Precompile pidlocks: add to NEWS and docs (#50385)

Author: IanButterworth

NEWS.md

@@ -37,6 +37,9 @@ Compiler/Runtime improvements
 * The mark phase of the garbage collector is now multi-threaded ([#48600]).
 * [JITLink](https://llvm.org/docs/JITLink.html) is enabled by default on Linux aarch64 when Julia is linked to LLVM 15 or later versions ([#49745]).
   This should resolve many segmentation faults previously observed on this platform.
+* The precompilation process now uses pidfile locks and orchestrates multiple julia processes to only have one process
+  spend effort precompiling while the others wait. Previously all would do the work and race to overwrite the cache files.
+  ([#49052])
 
 Command-line option changes
 ---------------------------

doc/src/manual/environment-variables.md

@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ should have at the terminal.
 
 ## System and Package Image Building
 
-### `JULIA_CPU_TARGET`
+### [`JULIA_CPU_TARGET`](@id JULIA_CPU_TARGET)
 
 Modify the target machine architecture for (pre)compiling
 [system](@ref sysimg-multi-versioning) and [package images](@ref pkgimgs-multi-versioning).

doc/src/manual/faq.md

@@ -1035,17 +1035,15 @@ Modifying OpenBLAS settings or compiling Julia with a different BLAS library, eg
 
 ### How do I manage precompilation caches in distributed file systems?
 
-When using `julia` in high-performance computing (HPC) facilities, invoking
-_n_ `julia` processes simultaneously creates at most _n_ temporary copies of
-precompilation cache files. If this is an issue (slow and/or small distributed
-file system), you may:
-
-1. Use `julia` with `--compiled-modules=no` flag to turn off precompilation.
-2. Configure a private writable depot using `pushfirst!(DEPOT_PATH, private_path)`
-   where `private_path` is a path unique to this `julia` process.  This
-   can also be done by setting environment variable `JULIA_DEPOT_PATH` to
-   `$private_path:$HOME/.julia`.
-3. Create a symlink from `~/.julia/compiled` to a directory in a scratch space.
+When using Julia in high-performance computing (HPC) facilities with shared filesystems, it is recommended to use a shared
+depot (via the `JULIA_DEPOT_PATH` environment variable). Since Julia v1.10, multiple Julia processes on functionally similar
+workers and using the same depot will coordinate via pidfile locks to only spend effort precompiling on one process while the
+others wait. The precompilation process will indicate when the process is precompiling or waiting for another that is
+precompiling. If non-interactive the messages are via `@debug`.
+
+However, due to caching of binary code, the cache rejection since v1.9 is more strict and users may need to set the
+[`JULIA_CPU_TARGET`](@ref JULIA_CPU_TARGET) environment variable appropriately to get a single cache that is usable throughout the HPC
+environment.
 
 ## Julia Releases