Way to profile the build process?

Question

My C# Solution is taking longer to compile that I would like.

Is there a way to profile the build process to see what is taking so long?

Answer 1

One trick you can use is to create multiple build configurations so you can build projects selectively, only building what changes rather than the whole solution every time.

Answer 2

There's already a profiler built into MSBuild. Tools + Options, Projects and Solutions, Build and Run, "MSBuild project build output verbosity". Change it to Diagnostic.

Sample output from a do-nothing project:

Project Performance Summary:
      400 ms  C:\Users\hpassant\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\WindowsFormsApplication3\WindowsFormsApplication3.csproj   1 calls
                400 ms  Rebuild                                    1 calls

Target Performance Summary:
        0 ms  CreateSatelliteAssemblies                  1 calls
        0 ms  ResolveReferences                          1 calls
        0 ms  _CheckForInvalidConfigurationAndPlatform   1 calls
        0 ms  _SetTargetFrameworkMonikerAttribute        1 calls
        0 ms  ResGen                                     1 calls
        0 ms  BeforeResGen                               1 calls
        0 ms  GetReferenceAssemblyPaths                  1 calls
        0 ms  AfterCompile                               1 calls
        0 ms  PrepareResources                           1 calls
        0 ms  AfterCompileWinFX                          1 calls
        0 ms  AfterResGen                                1 calls
        0 ms  _ComputeNonExistentFileProperty            1 calls
        0 ms  BeforeClean                                1 calls
        0 ms  Build                                      1 calls
        0 ms  GetTargetPath                              1 calls
        0 ms  GetFrameworkPaths                          1 calls
        0 ms  CompileRdlFiles                            1 calls
        0 ms  AfterMarkupCompilePass1                    1 calls
        0 ms  AfterResolveReferences                     1 calls
        0 ms  BeforeBuild                                1 calls
        0 ms  _CopySourceItemsToOutputDirectory          1 calls
        0 ms  _AfterCompileWinFXInternal                 1 calls
        0 ms  CleanPublishFolder                         1 calls
        0 ms  Clean                                      1 calls
        0 ms  CreateCustomManifestResourceNames          1 calls
        0 ms  PrepareResourceNames                       1 calls
        0 ms  AfterRebuild                               1 calls
        0 ms  PrepareRdlFiles                            1 calls
        0 ms  CleanReferencedProjects                    1 calls
        0 ms  ComputeIntermediateSatelliteAssemblies     1 calls
        0 ms  AfterClean                                 1 calls
        0 ms  BuildOnlySettings                          1 calls
        0 ms  BeforeCompile                              1 calls
        0 ms  SetWin32ManifestProperties                 1 calls
        0 ms  FileClassification                         1 calls
        0 ms  BeforeResolveReferences                    1 calls
        0 ms  PrepareForRun                              1 calls
        0 ms  DesignTimeMarkupCompilation                1 calls
        0 ms  CoreBuild                                  1 calls
        0 ms  Rebuild                                    1 calls
        0 ms  Compile                                    1 calls
        0 ms  GenerateTargetFrameworkMonikerAttribute    1 calls
        0 ms  AfterBuild                                 1 calls
        0 ms  _SplitProjectReferencesByFileExistence     1 calls
        1 ms  SplitResourcesByCulture                    1 calls
        1 ms  GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItems              1 calls
        1 ms  _CheckForCompileOutputs                    1 calls
        1 ms  _GenerateCompileInputs                     1 calls
        1 ms  DesignTimeXamlMarkupCompilation            1 calls
        1 ms  PrepareForBuild                            1 calls
        1 ms  _GenerateSatelliteAssemblyInputs           1 calls
        1 ms  CreateManifestResourceNames                1 calls
        1 ms  _SetEmbeddedWin32ManifestProperties        1 calls
        1 ms  BeforeRebuild                              1 calls
        1 ms  ResolveProjectReferences                   1 calls
        1 ms  IncrementalClean                           1 calls
        2 ms  _CleanGetCurrentAndPriorFileWrites         1 calls
        5 ms  CopyFilesToOutputDirectory                 1 calls
        6 ms  ResolveAssemblyReferences                  1 calls
        7 ms  AssignTargetPaths                          1 calls
       13 ms  CoreResGen                                 1 calls
       54 ms  CoreClean                                  1 calls
      298 ms  CoreCompile                                1 calls

Task Performance Summary:
        0 ms  GetFrameworkPath                           1 calls
        0 ms  ReadLinesFromFile                          2 calls
        0 ms  ConvertToAbsolutePath                      1 calls
        0 ms  RemoveDuplicates                           3 calls
        0 ms  AssignCulture                              1 calls
        0 ms  CreateCSharpManifestResourceName           1 calls
        0 ms  MakeDir                                    2 calls
        1 ms  FindAppConfigFile                          1 calls
        1 ms  FindUnderPath                              7 calls
        1 ms  Message                                    3 calls
        2 ms  WriteLinesToFile                           2 calls
        4 ms  Copy                                       2 calls
        5 ms  ResolveAssemblyReference                   1 calls
        6 ms  AssignTargetPath                           5 calls
       12 ms  GenerateResource                           1 calls
       51 ms  Delete                                     3 calls
      298 ms  Csc                                        1 calls