Okay I am new to Embedded Linux development.
Right now, I am trying to setup the development environment as efficiently as possible.
I have a python code running on a lightweight Linux based device, that is located remotely
So far I was able to setup my VS Code on my Windows system, in such a way that I can edit the files directly on the remote Linux device.
I followed the instructions below
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh-tutorial
Now that I am able to edit my files directly, I face only one obstacle.
I find it hard to traverse to a function/method definition.
In my windows system, I could just Ctrl+LeftClick on a method/function, and it would take me there.
But here when I opened VS Code with the terminal running remotely, I have to do a Ctrl+F and search in the VS Code editor, which is like working on a notepad.
Does anyone know how to get around this?
On my main windows system, I am able to jump to method definitions quickly by Ctrl+LefClick-ing them.
Hope the question is clear enough.
Install the Python extension on the remote server and select the Python interpreter on the Linux device in VS code:
Press Ctrl+Shift+P to bring up the command palette and run the command Python: Select Interpreter.
Remote development on Linux from Windows is easily doable via SSH.
However, what about the other way? I need to build and debug my Visual C++ application on Windows, but I want to work on a Linux system.
Cross-compiling via MinGW doesn't work because of MSVC-specific libraries
Ubuntu on Windows is a good start, but I'd like to work on a real Linux system
RDP/VNC or something like that doesn't help either, because than I'd work on Windows again
So does a virtual machine
Maybe something like Powershell on Linux + SSH to the Windows Powershell?
I regularly develop Visual C# applications remotely from Linux, not MSVC for the most part, but, like you, I wanted to find a way to build and debug Windows-targeted applications and libraries on remote Windows machines without working directly in the box using RDP, Visual Studio, etc.
It's difficult to answer this question without more information about the development and debugging tools you prefer to use on Linux for the types of applications you develop. I'll try to provide a general overview and update the answer for details you add about your workflow.
Cygwin, similar to MinGW's MSYS, provides a Unix-like environment for Windows. Most importantly, Cygwin, unlike MinGW/MSYS, includes an implementation of the OpenSSH server that enables us to connect to the Windows box over SSH from Linux (or any other device with an SSH client, really). We can install the sshd package using Cygwin's setup utility. After connecting, Cygwin drops us into a Bash shell by default. With this capability, we can:
Execute remote commands and scripts over SSH.
Edit files using our favorite *nix command-line text editor (Vim, Emacs, etc.)
Mount remote filesystems locally using SSHFS (if Windows shares are unavailable).
Forward or tunnel ports if needed.
The availability of a general-purpose shell makes almost anything possible. We can execute batch files, PowerShell scripts, and native Windows executables from Cygwin's shell environment in addition to Linux scripts and Cygwin programs.
For example, we could run msbuild from the SSH session command line to build our VC++ application or we could configure our local GUI editor or IDE running in Linux to execute msbuild over SSH when we click the "build" button.
We could set up a similar environment in recent versions of Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux ("WSL", Bash on Windows). I personally prefer Cygwin for greater portability and ease of configuration. Cygwin's sshd can run as a Windows service, and, as an established project, Cygwin integrates very well with Windows systems (user accounts, filesystems, Windows APIs, etc.).
Working with Code
We can choose from several workflows depending on our tools and comfort-level with the command-line:
Completely text-based—all work performed through the SSH session
Use local tools on files mounted in a remote filesystem
Use local tools and synchronize files
I use the first approach. I'm a heavy Vim user, so I connect to Windows machines over SSH to do my work on the command-line using the tools and environment provided by Cygwin. The availability of tools typically found on Linux simplifies many tasks that are hard to do from the default Windows console. We can write shell scripts to automate tasks that Visual Studio might normally do for us. For example, I wrote a wrapper script around mstest that reads the XML test results and outputs them in a format that's easy to read in a terminal.
If we prefer to use a GUI editor or IDE, we can mount the remote code locally so tools can read and write files as if they were part of the Linux machine's local filesystem. We likely still need to use SSH to execute commands needed to build the projects, but many editors allow us to configure this command as the project's "build" action.
Sometimes a remote filesystem is too slow for effective editing. In these cases, we can synchronize files between the Linux development machine and the Windows host using a tool like rsync or the editor's "upload on save" feature (over SFTP, for example), if available.
Debugging
Everything works pretty well until we try to find a way to debug our applications. As of now, there is no reasonable substitute for Visual Studio's debugger when working with Visual C++ projects. We can debug managed C# applications running on the CLR using MDbg, but no comparable tool exists for C++ programs.
We can try to use gdb (from MinGW, Cygwin, etc.) for basic, low-level debugging of native binaries, like reading memory addresses, but the debugger does not yet support reading Microsoft's debugging symbols, so the debugging experience is very limited. Microsoft began documenting the PDB format a couple years ago, so we may see some compatibility in the future. Even so, it will take a long time to produce a satisfactory alternative to Visual Studio's excellent debugging tools.
For debugging, RDP is currently our best—and probably, only—option. For a more native-feeling experience, we can run Visual Studio using rdesktop (or other RDP client) and seamlessrdp to create a single-window RDP session of the Visual Studio IDE instead of a full desktop which integrates with whatever window manager we're using on Linux.
Sometimes we can get around launching a full Visual Studio debugging session for simple debugging scenarios by adding tracing to our application that outputs values to the console or to a log file. In many cases, this is faster than starting the debugger anyway.
We can also try to use Eclipse's CDT debugger configured for the Visual C++ toolchain. This may enable us to perform remote debugging using an Eclipse instance on the Linux machine. I have never tried this approach, and I expect there may be some issues when the application is linked against Microsoft's libraries.
I don't know all your requirements, but maybe you could use a gdbserver on Windows (from MinGW) and remote debug from VSCode on Linux - or any other environment you like. You can find more details in this post here. (Watch out, VSCode prevents you from running gdb unless it’s signed as mentioned in the first link.)
There is also a Native Debug VSCode extension that could be helpful.
Another solution I can think of is to use Visual Studio Online (free for small teams up to 5 persons) as build server.
As you have said, the other way around is pretty easy and nowadays even officially supported by Visual Studio 2017.
Most probably, the VS remote debugging tools for Windows wont be helpful for you.
I initially switched from Windows to OS X because I didn't understand SSH enough to reliably solve that problem in my Windows env.
Since then, I've come to prefer the following from OS X:
Keyboard mapping
oh-my-zsh CLI
Alfred
I'd like to replicate my OS X development environment on my Windows 7 PC as closely as possible, preferably to include the advantages offered by the above preferences.
My workflow includes the use of VirtualBox + Vagrant (Linux boxes) Git, and CLI > GUI.
Thanks in advance.
It seems like mainly you want a *nix style command line on Windows. You should give Cygwin a try then. It (basically) gives you just that (plus the ability to compile POSIX source to run on a Windows machine).
If you use Git more than anything else on the command line, you can just use Git-Bash (http://msysgit.github.io/).
You can use Launchy as a direct replacement for Alfred.
Keyboard mapping... I'm not sure. You can just search for a keyboard mapper for Windows (I found this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx with a quick search).
need to know the command of what to add to the properties of the program I want to execute using the -clean option
I know that on windows you just add -clean to the end of the target on the properties of the program shortcut, but don't have a linux machine to be able to try this out and need to write some documentation on how it's done on Linux
Most of the Eclipse options are shared among all operating systems. I have used -clean with Eclipse on my Linux system several times and it worked as expected.
If you are asking "How to launch Eclipse (or an Eclipse-based product) with the -clean option on Linux?", then the answer would have to depend on how Eclipse is launched in the first place. For example:
If it is launched through the shell command prompt, then prepending the -clean option should be enough:
./eclipse -clean ...
If it is launched through a desktop icon or menu, then the user should modify the shortcut through whatever method is provided by their desktop environment.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) there are several desktop environments available on Linux, each with its own differences. If you are writing documentation that may be read by novices, you will probably have to try the main DEs of the major distributions and document the process - or at least find suitable documentation links on the Web.
I use Eclipse under a Linux machine (Ubuntu) and I usually have to use the shell a lot when I program - e.g., to use source control, perform builds. Is there a way to make gnome-terminal (or any other bash terminal for that matter) part of the eclipse views, so I can dock it where ever I want in the Eclipse work area?
In order to get an integrated terminal use: http://elt.googlecode.com