Creating projects from existing sources

WinGDB has an option to create a Visual Studio project and automatically add existing source files to it. The sources may reside on remote machine in case of remote Linux development scenarios, or local Windows machine for embedded or MinGW development scenarios. Use this option if you do not have a Visual Studio project yet.

Using the import wizard

For the rest of the tutorial, we assume that we want to import sources located on remote Linux machine in /home/user/build/cptest directory. The /home/user directory is shared and mapped to the U: drive. This is one of the possible scenarios. WinGDB can also use SCP file transfer to synchronize directories, or sources built locally. Some options for these scenarios will be different than those shown below. For the most part however, the procedure is the same.

Project location page

In order to create a project from existing sources, click New Project... option in Visual Studio and choose the Import project from existing sources template from standard WinGDB templates.

In the Location field, you have to enter the parent directory of your project on U: drive, where it is mapped. This directory is named U:\build. In the Name field, specify the directory name of your project (cptest). This way, Visual Studio will create the project in U:\build\cptest, which corresponds to /home/user/build/cptest on the remote machine.

In case you do not have a Samba mapping or your sources are built locally, you do not need to specify a directory matching your sources location. WinGDB will copy the sources to the destination directory in such scenarios.

Platform selection page

For the remote Linux with Samba share scenario that we are considering, please click OK and choose the Linux platform on the following screen:

Scenario selection page

For simplicity, we also assume that the program will be built and debugged on single Linux machine. Please choose appropriate scenario on the next screen:

Login credentials page

On the next page, specify credentials needed to login on the remote machine:

Debugger path page

Next, you can configure custom path to GDB. Usually leaving the default setting is sufficient:

Source mapping page

The next page specifies how the sources are mapped from the remote machine to the local one. Select the variant with Samba sharing:

Import options page

The next screen contains important settings for actual import:

Source dir: this is the root directory of your project on the remote machine. In many cases WinGDB can automatically determine the directory from the local project directory that you specified in the first step. WinGDB checks mapped drives and remote share list for that. The drive must be correctly mapped and connected for that to work. If for any reason WinGDB is unable to determine the directory automatically, click ... button and choose the directory manually.
Target subdir: this is optional setting. If your sources are located in some subdirectory of your project directory (typically named src), you can specify it here. For Samba sharing, the final directory must match the Source dir setting. For non-sharing scenarios, the subdirectory will be the destination for copying files. In our example there is no such intermediate directory.
Filter: specifies types of files to add to the project. Enter file name in usual wildcard format, separated by semicolons.
Group imported files in folders: instructs the importer to create separate folders in Visual Studio project for different file types.
Configure folders: allows to configure folders and file name patterns for the grouping option. It displays a dialog, where you can enter folder names and patterns in "Folder name" = "pattern" format. Use the "/" pattern to specify a pattern for nested disk directories (so they will be grouped into separate logical folder).

Create project folder for each disk folder: instructs the importer to create a folder in Visual Studio project for each physical directory. Thus, the directory structure is preserved in the project. This option works independently of the grouping option. Grouping folders will be created inside disk folders if both options are enabled.

Build options page

When importing existing sources, WinGDB assumes that you already have some means to build them (e.g. a makefile) and does not generate its own makefile. Instead, you just specify how to launch the build process on this page:

You specify commands for building, rebulding and cleaning the project. By default, WinGDB supplies commands suitable for make. Also you can specify the Build working directory in which the build commands will be run and the output directory and name of resulting executable file. The latter will be used for debugging.

When the import is complete, you can optionally configure the makefile generator in Update mode to automatically add source files to your makefile. This section describes the procedure.

Additional debugging options pages

Next two pages allows you to set additional options for debugging. These options are basic and self-explanatory. Usually you just want to leave these fields empty.

Summary page

This page displays the summary of properties set by the wizard. When you click Finish, the actuall importing process will begin. WinGDB will transfer the files (if necessary) and add them into project. It may take a while, depending on project size.

Differences between importing scenarios

There are several possible scenarios of import, with regard to the sources location.

Remote Linux machine with Samba share: this is the situation presented above. WinGDB assumes that the source and target directories (including the additional target subdirectory) match -- that is, they are mapped 1:1 by Samba and Windows. No file copying occurs.
Remote Linux machine without sharing: WinGDB enables the synchronization mechanism. Source files are copied from the remote machine to the destination local directory (including target subdir.) during the import.
Local source files in same directory as the project: no file copying occurs, as the files are already in correct place.
Local source files in different directory than the project: if the directories are unrelated, WinGDB copies the files to the destination directory.

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