Excluding Files When Dependency Checking
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Two exclusion files are used for dependency checking. Adding files to the exclusion files speeds up dependency checking.
The file lists in the exclusion files should contain only files that are not likely to change often. Whenever dependencies are updated, the files in these lists are excluded from dependency scanning and does not display them in the ExternalDependencies folder.
If you change only files in either of these lists, you must click Rebuild All from the Build menu in order to build your selected project. If you click Build, and the External Dependencies folder has no changes in it, you will get a message reporting that your project is up to date. Alternatively, you could select the source files that include the changed dependencies, and click Compile from the shortcut menu in order to explicitly build those files. After those files have been built, click Build from the Build menu to build the project.
The following two exclusion files are referenced:
SYSINCL.DAT
Contains a default list of system include files, is installed by the setup program on your computer in the directory in which you installed MSDEV.EXE.
MSVCINCL.DAT
A text file that you can create and put in your Windows directory. You can list in it additional files that you want to exclude, such as headers for external class libraries or some of the include files in a large project. You should use this file for additions because SYSINCL.DAT may be overwritten if you reinstall Visual C++, if you modify your installation with Setup, or if you update your installation. If you use the text editor to create this file, you must exit and then restart it for the file to become effective.
Whenever you close the Files Into Project dialog box, the files in your project are scanned for dependencies. Any files found that are not already explicitly added to the project are added to the Dependencies folder for each project you’ve added files to.
If you move or copy selections that include files in the External Dependencies folder, only the source files are moved or copied. Dependencies are updated before the project is built, however, and they appear in the appropriate folders.