#46 Change launch configuration defaults

[John Moule]

Hi Liviu,

I need to alter some of the default values in the GDB SEGGER J-Link Debugging > Startup tab. I see that defaults are defined in:

ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink.ConfigurationAttributes

For example I want to change the default for "Enable SWO." to false. I think its controlled with this:

ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink.ConfigurationAttributes.ENABLE_SWO_DEFAULT

However, without overriding the entire launch configuration dialog mechanism I'm not sure I know a way of changing these defaults. Any ideas?

cheers john

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

currently these defaults are constants in a file, and can not be changed externally.

any suggestions?

btw, enabling swo and not using it should not waste resources.

[John Moule]

I'm not really sure what to suggest. One needs a file that can be editted (text) to set the desired defaults, but which is read at runtime. What about a preference page, but without displaying the actual page. Then maybe the preferences could be changed by using the trick of setting them in the product's plugin_customization.ini - that's the only thing I can think of.

btw, enabling swo and not using it should not waste resources.

It was something asked by the customer so I'm simply investigating whether its possible.

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

I'm not sure it works like this, but if you 'rephrase' the suggestion as a functional patch, that does not affect the current functionality of the plug-in, I can evaluate it.

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

John, any progress on this?

[John Moule]

Hi Liviu,

No I haven't done any more with it. However, I was discussing it with a colleague the other day and we kicked around the idea of putting the values in a plugin.properties file, a bit like you get when you internationalize string values.

The idea being a product integrator (my company) could change the values in the plugin.properties without rebuilding the java. There would be a little bit of underlying work to enable us to get at the properties file, but it shouldn't be too hard.

If you are agreeable to the concept I could create a patch containing the idea?

cheers john

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

what about

eclipse/configuration/ilg.gnuarmeclipse.managedbuild.cross/toolchain.properties

do you think it is a good location for this file?

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

I think that the mechanism used to parse the preferences.ini can be used for these kind of preferences too.

now it is a bit too late for the current release, but I'll consider it for a future one.

another direction would be to use the definitions in the CMSIS packs, when available.

[John Moule]

Hi,
when you say preferences.ini do you mean this?

http://www.vogella.com/articles/EclipsePreferences/article.html#preferences_plugin.ini

If so that would be good for us.

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

yes, the kind of preferences that you can set via preferences.ini (stored in the plug-in folder), or plugin_customization.ini (stored in the product definition).

[John Moule]

That would be great if we could control them in the plugin_customization.ini!

[John Moule]

Hi,
I'm just trying to implement the jlink defaults feature described here:

http://gnuarmeclipse.livius.net/wiki/Ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink_defaults

I've set the following values in my plugin_customization.ini file for my product.

ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/gdb.server.executable.default=${jlink_path}/${jlink_gdbserver}
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/gdb.client.executable.default=${cross_prefix}gdb${cross_suffix}
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/interface.default=swd
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/enableSemihosting.default=true
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/enableSwo.default=false
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/jlink_path.default=${eclipse_home}../segger
ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink/jlink_gdbserver.default=JLinkGDBServerCL

jlink_path.default and jlink_gdbserver.default work fine in the String substitions, but things like the enableSwo.default=false don't work when I create a new segger debug config; the option has the normal true value.

Am I using this correctly?

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

I don't know, did you try this on a fresh workspace? since these values are persistent, you might be using your previous settings.

[John Moule]

I can see the code used for gdb.server.executable is in ilg.gnuarmeclipse.debug.gdbjtag.jlink.EclipseDefaults.

But can't find any for enableSwo.

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

it might be possible that the changes are still in the devel branch, did you check there?

[John Moule]

Ah, yes they are. Thanks.
Perhaps you were awaiting feedback before moving it to stable. I will try it out and get back to you.

Do you have plans to add openocd equivalents at some point? eg

${openocd_path}/${openocd_executable}

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

before moving it to stable

usually the devel branch is merged to stable after official releses.

openocd equivalents

if needed, yes.

FYI, there are major changes in the debug plug-ins, triggered by the requests received from Infineon to improve the J-Link plug-in.

since most of the changes were applied to the common gdbjtag classes, all debug plug-ins (jlink/openocd/qemu) were able to benefit from the improvements, so also the quality of the openocd plug-in was improved.

there is also a new custom build of openocd (the GNU ARM Eclipse OpenOCD) available for download from SourceForge (http://gnuarmeclipse.livius.net/blog/openocd/).

the new plug-ins (+ new build tools, new openocd and new qemu) are expected to be released in about 2-3 weeks.

[John Moule]

if needed, yes.

Yes please. It would then be symmetrical. And I could remove my code that handles the openocd side of things.

Thanks for the other information; its useful to see your release schedule.

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

I added a new feature request ticket, I'll try to implement it before the next release

[John Moule]

Thanks