Bug 21594 – Writing object files should be read-then-write
Status
RESOLVED
Resolution
DUPLICATE
Severity
enhancement
Priority
P1
Component
dmd
Product
D
Version
D2
Platform
All
OS
All
Creation time
2021-01-30T13:56:01Z
Last change time
2021-01-30T13:57:43Z
Assigned to
No Owner
Creator
Andrei Alexandrescu
Comments
Comment #0 by andrei — 2021-01-30T13:56:01Z
It turns out that oftentimes the generated object file for a given .d file is identical to the preexisting one:
* The build is triggered by a change in a dependent file that was not material to building this object file (most often)
* Only unittests were changed and this is not a unittest build
* Only documentation was changed
In that case it's worth reading the existing object file (block by block) and comparing it against the object file to be written.
* If the object files are different, proceed with writing as usual.
* If the file are identical, do NOT overwrite the file. Do touch it to announce to tbe build system that the build has been done.
This should be particularly gainful on SSD drives, which are much cheaper to read than to write.
Comparison of files should be done block by block, not by slurping the entire object file. This is because once the headers are different all time spent reading the rest of the file is wasted.
Comment #1 by andrei — 2021-01-30T13:57:43Z
*** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of issue 21593 ***