applies to all future compilations. Due to
    the way the value is stored the actual value used is always rounded down to
    the nearest multiple of 16.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-h, --help</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Print an options summary page.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-M, --max-size</strong>=<em>SIZE</em>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Set the maximum size of the files stored in the cache. You can specify a
    value in gigabytes, megabytes or kilobytes by appending a G, M or K to the
    value. The default is gigabytes. The actual value stored is rounded down to
    the nearest multiple of 16 kilobytes.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-s, --show-stats</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Print the current statistics summary for the cache.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-V, --version</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Print version and copyright information.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>-z, --zero-stats</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Zero the cache statistics (but not the configured limits).
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_extra_options">Extra options</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>When run as a compiler, ccache usually just takes the same command line options
as the compiler you are using. The only exception to this is the option
<strong>--ccache-skip</strong>. That option can be used to tell ccache to avoid interpreting
the next option in any way and to pass it along to the compiler as-is. <strong>Note</strong>:
<strong>--ccache-skip</strong> currently only tells ccache not to interpret the next option as
a special compiler option&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;the option will still be included in the direct
mode hash.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The reason this can be important is that ccache does need to parse the command
line and determine what is an input filename and what is a compiler option, as
it needs the input filename to determine the name of the resulting object file
(among other things). The heuristic ccache uses when parsing the command line
is that any argument that exists as a file is treated as an input file name. By
using <strong>--ccache-skip</strong> you can force an option to not be treated as an input
file name and instead be passed along to the compiler as a command line option.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Another case where <strong>--ccache-skip</strong> can be useful is if ccache interprets an
option specially but shouldn&#8217;t, since the option has another meaning for your
compiler than what ccache thinks.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_environment_variables">Environment variables</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache uses a number of environment variables to control operation. In most
cases you won&#8217;t need any of these as the defaults will be fine.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong> to an absolute path to
    a directory, ccache rewrites absolute paths into relative paths before
    computing the hash that identifies the compilation, but only for paths
    under the specified directory. See the discussion under
    <a href="#_compiling_in_different_directories">COMPILING IN DIFFERENT DIRECTORIES</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_CC</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    You can optionally set <strong>CCACHE_CC</strong> to force the name of the compiler to
    use. If you don&#8217;t do this then ccache works it out from the command line.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_COMPILERCHECK</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    By default, ccache includes the modification time (&#8220;mtime&#8221;) and size of
    the compiler in the hash to ensure that results retrieved from the cache
    are accurate. The <strong>CCACHE_COMPILERCHECK</strong> environment variable can be used
    to select another strategy. Possible values are:
</p>
<div class="openblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>content</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Hash the content of the compiler binary. This makes ccache very slightly
    slower compared to the <strong>mtime</strong> setting, but makes it cope better with
    compiler upgrades during a build bootstrapping process.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>mtime</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Hash the compiler&#8217;s mtime and size, which is fast. This is the default.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>none</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Don&#8217;t hash anything. This may be good for situations where you can safely
    use the cached results even though the compiler&#8217;s mtime or size has changed
    (e.g. if the compiler is built as part of your build system and the
    compiler&#8217;s source has not changed, or if the compiler only has changes that
    don&#8217;t affect code generation). You should only use the <strong>none</strong> setting if
    you know what you are doing.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<em>a command string</em>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Hash the standard output and standard error output of the specified
    command. The string will be split on whitespace to find out the command and
    arguments to run. No other interpretation of the command string will be
    done, except that the special word &#8220;%compiler%&#8221; will be replaced with the
    path to the compiler. Several commands can be specified with semicolon as
    separator. Examples:
</p>
<div class="openblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
<code>%compiler% -v</code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<code>%compiler% -dumpmachine; %compiler% -dumpversion</code>
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You should make sure that the specified command is as fast as possible since it
will be run once for each ccache invocation.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Identifying the compiler using a command is useful if you want to avoid cache
misses when the compiler has been rebuilt but not changed.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Another case is when the compiler (as seen by ccache) actually isn&#8217;t the real
compiler but another compiler wrapper&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;in that case, the default <strong>mtime</strong>
method will hash the mtime and size of the other compiler wrapper, which means
that ccache won&#8217;t be able to detect a compiler upgrade. Using a suitable
command to identify the compiler is thus safer, but it&#8217;s also slower, so you
should consider continue using the <strong>mtime</strong> method in combination with
<strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong> if possible. See
<a href="#_using_ccache_with_other_compiler_wrappers">USING CCACHE WITH OTHER COMPILER WRAPPERS</a>.</p></div>
</div></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_COMPRESS</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_COMPRESS</strong> then ccache will
    compress object files and other compiler output it puts in the cache.
    However, this setting has no effect on how files are retrieved from the
    cache; compressed and uncompressed results will still be usable regardless
    of this setting.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_CPP2</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_CPP2</strong> then ccache will not use
    the optimisation of avoiding the second call to the preprocessor by
    compiling the preprocessed output that was used for finding the hash in the
    case of a cache miss. This is primarily a debugging option, although it is
    possible that some unusual compilers will have problems with the
    intermediate filename extensions used in this optimisation, in which case
    this option could allow ccache to be used anyway.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_DETECT_SHEBANG</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    The <strong>CCACHE_DETECT_SHEBANG</strong> environment variable only has meaning on
    Windows. It instructs ccache to open the executable file to detect the
    <strong>#!/bin/sh</strong> string, in which case ccache will search for <strong>sh.exe</strong> in
    <strong>PATH</strong> and use that to launch the executable.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_DIR</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    The <strong>CCACHE_DIR</strong> environment variable specifies where ccache will keep its
    cached compiler output. The default is <strong>$HOME/.ccache</strong>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_DISABLE</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_DISABLE</strong> then ccache will just
    call the real compiler, bypassing the cache completely.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_EXTENSION</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    ccache tries to automatically determine the extension to use for
    intermediate preprocessor files based on the type of file being compiled.
    Unfortunately this sometimes doesn&#8217;t work, for example when using the
    &#8220;aCC&#8221; compiler on HP-UX. On systems like this you can use the
    <strong>CCACHE_EXTENSION</strong> option to override the default. On HP-UX set this
    environment variable to <strong>i</strong> if you use the &#8220;aCC&#8221; compiler.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_EXTRAFILES</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_EXTRAFILES</strong> to a list of paths
    then ccache will include the contents of those files when calculating the
    hash sum. The list separator is semicolon in Windows systems and colon on
    other systems.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_HARDLINK</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_HARDLINK</strong> then ccache will
    attempt to use hard links from the cache directory when creating the
    compiler output rather than using a file copy. Using hard links may be
    slightly faster in some situations, but can confuse programs like &#8220;make&#8221;
    that rely on modification times. Another thing to keep in mind is that if
    the resulting object file is modified in any way, this corrupts the cached
    object file as well. Hard links are never made for compressed cache files.
    This means that you should not set the <strong>CCACHE_COMPRESS</strong> variable if you
    want to use hard links.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_HASHDIR</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    This tells ccache to hash the current working directory when calculating
    the hash that is used to distinguish two compilations. This prevents a
    problem with the storage of the current working directory in the debug info
    of a object file, which can lead ccache to give a cached object file that
    has the working directory in the debug info set incorrectly. This option is
    off by default as the incorrect setting of this debug info rarely causes
    problems. If you strike problems with GDB not using the correct directory
    then enable this option.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_LOGFILE</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the <strong>CCACHE_LOGFILE</strong> environment variable then ccache will write
    information on what it is doing to the specified file. This is useful for
    tracking down problems.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_NLEVELS</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    The environment variable <strong>CCACHE_NLEVELS</strong> allows you to choose the number
    of levels of hash in the cache directory. The default is 2. The minimum is
    1 and the maximum is 8.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_NODIRECT</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_NODIRECT</strong> then ccache will not
    use the direct mode.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_NOSTATS</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_NOSTATS</strong> then ccache will not
    update the statistics files on each compilation.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_PATH</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    You can optionally set <strong>CCACHE_PATH</strong> to a colon-separated path where ccache
    will look for the real compilers. If you don&#8217;t do this then ccache will
    look for the first executable matching the compiler name in the normal
    <strong>PATH</strong> that isn&#8217;t a symbolic link to ccache itself.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    This option adds a prefix to the command line that ccache runs when
    invoking the compiler. Also see the section below on using ccache with
    &#8220;distcc&#8221;.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_READONLY</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    The <strong>CCACHE_READONLY</strong> environment variable tells ccache to attempt to use
    existing cached object files, but not to try to add anything new to the
    cache. If you are using this because your <strong>CCACHE_DIR</strong> is read-only, then
    you may find that you also need to set <strong>CCACHE_TEMPDIR</strong> as otherwise ccache
    will fail to create temporary files.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_RECACHE</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    This forces ccache to not use any cached results, even if it finds them.
    New results are still cached, but existing cache entries are ignored.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    By default, ccache tries to give as few false cache hits as possible.
    However, in certain situations it&#8217;s possible that you know things that
    ccache can&#8217;t take for granted. The <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong> environment variable
    makes it possible to tell ccache to relax some checks in order to increase
    the hit rate. The value should be a comma-separated string with options.
    Available options are:
</p>
<div class="openblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>file_macro</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Ignore <strong>__FILE__</strong> being present in the source.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>include_file_mtime</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Don&#8217;t check the modification time of include files in the direct mode.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>pch_defines</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Be sloppy about #defines when precompiling a header file. See
    <a href="#_precompiled_headers">PRECOMPILED HEADERS</a> for more information.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>time_macros</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    Ignore <strong>__DATE__</strong> and <strong>__TIME__</strong> being present in the source code.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See the discussion under <a href="#_troubleshooting">TROUBLESHOOTING</a> for more
information.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_TEMPDIR</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    The <strong>CCACHE_TEMPDIR</strong> environment variable specifies where ccache will put
    temporary files. The default is <strong>$CCACHE_DIR/tmp</strong>.
</p>
<div class="admonitionblock">
<table><tr>
<td class="icon">
<div class="title">Note</div>
</td>
<td class="content">In previous versions of ccache, <strong>CCACHE_TEMPDIR</strong> had to be on the same
    filesystem as the <strong>CCACHE_DIR</strong> path, but this requirement has been
    relaxed.)</td>
</tr></table>
</div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_UMASK</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    This sets the umask for ccache and all child processes (such as the
    compiler). This is mostly useful when you wish to share your cache with
    other users. Note that this also affects the file permissions set on the
    object files created from your compilations.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
    If you set the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong> then ccache will use a
    C/C++ unifier when hashing the preprocessor output if the <strong>-g</strong> option is
    not used. The unifier is slower than a normal hash, so setting this
    environment variable loses a little bit of speed, but it means that ccache
    can take advantage of not recompiling when the changes to the source code
    consist of reformatting only. Note that using <strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong> changes the
    hash, so cached compilations with <strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong> set cannot be used when
    <strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong> is not set and vice versa. The reason the unifier is off by
    default is that it can give incorrect line number information in compiler
    warning messages. Also note that enabling the unifier implies turning off
    the direct mode.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_cache_size_management">Cache size management</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>By default ccache has a one gigabyte limit on the total size of files in the
cache and no maximum number of files. You can set different limits using the
<strong>-M</strong>/<strong>--max-size</strong> and <strong>-F</strong>/<strong>--max-files</strong> options. Use <strong>ccache -s/--show-stats</strong>
to see the cache size and the currently configured limits (in addition to other
various statistics).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_cache_compression">Cache compression</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache can optionally compress all files it puts into the cache using the
compression library zlib. While this involves a negligible performance
slowdown, it significantly increases the number of files that fit in the cache.
You can turn on compression by setting the <strong>CCACHE_COMPRESS</strong> environment
variable.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_how_ccache_works">How ccache works</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The basic idea is to detect when you are compiling exactly the same code a
second time and reuse the previously produced output. The detection is done by
hashing different kinds of information that should be unique for the
compilation and then using the hash sum to identify the cached output. ccache
uses MD4, a very fast cryptographic hash algorithm, for the hashing. (MD4 is
nowadays too weak to be useful in cryptographic contexts, but it should be safe
enough to be used to identify recompilations.) On a cache hit, ccache is able
to supply all of the correct compiler outputs (including all warnings,
dependency file, etc) from the cache.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache has two ways of doing the detection:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
the <strong>direct mode</strong>, where ccache hashes the source code and include files
  directly
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the <strong>preprocessor mode</strong>, where ccache runs the preprocessor on the source
  code and hashes the result
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The direct mode is generally faster since running the preprocessor has some
overhead.</p></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_common_hashed_information">Common hashed information</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>For both modes, the following information is included in the hash:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
the extension used by the compiler for a file with preprocessor output
  (normally <strong>.i</strong> for C code and <strong>.ii</strong> for C++ code)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the compiler&#8217;s size and modification time (or other compiler-specific
  information specified by <strong>CCACHE_COMPILERCHECK</strong>)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the name of the compiler
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the current directory (if <strong>CCACHE_HASHDIR</strong> is set)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
contents of files specified by <strong>CCACHE_EXTRAFILES</strong> (if any)
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_the_direct_mode">The direct mode</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the direct mode, the hash is formed of the common information and:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
the input source file
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the command line options
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Based on the hash, a data structure called &#8220;manifest&#8221; is looked up in the
cache. The manifest contains:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
references to cached compilation results (object file, dependency file, etc)
  that were produced by previous compilations that matched the hash
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
paths to the include files that were read at the time the compilation results
  were stored in the cache
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
hash sums of the include files at the time the compilation results were
  stored in the cache
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The current contents of the include files are then hashed and compared to the
information in the manifest. If there is a match, ccache knows the result of
the compilation. If there is no match, ccache falls back to running the
preprocessor. The output from the preprocessor is parsed to find the include
files that were read. The paths and hash sums of those include files are then
stored in the manifest along with information about the produced compilation
result.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The direct mode will be disabled if any of the following holds:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_NODIRECT</strong> is set
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
a modification time of one of the include files is too new (needed to avoid a
  race condition)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the unifier is enabled (the environment variable <strong>CCACHE_UNIFY</strong> is set)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
a compiler option not supported by the direct mode is used:
</p>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
a <strong>-Wp,<em>X</em></strong> compiler option other than <strong>-Wp,-MD,<em>path</em></strong> and
   <strong>-Wp,-MMD,<em>path</em></strong>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<strong>-Xpreprocessor</strong>
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the string &#8220;__TIME__&#8221; is present outside comments and string literals in
  the source code
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_the_preprocessor_mode">The preprocessor mode</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the preprocessor mode, the hash is formed of the common information and:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
the preprocessor output from running the compiler with <strong>-E</strong>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
the command line options except options that affect include files (<strong>-I</strong>,
  <strong>-include</strong>, <strong>-D</strong>, etc; the theory is that these options will change the
  preprocessor output if they have any effect at all)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
any standard error output generated by the preprocessor
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Based on the hash, the cached compilation result can be looked up directly in
the cache.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_compiling_in_different_directories">Compiling in different directories</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Some information included in the hash that identifies a unique compilation may
contain absolute paths:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
The preprocessed source code may contain absolute paths to include files if
  the compiler option <strong>-g</strong> is used or if absolute paths are given to <strong>-I</strong> and
  similar compiler options.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Paths specified by compiler options (such as <strong>-I</strong>, <strong>-MF</strong>, etc) may be
  absolute.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The source code file path may be absolute, and that path may substituted for
  <strong>__FILE__</strong> macros in the source code or included in warnings emitted to
  standard error by the preprocessor.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This means that if you compile the same code in different locations, you can&#8217;t
share compilation results between the different build directories since you get
cache misses because of the absolute build directory paths that are part of the
hash. To mitigate this problem, you can specify a &#8220;base directory&#8221; by setting
the <strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong> variable to an absolute path to the directory. ccache will
then rewrite absolute paths that are under the base directory (i.e., paths that
have the base directory as a prefix) to relative paths when constructing the
hash. A typical path to use as the base directory is your home directory or
another directory that is a parent of your build directories. (Don&#8217;t use <code>/</code> as
the base directory since that will make ccache also rewrite paths to system
header files, which doesn&#8217;t gain anything.)</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The drawbacks of using <strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong> are:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
If you specify an absolute path to the source code file, <strong>__FILE__</strong> macros
  will be expanded to a relative path instead.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If you specify an absolute path to the source code file and compile with
  <strong>-g</strong>, the source code path stored in the object file may point to the wrong
  directory, which may prevent debuggers like GDB from finding the source code.
  Sometimes, a work-around is to change the directory explicitly with the
  &#8220;cd&#8221; command in GDB.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_precompiled_headers">Precompiled headers</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache has support for GCC&#8217;s precompiled headers. However, you have to do some
things to make it work properly:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
You must set <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong> to <strong>pch_defines,time_macros</strong>. The reason is
  that ccache can&#8217;t tell whether <strong>__TIME__</strong> or <strong>__DATE__</strong> is used when
  using a precompiled header. Further, it can&#8217;t detect changes in #defines in
  the source code because of how preprocessing works in combination with
  precompiled headers.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
You must either:
</p>
<div class="openblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
use the <strong>-include</strong> compiler option to include the precompiled header
   (i.e., don&#8217;t use <strong>#include</strong> in the source code to include the header); or
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
add the <strong>-fpch-preprocess</strong> compiler option when compiling.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If you don&#8217;t do this, either the non-precompiled version of the header file
will be used (if available) or ccache will fall back to running the real
compiler and increase the statistics counter &#8220;preprocessor error&#8221; (if the
non-precompiled header file is not available).</p></div>
</div></div>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_sharing_a_cache">Sharing a cache</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>A group of developers can increase the cache hit rate by sharing a cache
directory. To share a cache without unpleasant side effects, the following
conditions should to be met:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Use the same <strong>CCACHE_DIR</strong> environment variable setting.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Unset the <strong>CCACHE_HARDLINK</strong> environment variable.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Make sure everyone sets the <strong>CCACHE_UMASK</strong> environment variable to 002. This
  ensures that cached files are accessible to everyone in the group.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Make sure that all users have write permission in the entire cache directory
  (and that you trust all users of the shared cache).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Make sure that the setgid bit is set on all directories in the cache. This
  tells the filesystem to inherit group ownership for new directories. The
  command &#8220;find $CCACHE_DIR -type d | xargs chmod g+s&#8221; might be useful for
  this.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The reason to avoid the hard link mode is that the hard links cause unwanted
side effects, as all links to a cached file share the file&#8217;s modification
timestamp. This results in false dependencies to be triggered by
timestamp-based build systems whenever another user links to an existing file.
Typically, users will see that their libraries and binaries are relinked
without reason.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You may also want to make sure that the developers have <strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong> set
appropriately, as discussed in the previous section.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_sharing_a_cache_on_nfs">Sharing a cache on NFS</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>It is possible to put the cache directory on an NFS filesystem (or similar
filesystems), but keep in mind that:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Having the cache on NFS may slow down compilation. Make sure to do some
  benchmarking to see if it&#8217;s worth it.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
ccache hasn&#8217;t been tested very thoroughly on NFS.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A tip is to set <strong>CCACHE_TEMPDIR</strong> to a directory on the local host to avoid NFS
traffic for temporary files.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_using_ccache_with_other_compiler_wrappers">Using ccache with other compiler wrappers</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The recommended way of combining ccache with another compiler wrapper (such as
&#8220;distcc&#8221;) is by using the <strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong> option. You just need to set the
environment variable <strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong> to the name of the wrapper (e.g. <strong>distcc</strong>)
and ccache will prefix the command line with the specified command when running
the compiler.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Unless you set <strong>CCACHE_COMPILERCHECK</strong> to a suitable command (see the
description of that configuration option), it is not recommended to use the
form <strong>ccache anotherwrapper compiler args</strong> as the compilation command. It&#8217;s
also not recommended to use the masquerading technique for the other compiler
wrapper. The reason is that by default, ccache will in both cases hash the
mtime and size of the other wrapper instead of the real compiler, which means
that:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Compiler upgrades will not be detected properly.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The cached results will not be shared between compilations with and without
  the other wrapper.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Another minor thing is that if <strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong> is not used, ccache will
needlessly invoke the other wrapper when running the preprocessor.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_bugs">Bugs</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
ccache doesn&#8217;t handle the GNU Assembler&#8217;s <strong>.incbin</strong> directive correctly. This
  directive can be embedded in the source code inside an <strong><em>asm</em></strong> statement in
  order to include a file verbatim in the object file. If the included file is
  modified, ccache doesn&#8217;t pick up the change since the inclusion isn&#8217;t done by
  the preprocessor. A workaround of this problem is to set <strong>CCACHE_EXTRAFILES</strong>
  to the path of the included file.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_general">General</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A general tip for getting information about what ccache is doing is to enable
debug logging by setting <strong>CCACHE_LOGFILE</strong>. The log contains executed commands,
important decisions that ccache makes, read and written files, etc. Another way
of keeping track of what is happening is to check the output of <strong>ccache -s</strong>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_performance">Performance</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache has been written to perform well out of the box, but sometimes you may
have to do some adjustments of how you use the compiler and ccache in order to
improve performance.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Since ccache works best when I/O is fast, put the cache directory on a fast
storage device if possible. Having lots of free memory so that files in the
cache directory stay in the disk cache is also preferrable.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A good way of monitoring how well ccache works is to run <strong>ccache -s</strong> before and
after your build and then compare the statistics counters. Here are some common
problems and what may be done to increase the hit rate:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;cache hit (preprocessed)&#8221; has been incremented instead of &#8220;cache hit
  (direct)&#8221;, ccache has fallen back to preprocessor mode, which is generally
  slower. Some possible reasons are:
</p>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
The source code has been modified in such a way that the preprocessor output
   is not affected.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Compiler arguments that are hashed in the direct mode but not in the
   preprocessor mode have changed (<strong>-I</strong>, <strong>-include</strong>, <strong>-D</strong>, etc) and they didn&#8217;t
   affect the preprocessor output.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The compiler option <strong>-Xpreprocessor</strong> or <strong>-Wp,<em>X</em></strong> (except <strong>-Wp,-MD,<em>path</em></strong>
   and <strong>Wp,-MMD,<em>path</em></strong>) is used.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
This was the first compilation with a new value of <strong>CCACHE_BASEDIR</strong>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A modification time of one of the include files is too new (created the same
   second as the compilation is being done). This check is made to avoid a race
   condition. To fix this, create the include file earlier in the build
   process, if possible, or set <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong> to <strong>include_file_mtime</strong> if
   you are willing to take the risk. (The race condition consists of these
   events: the preprocessor is run; an include file is modified by someone; the
   new include file is hashed by ccache; the real compiler is run on the
   preprocessor&#8217;s output, which contains data from the old header file; the
   wrong object file is stored in the cache.)
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The <strong>__TIME__</strong> preprocessor macro is (potentially) being used. ccache
   turns off direct mode if &#8220;__TIME__&#8221; is present in the source code
   outside comments and string literals. This is done as a safety measure since
   the string indicates that a <strong>__TIME__</strong> macro <em>may</em> affect the output. (To
   be sure, ccache would have to run the preprocessor, but the sole point of
   the direct mode is to avoid that.) If you know that <strong>__TIME__</strong> isn&#8217;t used
   in practise, or don&#8217;t care if ccache produces objects where <strong>__TIME__</strong> is
   expanded to something in the past, you can set <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong> to
   <strong>time_macros</strong>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The <strong>__DATE__</strong> preprocessor macro is (potentially) being used and the
   date has changed. This is similar to how <strong>__TIME__</strong> is handled. If
   &#8220;__DATE__&#8221; is present in the source code outside comments and string
   literals, ccache hashes the current date in order to be able to produce the
   correct object file if the <strong>__DATE__</strong> macro affects the output. If you
   know that <strong>__DATE__</strong> isn&#8217;t used in practise, or don&#8217;t care if ccache
   produces objects where <strong>__DATE__</strong> is expanded to something in the past,
   you can set <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong> to <strong>time_macros</strong>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
The <strong>__FILE__</strong> preprocessor macro is (potentially) being used and the
   file path has changed. If &#8220;__FILE__&#8221; is present in the source code
   outside comments and string literals, ccache hashes the current input file
   path in order to be able to produce the correct object file if the
   <strong>__FILE__</strong> macro affects the output. If you know that <strong>__FILE__</strong> isn&#8217;t
   used in practise, or don&#8217;t care if ccache produces objects where
   <strong>__FILE__</strong> is expanded to the wrong path, you can set <strong>CCACHE_SLOPPINESS</strong>
   to <strong>file_macro</strong>.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;cache miss&#8221; has been incremented even though the same code has been
  compiled and cached before, ccache has either detected that something has
  changed anyway or a cleanup has been performed (either explicitly or
  implicitly when a cache limit has been reached). Some perhaps unobvious
  things that may result in a cache miss are usage of <strong>__TIME__</strong> or
  <strong>__DATE__</strong> macros, or use of automatically generated code that contains a
  timestamp, build counter or other volatile information.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;multiple source files&#8221; has been incremented, it&#8217;s an indication that
  the compiler has been invoked on several source code files at once. ccache
  doesn&#8217;t support that. Compile the source code files separately if possible.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;unsupported compiler option&#8221; has been incremented, enable debug logging
  and check which option was rejected.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;preprocessor error&#8221; has been incremented, one possible reason is that
  precompiled headers are being used. See <a href="#_precompiled_headers">PRECOMPILED   HEADERS</a> for how to remedy this.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
If &#8220;can&#8217;t use precompiled header&#8221; has been incremented, see
  <a href="#_precompiled_headers">PRECOMPILED HEADERS</a>.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_errors_when_compiling_with_ccache">Errors when compiling with ccache</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If compilation doesn&#8217;t work with ccache, but it works without it, one possible
reason is that the compiler can&#8217;t compile preprocessed output correctly. A
workaround that may work is to set <strong>CCACHE_CPP2</strong>. This will make cache misses
slower, though, so it is better to find and fix the root cause.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_corrupt_object_files">Corrupt object files</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It should be noted that ccache is susceptible to general storage problems. If a
bad object file sneaks into the cache for some reason, it will of course stay
bad. Some possible reasons for erroneous object files are bad hardware (disk
drive, disk controller, memory, etc), buggy drivers or file systems, a bad
<strong>CCACHE_PREFIX</strong> command or compiler wrapper. If this happens, the easiest way
of fixing it is this:</p></div>
<div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
<li>
<p>
Build so that the bad object file ends up in the build tree.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Remove the bad object file from the build tree.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Rebuild with <strong>CCACHE_RECACHE</strong> set.
</p>
</li>
</ol></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>An alternative is to clear the whole cache with <strong>ccache -C</strong> if you don&#8217;t mind
losing other cached results.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>There are no reported issues about ccache producing broken object files
reproducibly. That doesn&#8217;t mean it can&#8217;t happen, so if you find a repeatable
case, please report it.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_more_information">More information</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Credits, mailing list information, bug reporting instructions, source code,
etc, can be found on ccache&#8217;s web site: <a href="http://ccache.samba.org">http://ccache.samba.org</a>.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_author">Author</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>ccache was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and is currently developed and
maintained by Joel Rosdahl. See AUTHORS.txt or AUTHORS.html and
<a href="http://ccache.samba.org/credits.html">http://ccache.samba.org/credits.html</a> for a list of contributors.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
<div id="footer">
<div id="footer-text">
Version 3.1.10<br />
Last updated 2014-10-19 19:02:09 CEST
</div>
</div>
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