Partial Rebuild of DataBase after New Commits

[KseniiaSmirn0va]

Hello,
Is there a way to reduce time a new database is built after commits? Sometimes there is no need to rebuild a full database from scratch, when no more than a couple of files have been edited, for instance

[redsun82]

👋 @KseniiaSmirn0va the capability you're talking about is kind of being developed internally as we speak, but with some caveats:

• we are currently mainly aiming for integration into code scanning on GitHub PRs for this
• there's currently no documentation for this feature, and while it is somewhat usable from the CLI (hidden behind the "wizards only" flags --overlay-base and --overlay-changes flags to codeql database create) we don't recommend using it just yet and we can't really offer support for it at this time.
• your request is definitely valid. If your concern is about database creation time for GitHub PR checks, we will have you covered hopefully soon. If on the other side your concern is about creation of databases with the CLI, this might get covered at some point as a byproduct of our efforts for GitHub PRs, but we can't currently commit to a road map.

[KseniiaSmirn0va]

@redsun82 Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I'm interested in CLI database creation, so I need to try --overlay-base and --overlay-changes flags. Is there anything wrong in the way they rebuild/recreate the database so that they are not recommended?

[redsun82]

Mostly it's bleeding edge functionality that may break on any particular language as of yet, and that we can't really document as it may change in the future. Also, alert precision may go slightly down when using an overlay database.