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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.
Debugging Applications
The IDE allows you to debug a running application, a library used by the application, or a core file.
Debugging non-IDE code
You can debug code written and compiled outside of the IDE. All you need is a launch configuration—you don't need to create an IDE project to store the code.

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.
  - Selecting a tool for debugging
    The IDE works with several third-party tools and contains its own features that help you debug improper program results, process hanging, or process crashing.
  - Launching an application with the debugger attached
    You can launch an application with the debugger attached to step through its entire code path.
  - Attaching the debugger to a running process
    You can attach the debugger to a process running on a target machine.
  - Debugging a core file
    If you're running an application in Run mode (without the debugger attached) and the remote process crashes, the IDE gives you the option of downloading the resulting core file to your host and debugging that file. This is the preferred postmortem debugging method because it's convenient and lets you begin debugging a crashed process immediately.
  - Debugging a child process
    By default, when a process creates another process, GDB doesn't follow the execution of the child process. You must attach another instance of the debugger to this new process; this action lets you debug the parent and child concurrently.
  - Debugging libraries
    The IDE supports debugging static or shared libraries. You can trace program execution in and out of functions in any library linked to your application.
  - Debugging over a serial connection
    GDB works over a serial connection, so you can debug a program on a target when a networking link isn't available on that device or when you're debugging networking.
  - Debugging non-IDE code
    You can debug code written and compiled outside of the IDE. All you need is a launch configuration—you don't need to create an IDE project to store the code.
- 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.
- 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.

Debugging non-IDE code

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You can debug code written and compiled outside of the IDE. All you need is a launch configuration—you don't need to create an IDE project to store the code.

The steps shown here work for debugging code written on the same host but built outside of the IDE or even code written (and built) on another machine. For the second case, though, you must have a copy of the source files somewhere on your host, so GDB can display the code during debugging.

Note:

For code written in an earlier IDE version, you should import the projects into the new IDE. You can continue developing projects built with recent QNX SDP versions, because the IDE lets you switch between the SDKs of the various SDP installations.

To debug non-IDE code:

Create a launch configuration for running the appropriate binary.

In the C/C++ Application field in the Main tab, you must provide the full path to the binary located outside of the workspace.

If you're debugging code that was compiled on another machine, you need to tell the IDE where to find the source files on the host, by defining the appropriate paths in the Source tab.
Click the Debug button ().

The IDE switches to the Debug perspective, which displays the source code being traced and other essential debugging information. Then, it starts running the binary and GDB, which it attaches to the binary. If configured to do so in the Debug settings, the debugger stops on startup (by default, in the first line of main()).

For information on the debugging controls, see Debug perspective controls.

Page updated: March 05, 2025