From eefe0bd672cfa8d0b982fbb6dbcf1316273d2f85 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: BruebachL <44814898+BruebachL@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:27:58 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 1/5] [CI] Collect an MSBuild performance summary and binary log on request (#7378) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The Windows job spends about 28 minutes inside one "Build project" group, with nothing in it that says where the time goes: MSBuild runs single-node because no --parallel is passed, so projects build one after another and it is not visible which projects, tasks or phases are responsible. Add a --profile flag that makes the Windows build write -flp:PerformanceSummary and -bl, repeat the summary in the job log so the numbers need no download, and report the core count, which decides how much parallelism is worth asking for. The binary log is uploaded as an artifact only on the runs that asked for it. The workflow drives it from a build_profile matrix key that is empty by default, so no build changes behaviour until someone sets it. Co-authored-by: Lukas Brübach --- .ci/compile.sh | 41 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- .github/workflows/desktop-build.yml | 16 +++++++++++ 2 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/.ci/compile.sh b/.ci/compile.sh index 302972f30..eb850a88b 100755 --- a/.ci/compile.sh +++ b/.ci/compile.sh @@ -17,8 +17,9 @@ # --dir sets the name of the build dir, default is "build" # --cmake-generator sets CMAKE_GENERATOR as used by cmake # --target-macos-version sets the min os version - only used for macOS builds -# uses env: BUILDTYPE MAKE_INSTALL MAKE_PACKAGE PACKAGE_TYPE PACKAGE_SUFFIX MAKE_SERVER MAKE_NO_CLIENT MAKE_TEST USE_CCACHE CCACHE_SIZE CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE BUILD_DIR CMAKE_GENERATOR TARGET_MACOS_VERSION MAKE_SANITIZE MAKE_COVERAGE VCPKG_TARGET_MACOS_VERSION -# (correspond to args: --debug/--release --install --package --suffix --server --test --sanitize --coverage --ccache --dir ) +# --profile writes an MSBuild performance summary and binary log, Windows only +# uses env: BUILDTYPE MAKE_INSTALL MAKE_PACKAGE PACKAGE_TYPE PACKAGE_SUFFIX MAKE_SERVER MAKE_NO_CLIENT MAKE_TEST USE_CCACHE CCACHE_SIZE CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE BUILD_DIR CMAKE_GENERATOR TARGET_MACOS_VERSION MAKE_SANITIZE MAKE_COVERAGE VCPKG_TARGET_MACOS_VERSION BUILD_PROFILE +# (correspond to args: --debug/--release --install --package --suffix --server --test --sanitize --coverage --ccache --dir --profile) # exitcode: 1 for failure, 3 for invalid arguments # Read arguments @@ -115,6 +116,10 @@ while [[ $# != 0 ]]; do export CMAKE_GENERATOR=$1 shift ;; + '--profile') + BUILD_PROFILE=1 + shift + ;; '--target-macos-version') shift if [[ $# == 0 ]]; then @@ -209,6 +214,22 @@ function ccachestatsverbose() { fi } +function cpuinfo() { + # The number of cores decides how much build parallelism is useful; the hosted + # runners are not all sized alike, so read it off the machine instead of assuming. + case "$RUNNER_OS" in + Windows) + echo "cores: ${NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS:-unknown}" + ;; + macOS) + echo "cores: $(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)" + ;; + *) + echo "cores: $(nproc 2>/dev/null || echo unknown)" + ;; + esac +} + # Compile if [[ $RUNNER_OS == macOS ]]; then # QTDIR is needed for macOS since we actually only use the cached thin Qt binaries instead of the install-qt-action, @@ -296,6 +317,13 @@ elif [[ $RUNNER_OS == Windows ]]; then # Enable MTT, see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/improved-parallelism-in-msbuild/ # and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/cpp-build-throughput-investigation-and-tune-up/#multitooltask-mtt buildflags+=(-- -p:UseMultiToolTask=true -p:EnableClServerMode=true) + if [[ $BUILD_PROFILE ]]; then + # A performance summary says which projects and tasks cost what, the binary log + # keeps the full timeline; both are far too noisy to always produce. The files + # land next to the solution, i.e. in the build dir the workflow uploads. These + # join the MTT options above, which already carried the "--" separator. + buildflags+=("-flp:PerformanceSummary;v=q;LogFile=msbuild-perf.log" -bl:msbuild.binlog) + fi fi if [[ $USE_CCACHE ]]; then @@ -311,10 +339,19 @@ cmake .. "${flags[@]}" echo "::endgroup::" echo "::group::Build project" +cpuinfo echo "Running cmake --build with flags: ${buildflags[*]}" cmake --build . "${buildflags[@]}" echo "::endgroup::" +if [[ $BUILD_PROFILE && $RUNNER_OS == Windows && -f msbuild-perf.log ]]; then + # Repeat the summary in the job log so the numbers are readable without + # downloading the binary log, which is hundreds of megabytes. + echo "::group::MSBuild performance summary" + cat msbuild-perf.log + echo "::endgroup::" +fi + if [[ $USE_CCACHE ]]; then if [[ $CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE ]]; then echo "::group::evict ccache files older than $CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE" diff --git a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml index 1ce51afaa..7384ec8ad 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml +++ b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml @@ -385,6 +385,10 @@ jobs: target: 10 runner: windows-2025 # https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-VS2026-Readme.md + # Set build_profile: 1 to have the build write an MSBuild performance + # summary and a binary log; empty on every entry that runs by default. + build_profile: '' + cmake_generator: "Visual Studio 18 2026" cmake_generator_platform: x64 make_package: 1 @@ -400,6 +404,7 @@ jobs: runs-on: ${{ matrix.runner }} timeout-minutes: 100 env: + BUILD_PROFILE: '${{ matrix.build_profile }}' CCACHE_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/.cache/ CCACHE_SIZE: 600M # space of all repo is 10Gi: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/caching-dependencies-to-speed-up-workflows#usage-limits-and-eviction-policy @@ -701,6 +706,17 @@ jobs: build/oracle/Release/*.pdb build/servatrice/Release/*.pdb + # Written only when the matrix entry sets build_profile, so the artifact + # exists exactly on the runs that were asked to produce one. + - name: "[Windows] Upload MSBuild binary log" + if: always() && matrix.os == 'Windows' && env.BUILD_PROFILE == '1' + uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7 + with: + if-no-files-found: error + name: ${{ steps.build.outputs.name }}-msbuild + path: build/msbuild.binlog + retention-days: 7 + - name: "Upload to release" if: needs.configure.outputs.tag != null && matrix.make_package == '1' id: upload_release From 0c10798ef42c5fbe0b371ecc12f49bfd84946d17 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: BruebachL <44814898+BruebachL@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:15:01 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 2/5] [CI] Build the Windows solution on more than one MSBuild node (#7379) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit cmake --build only passes a job count to MSBuild when it is asked for one, and .ci/compile.sh never asked, so every Visual Studio generator build ran single-node: projects were built one after another and MTT only ever parallelized the files of whichever project happened to be building. Ask for one node per core, overridable with BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL, and fall back to a single node when the core count is not exposed. Alongside it set EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds and CL_MPCount, the knobs Microsoft's build throughput write-up pairs with MTT: without them the node count and MTT multiply into more cl.exe processes than the runner has cores for. Co-authored-by: Lukas Brübach --- .ci/compile.sh | 15 +++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/.ci/compile.sh b/.ci/compile.sh index eb850a88b..4aa189bc7 100755 --- a/.ci/compile.sh +++ b/.ci/compile.sh @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ # --cmake-generator sets CMAKE_GENERATOR as used by cmake # --target-macos-version sets the min os version - only used for macOS builds # --profile writes an MSBuild performance summary and binary log, Windows only -# uses env: BUILDTYPE MAKE_INSTALL MAKE_PACKAGE PACKAGE_TYPE PACKAGE_SUFFIX MAKE_SERVER MAKE_NO_CLIENT MAKE_TEST USE_CCACHE CCACHE_SIZE CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE BUILD_DIR CMAKE_GENERATOR TARGET_MACOS_VERSION MAKE_SANITIZE MAKE_COVERAGE VCPKG_TARGET_MACOS_VERSION BUILD_PROFILE +# uses env: BUILDTYPE MAKE_INSTALL MAKE_PACKAGE PACKAGE_TYPE PACKAGE_SUFFIX MAKE_SERVER MAKE_NO_CLIENT MAKE_TEST USE_CCACHE CCACHE_SIZE CCACHE_EVICTION_AGE BUILD_DIR CMAKE_GENERATOR TARGET_MACOS_VERSION MAKE_SANITIZE MAKE_COVERAGE VCPKG_TARGET_MACOS_VERSION BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL BUILD_PROFILE # (correspond to args: --debug/--release --install --package --suffix --server --test --sanitize --coverage --ccache --dir --profile) # exitcode: 1 for failure, 3 for invalid arguments @@ -314,9 +314,20 @@ if [[ $RUNNER_OS == macOS ]]; then fi elif [[ $RUNNER_OS == Windows ]]; then + # cmake only hands MSBuild a job count when one is asked for, and without it + # MSBuild builds a single node: one project at a time, whatever MTT does inside + # it. Ask for a node per core. + if [[ ! $BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL ]]; then + BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL="${NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS:-1}" + fi + buildflags+=(--parallel "$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") + # Enable MTT, see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/improved-parallelism-in-msbuild/ # and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/cpp-build-throughput-investigation-and-tune-up/#multitooltask-mtt - buildflags+=(-- -p:UseMultiToolTask=true -p:EnableClServerMode=true) + # EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds makes the CL_MPCount ceiling apply across all + # the projects the nodes are building, instead of each node running its own + # cl.exe processes and /m and MTT multiplying into an oversubscribed machine. + buildflags+=(-- -p:UseMultiToolTask=true -p:EnableClServerMode=true -p:EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds=true -p:CL_MPCount="$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") if [[ $BUILD_PROFILE ]]; then # A performance summary says which projects and tasks cost what, the binary log # keeps the full timeline; both are far too noisy to always produce. The files From 285e6d6825efa41248c84f3b8c00f44c7dd51d4c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Lukas=20Br=C3=BCbach?= Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2026 06:45:46 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 3/5] [CI] Profile the MSBuild run this pull request measures --- .github/workflows/desktop-build.yml | 4 +++- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml index 7384ec8ad..b204f130a 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml +++ b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml @@ -387,7 +387,9 @@ jobs: # Set build_profile: 1 to have the build write an MSBuild performance # summary and a binary log; empty on every entry that runs by default. - build_profile: '' + # Enabled here on purpose: this pull request measures MSBuild + # parallelism, so its run is the one worth profiling. + build_profile: 1 cmake_generator: "Visual Studio 18 2026" cmake_generator_platform: x64 From d80c77bf6f85a63ca4cb975f84d609c60f687ec1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Lukas=20Br=C3=BCbach?= Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2026 14:03:51 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 4/5] [CI] Measure Ninja against the Visual Studio generator on Windows Ninja scales its job pool to the machine it runs on, and it lets a compiler launcher through, which MSBuild does not; those two are the reasons to expect it to beat the Visual Studio generator on a 4-core runner. That is an expectation, not a measurement, so run it as an A/B next to the Visual Studio job for a week: the extra matrix entry is allowed to fail, keeps its own " (Ninja)" suffix in the job name, is never uploaded to a release and never contributes PDBs, so it can neither block a pull request nor ship anything. Ninja needs cl.exe and the MSVC environment on PATH, which the Visual Studio generator gets for free by locating the compiler itself, hence the setup-msvc-dev step for the experimental job alone. Its build gets neither the MSBuild switches nor a job count: Ninja rejects -p: options and sizes its own pool, while the Visual Studio job keeps both. cmake takes the generator platform from the environment, so it is unset for everything that is not a Visual Studio generator, where it would otherwise follow the generator around. Delete this entry once the numbers are in: if Ninja wins, switch the Windows matrix to it and fix the PDB paths with it. --- .ci/compile.sh | 50 ++++++++++++++++++----------- .github/workflows/desktop-build.yml | 34 ++++++++++++++++++-- 2 files changed, 62 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) diff --git a/.ci/compile.sh b/.ci/compile.sh index 4aa189bc7..808f13e91 100755 --- a/.ci/compile.sh +++ b/.ci/compile.sh @@ -138,6 +138,12 @@ done set -e +# cmake reads the generator platform from the environment, so a leftover platform +# follows the generator around; Ninja has no platform to select. +if [[ $CMAKE_GENERATOR != "Visual Studio"* ]]; then + unset CMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM +fi + # Setup ./servatrice/check_schema_version.sh if [[ ! $BUILDTYPE ]]; then @@ -314,26 +320,32 @@ if [[ $RUNNER_OS == macOS ]]; then fi elif [[ $RUNNER_OS == Windows ]]; then - # cmake only hands MSBuild a job count when one is asked for, and without it - # MSBuild builds a single node: one project at a time, whatever MTT does inside - # it. Ask for a node per core. - if [[ ! $BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL ]]; then - BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL="${NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS:-1}" - fi - buildflags+=(--parallel "$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") + if [[ $CMAKE_GENERATOR == "Visual Studio"* ]]; then + # cmake only hands MSBuild a job count when it is asked for, and without it + # MSBuild builds a single node: one project at a time, whatever MTT does inside + # it. Ask for a node per core. + if [[ ! $BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL ]]; then + BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL="${NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS:-1}" + fi + buildflags+=(--parallel "$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") - # Enable MTT, see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/improved-parallelism-in-msbuild/ - # and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/cpp-build-throughput-investigation-and-tune-up/#multitooltask-mtt - # EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds makes the CL_MPCount ceiling apply across all - # the projects the nodes are building, instead of each node running its own - # cl.exe processes and /m and MTT multiplying into an oversubscribed machine. - buildflags+=(-- -p:UseMultiToolTask=true -p:EnableClServerMode=true -p:EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds=true -p:CL_MPCount="$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") - if [[ $BUILD_PROFILE ]]; then - # A performance summary says which projects and tasks cost what, the binary log - # keeps the full timeline; both are far too noisy to always produce. The files - # land next to the solution, i.e. in the build dir the workflow uploads. These - # join the MTT options above, which already carried the "--" separator. - buildflags+=("-flp:PerformanceSummary;v=q;LogFile=msbuild-perf.log" -bl:msbuild.binlog) + # Enable MTT, see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/improved-parallelism-in-msbuild/ + # and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/cpp-build-throughput-investigation-and-tune-up/#multitooltask-mtt + # EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds makes the CL_MPCount ceiling apply across all + # the projects the nodes are building, instead of each node running its own + # cl.exe processes and /m and MTT multiplying into an oversubscribed machine. + buildflags+=(-- -p:UseMultiToolTask=true -p:EnableClServerMode=true -p:EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds=true -p:CL_MPCount="$BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL") + if [[ $BUILD_PROFILE ]]; then + # A performance summary says which projects and tasks cost what, the binary log + # keeps the full timeline; both are far too noisy to always produce. The files + # land next to the solution, i.e. in the build dir the workflow uploads. These + # join the MTT options above, which already carried the "--" separator. + buildflags+=("-flp:PerformanceSummary;v=q;LogFile=msbuild-perf.log" -bl:msbuild.binlog) + fi + else + # Ninja runs the compiler itself, so it neither needs the MSVC switches nor + # wants a job count: it sizes its own pool for the cores it finds. + echo "ninja $(ninja --version)" fi fi diff --git a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml index b204f130a..1f30b8319 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml +++ b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml @@ -401,9 +401,26 @@ jobs: vcpkg_scope: 'vcpkg/windows10-x64-vs2026/' vcpkg_upload: 1 # only one leg per vcpkg_scope hands its archives over - name: ${{ matrix.os }} ${{ matrix.target }}${{ matrix.soc == 'Intel' && ' Intel' || '' }}${{ matrix.type == 'Debug' && ' Debug' || '' }} + # A/B run: is Ninja faster than the Visual Studio generator on this runner? + # It is allowed to fail and is never published, see the steps that build + # a release below. Delete this entry once the answer is known. + - os: Windows + target: 10 + runner: windows-2025 + + cmake_generator: Ninja + experiment: yes + make_package: 1 + package_suffix: "-Win10-ninja" + qt_version: 6.11.* + qt_modules: qtimageformats qtmultimedia qtshadertools qtwebsockets + type: Release + variant: ' (Ninja)' + + name: ${{ matrix.os }} ${{ matrix.target }}${{ matrix.soc == 'Intel' && ' Intel' || '' }}${{ matrix.type == 'Debug' && ' Debug' || '' }}${{ matrix.variant }} needs: configure runs-on: ${{ matrix.runner }} + continue-on-error: ${{ matrix.experiment == 'yes' }} timeout-minutes: 100 env: BUILD_PROFILE: '${{ matrix.build_profile }}' @@ -489,6 +506,14 @@ jobs: modules: ${{ matrix.qt_modules }} version: ${{ matrix.qt_version }} + # Ninja invokes cl.exe directly and needs the MSVC environment on PATH; the + # Visual Studio generator locates the compiler on its own and skips this. + - name: "[Windows/Ninja] Set up MSVC environment" + if: matrix.os == 'Windows' && matrix.cmake_generator == 'Ninja' + uses: TheMrMilchmann/setup-msvc-dev@v4.1.0 + with: + arch: x64 + - name: "[Windows] Install NSIS" if: matrix.os == 'Windows' shell: bash @@ -697,8 +722,11 @@ jobs: if-no-files-found: error path: ${{ steps.build.outputs.path }} + # Ninja writes its PDBs next to the binaries instead of into a Release + # subdirectory, and the experimental job is not a source of release debug + # symbols, so it keeps out of both. - name: "[Windows] Upload PDBs (Program Databases)" - if: matrix.os == 'Windows' && github.ref_type != 'tag' + if: matrix.os == 'Windows' && matrix.experiment != 'yes' && github.ref_type != 'tag' uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7 with: if-no-files-found: error @@ -720,7 +748,7 @@ jobs: retention-days: 7 - name: "Upload to release" - if: needs.configure.outputs.tag != null && matrix.make_package == '1' + if: needs.configure.outputs.tag != null && matrix.make_package == '1' && matrix.experiment != 'yes' id: upload_release shell: bash env: From 24bb1de9b06f15a9b0a21b2b2ad711ca172df009 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Lukas=20Br=C3=BCbach?= Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2026 06:47:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 5/5] [CI] Give the Ninja leg the same vcpkg scope as the Visual Studio leg --- .github/workflows/desktop-build.yml | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) diff --git a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml index 1f30b8319..08efb5782 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml +++ b/.github/workflows/desktop-build.yml @@ -416,6 +416,13 @@ jobs: qt_modules: qtimageformats qtmultimedia qtshadertools qtwebsockets type: Release variant: ' (Ninja)' + # The same scope as the Visual Studio leg, so both halves of the A/B + # start from the same vcpkg cache and the comparison is about the + # generator alone. Without it this leg's prefix is empty, which makes + # the cache action restore the whole vcpkg/ namespace and write entries + # that no scope claims. vcpkg_upload is deliberately left unset, so only + # the Visual Studio leg hands its archives over. + vcpkg_scope: 'vcpkg/windows10-x64-vs2026/' name: ${{ matrix.os }} ${{ matrix.target }}${{ matrix.soc == 'Intel' && ' Intel' || '' }}${{ matrix.type == 'Debug' && ' Debug' || '' }}${{ matrix.variant }} needs: configure