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  • Is it fun writing code for the CDT?

You betcha! And the Eclipse SDK is such a great environment to work in. We've pumped out quality code by the boat load without a lot of effort.

Getting the source


Instructions for getting the source through CVS are 'Getting started with CDT development' and 'CDT/contributing'


Git for Committers details using git in the Eclipse development process. This document describes how to use git to maintain your own development lines and use the tools to generate patches for upstream submission.

Some of the plugins are available in public git repositories. These repos track CVS mainline and recent maintenance branches.

If you want a plugin that's not here, contact the dev-list

CDT Plugins:

Scripts for creating git repos cloned from CVS:

Release Engineering

  • Where can I get the latest builds?

We have a build machine,, that we use for our builds. You can access them from the builds section on its home page. You can also generate your own builds by checking out the CDT out of CVS and using the Export -> Deployable Feature menu item provided by the PDE.

Extending CDT

externalSettingsProvider extension point

  • How do I contribute Include & Library paths to a project configuration?

The external Settings Provider extension point can be used to register a build settings provider and have it dynamically called back at your own control. You can use this to contribute paths to your build configuration, making decisions at runtime on what should be added.

  1. Use the org.eclipse.cdt.core.externalSettingsProvider extension point, give it an "ID"
  2. Create a 'provider' element pointing at a class that extends CExternalSettingProvider
  3. Register the class on your CDT projects by adding your settingsProvider ID to the configuration descriptions list of settings providers:
    1. externalSettingsProviders = new LinkedHashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(ICConfigurationDescription.getExternalSettingsProviderIds()));
    2. extSettings.add(ID)
    3. ICConfigurationDescription.setExternalSettingsProviderIds(externalSettingsProviders.toArray(new String[0]));
  4. You will get a call-back on:
    1. public CExternalSetting[] getSettings(IProject project, ICConfigurationDescription cfgd) {
  5. which allows you to return appropriate macros and includes for the given configuration desc.
  6. CDT will cache this response, when there is a configuration change which may require a change to your settings, you should call:
    1. cfgd.updateExternalSettingsProviders(new String[] {ID});


  • Can I find a method declare when my mouse point to a method for the CDT?

If you have a method selected in the Editor, pressing F3 will take you to the declaration (i.e. the prototype) and Ctrl-F3 with take you to the definition (i.e. the body). Both options are also available from the Context menu.

  • Writing to a Console in Eclipse

see solution based on MessageConsole

  • Am I headless?

see solution based on Platform & PlatformUI

  • Converting between Reader and Streams
BufferedInputStream bis=new BufferedInputStream(url1.openStream());
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(url1.openStream()));


Many more questions are answered in the "Working on the CDT" section of the general CDT FAQ.

See also the unofficial CDT Developers FAQ.