I don't think ANT adds significant time to a build. What does add time is
the number files being compiled and files possibly being moved, copied etc.
especially across a network.
I routinely do builds composed of several thousands of files. Several years
ago my build structure crossed several networked PC platforms. I would
check files out of CVS on a development server and send them to another PC
to be compiled, then move the compiled files to another system for target
system preparation and finally execute Installshiled to package the files
into a setup and finally move the files across the network again to a CD
burner to create pre-production media. A build would take about 2 hours.
Over time I learned I could get more reliable builds and faster builds by
moving files around less. I still check files out from CVS across the
network to a 'configuration management' PC where the rest of the build
process takes place. I cleaned up the build quiet a bit by moving files
around less (fewer preserved interim steps). I was keeping the source files
in one directory, copying them to another directory to compile them and
keeping the compiled files, moving the files to another directory to sort
them out in a structure for the target system, and finally moving them
again to a directory Installshied expects to find them. Maintaining all
these interim steps ended up taking a lot of drive space and served little
purpose. I now keep the source directory, a working directory and the
directory Installshield needs to access and package the final project. All
this takes place on one PC instead of 3 or 4 across the network.
One other thing that can save time is possibly evaluating the files you are
compiling. We work in a Java environments that creates a lot of unit test
files that do not need to be in the final product. These unit test files do
not need to be compiled and are deleted before the compile process.
If anything, through the years our projects and builds have gotten bigger
and more complex. Once installed onto the target system the product
currently hovers around 100MB in size
Total build time is about 12 minutes.
My semi educated guess tells me that about 25% of that 12 minutes is
checking the files out of CVS across the network, another 25% is compile
time, 15% is installation packaging the final 35% is local file
manipulation in the form of moving, copying and a couple of specialized
data base enhancement steps required for our product.
So, moveing files across a network, compiling unnecessay files and
excessive moving and copying of files locally all add time to the build.
I would also consider my build platform in reguards to hard drive space,
disk caching, memory, CPU speed etc.
"Hanmay Udgiri"
<hanmayya.udgiri@ To: "Ant Users List"
<user@ant.apache.org>
gmail.com> cc:
bcc:
07/19/2006 03:18 Subject: Ant build Time
AM
Please respond to
"Ant Users List"
Hi
I have a ant build which takes around 15 minutes.
Do we have any tips to reduce the time taken for the total build
--
Thanks and Regards
Hanmayya Udgiri
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