Some help with launch configurations

[Vladimir Prus]

On Friday 10 July 2009 Kishore wrote:

> I am currently unable to understand the concept of launch configurations. Is 
> there a document that explains this? Or could come dev be kind enough to 
> explain the concept. The final plan and the current state?

Hmm, somebody probably should write this up, with rationale and what not.
 
> One of the main confusions i have is the difference between "Project Target" 
> and "Executable". No matter which target (library or executable in the 
> project) that i specify in "Project Target" it always shows in red. 

This is probably some bug -- are you using cmake as build system?

> What is 
> the meaning of Launch mode: "Execute" vs "Debug"? etc.

In the dialog or in the menu? I am not exactly sure about dialog -- that
combo appears to only select what settings you want to edit -- it does not
change how the launch configuration is launched -- you pick the relevant
item from the menu. However, it's a bit confusing to myself, too.
Andreas, can you clarify what this combobox is supposed to mean?

> In my particular case, I do a lot of embedded systems and am interested in 
> maintaining two build folders. One for building the application in for the x86 
> platform and another for the arm platform.
> 
> When I run or debug my application that is built for arm, I need to launch 
> openocd which is a gdb server that connects to the arm device over a JTAG 
> interface. arm-gdb then connects to openocd. Later i want openocd to exit as i 
> stop debugging.
> 
> Can i in some way achieve this with the launch configurations workflow?

It will require creating gdb/shell scripts and specifying that in debugger
configuration. Say, gdb script might have:

	shell whatevercommand &
    target remote <xxx>

However, I don't think anobody tested this with KDevelop4, so you are on thin
ice. Eventually, we'll have 'remove application' launch type that will make this
easy.

- Volodya