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how-it-works.md

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How Incrementalist Works

Incrementalist is designed to optimize build processes in large .NET solutions by intelligently determining which projects need to be rebuilt based on changes in your Git repository.

Basic Workflow

flowchart TD
    A[Your Git Changes] --> B[Incrementalist]
    B --> C{Analyze Changes}
    C -->|Solution-wide changes| D[Build All Projects]
    C -->|Specific changes| E[Build Affected Projects]
    
    style B fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px
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Detailed Analysis Process

flowchart LR
    A[Git Changes] --> B[Check Files]
    B --> C{Solution-wide?}
    C -->|Yes| D[Full Build]
    C -->|No| E[Project Analysis]
    E --> F[Find Dependencies]
    F --> G[Generate Build List]
    
    subgraph "Solution-wide Changes"
        H[Directory.Build.props]
        I[global.json]
        J[.sln files]
    end
    
    H --> C
    I --> C
    J --> C
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Command Execution Flow

flowchart TD
    A[Incrementalist Command] --> B{Analysis Type}
    B -->|Project List| C[List Affected Projects]
    B -->|Folder List| D[List Affected Folders]
    B -->|Run Command| E[Execute dotnet Commands]
    
    C --> F[Save to File]
    D --> F
    E --> G[Build/Test Projects]
    
    style A fill:#f96,stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px
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Core Components

Git Analysis

  • Compares your current changes against a target branch (e.g., dev or master)
  • Identifies all modified files
  • Determines if changes require a full solution build

Solution Analysis

  • Understands your project dependencies
  • Identifies which projects are affected by your changes
  • Ensures all necessary projects are included in the build

Output Generation

Incrementalist can produce two types of outputs:

  1. Project Lists (default):

    D:\src\Project1\Project1.csproj,D:\src\Project2\Project2.csproj

  2. Folder Lists (with -l option):

    D:\src\Project1,D:\src\Project2\SubFolder

Command Execution

When running commands against affected projects, Incrementalist:

  1. Analyzes your changes to determine affected projects
  2. Executes specified dotnet commands against each project
  3. Can run commands in parallel for faster processing
  4. Provides configurable error handling

Integration

The output can be integrated with various build systems:

  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Build scripts (e.g., FAKE, CAKE, etc.)
  • Custom build tooling

For detailed build instructions and setup, see Building Incrementalist.