3.1 Step 1: Create root directory

First, lets create a directory for our project. For this example, we’ll start with something in /tmp.

C-x C-f /tmp/myproject/README RET
M-x make-directory RET RET

Now put some plain text in your README file to start.

Now, lets create the project:

M-x ede-new RET Automake RET myproject RET

Nothing visible happened, but if you use dired to look at the directory, you should see this:

  /tmp/myproject:
  total used in directory 32 available 166643476
  drwxr-xr-x  2 zappo users  4096 2012-02-23 22:10 .
  drwxrwxrwt 73 root  root  20480 2012-02-23 22:10 ..
  -rw-r--r--  1 zappo users   195 2012-02-23 22:10 Project.ede
  -rw-r--r--  1 zappo users    10 2012-02-23 22:09 README

3.2 Step 2: Create Subdirectories and Files

We’ll make a more complex project, so use dired to create some more directories using the + key, and typing in new directories:

+ include RET
+ src RET

Now I’ll short-cut in this tutorial. Create the following files:

include/myproj.hh

/** myproj.hh ---
 */

#ifndef myproj_hh
#define myproj_hh 1

#define IMPORTANT_MACRO 1

int my_lib_function();

#endif // myproj_hh

src/main.cpp

/** main.cpp ---
 */

#include <iostream>
#include "myproj.hh"

int main() {

}

#ifdef IMPORTANT_MACRO
int my_fcn() {

}
#endif

src/mylib.cpp

/** mylib.cpp ---
 *
 * Shared Library to build
 */

int my_lib_function() {

}

3.3 Step 3: Create subprojects

EDE needs subdirectories to also have projects in them. You can now create those projects.

With main.cpp as your current buffer, type:

M-x ede-new RET Automake RET src RET

and in myproj.hh as your current buffer, type:

M-x ede-new RET Automake RET include RET

These steps effectively only create the Project.ede file in which you will start adding targets.

3.4 Step 4: Create targets

In order to build a program, you must have targets in your EDE Projects. You can create targets either from a buffer, or from a dired directory buffer.

Note: If for some reason a directory list buffer, or file does not have the ‘Project’ menu item, or if EDE key bindings don’t work, just use M-x revert-buffer RET to force a refresh. Sometimes creating a new project doesn’t restart buffers correctly.

Lets start with the header file. In include/myproj.hh, you could use the menu, but we will now start using the EDE command prefix which is C-c ..

C-c . t includes RET miscellaneous RET y

This creates a misc target for holding your includes, and then adds myproj.hh to the target. Automake (the tool) has better ways to do this, but for this project, it is sufficient.

Next, visit the src directory using dired. There should be a ‘Project’ menu. You can create a new target with

. t myprogram RET program RET

Note that . t is a command for creating a target. This command is also in the menu. This will create a target that will build a program. If you want, visit Project.ede to see the structure built so far.

Next, place the cursor on main.cpp, and use . a to add that file to your target.

. a myprogram RET

Note that these prompts often have completion, so you can just press TAB to complete the name myprogram.

If you had many files to add to the same target, you could mark them all in your dired buffer, and add them all at the same time.

Next, do the same for the library by placing the cursor on mylib.cpp.

. t mylib RET sharedobject RET
. a mylib RET

3.5 Step 5: Compile, and fail

Next, we’ll try to compile the project, but we aren’t done yet, so it won’t work right away.

Visit /tmp/myproject/Project.ede. We’re starting here because we don’t have any program files in this directory yet. Now we can use the compile command:

C-c . C

Because this is the very first time, it will create a bunch of files for you that are required by Automake. It will then use automake to build the support infrastructure it needs. This step is skipped if you choose just a Makefile build system.

After the Automake init, it runs compile. You will immediately discover the error in main.cpp can’t find myproj.hh. We need to go fix this.

3.6 Step 6: Customizing your project

To fix the failed compile, we need to add /tmp/myproject/include to the include path.

Visit main.cpp.

M-x customize-project RET

Select the ‘[Settings]’ subgroup of options. Under ‘Variable :’ click ‘[INS]’. At this point, you need to be somewhat savvy with Automake. Add a variable named ‘CPPFLAGS’, and set the value to ‘../include’.

You should see something like this:

Variables :
[INS] [DEL] Cons-cell:
            Name: AM_CPPFLAGS
            Value: -I../include
[INS]
Variables to set in this Makefile.

Click ‘[Apply]’. Feel free to visit Project.ede to see how it changed the config file.

Compile the whole project again with C-c . C from main.cpp. It should now compile.

3.7 Step 7: Shared library dependency

Note: Supporting shared libraries for Automake in this way is easy, but doing so from a project of type Makefile is a bit tricky. If you are creating shared libraries too, stick to Automake projects.

Next, lets add a dependency from main.cpp on our shared library. To do that, update main like this:

int main() {

  my_lib_function();

}

Now compile with:

C-c . c

where the lower case c compiles just that target. You should see an error.

This time, we need to add a dependency from main.cpp on our shared library. To do that, we need to customize our target instead of the project. This is because variables such as the include path are treated globally, whereas dependencies for a target are target specific.

M-x customize-target RET

On the first page, you will see an Ldlibs-local section. Add mylib to it by first clicking ‘[INS]’, and they adding the library. It should look like this:

Ldlibs-Local :
[INS] [DEL] Local Library: libmylib.la
[INS]
Libraries that are part of this project. [Hide Rest]
The full path to these libraries should be specified, such as:
../lib/libMylib.la  or ../ar/myArchive.a

You will also see other variables for library related flags and system libraries if you need them. Click ‘[Accept]’, and from main.cpp, again compile the whole project to force all dependent elements to compile:

C-c . C

3.8 Step 8: Run your program

You can run your program directly from EDE.

C-c . R RET RET

If your program takes command line arguments, you can type them in when it offers the command line you want to use to run your program.