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The article https://apenwarr.ca/log/20181113 goes in to detail on why using only the file modification time would produce both false positives and false negatives on whether a file is out of date or not. One way to address this is to introduce the concept of a build database where we track more information about the last time a file was built (such as file size, tracking the generation of generated file, etc...). Respire currently only uses the file modification time to check if a re-build is necessary.

The advantages of implementing this are to have more correct builds, and fewer re-builds of files that do not need to be re-built. The disadvantages are that it adds a considerable complication and centrality (though perhaps it can be decentralized on a per-registry-file basis) to the build. Currently, Respire (core) does not maintain any "special" files or databases when running. It's not clear to me if the pros outweigh the cons here, but the article above is really interesting so I wanted to at least track it.

Here is where we decide if a file needs to be re-built:

, and poking around there you'll see that it ultimately just depends on file modification times.