How to automate Profile-Guided Optimization as part of build in Visual C++?

Question

I want to incorporate PGO into the Visual C++ build steps in an automated fashion.

Specifically, I wish to be able to:

1. Select a build configuration (let's call it Release (PGO))

2. Click Build Solution (or Build Project)

3. Simply wait for Visual Studio to:

   a. Build an instrumented version of my project

   b. Automatically invoke the executable with some command line (e.g. --benchmark) and wait for it to exit

   c. Collected the instrumentation data from that execution

   d. Build a profile-guided-optimized version of my project

4. Discover the PGO-optimized binary lying in my output directory

Is such a thing possible, and if so, how do I achieve it?

Answer 1

For your requirement, please check whether the target section is what you want:

MSBuild targets

And the time of the targets' trigger:

Target build order

You can put the automatic steps in a script, and use exec to run it:

Exec task

Such as:

  <Target Name="PreBuild" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent">
    <Exec Command="xxx" />
  </Target>