deterministic-builds-msvc

Utility for creating deterministic builds under Microsoft Visual C++

Target features

• Modify signatures for outputs and PDB
• Modify date times in outputs and PDB
• Modify __DATE__, __TIME__ and __TIMESTAMP__ to custom date
• Modify __FILE__ macro to remove full path

References

MSVC Compiler/Linker flags

• /experimental:deterministic - expermental flag - deterministic builds (do not modify any macro)
• /Brepro - undocumented linker & compiler flag sets __DATA__="1", __TIME__="1", __TIMESTAMP="1"
• /d1trimfile:<path> - trim source path from __FILE__ macro & pdb file location

Related projects

• Microsoft PDB https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-pdb
• Dubicle https://github.com/jasonwhite/ducible - fixes date, time and PDB signatures

References

• Getting to Deterministic Builds on Windows - Nikhil's blog https://nikhilism.com/post/2020/windows-deterministic-builds/
• Why are the module timestamps in Windows 10 so nonsensical? - The Old New Thing https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180103-00/?p=97705