product to decrease c++ compile time?

Question

Are there any products that will decrease c++ build times? that can be used with msvc?

See this question here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/373142/what-techniques-can-be-used-to-speed-up-c-compilation-times — Eclipse, Jan 26 '09 at 17:08
And this one: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/364240/how-do-you-reduce-compile-time-and-linking-time-for-visual-c-projects-native — Eclipse, Jan 26 '09 at 17:13

peterchen · Accepted Answer · 2009-01-26T10:48:20.203

If it has to be a product, look at Xoreax IncrediBuild, which distributes the build to machines on the network.

Other than that:

solid build machines. RAM as it fits, use fast separate disks.
Splitting into separate projects (DLLs, Libraries). They can build in parallel, too (use dual quad/core, and is easily bottlenecked by disk)
Intelligent use of headers, including precompiled headers. That's not easy, and often there are other stakeholders. PIMPL helps, too.

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 26 '09 at 10:25

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Usage of precompiled headers might decrease your compile time.

answered Jan 26 '09 at 10:25

Serge

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Generally true, though they may *increase* build times – justin Dec 10 '09 at 18:55

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 26 '09 at 17:03

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Look at MPCL.

This is a plug-in for Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 and Visual C++2008, which allow to maximize the use of the CPU in order to minimize the compiling time of your project.

It compiles several .c / .cpp files of the same project in parallel in order to achieve it. This is specially usefull when you have a Dual core / Quad core / Multi core processor.

answered Jan 26 '09 at 17:03

e40pud

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Or you could just use the built in /MP switch: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb385193.aspx – Eclipse Jan 26 '09 at 17:11
Is MPCL faster or slower than IncrediBuild? – Neil Justice Apr 25 '12 at 16:34

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 26 '09 at 10:31

Have you considered a shared build server? MSVC will run in a Terminal Server, and you can amortize the cost of CPUs, RAM and fast disks over the development team. As a side benefit, this Terminal Server can then also house the Version Control System, so checkouts are fast.

product to decrease c++ compile time?

4 Answers4