C++ Build Analyzer

Leverage C++ Build Insights SDK to get interesting data from your MSVC builds.

Features

• Generates flame graphs out of build execution:
  • Also shows template instantiations, if present:
• Generates file inclusion graphs:
• Lists file compilation times:
• Lists file inclusion times:
• Lists function compilation times:
• Lists template instantiation times:

Interactive examples

Previous screenshots were obtained by analyzing a Rebuild on CppBuildAnalyzer in a Debug|x64 configuration, within Visual Studio 16.4 (Visual Studio 2019). You can check the files here (they were edited to remove local paths):

• Flame graph: open in Google Chrome trace viewer (chrome://tracing).
• File inclusion graph: open in Visual Studio.
• File compilation times.
• File inclusion times.
• Function compilations.
• Template instantiations.

Getting started

Requisites:

• Install Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition.
• Clone and build vcperf.
• Clone and build this repository.

To collect a trace:

• Open an elevated command prompt pointing to vcperf.
• Execute vcperf /start SomeSessionName.
  • If you want full data (including template intantiations) execute vcperf /start /level3 SomeSessionName instead.
• Build your Visual Studio 2017+ project from Visual Studio or command line.
• Execute vcperf /stopnoanalyze SomeSessionName TraceFile.etl.

To analyze a trace:

• Open a command prompt.
• Execute CppBuildAnalyzer -i TraceFile.etl --analyze_all.

Command line options

Required:

-i, --input arg Path to trace file
--analyze_all Perform all analysis the program can do

Optional:

-h, --help Show help
--analyze_function_compilations Analyzes function compilations (i.e. how long did each one take)
--analyze_file_inclusion_times Analyzes file inclusion times (i.e. how long did each one take)
--analyze_file_inclusion_graph Creates a file inclusion graph (i.e. directed graph from include clauses)
--analyze_file_compilations Analyzes file compilations (i.e. how long did front-end and back-end take)
--analyze_build_timeline Analyzes trace and creates a timeline from it
--analyze_template_instantiations Analyzes template instantiations (i.e. how long did each template take to instantiate)
--timeline_ignore_functions_under arg Ignores all functions under the given milliseconds
--timeline_ignore_templates_under arg Ignores all templates under the given milliseconds
--out_function_compilations arg Path to output function compilations data
--out_file_inclusion_times arg Path to output file inclusion times
--out_file_inclusion_graph arg Path to output file inclusion graph
--out_file_compilations arg Path to output file compilations data
--out_build_timeline arg Path to output build timeline
--out_template_instantiations arg Path to output template instantiations data

License

This project is released under GNU GPLv3 license.

I started this project thanks to the information I gathered from the community, so I wanted to give something back. You are encouraged to alter it in any way you want, but please continue making it public so the community can benefit from it.

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to Microsoft's C++ Team and @KevinCadieuxMS in particular for the C++ Build Insights SDK and vcperf!
• Thanks to @aras_p, whose blog post on flame charts for Clang served as the main inspiration for this tool!