Best practice to increase build performance for large solutions

[Sam13]

I have a large VS 2019 (16.6.3) solution which contains around 160 project files (C#, .NET 4.8, SDK style project format).
I'm using StyleCop, FxCop and custom analyzers which are referenced as NuGet package in the Directory.build.props file.

Build time significantly increases when having e.g. Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers enabled.

This leads to the following question:
Is there any recommended practice to increase build performance during development work in Visual Studio and still have the opportunity to run the analyzers manually?

I tried to add the following line into Directory.build.props

<RunAnalyzersDuringBuild Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' AND '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'">False</RunAnalyzersDuringBuild>

When having that, manually running code analysis over via menu bar (Analyze -> Run code analysis -> On Solution) does no longer work...

[mavasani]

Build time significantly increases when having e.g. Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers enabled.

Can you try using the 3.3.0-beta1.final version https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers/3.3.0-beta1.final, which has many performance fixes? Also, would you be able to submit a performance trace for your performance issue by following the steps at https://aka.ms/reportPerf?

Is there any recommended practice to increase build performance during development work in Visual Studio and still have the opportunity to run the analyzers manually?

Can you try to turn off RunAnalyzersDuringLiveAnalysis instead? After that you should be able to manually trigger on-deman code analysis by executing Run Code Analysis command. See https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/disable-code-analysis?view=vs-2019#net-core-and-net-standard-projects and https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/how-to-run-code-analysis-manually-for-managed-code?view=vs-2019.
Another thing you can try is to switch your background analysis scope to Current Document only: https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/configure-live-code-analysis-scope-managed-code?view=vs-2019#custom-analysis-scope

[Sam13]

Build time significantly increases when having e.g. Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers enabled.

Can you try using the 3.3.0-beta1.final version https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers/3.3.0-beta1.final, which has many performance fixes?

I did some quick tests: My 160+ projects solution builds in 1:42 minutes without any analyzers.
With StyleCop + FxCop v3.0.0 in 8:00 and with StyleCop + FxCop v3.3.0 beta 1 in 7:55 - not a big change there. May have to investigate into that further...

Can you try to turn off RunAnalyzersDuringLiveAnalysis instead? After that you should be able to manually trigger on-deman code analysis by executing Run Code Analysis command. See https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/disable-code-analysis?view=vs-2019#net-core-and-net-standard-projects and https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/how-to-run-code-analysis-manually-for-managed-code?view=vs-2019.
Another thing you can try is to switch your background analysis scope to Current Document only: https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/code-quality/configure-live-code-analysis-scope-managed-code?view=vs-2019#custom-analysis-scope

How should that affect my build time? I'm happy with the overall VS performance but not with the build time. E.g. when I change something in the production code and waiting for the unit test project to compile and execute...

[mavasani]

would you be able to submit a performance trace for your performance issue by following the steps at https://aka.ms/reportPerf?

[Sam13]

@mavasani Thanks for your assistance. It's no longer necessary to provide a performance trace. After upgrading to FxCop analyzers v3.3.0-beta2.final the performance is fine again.