[dsdp-tm-dev] Advanced Remote Launching (was: Is TM/RSE right for us?)

[Martin Oberhuber <martin.oberhuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Robert,

it's great to hear that you want to extend the TM / RSE Launching 
mechanism, and also think about contributing back your enhancements.

As Torkild has already pointed out, adding Shell Operations to a Launch 
by adding them to the LaunchDelegate "hardcoded" should be fairly easy. 
If you want to have your shell commands independent of the protocol 
(ssh, telnet, dstore, or whatever contributed), you might want to 
consider extending 
org.eclipse.rse.subsystems.shell.core.model.SimpleCommandOperation .

For some sample code that deals with running commands on the remote 
side, see org.eclipse.rse.examples.tutorial/ShowJarContents
as well as the MontaVista ssh processes contribution, which is currently 
available from Bugzilla at
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=159522

With respect to making such shell (or download) actions as part of a 
Launch generic, we already have a concept for this. The idea is to have 
an additional tab in the Launch, where you see a list of entries. Each 
entry is of type ILaunchAction, where implementations of ILaunchAction 
can be contributed through plugin.xml. Each ILaunchAction brings an 
associated UI for configuring it.
Examples of ILaunchAction could be a RunShellCommandLaunchAction, or a 
DownloadFileLaunchAction, each of which could use RSE services in turn. 
The LaunchActionSequencer, which runs one action after the other can 
even be generic (independent of RSE), just like the LaunchActionManager 
which would be responsible for persisting the ILaunchAction data into 
ILaunchConfiguration instances.

Unfortunately, this excellent idea isn't currently being implemented due 
to lack of resources. If you like this idea, please get in touch with us 
on the dsdp-tm-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list for further exchange of 
concrete design ideas. It would be great if you could work in this 
direction and contribute some code. The online place for more details is
at http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/DSDP/TM/Launching


Thanks,
--
Martin Oberhuber
Target Management Project Lead, DSDP PMC Member
http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm


Robert Norton wrote:
> Greetings All!
>
> I've been given the task of adapting Eclipse to the needs of our 
> developers and have identified that one of our requirements is to 
> simplify the process of configuring and launching a debug session on an 
> embedded target (or simulator). Since this is exactly the sort of thing 
> that TM/RSE is supposed to handle I thought I would give a shout on this 
> mailing list to see if anyone can offer any suggestions.
>
> The basic problem is that setting up a debugging environment for us is 
> much more complicated than the default CDT (+ Zylin patches) launch 
> configuration allows. In particular it might involve starting several 
> different processes (each with specific options, sometimes on a remote 
> target) in the correct order and finally connecting a gdb process.
>
>  From scanning the available documentation I get the impression that TM 
> and RSE provide a basic framework which could be used to automate much 
> of this, but I'm still unclear on exactly how it could be achieved. For 
> example might it be possible to create a new debug configuration type 
> tailored to each of our debugging scenarios and leveraging the RSE 
> functionality? I'm keen to create as general a framework as possible for 
> starting auxiliary process and would love to contribute back any code I 
> produce (subject to the agreement of management / legal bods.).
>
> Does anyone have the slightest idea what I am talking about? If so, can 
> you offer any comments or suggestions?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert Norton
> DSL Unit, Broadcom UK