Tag
incremental-builds
- Sep 24, 2026 Incremental Correctness Under Source Mutation Every incremental build assumes the source tree holds still while it runs. What an edit arriving mid-build does to the graph, how tools detect it, and the snapshot technique that removes the assumption. developer tools
- May 29, 2026 Content-Addressed Build Cache Keys: What Must Go Into the Hash A cache hit is only sound if the key covers every input that can change the output. The compiler binary, its flags, the header contents, and the transitive environment all belong in it; the clock and the path usually do not. compilers
- Dec 29, 2025 Content-Addressed Cache Keys for Incremental Asset Builds Why a timestamp is the wrong invalidation signal, what belongs in a hash that keys an asset build, and how a stale cache entry survives a settings change. computer graphics
- Oct 6, 2025 Timestamp-Based Incrementality and Its Failure Modes How modification-time comparison decides which targets are stale, why clock skew, filesystem granularity and restoration of old trees break the comparison, and what the fix costs. developer tools
- Jul 15, 2025 Discovered Dependencies and Depfile Header Tracking Compilers know which headers they include and the build graph does not, so the compile step is made to write its own dependency rule. How that file is produced, parsed, and kept from going stale. developer tools
- May 7, 2025 Build Graph Construction and Topological Ordering How a build system turns declared targets and prerequisites into a directed acyclic graph, how cycles are detected, and why the order a build actually runs in is not the topological order. developer tools
- Aug 5, 2024 Header Dependency Discovery: Why the Compiler Records Includes, Not the Build Tool Reconstructing a translation unit's header list by scanning source text fails on conditional and computed includes. The front end already knows which files it opened, and it can write that list as a makefile fragment. compilers
- Feb 12, 2024 Content-Hash Caching and Early Cutoff How build tools key actions on cryptographic hashes of their inputs and command lines, and why comparing output digests lets a rebuild stop propagating before it reaches the link step. developer tools
- Nov 26, 2022 What a Build Cache Key Must Cover Under-keying produces wrong artifacts that look valid; over-keying destroys the hit rate. How to enumerate the true inputs of a build action, and where the environment leaks in. devops