Distributing Custom Build Steps, Custom Build Rules and Build Events
Using the optional "XGE Interfaces" extension package, IncrediBuild can be used to distribute custom build steps, custom build
rules and build events in Visual Studio projects. Any distributed step will be run using IncrediBuild's Virtual Environment
technology, which ensures the process will run exactly as if it were running on the initiating machine, while protecting the remote
machine's environment from being changed. This means that no special pre-configuration is necessary in order for the distribution
to work - the remote machine do not need anything apart from an IncrediBuild Agent to be present in order to successfully run
the task.
By default, only execution of compilation steps and MIDL tasks will be distributed, while all other events and steps in
the build will run locally. To indicate that a step, build event or custom rule is distributable, special keywords must be
used:
Distributing Custom Build Steps and Build Events
In order to indicate that a custom build step (project or file level) or build event (pre-build, pre-link or post-build) is distributable,
enter the following line anywhere within the step's command line sequence
rem IncrediBuild_AllowRemote
This will indicate that IncrediBuild may distribute the step's execution to a remote machine.
If the distributed task creates output files, it is important that these files be specified explicitly using either the
custom build step's "Output Files" field (custom build steps only), or one or more of the
Output File Definition Directives.
Important! - Distributed steps missing output file specifications will not create any output files!
Distributing Custom Build Rules
In order to indicate that a custom build rule is distributable, add a custom boolean property named IncrediBuildAllowRemote
to the custom rule (choose whatever default value you find appropriate). When processing a file using the custom build rule, IncrediBuild will look
for this property to determine whether it can distribute execution of that file.
If the custom build rule creates output files, it is important that these files be specified explicitly using one or more of the
Output File Definition Directives.
Important! - Distributed steps missing output file specifications will not create any output files!
Special Considerations
When executing a task on a remote machine, IncrediBuild transfers any files the task tries to access over the network to the remote machine. Similarly, any
output files that match the output file declarations specified for that task will be transferred back to the initiating Agent's file system. Despite the fact
that intelligent file caching and compression mechanisms are applied, if the distributed task typically uses a large volume of input and output files,
network transfer of these files might slow down execution. The rule of thumb is that the more CPU-bound and the less IO-bound the task is,
the better the chances that distributing that task will improve your build's performance.
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