Profiles can be used to determine which sets of steps to build.

 

Each step can have a profile value, which is matched with the build profile.  If both the build profile and step profile are empty, the step will be included in the build (if checked and build rules don't exclude it from building).  If the build profile is not empty, only steps with an empty profile or a profile value that matches the build profile (see below) will be built.  If a step with a non-empty profile does not match and is excluded from building, any child steps with an empty profile will also be excluded.

 

The build profile or the step profile can be a literal string or regular expression (for instance, Debug.* to match all step profiles beginning with Debug, .* to match all, Release|Debug to match either the Debug or Release profile, etc.).  If the build profile and step profile are identical, the step will be built.  If the build profile is a regular expression, any step profile string that matches the expression will be built, or if the step profile is a regular expression, any build profile value string that matches the step profile will result in the step being built.  Comparisons are not case-sensitive.  A single asterisk (*) can also be used as a wildcard to match all profile values.

 

The Build toolbar contains a drop-down field for defining the build profile (which corresponds to the _BUILD_PROFILE_ temporary macro).  The build profile can also be defined on the command-line when calling a project.