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Using the Eclipse IDE for C and CPP Developers, Howto

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Martine S. Lenders edited this page Oct 30, 2019 · 27 revisions

This brief howto is meant as a quick guidance to start developing using RIOT-OS and eclipse. It should give at least a hint how to start developing with eclipse. Right now this howto is focused on the native and the stm32f4discovery board.

Prerequisites

Before we start it is assumed that:

  • the OS used for development is equipped with a working and somehow current GCC toolchain (native)
  • the OS used for development is equipped with the recommended or somehow current gcc-arm-none-eabi cross toolchain (stm32f4discovery)
  • the RIOT GIT-repository have been cloned, (head over to the quick started guide if you're uncertain how to obtain the RIOT source)
  • and the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers is installed/available
Please note, for this tutorial:

1. Setup the eclipse IDE for RIOT development

  1. We start the eclipse IDE and switch to the workbench
  2. There we create a new Makefile project with existing code by clicking on: File→New→Makefile Project with Existing Code
  3. The Toolchain and indexer Settings window shows up asking for the directory containing the source and the Makefile
  4. we select the main directory of RIOT and choose:
  • for native the Linux GCC
  • for stm32f4discovery <none>
  1. finally we click on Finish

2. Preparing variables

  1. We select the RIOT project in the Project explorer and click the Project→Properties menu
  2. There we select Build Variables and click on Add... opening the Define a New Variable window
  3. Using a speaking Variable Name:, e.g. RIOT_PROJECT, we set the Value: to examples/hello-world
  4. We create another variable, RIOT_BOARD, with stm32f4discovery OR native as value (i.e. the actual used board for development)
  5. We Apply the changes and click OK

3. Preparing ARM cross compilation

  1. Installing GNU MCU Eclipse Plug-ins (formerly GNU Arm Eclipse)

  2. We click on Help→Eclipse Marketplace, which opens an Eclipse Marketplace window

  3. In the Find: field we type GNU MCU Eclipse and press enter

  4. We select GNU MCU Eclipse and click Next > presenting us the Install details

  5. After checking them we click Next >, presenting us the Review Licenses view

  6. To install the plug-ins we accept the Eclipse Foundation Software User Agreement(s) and click Finish

  7. Setting up the the ARM cross toolchain

  8. We select the RIOT project in the Project explorer and click the Project→Properties menu

  9. In the new Properties for RIOT window we select Tool Chain Editor

  10. There we uncheck the Display compatible toolchains only

  11. and select the Cross ARM GCC from the Current toolchain: dropdown menu * Please restart eclipse, if Cross ARM GCC is not available

  12. We click on Settings and set the Global path to the bin folder of the toolchain * e.g. /home/user/Development/toolchains/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2014q1/bin

  13. Then we Apply the changes and click OK

4. Setup our environment

  1. We select the RIOT project in the Project explorer and click the Project→Properties menu
  2. In the presented Properties for RIOT window select C/C++ Build
  3. we uncheck Use default build command,
  4. and add the previously specified RIOT_BOARD variable to our build
  • e.g. ${cross_make} BOARD=${RIOT_BOARD} (for stm32f4discovery and further ARM boards)
  • e.g. make BOARD=${RIOT_BOARD} (for native)
  1. Then we add the project path to the Build Location using the RIOT_PROJECT variable
  • e.g. ${workspace_loc:/RIOT}/${RIOT_PROJECT}
  1. For debugging on native we append all-debug as build command additionally
  • i.e. make BOARD=${RIOT_BOARD} all-debug
  1. Then we Apply the changes and click OK

5. Setting up paths and symbols for the project

  1. We open a terminal and switch to to the location of the RIOT project
  • e.g. cd /home/user/Development/RIOT/examples/hello-world
  1. Now we create a configuration .xml file for eclipse by typing:
  • make BOARD=stm32f4discovery eclipsesym
    • Note: the set BOARD should be the same as set for the ${RIOT_BOARD} variable in eclipse before.
  1. Now we import the generated configuration file in our eclipse project
  • We open the project properties, menu Project→Properties
  • Then select C/C++ General→Paths and Symbols
    • (optionally) we click Restore Defaults to delete any existing macros and include paths
  • We Click on Import Settings... and
  • Select the generated eclipsesym.xml located in our application directory and press Finish
  • We rebuild the C/C++ index to teach eclipse the new paths and symbols using Project→C/C++ Index→Rebuild

Note: the settings in eclipsesym.xml are specific for the selected project and BOARD.
If you start to develop another project or want to use additional compile time options these 3 steps must be repeated.

After setting the project properties we hit Project→Build All to build the project

6. Setting Run/Debug parameters for our specific project (native)

  1. We click on Run→Run Configurations... which opens the Run Configurations window
  2. There we add a new launch configuration (if not already present)
  3. Now we adjust the C/C++ application: path to the just built executable, relative from the RIOT main folder:
  • i.e. examples/hello-world/bin/native/hello-world.elf
  1. We click the Apply button and if everything went right,
  2. hitting the Run button executes our built project

Repeat the setup for Debug Configurations if not applied automatically by Eclipse, to enable debugging.

7. Code Convention

To aviod a lot of editing it is advisable to adjust the Formatter setting. First read this this post abd change the configuration to match.

A basic configuration setting is provided here. No guarantee for correctness.

  1. Download the file and set it via Project→Properties→C/C++ General→Formatter
  2. Check Enable projekt specific settings
  3. Press the Import Button and load the downloaded file.
  4. Press OK

This should help to get eclipse help you formatting the code as supposed.

8. Setting Run/Debug tools for our specific project (stm32f4discovery)

We create two external tools in order to flash and to initialize the debugger on the board. If they are launched too many times it can sometimes generate conflicts, so we create two tools to clean them.

#####Notes: Some tools need you to be sudo user so Eclipse asks you for your password. To handle this, we need to create/update this file: /etc/sudo.conf

# Path to askpass helper program 
Path askpass /usr/bin/ssh-askpass

( For all next commands details, please read firstly this page Getting started with STM32F[0|3|4]discovery boards )

1) Run settings

1) Flashing:
  1. Now back to Eclipse, we click on Run→External Tools→External Tools Configurations...
  2. In the new window we create a new configuration for flashing using a speaking Name: (e.g. STM32-Flash)
  3. We fill Location: with /usr/bin/sudo
  4. Then we can execute the next command as sudo user and so we fill Arguments with
    • -A st-flash write ${workspace_loc:/RIOT}/examples/hello-world/bin/stm32f4discovery/hello-world.hex 0x8000000
  5. We can also disable the checkbox Build before launch in the Build tab
  6. We Apply the changes and Close the window
2) Run configurations:
  1. We click on Run Configurations in the Run tab
  2. In the new window we create a new configuration, Name: (e.g. STM32)
  3. We can enable the checkbox Disable auto build to avoid compiling each time we run
  4. We fill C/C++ Application: with /usr/bin/sudo
  5. Then we can execute the next command as sudo user and so in the Arguments tab, we fill Program arguments with
    • -A ${workspace_loc:/RIOT}/dist/tools/pyterm/pyterm -p /dev/ttyUSB1
    • Please note that the serial number of ttyUSB* depends on your configuration
  6. We Apply the changes and Close the window
3) Stop running:
  1. We create another tool in External Tools Configurations
  2. In the new window we create a new configuration using a speaking Name: (e.g. Stop STM32)
  3. We fill Location: with /usr/bin/sudo
  4. Then we can execute the next command as sudo user and so we fill Arguments with
    • -A pkill python (Please note that this will also kill all process that use python)
  5. We can also disable the checkbox Build before launch in the Build tab
  6. We Apply the changes and Close the window

2) Debug settings

1) Debug initializing:
  1. We create another tool in External Tools Configurations
  2. In the new window we create a new configuration using a speaking Name: (e.g. Init STM32-Debug )
  3. We fill Location: with /usr/bin/sudo
  4. Then we can execute the next command as sudo user and so we fill Arguments with
    • -A st-util
  5. We can also disable the checkbox Build before launch in the Build tab
  6. We Apply the changes and Close the window
2) Debug configurations:
  1. We click on Debug Configurations in the Run tab
  2. In the new window we create a new GDB Hardware Debugging configuration, Name: (e.g. STM32-Debug)
  3. We can enable the checkbox Disable auto build to avoid compiling each time we run
  4. We fill C/C++ Application: with ${workspace_loc:/RIOT}/examples/hello-wolrd/bin/stm32f4discovery/hello-world.elf
  5. We provide to Eclipse our debugger in the Debugger tab:
  • We fill GDB Command with the path of the ARM GDB e.g. /home/user/Development/toolchains/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2014q1/bin/arm-none-eabi-gdb
  • We specify in Port number 4242 because the "Init STM32-Debug" tool we created just before uses the port 4242
  1. We Apply the changes and Close the window
3) Clean Debug:
  1. We create another tool in External Tools Configurations
  2. In the new window we create a new configuration using a speaking Name: (e.g. Clean STM32-Debug)
  3. We fill Location: with /usr/bin/sudo
  4. Then we can execute the next command as sudo user and so we fill Arguments with
    • -A pkill st-util
  5. We can also disable the checkbox Build before launch in the Build tab
  6. We Apply the changes and Close the window

8. Final words

Now we can:

  1. select a project to be build using the RIOT_PROJECT variable
  • e.g. examples/hello-world
  1. select a target board using the RIOT_BOARD variable
  • e.g. native
  1. compile the desired project hitting Project→Build All
  2. specific to native:
  • setup the C/C++ application: path (cf. 6)
  • Run the compiled code
  • Debug the compiled code
  1. specific to stm32f4discovery:
  • Run
    • flash the codeimage on the stm32f4discovery using Run→External Tools→STM32-Flash
    • Run the compiled code
    • stop running using Run→External Tools→Stop STM32 (You can also click on the red square, but note that it can generate conflicts)
  • Debug
    • flash the codeimage on the stm32f4discovery using Run→External Tools→STM32-Flash
    • to avoid some conflicts, we advise to stop the past initialization of some debuggers using Run→External Tools→Clean STM32-Debug
    • initialize the debugger using Run→External Tools→Init STM32-Debug
    • Debug the compiled code using Run→Debug History→STM32-Debug (sometimes we need to launch it a few times to make it run)
This howto ends here for now. I hope it was somehow helpful. So, Happy RIOT-ing!
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