VC++ Tip: Get detailed build throughput diagnostics using MSBuild, compiler and linker

We know that build throughput for applications are a time crunch on developer productivity. We have spent some time on improving linker throughput and other areas in VS2010, and will continue to investigate improving overall build throughput in future releases.

In this blog post, we will describe a couple of options to get diagnostics for your projects using MSBuild and then taking a deeper dive into the compiler and the linker.

Using MSBuild

Using the IDE, you can enable Timing Logging by setting “Tools/Options/Projects and Solutions/VC++ Project Settings/Build Timings” = “Yes” or raise the verbosity of the build to “Diagnostics” from “Tools/Options/Project and Solutions/Build and Run/MSBuild project build output verbosity”.

Using these options, you can get performance summaries per project and also get details on where time is spent on targets and tasks. This sort of information is useful say when you are trying to figure out how long that copy task is taking to copy your files over from across folders.

1>------ Rebuild All started: Project: mfc-app, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>Build started 1/12/2010 5:31:58 PM.
1>_PrepareForClean:
1>  Deleting file "Debug\mfc-app.lastbuildstate".
1>InitializeBuildStatus:
1>  Creating "Debug\mfc-app.unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
1>ClCompile:
1>  stdafx.cpp
...............
1>  ChildFrm.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>Manifest:
1>  Deleting file "Debug\mfc-app.exe.embed.manifest".
1>LinkEmbedManifest:
1>  mfc-app.vcxproj -> C:\Users\user\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\mfc-app\Debug\mfc-app.exe
1>FinalizeBuildStatus:
1>  Deleting file "Debug\mfc-app.unsuccessfulbuild".
1>  Touching "Debug\mfc-app.lastbuildstate".
1>

Read more: Visual C++ Team Blog

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