Eclipse with its CDT managed Make system makes it easy to build projects, because it can handle a lot of the background tasks and settings between the project and the build setting. It can get a bit difficult if I want to include a library or other sub-source project for which I have to add extra compiler #define or add extra includes path settings.

This article show the different ways I have found to make such imports (and exports) easier.

Project Settings

The first thing is to access the project settings. The usual ‘Eclipse way’ is to

1. Make sure the project root/name is selected in the Project Explorer view
2. Press <ALT>+<ENTER> (shortcut)
   or: use the context menu and use ‘Properties’
   or: use the main Menu Project > Properties
3. Then navigate to C/C++ Build > Settings > Tool Settings > Compiler > Includes
4. Finally make your changes

Of course the exact location depends on the target/compiler/Eclipse distribution. That should work for most Eclipse CDT build integration I have used, including the GNU MCI Eclipse one.

An easier way to access the settings is in NXP MCUXpresso IDE using the Quick Start Panel:

This gets you there in just one click 🙂

💡 That quickstart panel is NXP specific and not part of Eclipse CDT

Include Path Settings

In a similar way, that Quickstart panel has an option to update different things in a project, for example the include or library path:

Inside the project settings I can select multiple lines and for example delete them with one click.

What might not be so obvious is that I can copy the selection with the standard host ‘copy’ shortcut (<CTRL>+<C> on windows which will place it on the clipboard as lines of text:

../board/boards
../McuLib/src
../McuLib/HD44780
../McuLib/FreeRTOS/Source/include
../McuLib/TraceRecorder/config

The really cool thing is that that paste (<CTRL>+<V>) works the same way too: copy a set of include paths from another project or from a text file and past it into the target project, done :-).

Defined and Undefined Symbols

The same thing works for the #define and #undef settings too. In the NXP MCUXpresso IDE there are quick settings for the defines too:

The same way I can select, delete, add, insert/paste multiple lines too:

Import/Export

There is yet another way. Instead doing things in separate steps, I can export and import the settings.

I can use the File > Export menu which gives me the option to export the C/C++ Project Settings:

I can select the project and the build configuration to export, plus I can specify the include path settings and/or symbols (define and undefine):

The data is stored in XML format which I can re-import or tweak with an editor:

Importing is just the other way:

Summary

I can update/copy-paste project settings or use the Quickstart panel to get a quick access to the settings. Or I can export and import the settings as XML files. This makes applying complicated settings from one project to another just a matter of a few clicks.

Happy Setting 🙂