Copying Projects in NIOS II IDE

Altera_Forum · ‎05-19-2004

In developing NIOS 3.2, I could make a copy of the entire directory to another location to either save as a working copy or branch the design. As HW and SW evolve in the design, it is not clear to me the best way to handle archival and retrieval of files in the NIOS II IDE.

In trying to do this in NIOS II -- copy a project, SW and all and begin fresh, I run into diffculty. If I make a copy of the top level design directory, then it is not clear how to create re-create the SW project with all the necessary files. Maybe this is trying to force the old method in the new environment...

Any idea how to accomplish the copying an entire project? Or is there a better way? I would like to hear of any suggestions as to archival methods. Archiving the entire directory in Source Safe can be quite costly in time and disk space since these projects can be 30 MB+. I simply resorted to zipping the top level directory along with the SW.

Dan Grolemund

Altera_Forum · ‎05-20-2004

Here's the relevant section from the online help, hope it answers your question.

Sharing Software Projects

The Nios II IDE provides facilities to import and export design files to/from the workbench, which is the basic mechanism for sharing software projects between multiple developers. When sharing files with other designers, you must:

Include both the C/C++ application project and the system library project.

Include the FPGA configuration file (.sof) and SOPC Builder system file (.ptf), which describes the target hardware.

Use the default locations for the C/C++ application and system library projects when you create the projects. This keeps the software files in a fixed location relative to the .ptf file, so that the Nios II IDE can find everything it needs to build the project.

Not include the build directory, typically named "Debug" or "Release". The contents of these directories will be re-generated on the new machine.

Software can be shared by either simply copying files, or using the CVS source control system. See Workbench User Guide > Concepts > Team Programming with CVS. After receiving Nios II software design files, you must import them into the Nios II IDE workbench using the import feature. The easiest method is to drag-and-drop the project directory onto the C/C++ Projects view in the Nios II IDE. For further details, see Importing and Exporting Files and Projects.

Altera_Forum · ‎05-26-2004

Thanks much !