Question

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#include all .cpp files into a single compilation unit?

I’m working on a project in MSVS where most implementation files (.cpp) are excluded from the build and included in a single source file that is compiled.

//a.cpp
#include "b.cpp"
#include "c.cpp"
//and so on...

And since b.cpp and c.cpp aren’t compiled by themselves, this is OK.

I know this is not standard practice, I know the pitfalls and I probably wouldn’t do this (unless of course someone comes up with a good reason).

So the question is – what’s the use of this technique? Does it make compilation faster (also consider a distributed compilation environment)?

Answer 1

This is called a unity build.

It’s supposed to speed up compilation of the source code.

See a related question here that provides more details: The benefits / disadvantages of unity builds?