Eclipse Embedded CDT

A family of Eclipse CDT extensions and tools for GNU Arm & RISC-V development

Build prerequisites

Install & Configure Eclipse

Install Git for Windows

On Windows, the git command is available in the Git for Windows package.

It also comes with a minimal POSIX environment. To access it, start the bash.exe program.

Install SourceTree

For a convenient access to Git, it is recommended to install SourceTree, available for macOS and Windows.

For GNU/Linux, either use the GitKraken, or directly the command line Git.

Install Java

Install the latest Oracle JDK 1.8 available (currently 221); JRE is not enough, without JDK you will not be able to run debug sessions.

Note: OpenJDK 12 fails; apparently OpenJDK 9 introduced some subtle changes and the old Maven builds fail.

Prepare folders

  • in a place of you choice, create a folder gnu-mcu-eclipse.github
  • inside it create a folder develop.

Install Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers

This instance of Eclipse will be used for actual development. The latest version known to work is 2018-12.

  • go to Eclipse download site and follow the download packages link
  • download Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers, preferably the 64-bit version (for example eclipse-committers-2018-12-R-macosx-cocoa-x86_64)
  • unpack the archive
  • on macOS, remove the com.apple.quarantine attribute:
$ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine Eclipse.app
  • move it to .../gnu-mcu-eclipse.github/develop
  • rename Eclipse.app to Eclipse-committers-2018-12.app (similarly for other platforms)

Notes:

  • Oxygen 3a fails on JDK 10 or higher with missing javax/annotation/PostConstruct (533390)
  • Photon fails to build 2018-12 (4.10) with OpenJDK 12

Start the new Eclipse

  • in the .../gnu-mcu-eclipse.github/develop folder create a new workspace named eclipse-committers-2018-12-workspace (note: be sure you create the workspace where you need it to be, since moving later is generally not supported by Eclipse; if you need this, preferably create a new workspace)
  • check Use this as default…
  • check if you installed the right Eclipse; go to the Eclipse menu → Help (Eclipse on macOS) → About Eclipse and the first line should read Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers

Set Java 1.8 as default

  • in the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences → Java → Installed JREs
    • Add → Standard VM
      • JRE Home: select the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_221.jdk/Contents/Home folder
      • JRE name: jdk 1.8 221
    • click the Apply button
  • in the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences → Java → Compiler
    • Compiler compliance level: select 1.8
    • click the Apply button

Install CDT plug-ins

  • Help → Install New Software
    • Work with: 2018-12 - http://download.eclipse.org/releases/2018-12
      • In Application Development Framework
        • optional Eclipse Project SDK
      • In Mobile and Device Development
        • select C/C++ GCC Cross Compile Support
        • select C/C++ GDB Hardware Debugging
        • select C/C++ Memory View Enhancements
      • In Programming Languages
        • optional C/C++ Autotools
        • select C/C++ Development Tools
        • select C/C++ Development Tools SDK
        • optional C/C++ Docker Container Launch Support
        • optional C/C++ LLVM-Family
        • optional C/C++ Unit Testing Support
      • click the Next button
      • accept the terms of the license agreement
      • click the Finish button
    • wait for the new plug-ins to be installed (in background, see status line)
  • restart

Note: without the CDT sources available in the SDK, the extension point schemas will not be available so attempts to add new elements to the extensions will not be possible, and only ‘Generic’ elements will be offered.

Install base API

  • go to http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/downloads.php, and download cdt-9.2.1.zip (for compatibility with Eclipse 4.6 Neon.3)
  • unpack the archive
  • move the new folder to in the develop folder
  • in the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences → Plug-in Development → Target Platform
    • click the Add… button
    • select Nothing: Start with an empty target
    • Next
      • Enter name: 9.2.1 Neon
      • click Add… → Directory → Next >
      • click Browse… → cdt-9.2.1
      • click the Finish button
    • click the Reload button
    • click the Finish
  • enable only the Running Platform as Active (mandatory!)
  • click Apply and Close

Selecting the running platform is required when starting Eclipse to Run or Debug, without it the core plug-ins will not be available.

  • in the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences → Plug-in Development → API Baselines
    • click the Add Baseline… button
    • select A target platform
      • Enter name: 9.2.1 Neon
      • enable 9.2.1 Neon
      • click the Refresh button
      • click the Finish button
  • click Apply and Close

Create and configure the workspace

  • change the workspace preferences
    • go to the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences…
    • General → Workspace
      • enable Refresh on access
      • set Text file encoding: UTF-8
      • click the Apply button
    • General → Editors → Text Editors
      • enable Show Print Margin (80)
      • enable Show Line Numbers
      • click the Apply button
    • General → Editors → File Associations
      • click Add and add *.inf, *.sh, *.command, *.ini, *.liquid, *.launch
      • for each, click the Add button in the Associate editors area
      • associate with the Text Editor
      • click the Apply and Close button
    • go to the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences…
    • Run/Debug → Console
      • disable Limit console output
      • click the Apply button
    • Java → Editor → Folding
      • disable Header Comments
      • disable Imports
      • click the Apply button
    • XML → XML Files → Editor
      • Line width 72
      • enable Split multiple attributes…
      • disable Align final bracket…
      • enable Preserve whitespace in tags with PCDATA content
      • enable Clear all blank lines
      • disable Format comments
      • enable Insert whitespace before closing…
      • enable Indent using tabs
      • click the Apply button
    • click the Apply and Close button

Install several Eclipse CDT instances

These separate instances of Eclipse will be used to test the plug-in.

Go to Eclipse download site and follow the download packages link.

Eclipse CDT 2019-06

From Eclipse download packages install Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers.

  • download Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers (eclipse-cpp-2019-06-R-macosx-cocoa-x86_64.dmg)
  • unpack the archive into the develop folder
  • on macOS, remove the com.apple.quarantine attribute:
$ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine Eclipse.app
  • rename Eclipse.app to Eclipse-cdt-2019-06.app
  • start Eclipse, use an workspace named eclipse-committers-photon-workspace
  • enable Use this as the default
  • in the Eclipse menu → (Window →) Preferences → C/C++ → Appearance
    • disable Show source roots at top of project
    • click the Apply and Close
  • in Project Explorer, click the down pointing triangle → Filters and Customizations…
    • disable .* resources
    • click the OK button

Clone the repositories

On Unix systems, the recommended method is using a command line:

$ cd .../gnu-mcu-eclipse.github
$ git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/gnu-mcu-eclipse/eclipse-plugins.git eclipse-plugins.git
$ git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/gnu-mcu-eclipse/org.eclipse.epp.packages.git org.eclipse.epp.packages.git

On Windows, the git command is available in the Git for Windows package, it should have been installed from the first step.

Import the projects

In the commiters Eclipse, import projects using the generic importer:

  • Eclipse menu → Project
    • disable Build Automatically
  • Eclipse menu → File → Import
  • Select
    • General → Existing Projects into Workspace
    • click Next
  • Import Projects
    • Root Directory: .../gnu-mcu-eclipse.github/eclipse-plugins.git
    • enable Search for nested projects
    • disable Copy projects into workspace
    • disable Add project(s) to working set
    • click Finish
  • Import Projects
    • Root Directory: .../gnu-mcu-eclipse.github/org.eclipse.epp.packages.git
    • enable Search for nested projects
    • disable Copy projects into workspace
    • disable Add project(s) to working set
    • click Finish

(From EPP disable most projects, except cpp & common)

Configure the working sets

In the Java Perspective, create Working Sets

  • down arrow → Top Level Elements → Working Sets
  • down arrow → Select Working Sets… → New…)
    • GNU MCU Eclipse plugins root (with the gnumcueclipse-plugins project)
    • GNU MCU Eclipse repositories (with the ilg.gnumcueclipse.repository project)
    • GNU MCU Eclipse EPP packages root (with the org.eclipse.epp* projects)
    • GNU MCU Eclipse features (with all *.feature projects)
    • GNU MCU Eclipse bundles (empty for now)
    • click the OK button

Create the Maven run configurations

To start the plug-ins Maven build from Eclipse

  • in the GNU MCU Eclipse plugins root set, select the gnumcueclipse-plugins project
  • Eclipse menu → Run → Run Configurations…
  • double click the Maven Build entry
  • Name: GME clean verify
  • in the Main tab
    • Base directory: click the Workspace… button and select the gnumcueclipse-plugins
    • Goals: clean verify
    • optionally, if warnings are issued, add a new parameter, name tycho.localArtifacts, value ignore
  • click the Apply button
  • in the JRE tab
    • select Execution environment JavaSE-1.8 (to ensure compatibility with older environments)
  • click the Apply button

To start the EPP Maven build from Eclipse

  • in the GNU MCU Eclipse EPP packages root set, select the org.eclipse.simrel project
  • Eclipse menu → Run → Run Configurations…
  • double click the Maven Build entry
  • Name: GME EPP clean verify -Pcpp
  • in the Main tab
    • Base directory: click the Workspace… button and select the org.eclipse.simrel
    • Goals: clean verify
    • Profiles: epp.package.cpp
  • click the Apply button
  • in the JRE tab
    • Execution environment JavaSE 8 (1.8.9_221)
  • click the Apply button

The project org.eclipse.epp.packages.git is a fork of https://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/epp/org.eclipse.epp.packages.git.

CDT Wiki

For more details, see https://wiki.eclipse.org/CDT, especially the Getting started with CDT development page.

Last modified on Mon Sep 23 15:15:35 2019 UTC.