[cdt-dev] NT Launch/Build Abort

[Chris Songer <songer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi!

No patch this time since I'm sure the build model in the head is too far 
away from 1.0.1 for the patch to be useful and many of the changes were in 
Tensilica specific launchers. Never-the-less I did want to take a moment to 
mention an issue we hit in usability testing with debugging and building on NT.

The basic problem has to do with gdb and the NT filesystem. While gdb is 
running it keeps an open file descriptor to the executable. NT will not let 
you remove or modify a file that is presently opened. This causes makefiles 
run on NT to be unable to write an executable. The message that the linker 
outputs does not lead you to the conclusion "this was because I've got an 
open launch on this exe in a perspective that's currently not even visible."

We added a scan of the running launches to the builder and if any launches 
are involved with the project being built then we give the user a choice 
between terminating the launches or continuing the build.

Perhaps this issue just affects our tools, but I suspect it's not unique to 
us. As you look at the build model on the head, please do keep this 
"exclusive" nature of the NT file system in mind. You can't build and debug 
at the same time and the user does get confused about the build failures 
this causes.

Thanks!
-Chris