When building a project with ESP32 / EP8266 MCU, I noticed that the build time (in fact the compilation time) takes much longer than when I use an Arduino or eg. a Teensy.
* Typical compile time ESP32 : 20 seconds
* Typical compile time Teensy : 2 seconds (note : first build may take 20s as well, subsequent builds are much faster)

I think the difference is because in the ESP case, all Espressif libs are being recompiled, even if they are not changed. With the Teensy it looks like only the source files which have been modified are being compiled.

Is there a solution to this ? Are there Visual Micro or Visual Studio settings which can improve this ?
For fast cycle unit testing, there is a big advantage for a 2s build vs 20s builds.

Thanks!

Hi

This isn't expected. Please follow the guide in the yellow box above.

Thanks

Ok, so I took two basic example projects, included with each processor.
I then built them,
then change some unimportant parameter and build them again.

All four outputs are attached.

Timings measured are :
Teensy first build : 16.6s
Teensy next build : 3.6s
ESP32 first build : 30s
ESP32 next build : 12.7s

When looking at the verbose output, I see that also for the ESP32 it is using previously compiled file.
So I guess it is just due to the amount of libraries involved that the build takes a bit longer, which means there is probably nothing really wrong.

The ESP32 executable is also significantly larger (> 600K), even with only a simple example. (I have the feeling that FreeRTOS is being included, whether you use it or not).

Anyway, thanks for your support.

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That's right. The actual build times are shown in the output. For the teensy is uploads to the board after compile so actually it is built and can be used before the messages stop.

[code]Program MeasureBuildTimeTeensy size: 9 364 bytes (used 4% of a 262 144 byte maximum) (1,99 secs)[/code]

The ESp tool chain is slower than the Arduino and Teensy. A few months ago the Teensy toolchain was the slowest but had a great boost recently.

It might be a good idea to keep your Visual Micro version up to date. That also often includes some efficientiency gains and important fixes. However, doesn't look like it needs fixing.

How long does the Arduino IDE take to compile the same ESP project a 2nd time. There is no need to make any changes to check how fast 2nd build is.