title: Speeding up build process with distutils
body: <p>I am programming a C++ extension for Python and I am using distutils to compile the project. As the project grows, rebuilding it takes longer and longer. Is there a way to speed up the build process?</p>
  
  <p>I read that parallel builds (as with <code>make -j</code>) are not possible with distutils. Are there any good alternatives to distutils which might be faster?</p>
  
  <p>I also noticed that it's recompiling all object files every time I call <code>python setup.py build</code>, even when I only changed one source file. Should this be the case or might I be doing something wrong here?</p>
  
  <p>In case it helps, here are some of the files which I try to compile: <a href="https://gist.github.com/2923577" rel="noreferrer">https://gist.github.com/2923577</a></p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>