The Component Repository and Profiles

When you invoke the eCos Configuration Tool, it accesses the Component Repository, a read-only location of configuration information. For an explanation of “Component Repository” see Chapter 20.

Profiles

eCosPro 3.1 introduced support for profiles, which make it easier to have more than one version of eCosPro present at the same time. Each installation defines its own profile which declares what it is, where its component repository is located, what toolchain it requires and its default hardware target.

The Configuration Tool looks in two places for profile definitions, a system-wide file and a per-user file. Any definitions present in the per-user file override those in the system-wide file.

Table 11-1. Profile definition file locations

Platform	System-wide	Per-user
Windows	`%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\ecospro.ini`	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\ecospro.ini` or `%APPDATA%\ecospro.ini`
Linux	`/etc/ecospro.conf`	`$HOME/.ecospro.conf`

At startup, the Configuration Tool reads the profile definitions and checks them for validity. If only one valid profile is found, that is selected unconditionally; otherwise, you will be prompted to select the one to use.

The currently-selected profile is always indicated in the status bar at the bottom of the Configuration Tool window.

Figure 11-2. Profile selection dialog

If you invoke the Configuration Tool from the command line, you can specify the profile to use with the --profile option.

Compatibility with eCosPro v2.0.x and 3.0.x

Older installations of eCosPro created ecosenv.sh and/or ecosenv-<version>.sh files which set the ECOS_REPOSITORY environment variable for you.

In order to co-exist with such installations, this version of the Configuration Tool also examines the value of ECOS_REPOSITORY when it starts up: if it is set, it is treated as defining a further profile. In this case, an extra entry env:ECOS_REPOSITORY appears in the profile selection dialog.

Alternatively, if an eCos repository is passed on the command line to the configuration tool, this will also result in the profile entry env:ECOS_REPOSITORY appearing. In this case the environment variable ECOS_REPOSITORY is overwritten by the argument, allowing the argument to take precedence over the environment variable.

Note: When using this backwards compatibility mode, you may need to set up the path to the appropriate toolchain for your target hardware using the Tools->Paths->Build tools menu item. Alternatively, you can ensure the toolchain is on the PATH before starting the Configuration Tool. Older releases will have used the files ecosenv.sh and/or ecosenv-<version>.sh in order to configure appropriate settings.

Migrating configurations

It is possible to migrate a configuration from one profile to another which provides the same set of packages (for example, when upgrading to another release of eCosPro which targets the same hardware platform).

To do this, first open the configuration in its current profile, then use the Build->Profile menu item to select a different profile. You will be prompted to save the configuration, if necessary, before selecting the new profile; the Configuration Tool then attempts to migrate the configuration to the new profile.

The migration process will result in a number of warnings from CDL, mostly to the effect that the previously-selected versions of eCos packages were not found and that the available versions were used instead. There may also be conflicts arising, which you will be prompted to resolve in the usual way.

If the configuration could not be automatically migrated, the action is aborted and you are warned that that save file was "invalid" for that profile. This normally indicates that a package loaded by the existing configuration was not present in the new repository; details will appear in the error output.

You can check the location of the current repository, the current save file path, and the current hardware template and default package, by selecting Help->Repository Information. A summary will be displayed.