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Home » Eclipse Projects » Target Communication Framework » TCF terminology or is it a dead technology for embedded development ?(who is on first? )
TCF terminology or is it a dead technology for embedded development ? [message #1770768] Thu, 17 August 2017 01:39 Go to next message
Anne Creek is currently offline Anne CreekFriend
Messages: 275
Registered: September 2014
Senior Member
Did I picked a dead technology to develop on?
Folks, I am pretty much disillusioned with thousands of readers and no real responses, oh well.
I am still unsure abut this "agent " / TCF terminology.
Can some fill in the blanks if I describe my setup in my own words what I mean.

I have x86 hardware I like as software development (platform)
for an application running on ARM hardware.

These two pieces of hardware have to communicate with each other using what ....
wired TCP /IP technology AKA Ethernet running SSH.

Correct so far?
So who is what - client / server as far as what technology is concerned
Ethrent ?
SSH?
TCP/IP ?

Which is "local ", who is "remote" , again as far as JUST communication between these two platforms.


I can use "Remote Application " - Eclipse "Perspective " AKA group of tools
or I can use "TCF" another "Perspective "
With TCF I have "Agent" which seems to be Swiss army knife for communication ( using SSH / TCP/IP ).
Here it gets very muddy.
Term "agent" "local", "host" and "remote" seems to be used at random.
Local is my x86 system ?
Host is my ARM ?

So who is "local host"?

I am at a stopping point where I get this message:

Cannot find TCF agent on the local host

I can fix that if I have a clue WHERE / WHO is "local host " for "TCF agent" .


Thanks








[Updated on: Thu, 17 August 2017 01:42]

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Re: TCF terminology or is it a dead technology for embedded development ? [message #1770801 is a reply to message #1770768] Thu, 17 August 2017 08:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Didier Brachet is currently offline Didier BrachetFriend
Messages: 2
Registered: July 2009
Junior Member
Hello,

I will try to answer your questions but note that I am not an Eclipse specialist, I am more familiar with the TCF agent side.

Quote:

I have x86 hardware I like as software development (platform)
for an application running on ARM hardware.

These two pieces of hardware have to communicate with each other using what ....
wired TCP /IP technology AKA Ethernet running SSH.

Correct so far?


Yes, this is correct. Note that you can also use WebSockets or secured WebSockets to communicate between your platform and your device (ARM hardware). Note also that there is only some limited support of SSL in TCF agent (more a proof of concept) but you can still use a SSH tunnel if you want full security.

Quote:

So who is what - client / server as far as what technology is concerned
Ethrent ?
SSH?
TCP/IP ?


First of all, note that when a connection is established, there is no longer any notion of client/server, TCF is peer-to-peer.
However, from the connection point of view, you have a TCF client that establishes a connection to a TCF server over TCP/IP, WS(S)...

Quote:

Which is "local ", who is "remote" , again as far as JUST communication between these two platforms.

In the Eclipse terminology, "local" is an agent that is running on your platform in case you want to do some native debugging; this is likely not what you want to use.

Quote:

I can use "Remote Application " - Eclipse "Perspective " AKA group of tools
or I can use "TCF" another "Perspective "
With TCF I have "Agent" which seems to be Swiss army knife for communication ( using SSH / TCP/IP ).
Here it gets very muddy.
Term "agent" "local", "host" and "remote" seems to be used at random.
Local is my x86 system ?
Host is my ARM ?

So who is "local host"?

You should not use "local host" unless you want to do native debugging (refer to my previous comment).

I personally don't see the usage of "local" in Eclipse but maybe I am not using the same views/perspective as you do. I mostly use the "Debug" or "Remote System Explorer" perspective.

In general, "agent" is a TCF agent you want to connect to.
"local" is the platform running Eclipse, "local agent" is an agent running on your platform for native debugging.
"remote" is the machine you want to debug running an agent (your ARM device in your case).

Quote:

I am at a stopping point where I get this message:

Cannot find TCF agent on the local host

I can fix that if I have a clue WHERE / WHO is "local host " for "TCF agent" .


Thanks


It means you are trying to connect to an agent running on your platform which is not what you want to do. Please, provide more details on which view you are using (sorry if it was specified in a previous email; I did not go through all of them).
First of all, you must start an agent on your ARM hardware.
Then, if you create a new TCF Debug session (Run -> Debug Configurations -> Target Communication Framework), then you should disable all the check-boxes ("Run TCF symbol server on the local host", "Run instasnce of TCF...", "Use local host as the target") and instead select the agent that appears under "Available Targets" if auto-discovery works or manually create the agent if it auto-discovery does not work (not on the same sub-network for example) by clicking on New and select "Manual setup of TCF connection properties" and update "Host" with the IP address of your ARM hardware.

The same comment applies, if you try to setup a new connection in "Remote Systems" view.

Hope it helps,
Didier

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Re: TCF terminology or is it a dead technology for embedded development ? [message #1770901 is a reply to message #1770801] Fri, 18 August 2017 14:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anne Creek is currently offline Anne CreekFriend
Messages: 275
Registered: September 2014
Senior Member
Didier, thanks reply.
My main PC won't stay connected to Internet, so I need to fix that first.
I am using RPi now and it is a pain.

I made a major mistake not using configuration under TCF perspective.

The application works, but since my internet to the @development@ hardware is busted I really need to fix that first.
I'll promise to get back to you as soon as I can.

Re: TCF terminology or is it a dead technology for embedded development ? [message #1770964 is a reply to message #1770901] Sun, 20 August 2017 00:35 Go to previous message
Anne Creek is currently offline Anne CreekFriend
Messages: 275
Registered: September 2014
Senior Member
Didler,
I wrote a reply however I just annotated your post.
I am not sure if I should post it as full text or if there is a way to attach pdf file here.
Your reply was very helpful, I appreciate that.
I got my sample code working , now doing some "reverse engineering" to find out how I can use it as a template for my project.

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