{"id":26413,"date":"2020-08-27T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T14:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/cppblog\/?p=26413"},"modified":"2020-08-27T14:24:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T14:24:35","slug":"introducing-vcperf-timetrace-for-cpp-build-time-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/cppblog\/introducing-vcperf-timetrace-for-cpp-build-time-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing vcperf \/timetrace for C++ build time analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following blog post was written by guest author Carlos Fraguas from Mercury Steam Entertainment. He describes how he used the C++ Build Insights SDK<\/a> to add the new \/timetrace option in vcperf<\/a>, and how he also used it to build custom tools tailored to his team’s needs. You can follow Carlos on Twitter using handle @MetanoKid<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Hello! I\u2019m Carlos Fraguas and I work as a Gameplay Programmer at Mercury Steam Entertainment. Let\u2019s look at how the C++ Build Insights SDK<\/a> helped me create tools to decrease build times and how I ended up adding a new visualization option into vcperf<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one thing programmers dislike the most: waiting for the project to compile. Well, yes, we\u2019ve all laughed with this XKCD comic:<\/p>\n

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Source: XKCD.com (https:\/\/xkcd.com\/303\/<\/a>) License: https:\/\/xkcd.com\/license.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s really frustrating just watching a progress bar moving up! Long build times discourage iterations in both your project\u2019s features and architecture (i.e. refactoring is costly), so we could argue that keeping your iteration cycle short is key for your team.<\/p>\n

Some time ago I started worrying about slow build times and tried to find some tools that could help me find bottlenecks in our build process. It wasn\u2019t until the C++ Build Insights SDK and vcperf <\/em>were released that I could start making real and informed progress towards speeding them up!<\/p>\n

There was an issue, though: by the time I started investigating, I wasn\u2019t as familiar with MSVC as my Engine Programmer teammates. And that\u2019s where vcperf<\/em> truly shined: by giving me a visual representation of the build! I could then understand the amount of work that the compiler and linker are doing, and how it\u2019s structured.<\/p>\n

However, now that the SDK was available, I wanted to give it a try myself and create some custom reports, tailored for our team and projects. It felt astonishingly easy to set up and get useful info. And yes, it\u2019s as straightforward as Kevin explains in his posts about finding build bottlenecks<\/a>\u00a0or profiling metaprograms<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Among those reports, and inspired by Aras Pranckevi\u010dius<\/a>, I set myself to add an alternative visualization output for vcperf<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\/timetrace<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The new \/timetrace option lets you build a flame graph viewable in any Chromium-based browser, like the new Microsoft Edge. These are some of its key features:<\/p>\n