Visual C++ studio, recompiling only the modified files

c++, recompile

Solution

VS is actually pretty good in doing the dependency checks so that only necessary stuff is re-compiled. I can see a couple of (more or less likely) reasons for what you're seeing:

- You modify a header and that's been included everywhere.

- You're hitting "rebuild" instead of "build".

- You have included a cpp file.

- Something's fishy with your projects, your disk, or your date.

That's in what I consider decreasing probability order.

Problem

I have two dll files made by around 1500 cpp files. When I need to edit one, I usually then recompile all the 1500 files from the start. But I heard there is a way to make Visual Studio recompile the modifies only, taking a lot less time... How do I do this?

Original source