What exactly is 'Building'?

Question

In IDEs, you can compile source code into machine code. You can debug a program, which means stepping through the program and looking for errors. But what does building a program achieve? In VS, I'm aware that when you build a program it produces an executable file in a debug folder.

Answer 1

This does not necessarily bear on what humans mean about 'build', but as far as MSBuild 2.0 is concerned, the code in Microsoft.Common.targets describes it thusly:

...
<!--
============================================================
                                    Build

The main build entry point.
============================================================
-->
<PropertyGroup>
    <BuildDependsOn>
        BeforeBuild;
        CoreBuild;
        AfterBuild
    </BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target
    Name="Build"
    Condition=" '$(_InvalidConfigurationWarning)' != 'true' "
    DependsOnTargets="$(BuildDependsOn)"
    Outputs="$(TargetPath)"/>

<!--
============================================================
                                    BeforeBuild

Redefine this target in your project in order to run tasks just before Build
============================================================
-->
<Target Name="BeforeBuild"/>

<!--
============================================================
                                    AfterBuild

Redefine this target in your project in order to run tasks just after Build 
============================================================
-->
<Target Name="AfterBuild"/>

<!--
============================================================
                                    CoreBuild

The core build step calls each of the build targets.
============================================================
-->
<PropertyGroup>
    <CoreBuildDependsOn>
          BuildOnlySettings;
          PrepareForBuild;
          PreBuildEvent;
          UnmanagedUnregistration;
          ResolveReferences;
          PrepareResources;
          ResolveKeySource;
          Compile;
          GenerateSerializationAssemblies;
          CreateSatelliteAssemblies;
          GenerateManifests;
          GetTargetPath;
          PrepareForRun;
          UnmanagedRegistration;
          IncrementalClean;
          PostBuildEvent
    </CoreBuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target
    Name="CoreBuild"
    DependsOnTargets="$(CoreBuildDependsOn)">

    <OnError ExecuteTargets="_TimeStampAfterCompile;PostBuildEvent" Condition="'$(RunPostBuildEvent)'=='Always' or '$(RunPostBuildEvent)'=='OnOutputUpdated'"/>
    <OnError ExecuteTargets="_CleanRecordFileWrites"/>

</Target>
...

which suggests that 'build' mean roughly "compile plus all the associated auxiliary events that get you from code artifacts to a deployable result".