Case study about reducing the build time of a big .net based monilith web application

1. Case Study:
How did we reduce the
build time to one fifth?
Péter Takács
peter.takacs4@logmein.com
Software Engineer @ LogMeIn
2016

2. „Performance is a feature”
Jeff Atwood
2

3. https://xkcd.com/303/
3

4. What we can do to improve build time?
• Get the latest hardware (CPU, RAM, SSD)
• Reduce lines of code
• Make your build parallel
• Code organization and MSBuild magics
• Where did we start?
• Reducing build time without code modification
• Change the architecture
• 3rd party tools to help
4

5. Where did we start?
5

6. MSBuild Log Analyzer - join.me
https://github.com/LorandBiro/MSBuildLogAnalyzer
6

7. 1. Code Analysis
• We need code analysis but not for every build
• Code Analysis only runs on CI server or as a git hook
7

8. 2. Code Contracts
• Provides a design-by-contract programming model
• Runtime Checking (IL Rewrite – expensive)
• Static checking
• Document generation
• Code Contracts is an open source project now
https://github.com/Microsoft/CodeContracts
8

9. 2. Code Contracts
using System.Diagnostics.Contracts;
public Article GetArticle(int id)
{
Contract.Requires(id > 0);
Contract.Ensures(Contract.Results() != null);
// some work here
}
9

10. Resharper Code Annotations
10

11. 3. Old-fashioned NuGet Restore
11

12. 3. Old-fashioned NuGet Restore
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir).nugetNuGet.targets" Condition="Exists('$(SolutionDir…" />
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this …</ErrorText>
</PropertyGroup>
<Error Condition="!Exists('$(SolutionDir).nugetNuGet.targets')" Text="$([System.String…" />
</Target>
12

13. 3. Automatic NuGet restore in Visual Studio
13

14. Reducing I/O operations without modifing the code
14

15. Why do we have so many I/O operations?
Library A
Library B
Library C
Web App
15

16. 1. CopyLocal = false
• Usually it is not a good idea because it does not work with
• top level projects
• second level dependencies
• reflection
• GAC-ed assemblies
• Runtime errors
16

17. 2. Common output folder
<OutputPath>..commonDebug</OutputPath>
• MSBuild does not have to copy existing files
• You might have unstable build
17

18. 3. Use hardlinks
…only in command line
/p:CreateHardLinksForAdditionalFilesIfPossible=true
/p:CreateHardLinksForCopyAdditionalFilesIfPossible=true
/p:CreateHardLinksForCopyFilesToOutputDirectoryIfPossible=true
/p:CreateHardLinksForCopyLocalIfPossible=true
/p:CreateHardLinksForPublishFilesIfPossible=true
18

19. Reducing I/O operations with code organization
19

20. 1. Create project only if …
• You need new deploy target (unit of deployment item)
• Plugin model
• Framework feature separation
• Think before you create a new one
• Merge your existing projects
Common
Framework
Utils
Extensions
Shared
Helpers
Configuration
Crypto
ErrorLogger
Cache Converters
20

21. After merging 8 projects build time… increased
21

22. Why has the build time increased?
COMMON1
COMMON2
COMMON3
COMMON4
COMMON8
BLL1
BLL2
BLL3
BLL4
BLL25
… …
COMMON
22

23. 2. Reorganize your (cross-cutting) dependencies
Library A
Library B
Library C
Web App
Logger
ILogger
23

24. 3. Cut your solution into NuGet packages
24

25. Resharper Build
25

26. Resharper Build
• Does not make your Rebuild faster...
… but it helps with the incremental builds
• All build management happens out of process
• Efficient timestamp monitoring
• Public API surface monitoring
26

27. So what we did?
• CodeAnalysis runs only on CI server
• Resharper Code Annotation instead of Code Contracts
• Automatic NuGet Restore instead of MSBuild based
• NuGet packages reorganization
• We’re testing the common output folder…
Time Elapsed 00:00:12.12
27

28. Result
28

29. RAM Disk (LmDisk) Time Elapsed 00:00:29.05
29

30. Start reducing the build time
of your projects now!
Contact me if you have any questions
peter.takacs@windowslive.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/petertakacs1