# Why is incremental compilation taking so long in the install step?

**URL:** <https://ziggit.dev/t/why-is-incremental-compilation-taking-so-long-in-the-install-step/17857>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** compiler\
**Created:** [October 5, 2026, 6:46pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/why-is-incremental-compilation-taking-so-long-in-the-install-step/17857 "2026-10-05T18:46:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![IntegratedQuantum](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/integratedquantum/32/782_2.png) [@IntegratedQuantum](https://ziggit.dev/u/IntegratedQuantum)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 6:46pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/why-is-incremental-compilation-taking-so-long-in-the-install-step/17857/1 "2026-10-05T18:46:50Z")

</div>

I noticed that unlike what gets shown in the terminal (around 33 ms), the actual time feels more like half a second, and indeed when looking at it with --time-report I can see  
 ![Screenshot at 2026-10-05 20-40-32](https://ziggit.dev/uploads/default/original/2X/9/926df27041d65ef0766c17191d772cb47d7721e7.png)

What’s the install step even doing, apart from copying the output binary to the install location? How can that be so slow?

In my build.zig it also only depends on the exe installArtifact:

```zig
const installExe = b.addInstallArtifact(exe, exeInstallOptions);
b.getInstallStep().dependOn(&installExe.step);

```