16. Environment

16.1 Command Line Options
16.2 Environment Variables
16.3 Files
16.4 Reporting Suggestions and Bugs
16.5 Solving Problems

16.1 Command Line Options

Usage: gps [options] [-Pproject-file] [source1] [source2] ... Options: --help Show this help message and exit --version Show the GPS version and exit --debug[=program] Start a debug session and optionally load the program with the given arguments --debugger debugger Specify the debugger's command line --target=TARG:PRO Load program on machine TARG using protocol PRO --load=lang:file Execute an external file written in the language lang --eval=lang:file Execute an in-line script written in the language lang Source files are searched everywhere on the project's source path

16.2 Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be set to override some default settings in GPS:

`GPS_ROOT'

Override the default root directory specified when GPS is built (during the configure process, see the file INSTALL in the GPS sources for more details) to access information such as the location of the translation files.

`GPS_HOME'

Override the variable HOME if present. All the configuration files and directories used by GPS are either relative to $HOME/.gps (%HOME%\.gps under Windows) if GPS_HOME is not set, or to $GPS_HOME/.gps (respectively %GPS_HOME%\.gps) if set.

`GPS_DOC_PATH'

Set the search path for the documentation. See 3. Integrated Help for more details.

16.3 Files

`$HOME/.gps'

GPS state directory. Defaults to C:\.gps under Windows systems if HOME is not defined.

`$HOME/.gps/log'

Log file created automatically by GPS

`$HOME/.gps/aliases'

File containing the user-defined aliases (see section 15.4 Defining Text Aliases).

`$HOME/.gps/customize'

Directory containing files with user-defined customizations. All files found under this directory are loaded by GPS during start up. You can create/edit these files to add your own menu/tool-bar entries in GPS, or define support for new languages. see section 15.2 Customizing the Menu and Tool Bar and see section 15.3 Adding Support for New Languages.

`$HOME/.gps/custom_key'

Contains all the key bindings defined in GPS. This file is automatically created if you have activated the dynamic key bindings feature (see section 15.2 Customizing the Menu and Tool Bar).

`$HOME/.gps/debugger.log'

Log file created by the integrated debugger to trace of communication between GPS and gdb.

`$HOME/.gps/desktop'

Desktop file in XML format (using the menu File->Save...->Desktop), loaded automatically if found.

`$HOME/.gps/gtkrc'

The theme used by the gtk+ library on which gps is based. It allows you to configure the colors and fonts used in your application. See section 15.5 Defining New Styles and Key Bindings. See also `<prefix>/etc/gps/gtkrc'.

`$HOME/.gps/history'

Contains the state and history of combo boxes (e.g. the Run->Custom... dialog).

`$HOME/.gps/preferences'

Contains all the preferences in XML format, as specified in the preferences menu.

`$HOME/.gps/sessions'

Directory containing the debugging sessions.

`$HOME/.gps/sessions/session'

Each file in the sessions directory represents a particular session saved by the user.

`$HOME/.gps/traces.cfg'

Default configuration for the system traces. These traces are used to analyze problems with GPS. By default, they are sent to the file `$HOME/.gps/log'.

`prefix'

The prefix directory where GPS is installed, e.g `/opt/gps'.

`prefix/bin'

The directory containing the GPS executables.

`prefix/etc/gps'

The directory containing global configuration files for GPS.

`prefix/etc/gps/gtkrc'

The global theme used by the gtk+ library. See also `$HOME/.gps/gtkrc'.

`prefix/etc/gps/pangorc'

The pango (generic font handling) configuration file.

`prefix/etc/gps/pangox.aliases'

File defining font aliases to X font set.

`prefix/lib'

This directory contains the shared libraries used by GPS.

`prefix/doc/gps/html'

GPS will look for all the documentation files under this directory.

`prefix/doc/gps/examples'

This directory contains source code examples.

`prefix/doc/gps/examples/tutorial'

This directory contains the sources used by the GPS tutorial. See gps-tutorial.html.

`prefix/share/gps/aliases'

@cindex aliases Directory containing files with system-wide aliases (see section 15.4 Defining Text Aliases).

`prefix/share/gps/customize'

Directory containing files with system-wide customizations (see section 15.3 Adding Support for New Languages).

`prefix/share/gps/gps-animation.gif'

Animated image displayed in the top right corner of GPS to indicate that actions (e.g compilation) are on going.

`prefix/share/gps/gps-splash.jpg'

Splash screen displayed by default when GPS is started.

`prefix/share/themes'

Directory containing the Gtk+ predefined themes.

`prefix/share/make'

Directory containing shared makefiles used by the multi-language build system.

`prefix/share/locale'

Directory used to retrieve the translation files, when relevant.

16.4 Reporting Suggestions and Bugs

If you would like to make suggestions about GPS, or if you encountered a bug, please report it to mailto:report@gnat.com following the usual GNAT reports recommendations as explained in the file README.GNATPRO for supported users, and in gnatinfo.txt for non supported users.

Please try to include a detailed description of the problem, including sources to reproduce it if possible/needed, and/or a scenario describing the actions performed to reproduce the problem, as well as the tools (e.g debugger, compiler, call graph) involved.

The files `$HOME/.gps/log' and `$HOME/.gps/debugger.log' may also bring some useful information when reporting a bug.

16.5 Solving Problems

This section addresses some common problems that may arise when using or installing GPS.

`Non-privileged users cannot start GPS'

Q: I have installed GPS originally as super user, and ran GPS successfully, but normal users can't.

A: You should check the permissions of the directory $HOME/.gps and its subdirectories, they should be owned by the user.

`GPS crashes whenever I open a source editor'

This is usually due to font problems. Editing the file `$HOME/.gps/preferences' and changing the name of the fonts, e.g changing Courier by Courier Medium, and Helvetica by Sans should solve the problem.

`GPS refuses to start the debugger'

If GPS cannot properly initialize the debugger (using the menu Debug->Initialize), it is usually because the underlying debugger (gdb) cannot be launched properly. To verify this, try to launch the 'gdb' command from a shell (i.e outside GPS). If gdb cannot be launched from a shell, it usually means that you are using a wrong version of gdb (e.g a version of gdb built for Solaris 8, but run on Solaris 2.6).

`GPS is frozen during a debugging session'

If GPS is no longer responding while debugging an application you should first wait a little bit, since some communications between GPS and gdb can take a long time to finish. If GPS is still not responding after a few minutes, you can usually get the control back in GPS by either typing Ctrl-C in the shell where you've started GPS: this should unblock it; if it does not work, you can kill the gdb process launched by GPS using the ps and kill, or the top command under Unix, and the Task Manager under Windows: this will terminate your debugging session, and will unblock GPS.

`My Ada program fails during elaboration. How can I debug it ?'

If your program was compiled with GNAT, the main program is generated by the binder. This program is an ordinary Ada (or C if the `-C' switch was used) program, compiled in the usual manner, and fully debuggable provided that the `-g' switch is used on the gnatlink command (or `-g' is used in the gnatmake command itself).

The name of this package containing the main program is `b~xxx.ads/adb' where xxx is the name of the Ada main unit given in the gnatbind command, and you can edit and debug this file in the normal manner. You will see a series of calls to the elaboration routines of the packages, and you can debug these in the usual manner, just as if you were debugging code in your application.

`How can I debug the Ada run-time library ?'

The run time distributed in binary versions of GNAT hasn't been compiled with debug information. Thus, it needs to be recompiled before you can actually debug it.

The simplest is to recompile your application by adding the switches `-a' and `-f' to the gnatmake command line. This extra step is then no longer required, assuming that you keep the generated object and ali files corresponding to the GNAT run time available.

Another possibility on Unix systems is to use the file `Makefile.adalib' that can be found in the adalib directory of your GNAT installation and specify e.g `-g -O2' for the `CFLAGS' switches.

`The GPS main window is not displayed'

If when launching GPS, nothing happens, you can try to rename the `.gps' directory (see 16.3 Files) to start from a fresh set up.