jairbubbles / msfastbuild Goto Github PK

msfastbuild is a small utility to make it easier to use FASTBuild with vcxproj and solution files. The goal is to be able to take advantage of FASTBuild's nifty caching and distribution without having to hack out a bff file (FASTBuild's build format) as it can be confusing for newbies and annoying if it's not your project. The bff file it generates can also be a good starting point for a custom made bff file! It hashes the Visual Studio projects so it will only regenerate the bff file if things change and can take advantage of FASTBuild's speedy 'nothing to build' checks.

To use it you need Visual Studio 2015 R3 installed. You also need the FBuild.exe either somewhere in your path, or to specify where it is using the -b argument on the commandline, or in VSIX msfastbuild options if you are using the VSIX. By default it passes -dist to FASTBuild, and relies on using the FASTBuild caching environment variables to control caching behaviour (i.e. it doesn't pass anything by default).

It's very much a work in progress, but I have been able to use it successfully with most of the Visual Studio 2015 projects I have lying around. If you're not using the VSIX (plugin for Visual Studio 2015) which adds "FASTBuild Project" and "FASTBuild solution" to the Build menu, you can also use it from the commandline. If you were building say... SDL with the following command line:

$>msbuild SDL.sln /p:Configuration=Debug;Platform=Win32

with msfastbuild you can build with:

$>msfastbuild -s ./SDL.sln -c Debug -f Win32

Or to select only one project in the solution and with different FASTBuild arguments like so:

$>msfastbuild -s ./SDL.sln -p ./SDLMain/SDLMain.vcxproj -c Debug -f Win32 -a"-dist -ide"

msfastbuild should (in theory) parse the correct dependencies and build using FASTBuild, putting the output in the same place and using the same arguments as msbuild or Visual Studio would.

In practice there are quirks, some of which may be addressed as time goes by:

• You need Visual Studio 2015 R3 installed, even if you're building against the 2013 tools. Things requiring 2012 tools do not build correctly. They could build without a huge amount of work I think (should be a matter of referencing the right DLL and using Reflection), it just hasn't been done.
• Pre-link build events are not supported: I don't see a good way to inject it into the BFF without modifying FASTBuild. Again this could be done.
• The "Use Library Dependency Inputs" option for project dependencies is not supported. For the most part everything will still build, but /INCREMENTAL linking will not be as effective if you are changing the libraries frequently.
• The AssemblerListingLocation option for compiling is not supported, remote builders complain. I haven't seen any projects using this, but I'm sure there are some.
• The DesigntimePreprocessorDefinitions option for resource compiling is not supported.
• ProfileGuidedDatabase linking option is not supported as it was parsing strangely, and I think may require checking the global solution settings. I'm sure it could be supported if need be.
• Completely ignores MIDL. I have not investigated what it is or if it's worth supporting.
• There's a lot of weird vcxproj/solutions that I'm sure do weird things I'm not handling correctly.

Projects which seem to happily FASTBuild (some of which I updated to use VS2015):

• SDL2
• Zlib
• LZ4
• Doom3
• Beegame (which is mine... :))
• Handmade Quake
• Gross middleware
• cocos2d-x, required moving the prelink event to prebuild... which seemed fine, and adjusting some "int/*bool*/param" type constructs which preprocess oddly

There's certainly a lot of room for improvment, but if there's a VS2015 project that doesn't work... let me know and I'll see if I can hack out why! Pull requests of course are also more than welcome! :)