nmake problem - dependency tree

charlieg

I use evc++ extensively, which is sufficiently close to VC 6.0 that I think I am safe asking this question. I have a relatively large project - 600+ files - and I've started having to rebuild all files when I change targets. For some reason the ide / nmake decides I've changed something very important. Any ideas as to tracking down what file is triggering this? chg

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Matthew Faithfull

I also use EVC 3.0 and 4.0 with similar sized projects. Unfortunately what you're experiencing is normal as far as I can tell. When you change targets you're changing SDKs, derived from the different builds of CE with different BSPs. Any headers from the CE build used in your project, and there's almost bound to be some, will therefore change and if they're globalish headers everything will want rebuilding. You may be able to mitigate this a little by carefully trimming your #include inclusions but a full rebuild is still going to be needed in a lot of cases. Add to thi the known issues with the mostly failed attempt at an incremental linker that comes with EVC4/MSVC6 and you're probably better off wiht a full rebuild anyway. Good luck :)

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David Crow

charlieg wrote:

Any ideas as to tracking down what file is triggering this?

Doesn't nmake.exe have some sort of command-line switch that shows what files are out-of-date but doesn't actually build them?

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charlieg

Yes, it does. I didn't want to go there just yet :). Looks like I have to.

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charlieg

I'm at 4.1 and 5.0. Although I understand what you are saying, the target files are split according to SDK/target, and this *was* working in the past. It's just recently the thing has become possessed and insistent on rebuilding every dang file. It tasks me. I'll keep looking, I know I'm going to have to go into the command line and run nmake manually to see what is going on. If I learn anything useful, I'll post it back here.

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Matthew Faithfull

If nmake doesn't cough up useful results take a look in EVC under Tools, Options in the Directories Tab and make sure the folders for each Platform are correct for each type of directory and the lists are in order of precedence. This information is not saved in the workspace, it's IDE config in EVC4 and MSVC6 and can seriously screw up your projects if it's wrong. I hope you can crack it. :)

Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.

Member 754960

What do you mean by "switch targets"? As for the nmake aruments, -n and -m are the ones I think you want and pipe the output to a file. Another is -B to force a full build; a test I do is build with -B then without and if the second does anything I look further. Occassionaly we get problems with the system clock on different system and around when daylight savings time changes.

charlieg

hard to explain w/o a screen shot. In vs, let's say you can build for release or debug. Well, in evc++, the ide targets platforms - say x86 and ARM (different processors). Under each platform, you can have a release and debug. For example, in my case, I have two platforms and two targets for each platform - 4 possible executables. I have to tear into the nmake and see what we've done to the dependencies to trigger this....

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charlieg

In a flash of inspiration (meaning I decided to stop being stupid), I recovered a backup copy of my project. It behaves as it should - I can switch targets, and it does not cause a complete re-compile. So, something broke between then and now. Just have to find it.

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charlieg

Debugging 101 - change one thing only, see what happens. What burned me is that I have a header file with version information in it. This header file is clearly documented to be used sparingly. I made a minor change, and since it coincided with a rebuild, did not notice the behavior for a while. So, nothing wrong with EVC++, it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

Charlie Gilley Will program for food...