Full rebuild every time? VStudio2005, and gcc.

[mlbspike]

When we switched over to Visual Studio 2005, everything still builds fine in SE.
However, it does a full rebuild, every single time, which in the case of our project,
is ... sizable.
VStudio does it perfectly ... if nothing has changed ... doesn't rebuild.
gcc is the compiler.
I've run the batch file, mentioned elsewhere,  in the VStudio directory, and ran SE from that directory (but it was already building ok, and detect no difference).
Any suggestions?

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

Can you provide more details?  Your first sentence says, "When we switched over to Visual Studio..." Do you mean "from Visual Studio"?  How did you set up your projects in SlickEdit? Are you using the Visual Studio solution? If so, how did you convert that to use gcc? If not, what project type did you use in SlickEdit? Are you building with an external makefile or build command?

Can you provide sample build output? You don't need to include the whole thing, just the first several lines that show the vsbuild activity.

I did a quick test in my sample gcc project and it only builds the files I have changed. So, we should be able to get this working.

[mlbspike]

Project originally created in VStudio.Net 2003 (gcc compiler).
Started using SlickEdit 17 recently.
Opened project from studio.
Built fine, although used it for short time, so can't absolutely swear it didn't do a full build every time,
but ... pretty sure I would have noticed.
still builds fine (except for rebuilding everything everytime).


Beginning out output from build:  (I narrowed down to just the AI library, since it demonstrates the problem).


Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI>echo VSLICKERRORPATH="C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI"
VSLICKERRORPATH="C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI"

C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI>"C:\Program Files (x86)\SlickEdit 2009\win\vsbuild" -signal 9009 -command devenv "C:\MLBPS3\SRC\MLB.SLN" /build "PS3 Debug" /project "C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI\AI.vcproj" /projectconfig "PS3 Debug|Win32"
VSLICKERRORPATH="C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI"
devenv C:\MLBPS3\SRC\MLB.SLN /build "PS3 Debug" /project C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI\AI.vcproj /projectconfig "PS3 Debug|Win32"

Microsoft (R) Visual Studio Version 8.0.50727.762.
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-2005. All rights reserved.
1>------ Build started: Project: AI, Configuration: PS3 Debug Win32 ------
1>Compiling...
1>ProDG Compiling "c:/MLBPS3/SRC/AI/AIDriver.cpp"
1>ProDG Compiling "c:/MLBPS3/SRC/AI/AIInfo.cpp"
1>ProDG Compiling "c:/MLBPS3/SRC/AI/BaseInfo.cpp"

[Lee]

That is curious.  If you run the build command (devenv C:\MLBPS3\SRC\MLB.SLN /build "PS3 Debug" /project C:\MLBPS3\SRC\AI\AI.vcproj /projectconfig "PS3 Debug|Win32") directly in a Command Prompt does it also do a full rebuild?  We don't do any dependency checks for Visual Studio projects, we just pass them through to devenv and let it sort things out.

[Phil Barila]

It was my experience that executing a command line build in Visual Studio would cause a full rebuild if the project settings included building the browser file, but would not if the browser file was turned off.  When we had some users editing and building exclusively in Visual Studio, and others editing in SlickEdit and spawning a Visual Studio build, our recommendation was that those who used SE not turn on the browser file, and those using VS only turn it on.  Seemed to work OK.

[mlbspike]

running in command line does the same thing.
Sent it along to our "build guy", but no luck there, either.
Browser file?
Not something I've used.
The microsoft link on how to turn it off for VStudio05 doesn't seem to match the actual
properties popup, but I believe I've managed to turn off any attempt to create a .bsc file,
and there don't seem to be any such files anywhere in the project area, and it doesn't seem
like there ever were.
No change to the problem.

[Phil Barila]

I should have read your OP a bit closer.  I saw the VS and "full rebuild" and figured you had the same issue I saw.

Command line builds in VS .NET, VS .NET 2003, and VS 2005 are barely an afterthought.  I'm sure the VS team had to do a lot of work to implement it, but it's always felt like it was a wart added after the original design was complete.  VS 2008 is considerably improved at command line builds, so if you can move up, that alone makes it worthwhile.

I suspect that VS can't properly resolve the dependencies when invoked from the command line, while it contains more state while running a build in the VS GUI, hence is able to manage the dependencies more intelligently.  At the last place I worked, we had a VS 2005 solution that would build fine in the GUI, but VS itself would crash while doing a command line build.

If you are using GCC as the compiler, you must have done something to make VS use that, as I don't remember it being all that easy to make that happen in VS.  Why would you want to do something like that?  I understand using GCC instead of the VC compiler, but then why bother with the VS IDE in the first place, since much of the power of the IDE is in the integration of the editor/debugger GUI and the build tools?

[mlbspike]

It's an easy environment to use, especially when you are juggling dozens of configurations, across 4 hardware platforms (including a PC build that doesn't use gcc).  Studio is also integrated with our version control, and it's an environment everyone is familiar with.  I'm making an early/frustrating attempt to move over to Slickedit (was ok, until moved from 03 to 05), and although seems clear the problem is not SE's, it's a problem that makes it harder to recommend it to others on the project, certainly.

[mlbspike]

Done.  Problem was, wasn't giving you enough information.  However, knowing it worked for someone else, I kept pursuing.  Build guy found that it worked for PC builds.  The specialized gcc build we use included a comment in a previous release that solved my problem.  I needed to use their vsibuild, instead of devenv (same parms, except no projectconfig).  After verifying, in a Dos Box, I tweaked the project properties, in SlickEdit, and everything is happy again.  Thanks.