What is the best way to integrate an external build tool into Eclipse?

Question

I've just started using Eclipse for Python development since we can make use of a lovely plugin I've found to enable distributed pair-programming. Anyway, the next step to getting Eclipse to integrate properly with our existing environment, would be finding a way to drive our current build tool (Waf) from within the IDE.

So the question is, is there a way I can set up Eclipse to drive Waf in a Make-like fashion? I see for Make it has some quite advanced functionality, such as being able to work out what targets are available etc. Bonus points for telling me if there is a way I could go as far as this! (I suspect the answer is that this is all built in to the Make plugin for Ecplipse).

Answer 1

In eclipse CDT I run waf by simply changing the build program in ProjectPreferences->C/C++ Build->BuilderSettings Choose External builder and then put in the path to waf

for example I use /Users/mark/bin/waf -v -k -j2

Note that waf and make do not agree on the -j setting and you have to give i explicitly and not use the eclipse dialog.

You can use the Make targets view add the targets to call waf e.g. configure, build etc.

One issue I had is that Eclipse is hard coded to see the output from Make say Make when i changes directory so I had to patch waf see waf issue

Answer 2

You could try and define a Custom builder, calling Waf with the appropriate options for the python compilation step.

^{(From eclipsejdt alcatel-lucent manual)}

That picture (not related to Waf at all) illustrates the fact a builder can be defined as an external tool (meaning any .bat or shell you may want to call)

In that "eclipsejdt" example, the custom builder was configured like so:

To set up the builder, bring up the property dialog for project "jex1p" by selecting the project in the Package Explorer and selecting Project > Properties > Builders. Then click New..., select Program, and click OK.

Configure the builder Main tab using values:

Name             : nmbldr_pre
Location         : ${system_path:ksh}
Working Directory: ${build_project}
Arguments        : nmbldr -p 2 -t ${build_type} -s jpre