Response Files

On the forums, someone was using the /INCLUDE option in VsInstr.exe.  It is possible to use multiple instances of this option to include different sets of functions.  For a big chunk of functions, you might want to use dozens of function specifications.  Who the heck wants to do all that typing?  You could make a batch file, but a response file would be better.

Response files are text files where each line in the file is a single command line option.  Since each line holds exactly one option, quotes are not necessary.  They are much easier to edit than a batch file (which would have single, really long line).  To use a response file, simply use @filename on the command line of the tool.  For example:

VsPerfCmd /start:sample "/output:c:\Documents and Settings\AngryRichard\foo.vsp" "/user:NETWORK SERVICE"

can be turned into a response file like this:

Startup.rsp:

/start:sample
/output:c:\Documents and Settings\AngryRichard\foo.vsp
/user:NETWORK SERVICE

VsPerfCmd @Startup.rsp

All of the command line tools for the profiler accept response files.  It beats all that error prone typing, and if you run scenarios from the command line a lot, it can pay to have some response files laying about for common scenarios.