How Can I Significantly Speed Up My C Compilation Times?

Techniques for Accelerating C Compilation Times

Language Techniques

• Pimpl Idiom: This idiom reduces dependencies between headers, minimizing recompilation.
• Forward Declarations: Use forward declarations to declare identifiers without including full definitions.
• Guard Conditions: Prevent multiple inclusions of headers in a single translation unit.
• Reduce Interdependency: Modularity and low interdependency reduce the scope of recompilation.

Compiler Options

• Precompiled Headers: One-time compilation of common headers for multiple translation units.
• Parallelism: Utilize multiple CPUs or cores for simultaneous compilation. Consider options like -j [N] in GNU Make or parallel build options in Visual Studio.
• Lower Optimization Level: Relaxing optimization settings reduces compiler workload.
• Shared Libraries: Isolating infrequently modified code into libraries reduces compilation and linking times.

System Enhancements

• Faster Hardware: Consider increasing RAM, upgrading hard drives (including SSDs), or adding more CPUs/cores.

Additional Tips

• Use the I/O declarations header () rather than the full I/O header () in header files.
• Opt for pass-by-reference in function signatures to minimize type definition inclusions.

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