Add an --all-cores command line option to scons

[LeonarddeR]

Link to issue number:

Fixup for #16868

Summary of the issue:

As part of #16868, i intended to implement support to pass a number of 0 cores to scons (e.g. scons source -j0) to automatically pick all available cores. It turns out that you cant override an option with SetOption when set on the command line.

Description of user facing changes

None, build system related.

Description of development approach

Added an --all-cores parameter that will pick all available cores.

Testing strategy:

Ensured that the build was marvelously faster when using the --all-cores parameter.

Known issues with pull request:

None known

Code Review Checklist:

• Documentation:
  • Change log entry
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Security precautions taken.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Introduced a command-line option --all-cores for the build process, allowing users to utilize all available CPU cores for improved performance.
  • Updated documentation to guide users on using the --all-cores option in the scons build tool.

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved documentation clarity by changing command parameters from -j0 to --all-cores.

• Documentation

  • Enhanced user guidance on optimizing build performance with the new --all-cores parameter.

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

The recent updates enhance the build process by modifying the SCons command-line parameters across several components. The -j 0 option has been replaced with --all-cores, allowing users to utilize all available CPU cores, which can significantly improve performance. Documentation has been updated to reflect these changes, emphasizing the benefits and potential output issues when using the new option.

Changes

File	Change Summary
.pre-commit-config.yaml	Updated command-line entries for scons-source and checkPot hooks to use --all-cores.
projectDocs/dev/buildingNVDA.md	Added documentation on using --all-cores with SCons, highlighting performance benefits and caveats.
sconstruct	Implemented --all-cores option to allow maximum core utilization in the build process.
user_docs/en/changes.md	Updated documentation to reflect the change from -j0 to --all-cores for clarity and usability.

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[AppVeyorBot]

• PASS: Translation comments check.
• PASS: License check.
• PASS: Unit tests.
• FAIL: Lint check. See test results and lint artifacts for more information.
• PASS: System tests (tags: installer NVDA).
• Build (for testing PR): https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/3qy4negb9je92yam/artifacts/output/nvda_snapshot_pr16943-33190,deb3b7bb.exe
• CI timing (mins):
  INIT 0.0,
  INSTALL_START 1.3,
  INSTALL_END 1.0,
  BUILD_START 0.0,
  BUILD_END 13.7,
  TESTSETUP_START 0.0,
  TESTSETUP_END 0.4,
  TEST_START 0.0,
  TEST_END 18.4,
  FINISH_END 0.2

See test results for failed build of commit deb3b7bb5e

[dpy013]

This feature is really good, but it doesn't showcase its performance on AppVeyor. Will it be faster using GitHub Actions?

[AppVeyorBot]

• PASS: Translation comments check.
• PASS: License check.
• PASS: Unit tests.
• FAIL: Lint check. See test results and lint artifacts for more information.
• PASS: System tests (tags: installer NVDA).
• Build (for testing PR): https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/vgi56549joayfve2/artifacts/output/nvda_snapshot_pr16943-33191,5d74e8c7.exe
• CI timing (mins):
  INIT 0.0,
  INSTALL_START 1.7,
  INSTALL_END 1.0,
  BUILD_START 0.0,
  BUILD_END 13.8,
  TESTSETUP_START 0.0,
  TESTSETUP_END 0.4,
  TEST_START 0.0,
  TEST_END 18.4,
  FINISH_END 0.1

See test results for failed build of commit 5d74e8c733

[LeonarddeR]

The primary reason why this is not used on appveyor is because it scrambles the output.

[SaschaCowley]

Note that you can set this to be the case always by adding -j N (where n is the number of cores you want to use) to the SCONSFLAGS environment variable. Providing -j N at the CLI will still override it for cases when you need to inspect the output. So for example, I have

PS D:\projects\nvda> echo $env:SCONSFLAGS
-j 16

[SaschaCowley]

Thanks for fixing this.