I have a functional 3.6.1 build. If I wish to upgrade to 3.6.2 and later bug-fix releases, do I need to start each build from scratch, or are there any steps I can take to expedite the building process?
I assume you are building from the Blender source code. In which case, you will probably be on the blender-v3.6-release branch.
When things are backported to 3.6.X, they will be added to the blender-v3.6-release branch. You should be able to “pull” (download) the latest changes with git pull with the command line in the Blender source code directory, then just run make again. Typically only the areas that have been impacted by the recent changes will be re-built resulting in a faster build than just doing it from scratch.
Occasionally there will be changes (typically with cmake files) that can cause build errors. And it’s just easier to rebuild from scratch again in that case. Note: This is more common if you’re following the “main” branch of Blender, or switching from one major version to another (E.G. 3.5 → 3.6)
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When I build Blender, I run make full nobuild so that I can change a couple of things in CmakeCache.txt. After that I run rebuild.
Will these commands also preserve work done on the previous build (reducing subsequent versions build times) or will they overwrite everything causing the new version to be built from scratch?
I ask because I always delete the \blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc16_Release folder after copying out the compiled Blender thinking it might cause problems with future versions.
If you delete the \blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc16_Release folder, nothing is preserved, and next time you run it, it’ll build from scratch.
Thank you for clearing that up! I’ll keep the folder and try going through the process once 3.6.3 is ready.