Whenever I start a new project, I have to go through setting up the debugger with Eclipse time and time again before I can use it. Isn't there a default setting for all new C projects I can change?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "setting up the debugger" (perhaps you can clarify), but under "Preferences -> Run/Debug -> Launching -> Default Launchers" you should be able to select your preferred launcher for different kind of launch modes. This can also be selected individually for each launch configuration.
Typically it is up to the toolchain and/or project to determine which debugger/launcher is suitable to use for that specific project, but I know there is a bug in CDT which prevents toolchains from properly specifying the default launcher to use.
I only use Eclipse for Java, so I can't give you an authoritative answer. But since no one else seems to be answering:
Java projects have a (more or less) hidden file in the project directory called .project and another one called .settings . I'm not sure if this would apply to the C environment as well, but it seems likely. You may want to look at the set of such "hidden" files for a well set up project and a virginal project side by side to find out which settings make the difference.
Given that information, you may be able to simply edit (perhaps with some assistance from a script you can write yourself) the file(s) in question to do the configuration textually without a lot of mouse clicking.
Related
Trying out the Clion EAP on the Mac. How does one change the current working directory for a launched program? It appears to be set to the output directory of the binaries.
This can be changed via the Run -> Edit Configurations... dialog, just like Idea.
The mix of needing to make changes to CMakeLists.txt for so much of the configuration just threw me, and I've been hunting for a way to change it there, but this bit at least is consistent with the other IDEs, which is good.
Hopefully they'll improve the rest of the Project Settings in a similar fashion.
The "Working Directory" is where the executable starts. Modifying the "Working Directory" in the Configurations setting tells Clion to change to the "Working Directory" after the executable starts execution.
If you want to change where the executable starts execution you will need to add a line to the CMakesLists.txt file.
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
add_executable(TimeServer ${SOURCE_FILES})
Position in the cmakes file is important. If you add the set command after the add_executable it will not work. It must come before.
These answers are relatively old. Not sure when the feature was added but there's a very nice UI way to set the current working directory now.
I made a YouTube tutorial for my COSC1030 (Beginning C++) students but the solution is the same for everyone:
https://youtu.be/dTtZEAfh_LM
If you know your CLion fairly well and don't need a demo, here's a short-hand version: Edit Configurations (from drop-down menu at top right of screen), enter the directory you want to use in Working Directory or select via "..." pop-up.
I've downloaded VS2017 Community Edition and I'm working through "Programming in C" by Stephen G. Kochan.
I'd like to store all the examples in one project (possibly 1 project per chapter), however I've come across the error about multiple "main" files in one project. Before telling me I can't have multiple main's in a project, could you suggest the best way to organise these small C programs in VS2017.
I love the fact that I don't have to use a terminal compiler and would like to use VS2017 to work my way through the book.
Any suggestions?
A typical case of "assignments" in a course. In that case you can create one module (c file) for each assignment and call the current assignment from your main. Now you have all assignments in a single project, so you can easily look them up. Assignments completed you can comment-out.
I don't think you really want them all in one project. I think you want them all in one Solution, with each example in its own Project. That way you can switch between projects in the IDE and build/run/debug whichever one you are working on at the time.
Add a new project to your solution by right-clicking the solution in Solution Explorer and selecting Add->New Project from the menu.
Set the active project by right-clicking the project in Solution Explorer and choose "Set as startup project" from the menu.
This allows you to build each example on its own, or build all of them at once. Each project is self-contained and generates its own executable, and you can navigate around from one project to another inside the IDE.
You can compile and run your C files individually from command line.
This is not ideal when using an IDE.
Your other option is to use add_executable command in cmake
Adds an executable target called to be built from the source
files listed in the command invocation. The corresponds to the
logical target name and must be globally unique within a project. The
actual file name of the executable built is constructed based on
conventions of the native platform (such as .exe or just
).
I have mostly used kate, vim etc to code and just pure console and gdb (rarely) to test. I want to start using eclipse, mainly for ease of looking up stuff, and hopefully (while not super important,) run the GUI debugger.
However, I don't want eclipse to touch my real project folders (it should change the code, obviously, but don't want it to create any configuration folders etc). Is that possible? I was thinking to create a workspace on a different folder, and add sources from my project path. But this seem to be complicated without any experience with eclipse when handling Makefiles etc!
Anyone has done something similar? any guidelines?
Yes, this is fairly straightforward. Instead of creating a standard C Project that creates and manages makefiles for you, use the "Makefile Project with Existing Code" instead.
If you don't want the .cproject, .project, etc files intermixed, create the CDT project in an empty directory and use Linked Files and Folders to pull in what you do want in the project.
If you do try to do a Build within Eclipse it will do "make all", but if you don't have a Makefile you get this (same for clean):
make all
make: *** No rule to make target `all'. Stop.
What I have done is for projects that don't have a make equivalent (like CPython extension) is to write a trivial Makefile that delegates all and clean targets to my real tool.
Once you have the project created, you will need to configure it to get all the goodness of CDT. The CDT Indexer and Scanner needs to know about your compiler settings (includes and defines really). There are two ways of delivering that information:
Run a verbose build (i.e. with gcc command line arguments echoed) from within Eclipse (e.g. use trivial Makefile described above). CDT will parse that output and automatically pick up compiler options used.
There are a number of ways that CDT can learn about what your settings are, to configure how they are picked up, head to project properties -> C/C++ General -> Preprocessor Include Paths, Macros etc. and adjust the sources in the Providers tab:
In the project properties, edit the C/C++ General -> Paths and Symbols properties. You may have to do this if CDT cannot determine all your settings in Step 1 too. This is a screenshot of some of those settings:
I make a fair amount portable Apps for personal use and they work perfectly for the most part. I do, however, find it quite frustrating that if I run them on another computer none of my preferences are retained, as a program always looks in appData for the configuration files (which obviously don't exist on another system), so I'm wondering whether there is some kind of command line to launch an .exe with a custom .ini location.
I'm asking this firstly because Google has proved fruitless (once again) and secondly because I know it's possible - I've actually done this before, but with only one of my Apps. I accomplished this by launching the App via the command programFile.exe -f configFile.ini /s (I have also seen programFile.exe -d -f configFile.ini /s elsewhere). Naturally, I thought I would try to apply this to some other Apps but it seems it only works for that particular App.
So, is there a command/switch that I am unaware of that will do this for an .exe file?
Thanks
It really depends on each executable file you are using. Some have support for what you are looking for, and some don't. Some programs don't even use .ini files. What you should look for is if each and every program you use have support for user data custom location.
Edit
The only case where generic arguments would be avaialble for a group of EXE files is if they are generated with the same tool, which automatically provides these arguments for you. InstallShield and MSI install programs have that kind of feature (with the silent install and automated installation for instance).
I suggest you look into the tool you are using to generate your portable Apps, and see if it does provide those generic arguments for you, and how they work. If it does not have that feature, then look into the Apps you were able to specify a custom location for your INI file. Somewhere into the code, there must be a piece of code that handles the arguments you specify to the EXE file and handles them. You should share that piece of code with your other Apps, to make sure they provide the same arguments list.
Which configuration management tool is the best for FPGA designs, specifically Xilinx FPGA's programmed with VHDL and C for the embedded (microblaze) software?
There isn't a "best", but configuration control solutions that work for software will be OK for FPGAs - the flow is very similar. I use Subversion at work and git at home, and wrote a little on 'why' at my blog.
In other answers, binary files keep getting mentioned - the only binary files I deal with are compilation products (equivalent to software object and executables), so I don't keep them in the version control repository, I keep a zipfile for each release/tag that I create with all the important (and irritatingly slow to reproduce) ones in.
I don't think it much matters what revision control tool you use -- anything that you would consider good in general will probably be OK here. I personally use Git for a sizable Verilog + software project, and I'm quite happy with it.
What will bite you in the ass -- no matter what version control you use -- is this: The Xilinx tools don't generally respect a clean division between "input" and "output" or between (human edited) "source" and (opaque) "binary." Many of the tools like to store some state information, like a last-run time or a hash value, in their "input" files meaning that you'll get lots of false changes. Coregen does this to its .xco files, and project navigator (the main GUI) does this to its .xise files. Also, both tools have a habit of inserting or removing lines for default-valued parameters, seemingly at random.
The biggest issue I've encountered is the work-flow with Coregen: In many cases, at least one of the following is true:
You have to manually edit the HDL files produced by Coregen.
The parameters that went into Coregen are stored somewhere other than the .xco file (usually in what looks like an output file).
You have to copy-and-paste the output from Coregen into your top-level design.
This means that there is no single logical source/master location for your input to the core-generating process. So even if you have the .xco file under version control, there's no expectation that the design you're running corresponds to it. If you re-generate "the same" core from its nominal inputs, you probably won't get the right outputs. And don't even think about merging.
I suggest CM tools that support version labeling and binary files. Most Software CM applications are fine with ASCII text files. They may just store a "difference" file rather than the entire file for updates.
My recommendations: PVCS, ClearCase and Subversion. DO NOT USE Microsoft SourceSafe. I don't like it because it only supports one label per revision.
I've seen Perforce and Subversion used in a couple of FPGA-intensive companies.
We use Perforce, and its great. You can have your code that lives in Linux-land checked in side-by-side with your Specs and Docs that live in Windows-land. And you get branching, labels, etc.
I've seen everything from Clearcase to RCS used, and it is really all okay for this kind of thing. The important thing is to get a good set of check-in policies established for your group, and make sure they stick to it.
And have automated nightly regressions. That way, when someone breaks the rules, they can be identified and publicly shamed.
I have personally used Perforce, Subverion, git and ClearCase for FPGA projects. Since VHDL and C are just text files, any works fine. However be sure to capture the other project and contraint files and any libraries you use.
Also think about what to do with the outputs, e.g. log file and bitstreams. Both tend to be big and the bitstreams are binaries.
Previously I used Subversion but have switched to git two years ago. Git handles FPGA design files just as well as it handles every other text and binary file. Git is all you need for version controlling your files and artifacts.
For building the designs, I recommend just using a single ISE project called "ise" (living in a subdirectory called "ise/"). You can take a look at my (very modest) FPGA open-source project on github for the file layout. I don't bother storing the ISE files at all since they are easy to regenerate. The only things I save are the Verilog files and some ISIM waveform config files. In other projects that use coregen I save the coregen.cgp project file and all of the *.xco scripts for regenerating cores. Then I use a Makefile for actually running coregen on the *.xco files. There are a few other Xilinx-specific files you should version control too: *.ucf, *.coe, *.xcf, etc.
I experimented with using Makefiles and the Xilinx command-line tools but found that ISE did a much better job tracking dependencies and calling the tools with the right arguments. Just don't make the mistake of trying to version control your ise/ project files or you will go mad. Xilinx has something like 300 different file types which change every release. If you want to save a file, you can try the ISE project file itself with a .xise extension. Anything that is hard to recreate, like the golden bitfile that you know works and took 6 hours to build, you might want to copy that and configuration manage it explicitly.