Defining Your C/C++ Project's Development Environment
March 2014 [Revision number: V8.0-1]
The following short tutorial takes you through the basic steps of selecting the build host and tool collection for building and debugging a C or C++ project in NetBeans IDE.
To follow this tutorial, you need the following software and resources.
See the NetBeans IDE Installation Instructions for information on downloading and installing the required software.
The Netbeans C/C++ module minimally requires a C compiler, C++ compiler, make utility, and gdb debugger. See Configuring the NetBeans IDE for C/C++/Fortran for instructions on installing and configuring the required compilers and tools.
You can build, run, and debug your project on the local host (the system from which you started the IDE) or on a remote host running a UNIX® operating system. Only the Oracle Solaris and Linux operating systems have been tested as remote build hosts. Initially, the IDE is set up to use the local host only.
You can define remote build hosts in several ways:
See the C/C++ Remote Development Tutorial for more information.
The Tool Collection list shows what tool collections are available to the IDE on the local host and on each remote build host. You can see the Tool Collections in any of the following ways:
In each case, the Tool Collection list displays the collections found on the host currently selected in the Build Host list. The default collection is listed in bold type, and is selected for any new project you create using the build host. You can change the tool collection for a specific project in the project properties.
Changing the Default Tool Collection
To change the default tool collection, select a collection from the Tool Collection list and click Default. The new default tool collection will be selected for any new projects you create using the selected build host.
When you add a tool collection, you make the compilers available to the IDE. The tools must be installed on the system already.
To add a tool collection associated with a build host:
When you create a project, the current default tool collection is selected as the tool collection for the project. You can change the tool collection for your project to another collection on the collection list, or you can customize a tool collection especially for the project.
To select a different tool collection for an existing project:
The next time you build the project, the selected tool collection will be used.
Please see the C/C++ Learning Trail for more articles about developing with C/C++/Fortran in NetBeans IDE.