I am starting to learn about CMake and have two questions:
1. Do I need to update the CMakeLists.txt file every time When I add a new file?
Assuming that the size of the project grows, the number of subdirectories and source files in the project will also increased greatly.
In such a case, I guess it is inconvenient to update the CMakelists.txt file whenever a new file or directory is added to the project.
Or is it part of the code management? How is it usually done?
2. In order to build a C Eclipse project(makefile) using CMake, should I write the CMakeList.txt manually?
There are many ways to import CMake projects into Eclipse, but I can't see how to build a C Eclipse project with CMake.
Do I need to update the CMakeLists.txt file every time When I add a new file?
CMake, like GNU make, allows to use wildcards to specify source files.
However, it's good practice to explicitly list files to build, in order to avoid silly mistakes (due, for example, to missing or unexpected files in source directory).
When file list becomes large, build definition files (like CMakeLists.txt) may be split into multiple files.
In order to build a / C Eclipse project(makefile) / using CMake, Should I write CMakelist.txt manually?
I don't know aboud Eclipse, but many IDEs partially/completely automate CMakelists.txt creation. Maybe Eclipse has such a tool too.
Yes write your CMakeLists.txt manually. This can barely be automated, beside adding new header files. There is a way to include all *.h files, but it is not enouraged.
And add every new header file manually. C files are not needed. Adding header files should not happen ofen.
Writing your own CMakeLists.txt files is recommended (at least you understand how CMake works). However, for larger projects it makes sense to automate it. I decided to post my own CMake generator https://github.com/Aenteas/cmake-generator so anyone who wants to implement their customized version could adopt some ideas from here (as it is not likely that my generator would suit your needs perfectly).
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I can't navigate through a project in Eclipse (Oxygen.3a Release (4.7.3a) with CDT version 9.4.3.201802261533). The project is built successfully but I can't trace back many functions using ctrl+LMclick.
I tried fixing the problem from online resources, but many suggested modifying the entry of Preprocessor Include Paths, Macros etc, which my project does not even have. What is the reason behind this and how do I fix it?
For some reason, the next entry (C/C++ Include Paths and Symbols) shows that |Include path not found"
When I try to trace a function, I get the "Could not find symbol "xyz" in index". I have already tried rebuilding the indexer but it did not work for me.
In my experience, the absence of the Preprocessor Include Paths, Macros etc. preference page happens in newer versions of CDT when you select the new Makefile Project option in the new project wizard, whose description is
(Experimental) Create a new project that builds with the 'make' build
tool using CDT's new Core Build System.
I would avoid using this as it's experimental, and would select instead C Managed Build (or C++ Managed Build). On the next wizard page you can still make it a makefile project if you want.
I ran into this problem trying to use cmake4eclipse. I forgot to heed the warning in the help file, which explicitly state:
"Do not choose the New C/C++ project wizard, as that will take you down the road of CDT`s new project type (which has poor cmake support)."
What this means is that, for the entry to appear in an executable / library -type project (not Makefile project), you have to do this now:
File --> New --> Other...
Choose "C++ Project" (not "C/C++
Project") under the C/C++ category:
P.S. Also, I had to remake the folder and copy all the sources there, i.e. when I tried the old wizard on top of a "deleted" project, something didn't override correctly and I was still missing "Preprocessor Include Paths, ...". Deleting .cproject and .project files within the folder before recreating works too.
Depending on your project, you may need to include the path of the toolchain manually. It wasn't for me. So for my project I did the following:
Go to Project – Properties – C/C++ Include Paths and add there “C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools ARM Embedded\5.4 2016q3\arm-none-eabi\include” (change to fit your installation). Then refresh, clean and build the project. Finally, rebuild the indexer and this should work.
I have a project written in C; it has up to six sub-directories with .mk files, a make directory, at least one makefile, and Android.mk files.
I have used Android Studio, ndk, and JNI to build a project which compiles and runs. Now I want to port the above project into it. I have read all the GNU make manual, and know that I can include other make files. My question is would it be better to use gradle to include the make files above, and can I even do it? I have not read the gradle manual yet. It is my understanding that it is a build environment; I am not clear on what are it's differences / similarities with make. And if I can use it to complement make or I just have to pick one and go with it. I did have to edit it to get the JNI project working. My initial goal is to just run the make files in the native project in silent i.e. have them not produce any .o files and see what they do and validate that I am including them; then I want to include all the .c files and build .o files. I know I can do this with include statements in make file and since I have an Android.mk file in my project, I think I can do it through that. But I wonder if in the long run it is better to use gradle. What should I do please?
lets say i have a qt project file (*.pro) and related files under a versioning system (git). The project is multiplatform and developing is performed on a lot of different ones as well. Developmers are both progrmmers and not programmers (matematicians, ecc) so i'd like to keep things as easier as possible for the person who cloned it (eg: avoid env variables).
The project is dependent on other projects whose are in an non-standard folder in the developer platform.
So i need them to edit the project file INCLUDEPATH += "absolute-path-to-external-stuff"
Problem is i'd like to put this single line in a file to be included in the .gitignore (remove it from versioning once uploaded) so that one can freely edit it without editing others when pushing to repo.
Should i use .pri files (and how? it seems they only are ok in subdirectories, cant find a reference) or is there a better pattern?
You can use a .pri file for that — a .pri is just a file that gets include()d by a .pro file.
Create a file in the project root called config.pri, containing the INCLUDEPATH addition
Add include(config.pri) to your main project file
Add the config.pri to your .gitignore
In the long run, you might consider using pkg-config to manage dependencies, since it integrates nicely with qmake.
I am moving from Netbeans to Eclipse (on Ubuntu 12.0.4). I have a C application that consists of several sub projects which are libraries (shared and static), as well as stand alone executables.
I can't figure out how to create a 'parent' project foo, which contains component projects
foobar
foofoo
barfoo
barbar
Ideally, I want all the 'component projects' to be created under the folder foo, so that I have a directory structure like this:
/path/to/foo/foobar/ (contains foobar project files)
/path/to/foo/foofoo/ (contains foofoo project files)
/path/to/foo/barfoo/ (contains barfoo project files)
/path/to/foo/barbar/ (contains barbar project files)
Does anyone know how I can achieve this structure using Eclipse as IDE (with CDT)?
Last but not the least, I intend to create my C modules using the Autotools option. Will the generated files for Autotools be automatically updated as I add new header/source to a module - or do I need to manually maintain the Autotool files?
Friend,
I think there is no the "parent" C project. You can create a normal C project in IDE and add all dependencies into sub-folders. Then tell compiler your build procedure via Makefile. I think it's easy way as you have had experience on C application.
About autotools, once you update/add/remove your project file, I think you need to modify your Makefile to reflect your change and do clean and rebuild your project.
For other C build tools, you can use buildroot if you'd like.
The best way I can think to do this in eclipse is to create a separate workspace for the project e.g. foo, and then add the sub-projects (foobar, foofoo, etc...) as projects. This is generally a better approach to take with eclipse, instead of a single monolithic workspace. I don't know what the specific dependency structure for the sub-projects looks like, but you should be able to express it simply by using eclipse project properties. This can include a rollup executable sub-project that depends on the libraries.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if eclipse cdt will maintain autotools files. However if not, it should be relatively easy to integrate and use some of the autotools binaries such as autoscan, and autoheader into the eclipse build commands.
At first you need to a working directory, Then you should new project, Then per file or per class (according to C++ or C ) append your files, it's much safe way. another way is not clean, i have experience. don't use them.
I have an Eclipse project that I need to auto-generate some files before compiling it. I do not want to put this auto-generated files in my repository, so each time I compile the projetct I perform a pre-build to auto-generate this files.
The problem is that this auto-generated files are *.c and *.h files, and in the first time I compile the project, the following happens (in this order):
pre-build: auto-generate some *.c and *.h
build: eclipse will not build this auto-generated files
If I compile again, this files will be compiled. Maybe this is happening because of the discovery process of what files eclipse will compile. Before initing compilation, we do not have this auto-generated *.c and *.h files.
In the second time we compile, we already have this auto-generated files, so this files are compiled.
If you want full control over when exactly the custom build step takes place, which files need to be refreshed after it, the environment, the working directory etc.. do not specify it as a simple pre-build step. Go to the project properties -> Builders -> New... and choose "Program".
In the resulting dialog, you have much more control over the execution of your tool. For instance, you can make your tool run whenever the XML file is saved, and you can tell eclipse to refresh all the auto-generated files whenever it is run.
If I understand your question correctly, it seems that building your project the first time will auto-generate the necessary *.c and *.h source files, but the project will fail to fully build because these source files are not found immediately. After a small delay, Eclipse recognizes that there are new files added to the project and you can then build a second time and everything will proceed normally. Does that sound about right?
Assuming this is the case, my immediate thought is to write some sort of script or makefile so that all of these actions can take place in the proper order, with a single action. Depending on how dirty you want to get your hands, here's a link ;)
http://help.eclipse.org/galileo/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.cdt.doc.user/concepts/cdt_c_makefile.htm