9.1 The Build Menu
The build menu gives access to capabilities related to checking, parsing and
compiling files, as well as creating and running executables.
- Check Syntax
- Check the syntax of the current source file. Display an error message in
the Messages window if no file is currently selected.
- Compile File
- Compile the current file. Display an error message in the Messages window if
no file is selected.
If errors or warnings occur during the compilation, the corresponding locations
will appear in the Locations Tree. If the corresponding Preference is set, the
source lines will be highlighted in the editors (see
The Preferences Dialog).
To remove the highlighting on these lines, remove the files from the Locations
Tree.
- Make
-
- Compile all sources
- Compile all source files defined in the currently selected project, or
by default the top level project.
- All
- Build and link all main units defined in your project.
If no main unit is specified in your project, build all files defined
in your project and subprojects recursively.
For a library project file, compile sources and recreate the library
when needed.
- <current file>
- Consider the currently selected file as a main file, and build it.
- Custom...
- Display a text entry where you can enter any external command. This menu
is very useful when you already have existing build scripts, make files,
... and want to invoke them from GPS.
- Clean
-
- Root Project
- Remove all object files and other compilation artifacts associated to the
root project. It does not clean objects from other related projects.
- all
- Remove all object files and other compilation artifacts associated to all
projects related to the current one. It allows to restart a complete build
from scratch.
- Recompute C/C++ Xref info
- Recompute the cross-reference information for C and C++ source files.
See Support for Cross-References.
- Load xref info in meomry
- Load all the cross-reference information in memory. This menu is generally
not needed, See Support for Cross-References.
- Run
-
- main
- For each main source file defined in your top level project, an entry
is listed to run the executable associated with this main file.
Running an application will first open a dialog where you can specify
command line arguments to your application, if needed. You can also
specify whether the application should be run within GPS (the default),
or using an external terminal.
When running an application from GPS, a new execution window is added in the
bottom area where input and output of the application is handled. This
window is never closed automatically, even when the application terminates,
so that you can still have access to the application's output. If you
explicitly close an execution window while an application is still running,
a dialog window will be displayed to confirm whether the application should
be terminated.
When using an external terminal, GPS launches an external terminal
utility that will take care of the execution and input/output of your
application. This external utility can be configured in the preferences
dialog (External Commands->Execute command).
Similarly, the Run
contextual menu accessible from a project
entity contains the same entries.
- Custom...
- Similar to the entry above, except that you can run any arbitrary executable.
The Tools->Interrupt
menu can be used to interrupt the last compilation
or run command. Once you have interrupted that last operation, you can
interrupt the previous one by selecting the same menu again.
However, the easiest way to interrupt a specific operation, no matter if it was
started last or not, is to use the Task Manager
, through the
Tools->Views->Tasks
menu. It will show one line per running process,
and right-clicking on any of these lines gives the possibility to interrupt
that process.