How to bring C/C++ source files into Eclipse

A common scenario that you may encounter when starting to use the CDT, is determining how to bring existing C/C++ source files into Eclipse. There are a number of ways to do this. The scenarios described below are recommended approaches.

Create a project from CVS

If your existing source tree is managed in CVS, you can use the CVS Repository perspective to "Checkout As..." any folder in the repository. The first time you "Checkout As...", the New Project wizard is launched and you need to create a C or C++ project for the folder. For more information, see Creating a project and Working with C/C++ project files.

A CVS checkout of the project into the project's location occurs. It is recommended that you eventually add and commit the CDT project files back into CVS. The CDT project files include .project, .cdtproject and .cdtbuild (for Managed Build projects) and are located at the root folder of each CDT project.

Create new projects from existing source roots

If your resource code is not managed in CVS but is available from the file system, then you need to perform two steps:
  1. Identify a "root folder" of your source code tree.
  2. Create a new C/C++ project using the New Project Wizard, and specify the "root folder" as a non-default location of the new project.

Typically existing projects will have their own makefiles, so you should create a new Standard Make C/C++ project. For more information see Creating a project and Working with C/C++ project files.

To help you to identify a root folder for your project, consider the following guidelines:

The resources for the project are maintained in the remote location specified, not in the workspace folder for Eclipse. However, your existing folder structure is displayed in the C/C++ Projects view. Meta data for the project, such as the index for the project and the link to the existing source, is stored in the metadata directory in the workspace folder. For more information on the workspace folder, see Workbench User Guide > Tasks > Upgrading Eclipse.

Once you create a CDT project, you cannot easily move it or redefine its root folders. If you need to, you can delete the CDT project (without deleting its contents) and then recreate it specifying a different non-default location.

Import your C/C++ source file system

Another approach would be to create a C/C++ Project and then import your existing file system. For more information, see Workbench User Guide > Tasks > Importing > Importing resources from the file system.

This approach copies the files from your file system to an Eclipse Workbench project or folder. Your original source files remain unchanged and it is the copies of the files that will be edited, built and debugged using the CDT.  When you have successfully imported your existing file system, the folder structure is displayed in the C/C++ Projects view. Again, you should identify an appropriate "root folder" to import from.

Tip:

Related concepts
Overview of the CDT
 CDT Projects

Related tasks
Working with C/C++ project files

Related reference
Project properties

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