Incremental Builds
Rebuilding only what changed is the largest available speed gain and the one most often broken by small mistakes in the build definition.
Explainer
Build systems
Where most of the available speed is, and where it eventually becomes architecture work: the graph sets a ceiling that no amount of caching or hardware can lift.
8 notes
Build Caching, Local and Remote
A shared cache means one machine does the work and everyone else downloads the result. What it takes to make it hit, and why most deployments hit rarely.
Procedure
The Dependency Graph
Build speed is mostly determined by module structure. The shape of the graph decides how much can be skipped and how much can run in parallel.
Analysis
One Repository or Many
The choice affects build speed, tooling cost and coordination. Neither answer is free, and the costs land on different people.
Analysis
Reproducible Builds
Same inputs, same outputs, on any machine. A correctness property first, and the thing that makes caching and debugging possible at all.
Procedure
Choosing and Configuring the Build Tool
Most build performance problems are configuration rather than tool choice. What actually distinguishes the tools, and when replacing one is justified.
Analysis
Parallelism and Its Ceiling
More cores help until they do not. Where the ceiling comes from, and why adding machines sometimes makes things slower.
Analysis
Artefacts and Dependency Fetching
Downloading dependencies is frequently the largest single cost in a cold build, and it is one of the easiest to fix.
Procedure