To view and customize Build Properties, right-click on a project and go to Properties, then click on Build in the left pane. The right pane will display several tabs. The settings in each tab are described below. More details on these settings and their usage come in later sections.

Builder: Defines the build command, makefile generation and a few other build settings.

Most users will not need to adjust the default settings under Builder and Makefile generation. These are set to use the default build command and to generate makefiles automatically. Advanced users may wish to customize the gmake command or even use a different make utility. See Changing the make utility if you wish to use a make utility other than the default gmake.

The Stop on first build error check box controls whether the build should stop immediately after the first build error or not. By default, this box is unchecked. This passes the -k (–keep-going) option to gmake that tells it to “keep going” or continue with the build as much as possible after an error. If this box is checked, the -k option will go away and the build will stop at the first build error.

Note that even if this box is checked, it will still finish building the current source file and report all the errors found in that file. However, it will not continue with building other source files. In addition, if the Enable parallel build option is enabled, more than one source files may begin building concurrently, in which case the build will stop after all of those files are completed. Removing the -k option may be desired if using a custom build step.

The Enable parallel build setting is enabled by default and takes advantage of PCs with multiple cores to run parallel builds, thereby speeding up the build time. See the section Parallel builds for more details.

Validator: Sets level of adherence to different tools versions.

This tab is visible in CCS 7.4 and higher. This setting configures the criticality of tools version mismatches. This is useful if you want strict control over which version of compiler and other products are to be used for project build.

Steps: Pre-build and Post-build steps.

Pre-build steps are steps that run before the main project build takes place. Post-build steps are steps that run after the main project build takes place. See Pre and Post Build Steps for more information.

Variables: Displays Build variables.

Enabling Show system variables shows all system level and built-in variables, otherwise only project level variables are shown. Build variables can be used in compiler and linker build options, for example, to specify paths to include files or libraries relative to a build variable. See Portable Projects for more information on build variables.

Environment: Defines environment variables.

Link Order: Defines the order in which files are passed to the linker.

If you need strict control over the linking order you can add the required files here and control the order in which they get passed to the linker.

Dependencies: Defines dependencies between projects, allowing referenced projects to be built before dependent project.

See Project Dependencies for more information.

Note

In CCS 7.3 and lower, the Behavior tab defined build settings and workbench build behavior. In CCS 7.4 and higher these settings moved into the Builder tab.

Under the Build category there are several sub-categories:

Compiler/Linker: Compiler and Linker options

There are several compiler and linker options available to control your build. The list of options is too vast to go into detail here. Refer to the Compiler and Assembly Language Tools Users Guides for details on the options supported by the compiler and linker respectively. In the CCS Build Properties dialog, these options are categorized into groups for easy identification. You can drill down into the Compiler and Linker sections in the CCS GUI to access all of the available options.

Compiler and linker flags can also be added or removed directly via the Edit Flags button.

Hex Utility: Hex utility options

The Hex Utility can be enabled and invoked as part of the build in CCS. By default, the Hex Utility is disabled for a new CCS project. Once enabled, there are several options available. Refer to the Assembly Language Tools Users Guides for details on the options supported by the Hex Conversion Utility.

Hex utility flags can also be added or removed directly via the Edit Flags button.

For additional information on the Hex Utility integration into CCS, refer to the Hex Utility in CCS page.

XDCtools: XDCtools options

Refer to the SYS/BIOS Users Guide for supported options.