Gradle + CMake + Android Studio Slowness Problems

[Henrik Rydgård]

Is there an ETA on the fix to only gradle sync one config, or at least an
open issue to track? It's not only for every ABI and debug/release but also
for every flavor so there's a combinatorial explosion that in my case
results in a 10 minute gradle sync, which is rather annoying when trying to
use git bisect when there are changes to the CMakeLists.txt...

The gradle sync step runs cmake so it can learn things like what
compilation flags you're using aiui (needed for IDE features). Right now it
does that for all of your supported ABIs, for both debug and release. This
is going to get fixed in the future so it only syncs one config instead.
I'm not sure, but you may be able to mitigate this a bit by changing your
abiFilters to only a single target during development and then put it back
once you're ready to test other ABIs.
FYI, this only results in abysmally slow behavior on Windows because
CreateProcess takes so much longer than fork (at least, that's what appears
to be the difference). If it's an option for you, using Linux or Mac (even
in a VM) would speed things up significantly.

I have a rather large CMake setup for my game engine that takes a minute
or so to configure due to all the feature detection CMake needs to do. For
other platforms, this isn't really a big deal since I generally only need
to configure once even if I'm adding new files. I've set up a new Android
Studio project that links to my existing CMakeLists.txt to build a shared
library, and it does work eventually, however it's taking a long long
time. For whatever reason, gradle/Android Studio is running the CMake
configure about 10 times back to back before it even starts compiling
anything. So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's
sub projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and
over again.
My theory is that gradle is configuring CMake for every build task in the
default gradle setup, but I have no knowledge of how to tell if that's the
case let alone fix it.
Is anyone else seeing this problem or know how to fix it?
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['Dan Albert' via android-ndk]

Not sure if there's a bug open. +jomof would know.

Post by Henrik Rydgård
Is there an ETA on the fix to only gradle sync one config, or at least an
open issue to track? It's not only for every ABI and debug/release but also
for every flavor so there's a combinatorial explosion that in my case
results in a 10 minute gradle sync, which is rather annoying when trying to
use git bisect when there are changes to the CMakeLists.txt...

The gradle sync step runs cmake so it can learn things like what
compilation flags you're using aiui (needed for IDE features). Right now it
does that for all of your supported ABIs, for both debug and release. This
is going to get fixed in the future so it only syncs one config instead.
I'm not sure, but you may be able to mitigate this a bit by changing your
abiFilters to only a single target during development and then put it back
once you're ready to test other ABIs.
FYI, this only results in abysmally slow behavior on Windows because
CreateProcess takes so much longer than fork (at least, that's what appears
to be the difference). If it's an option for you, using Linux or Mac (even
in a VM) would speed things up significantly.

I have a rather large CMake setup for my game engine that takes a minute
or so to configure due to all the feature detection CMake needs to do. For
other platforms, this isn't really a big deal since I generally only need
to configure once even if I'm adding new files. I've set up a new Android
Studio project that links to my existing CMakeLists.txt to build a shared
library, and it does work eventually, however it's taking a long long
time. For whatever reason, gradle/Android Studio is running the CMake
configure about 10 times back to back before it even starts compiling
anything. So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's
sub projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and
over again.
My theory is that gradle is configuring CMake for every build task in
the default gradle setup, but I have no knowledge of how to tell if that's
the case let alone fix it.
Is anyone else seeing this problem or know how to fix it?
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['Jomo Fisher' via android-ndk]

Post by 'Dan Albert' via android-ndk

So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's sub

projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and over
again.
Starting in AS 3.1, which is in beta right now, we try to be smarter about
when we regenerate the CMake project. We try to make better use of CMake's
incremental project update.. This work is covered by
https://issuetracker.google.com/69408798

Single-config sync may make it into AS 3.2, but single ABI sync won't.
However, once you have single config you could set up a config just for
development that builds just the ABI you need for development.

Post by 'Dan Albert' via android-ndk
Not sure if there's a bug open. +jomof would know.

Is there an ETA on the fix to only gradle sync one config, or at least an
open issue to track? It's not only for every ABI and debug/release but also
for every flavor so there's a combinatorial explosion that in my case
results in a 10 minute gradle sync, which is rather annoying when trying to
use git bisect when there are changes to the CMakeLists.txt...

The gradle sync step runs cmake so it can learn things like what
compilation flags you're using aiui (needed for IDE features). Right now it
does that for all of your supported ABIs, for both debug and release. This
is going to get fixed in the future so it only syncs one config instead.
I'm not sure, but you may be able to mitigate this a bit by changing your
abiFilters to only a single target during development and then put it back
once you're ready to test other ABIs.
FYI, this only results in abysmally slow behavior on Windows because
CreateProcess takes so much longer than fork (at least, that's what appears
to be the difference). If it's an option for you, using Linux or Mac (even
in a VM) would speed things up significantly.

I have a rather large CMake setup for my game engine that takes a
minute or so to configure due to all the feature detection CMake needs to
do. For other platforms, this isn't really a big deal since I generally
only need to configure once even if I'm adding new files. I've set up a
new Android Studio project that links to my existing CMakeLists.txt to
build a shared library, and it does work eventually, however it's taking a
long long time. For whatever reason, gradle/Android Studio is running the
CMake configure about 10 times back to back before it even starts compiling
anything. So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's
sub projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and
over again.
My theory is that gradle is configuring CMake for every build task in
the default gradle setup, but I have no knowledge of how to tell if that's
the case let alone fix it.
Is anyone else seeing this problem or know how to fix it?
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[Alex Cohn]

We use the following lifehack. You may find it useful, too:

We wrap our *CMakeLists.txt* with the following clause:


if (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Release")
add_custom_target(dummy)
else()




endif()


Now our *Sync* does real work only for Debug configuration. Also, don't underestimate *abiFIlters* - for Debug, you usually only need one flavor there, *x86* if you work with emulator.


BR,
Alex

I have a rather large CMake setup for my game engine that takes a minute
or so to configure due to all the feature detection CMake needs to do. For
other platforms, this isn't really a big deal since I generally only need
to configure once even if I'm adding new files. I've set up a new Android
Studio project that links to my existing CMakeLists.txt to build a shared
library, and it does work eventually, however it's taking a long long
time. For whatever reason, gradle/Android Studio is running the CMake
configure about 10 times back to back before it even starts compiling
anything. So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's
sub projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and
over again.
My theory is that gradle is configuring CMake for every build task in the
default gradle setup, but I have no knowledge of how to tell if that's the
case let alone fix it.
Is anyone else seeing this problem or know how to fix it?

[Steven Winston]

FWIW:

A trick I've found quite useful (speak of life hacks) that solves the speed
of build problem caused by ABI * productFlavor * buildType rebuilds is to
solve it with CMake.
The reason there's an issue is the build folder is different for each ABI *
productFlavor * buildType. Thus, tell CMake to build to a common folder:

i.e.
set_target_properties( targets...
PROPERTIES
ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BIN_DIR}<pathToLibs>"
LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BIN_DIR}<pathToLibs>"
RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BIN_DIR}<pathToLibs>"
)
set(CMAKE_BIN_DIR <PathToFolder outside of .externalNativeBuild>)

By setting the output directories at the start, you stand a good chance of
having the packaging system be tricked into believing that the .so files
are in the proper locations. I'm avoiding copying pasting code from
internal source and writing this off the top of my head so please forgive
the "you must do your own homework" style suggestion here.

I have a rather large CMake setup for my game engine that takes a minute
or so to configure due to all the feature detection CMake needs to do. For
other platforms, this isn't really a big deal since I generally only need
to configure once even if I'm adding new files. I've set up a new Android
Studio project that links to my existing CMakeLists.txt to build a shared
library, and it does work eventually, however it's taking a long long
time. For whatever reason, gradle/Android Studio is running the CMake
configure about 10 times back to back before it even starts compiling
anything. So just making a minute change to CMakeLists.txt or one of it's
sub projects can eat up about 15 minutes of time just configuring over and
over again.
My theory is that gradle is configuring CMake for every build task in the
default gradle setup, but I have no knowledge of how to tell if that's the
case let alone fix it.
Is anyone else seeing this problem or know how to fix it?