QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 8.0 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Tool Suite.
- Working with QNX Momentics IDE
  QNX Momentics IDE provides a graphical environment for developing, running, debugging, and profiling applications.
- Developing Projects with the IDE
  To use the QNX Momentics IDE to write applications targeted for QNX OS systems, you must define projects, which are containers that store your source code, configuration files, and binary files.
- Debugging Applications
  The IDE allows you to debug a running application, a library used by the application, or a core file.
- Unit Testing
  The IDE lets you use commercial test frameworks to write unit tests and then execute them by launching a project. While running a test program, you can use the Code Coverage tool to determine how much of the code is exercised (covered) by your tests.
- Analyzing Memory Usage and Finding Memory Problems
  QNX Momentics IDE lets you run Memory Analysis and several Valgrind (pronounced val-grinned) tools to find memory problems such as leaks and corruption, and to measure memory usage of programs. It also provides the QNX System Information perspective so you can learn which processes are consuming memory or other resources excessively.
- Analyzing Performance
  QNX Momentics IDE works with the Application Profiler and Valgrind (pronounced val-grinned) Cachegrind tools, which measure the performance of programs running on QNX targets. It also offers the QNX System Information perspective for viewing performance-related metrics.
- Analyzing System Behavior
  Many IDE tools allow you to find errors and optimize applications, but to ensure that your embedded system behaves well, you need to use system-wide diagnostic tools. The QNX System Information and QNX System Profiler tools help you understand process and thread interaction on the target, reduce application and system startup times, and debug deadlock and improper CPU usage levels.
- Building QNX OS Images
  Using the IDE's QNX System Builder feature, you can generate OS images, which are bootable images that contain startup code, the QNX OS, your applications, and any data files used by your applications. The IDE supports image building by allowing you to transfer an image to a target board.
- Reference
  The reference topics provide information about QNX Momentics IDE features and workflows that isn't covered in the chapters related to developing projects or debugging, testing, and analyzing applications.
  - Switching between SDKs
    QNX SDP provides a Software Development Kit (SDK) for writing applications for QNX OS. In the QNX Momentics IDE, you can change the SDK selection to use a toolchain from a particular QNX SDP installation.
  - Configuring host-target communication
    The IDE on the host can communicate with target machines using an IP or a serial connection.
  - Supported target types
    This IDE release supports several target types. You can work with physical or virtual targets connected to the host by an IP or a serial link, or virtual machines (VMs) generated by the IDE.
    - Configuring a QNX target
      You can view and change the settings of a QNX target through the QNX Qconn Target panel.
    - Creating a QNX virtual machine
      When you create a QNX Virtual Machine target connection, the IDE uses the mkqnximage utility to generate a target VM that runs a QNX system image based on settings you specify, such as the CPU architecture and VM platform.
    - Controlling a QNX virtual machine
      After you create a QNX Virtual Machine target connection, you can control the target QNX VM by starting and stopping it, and rebuilding it with the same or different configuration settings.
  - QNX C/C++ Project properties
    For projects that use managed recursive makefiles, the build settings are defined through the UI and the IDE regenerates the makefiles whenever you change these settings.
  - QNX perspectives
    Perspectives control which views are shown in the IDE and how they are laid out. The IDE contains many perspectives that support application and system analysis for QNX OS targets.
  - Editors
    Editors control how you interact with project files that are opened in the editor pane.
  - Build configurations
    When you run a project through the launch bar, the IDE builds the project, if necessary, before running the binary on the target. The commands used for compiling and linking are determined by the active build configuration.
  - Adding debug symbols and instrumentation code to binaries
    The active build configuration determines which make commands are used to compile and link binaries in the current project. To debug and analyze your program with certain tools, you must define the right options in those commands.
  - Creating a non-QNX project
    The IDE lets you create any project type supported by the C/C++ Development Toolkit (CDT) in the Eclipse platform.
  - Managing launch configurations
    Launch configurations store settings related to program execution, setup, or analysis. When you create a project, the IDE generates a default launch configuration for it. But you can create your own configurations when you need to customize how a project runs and reuse those custom settings.
  - Integrated tools
    The IDE works with the GNU Debugger (GDB) and many runtime analysis tools, some of which are made by QNX and others by a third party. Using these tools, the IDE can report memory errors, heap usage, and function runtimes, and display kernel event trace data and target state information.
  - Updating the IDE
    The IDE includes an auto-update feature that lets you check for and install updates to the IDE itself.
  - System Profiler: user event formatting XML reference
    This reference document defines attributes of the datakey specifier. For a detailed guide that walks through several examples, go to Formatting user events with the System Profiler.
- JTAG: Debugging with Lauterbach TRACE32
  The Lauterbach TRACE32® In-Circuit Debugger (TRACE32-ICD) supports the JTAG onchip interface so you can perform hardware debugging of QNX OS systems through the QNX Momentics IDE.
QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running the QNX OS 8.0.
QNX Software in the Cloud
QNX Software in the Cloud enables developers to use the QNX OS in the Amazon cloud environment.
QNX Toolkit for Visual Studio Code
This User's Guide describes the QNX^® Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. The guide introduces you to the QNX Toolkit by explaining the QNX development environment and how to build, run, and debug your QNX^® Operating System (OS) applications and systems.
QNX Hypervisor User's Guide
This User's Guide explains the QNX hypervisor architecture and provides instructions for installing and running a QNX Hypervisor system, changing system components and configuration, and using hypervisor features such as virtual devices (vdevs).
Typographical Conventions, Support, and Licensing
This section describes the typographical conventions used throughout the documentation, explains how to obtain technical support, and provides some information about licensing.

Controlling a QNX virtual machine

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After you create a QNX Virtual Machine target connection, you can control the target QNX VM by starting and stopping it, and rebuilding it with the same or different configuration settings.

Starting

To start a stopped VM:

Right-click the target in the Project Explorer or Target Navigator and choose Start Virtual Machine from the context menu.
The IDE starts the VM. VMware or VirtualBox VMs start within their respective workstations, and QEMU VMs start in a new console.

Stopping

To stop a running VM:

Right-click the target in the Project Explorer or Target Navigator and choose Stop Virtual Machine from the context menu.
If the target is a VMware or VirtualBox VM, the IDE stops and closes the VM. If it's a QEMU VM, the IDE terminates the QEMU process.

Rebuilding

You can rebuild a QNX VM with its current settings. This is handy if you encountered an mkqnximage error that prevented the tool from generating the VM, and you've since fixed the error. To rebuild with the current settings:

Right-click the target in the Project Explorer or Target Navigator and choose Rebuild Virtual Machine from the context menu.
The IDE calls mkqnximage with the same options as before to regenerate the same VM and system image. If this operation succeeds, the IDE restarts the VM.

If you want to change the settings and rebuild the VM:

Click the button () on the right of the target connection name in the Launch Target dropdown.
This opens the same configuration settings dialog that you used when creating the VM.
Edit the settings as needed. For instance, you can enter a different IP address for the IDE to try and connect to.
Click Finish.
The IDE calls mkqnximage with options based on your newly configured settings to regenerate the VM and system image. If this operation succeeds, the IDE restarts the VM.

Deleting

To delete a QNX VM target:

Right-click the target in the Project Explorer or Target Navigator and choose Delete from the context menu.

Page updated: March 05, 2025