EventSource is the tool that allows Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) used in MSBuild. Among its useful features, functions with names ending in "start" and "stop" correlate between calls such that it can automatically record how long the event between the two calls took. It also provides an easy way to cheaply opt in or out, log auxiliary messages in addition to time, and add progress updates in the middle of an event as needed.
EventSource is primarily used to profile code. For MSBuild specifically, a major goal is to reduce the time it takes to run, as measured (among other metrics) by the Regression Prevention System (RPS), i.e., running specific scenarios. To find which code segments were likely candidates for improvement, EventSources were added around a mix of code segments. Larger segments that encompass several steps within a build occur nearly every time MSBuild is run and take a long time. They generally run relatively few times. Smaller methods with well-defined purposes may occur numerous times. Profiling both types of events provides both broad strokes to identify large code segments that underperform and, more specifically, which parts of them. Profiled functions include:
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| ApplyLazyItemOperations | Collects a set of items, mutates them in a specified way, and saves the results in a lazy way. |
| Build | Sets up a BuildManager to receive build requests. |
| BuildProject | Builds a project file. |
| CachedSdkResolverServiceResolveSdk | The caching SDK resolver service is resolving an SDK. |
| CreateLoadedType | Creates a LoadedType object from an assembly loaded via MetadataLoadContext. |
| CopyUpToDate | Checks whether the Copy task needs to execute. |
| Evaluate | Evaluates a project, running several other parts of MSBuild in the process. |
| EvaluateCondition | Checks whether a condition is true and removes false conditionals. |
| ExecuteTask | Executes a task. |
| ExecuteTaskReacquire | Requests to reacquire the node, often after the task has completed other work. |
| ExecuteTaskYield | Requests to yield the node, often while the task completes other work. |
| ExpandGlob | Identifies a list of files that correspond to an item, potentially with a wildcard. |
| GenerateResourceOverall | Uses resource APIs to transform resource files into strongly-typed resource classes. |
| LoadDocument | Loads an XMLDocumentWithLocation from a path. |
| MSBuildExe | Executes MSBuild from the command line. |
| MSBuildServerBuild | Executes a build from the MSBuildServer node. |
| PacketReadSize | Reports the size of a packet sent between nodes. Note that this does not include time information. |
| Parse | Parses an XML document into a ProjectRootElement. |
| ProjectGraphConstruction | Constructs a dependency graph among projects. |
| RarComputeClosure | Resolves references from, for example, properties to explicit values. Used in resolving assembly references (RAR). |
| RarLogResults | Logs the results from having resolved assembly references (RAR). |
| RarOverall | Initiates the process of resolving assembly references (RAR). |
| RarRemoveReferencesMarkedForExclusion | Removes denylisted references from the reference table, putting primary and dependency references in invalid file lists. |
| RequestThreadProc | A function to requesting a new builder thread. |
| ReusableStringBuilderFactory | Uses and resizes (if necessary) of ReusableStringBuilders. |
| ReusableStringBuilderFactoryUnbalanced | Identifies improper usage from multiple threads or buggy code: multiple Gets were called without a Relase. |
| Save | Saves a project to the file system if dirty, creating directories as necessary. |
| SdkResolverResolveSdk | A single SDK resolver is called. |
| SdkResolverServiceFindResolversManifests | Find all resolvers manifests. (Only appear under Changewave 17.4.) |
| SdkResolverServiceInitialize | Initializes SDK resolvers. (Only appear before Changewave 17.4.) |
| SdkResolverServiceLoadResolvers | Load resolvers given a resolver manifest. (Only appear under Changewave 17.4.) |
| SdkResolverEvent | An SDK resolver logs an event. |
| Target | Executes a target. |
| TargetUpToDate | Checks whether a particular target needs to run or is up-to-date. |
| WriteLinesToFile | Checks whether the WriteLinesToFile task needs to execute. |
One can run MSBuild with eventing using the following command:
PerfView /OnlyProviders=*Microsoft-Build run MSBuild.exe <project to build>
For example, if PerfView is one level up from my current directory (which has MSBuild.exe), and I want to build MSBuild.sln on Windows, I would use the following command:
..\PerfView /OnlyProviders=*Microsoft-Build run .\MSBuild.exe .\MSBuild.sln