Add flag for DisableFastUpToDateCheck in VS builds

[Jason Kozak]

VS by default does it's own check for up-to-date builds which prevents the pre-build step from running. It's desirable to disable this if the pre-build step does code generation which affects the build.

Happy to provide a PR for this (with some advice on what to name the flag).

[Бранимир Караџић]

Is this per file flag?

[Jason Kozak]

Per project

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On Sun, Jun 2, 2019, 7:52 PM Бранимир Караџић, ***@***.***> wrote: Is this per file flag? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#438?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAIKHS2IN5I46MLLWC7PIM3PYRMK7A5CNFSM4HSC7OP2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODWYARCA#issuecomment-498075784>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAIKHSZRQGE4M5RMZEZ3JATPYRMK7ANCNFSM4HSC7OPQ> .

[Бранимир Караџић]

So all prebuild steps will be done before dependency check?

Also how you plan to support this with Make?

[Jason Kozak]

Correct. As far as I'm aware this is already the behaviour; my gmake builds already run pre-build steps for every invocation of make.

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On Sun, Jun 2, 2019, 8:33 PM Бранимир Караџић, ***@***.***> wrote: So all prebuild steps will be done before dependency check? Also how you plan to support this with Make? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#438?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAIKHS2J2PHQKTX7C7D555LPYRRE3A5CNFSM4HSC7OP2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODWYBLSI#issuecomment-498079177>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAIKHS4EK3LY3L4WEBGA6V3PYRRE3ANCNFSM4HSC7OPQ> .

[Бранимир Караџић]

It seems it could be set per file:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/49639051

<PropertyGroup>
    <PostBuildEvent>...
    <DisableFastUpToDateCheck>true</DisableFastUpToDateCheck>
</PropertyGroup>

[Jason Kozak]

Possibly, though I'm not sure what the utility would be or how that would differ from a per-project setting in terms of how VS behaves (does it skip MSBuild or not). In my case I'm generating code as part of a pre-build step, and it would be useful to have that work on Windows+VS as it does on Linux+gmake, but it seems more reasonable to leave as an option for projects who'd prefer faster no-op builds.

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On Wed, Jun 12, 2019, 12:41 AM Бранимир Караџић, ***@***.***> wrote: It seems it could be set per file: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49639051 <PropertyGroup> <PostBuildEvent>... <DisableFastUpToDateCheck>true</DisableFastUpToDateCheck> </PropertyGroup> — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#438?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAIKHS6W5AMDRAWVDHX4TIDP2B475A5CNFSM4HSC7OP2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODXPHIBQ#issuecomment-501117958>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAIKHSYYBU5PKP6ZC7MJ5D3P2B475ANCNFSM4HSC7OPQ> .

[Drew Noakes]

I'm a dev on the VS project system team and came across this issue while searching for places where people use DisableFastUpToDateCheck.

It's desirable to disable this if the pre-build step does code generation which affects the build.

The fast up-to-date check can save you a lot of time during build, so it's generally a bad idea to turn it off.

If you have generation that is not running during build because the project is considered up-to-date then the best fix is to expose the source files to that generation as UpToDateCheckInput items. In that way, the project system can detect when those inputs change and schedule builds correctly.

I know this is an old discussion, but it ranks highly on search results for this feature so even if it doesn't apply to this project, this comment may help others.