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QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 8.0 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Tool Suite.
Reference
The reference topics provide information about QNX Momentics IDE features and workflows that isn't covered in the chapters related to developing projects or debugging, testing, and analyzing applications.
Configuring host-target communication
The IDE on the host can communicate with target machines using an IP or a serial connection.
Serial communication
A serial connection allows the IDE to debug a program but not to use any profiling or analysis tools. You generally set up this connection type only when TCP/IP networking isn't available on the target.

QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 8.0 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Tool Suite.
- Working with QNX Momentics IDE
  QNX Momentics IDE provides a graphical environment for developing, running, debugging, and profiling applications.
- Developing Projects with the IDE
  To use the QNX Momentics IDE to write applications targeted for QNX OS systems, you must define projects, which are containers that store your source code, configuration files, and binary files.
- Debugging Applications
  The IDE allows you to debug a running application, a library used by the application, or a core file.
- Unit Testing
  The IDE lets you use commercial test frameworks to write unit tests and then execute them by launching a project. While running a test program, you can use the Code Coverage tool to determine how much of the code is exercised (covered) by your tests.
- Analyzing Memory Usage and Finding Memory Problems
  QNX Momentics IDE lets you run Memory Analysis and several Valgrind (pronounced val-grinned) tools to find memory problems such as leaks and corruption, and to measure memory usage of programs. It also provides the QNX System Information perspective so you can learn which processes are consuming memory or other resources excessively.
- Analyzing Performance
  QNX Momentics IDE works with the Application Profiler and Valgrind (pronounced val-grinned) Cachegrind tools, which measure the performance of programs running on QNX targets. It also offers the QNX System Information perspective for viewing performance-related metrics.
- Analyzing System Behavior
  Many IDE tools allow you to find errors and optimize applications, but to ensure that your embedded system behaves well, you need to use system-wide diagnostic tools. The QNX System Information and QNX System Profiler tools help you understand process and thread interaction on the target, reduce application and system startup times, and debug deadlock and improper CPU usage levels.
- Building QNX OS Images
  Using the IDE's QNX System Builder feature, you can generate OS images, which are bootable images that contain startup code, the QNX OS, your applications, and any data files used by your applications. The IDE supports image building by allowing you to transfer an image to a target board.
- Reference
  The reference topics provide information about QNX Momentics IDE features and workflows that isn't covered in the chapters related to developing projects or debugging, testing, and analyzing applications.
  - Switching between SDKs
    QNX SDP provides a Software Development Kit (SDK) for writing applications for QNX OS. In the QNX Momentics IDE, you can change the SDK selection to use a toolchain from a particular QNX SDP installation.
  - Configuring host-target communication
    The IDE on the host can communicate with target machines using an IP or a serial connection.
    - IP communication
      Through an IP connection, the IDE can debug, monitor, and profile programs as they run on the target.
    - Serial communication
      A serial connection allows the IDE to debug a program but not to use any profiling or analysis tools. You generally set up this connection type only when TCP/IP networking isn't available on the target.
  - Supported target types
    This IDE release supports several target types. You can work with physical or virtual targets connected to the host by an IP or a serial link, or virtual machines (VMs) generated by the IDE.
  - QNX C/C++ Project properties
    For projects that use managed recursive makefiles, the build settings are defined through the UI and the IDE regenerates the makefiles whenever you change these settings.
  - QNX perspectives
    Perspectives control which views are shown in the IDE and how they are laid out. The IDE contains many perspectives that support application and system analysis for QNX OS targets.
  - Editors
    Editors control how you interact with project files that are opened in the editor pane.
  - Build configurations
    When you run a project through the launch bar, the IDE builds the project, if necessary, before running the binary on the target. The commands used for compiling and linking are determined by the active build configuration.
  - Adding debug symbols and instrumentation code to binaries
    The active build configuration determines which make commands are used to compile and link binaries in the current project. To debug and analyze your program with certain tools, you must define the right options in those commands.
  - Creating a non-QNX project
    The IDE lets you create any project type supported by the C/C++ Development Toolkit (CDT) in the Eclipse platform.
  - Managing launch configurations
    Launch configurations store settings related to program execution, setup, or analysis. When you create a project, the IDE generates a default launch configuration for it. But you can create your own configurations when you need to customize how a project runs and reuse those custom settings.
  - Integrated tools
    The IDE works with the GNU Debugger (GDB) and many runtime analysis tools, some of which are made by QNX and others by a third party. Using these tools, the IDE can report memory errors, heap usage, and function runtimes, and display kernel event trace data and target state information.
  - Updating the IDE
    The IDE includes an auto-update feature that lets you check for and install updates to the IDE itself.
  - System Profiler: user event formatting XML reference
    This reference document defines attributes of the datakey specifier. For a detailed guide that walks through several examples, go to Formatting user events with the System Profiler.
- JTAG: Debugging with Lauterbach TRACE32
  The Lauterbach TRACE32® In-Circuit Debugger (TRACE32-ICD) supports the JTAG onchip interface so you can perform hardware debugging of QNX OS systems through the QNX Momentics IDE.
QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running the QNX OS 8.0.
QNX Software in the Cloud
QNX Software in the Cloud enables developers to use the QNX OS in the Amazon cloud environment.
QNX Toolkit for Visual Studio Code
This User's Guide describes the QNX^® Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. The guide introduces you to the QNX Toolkit by explaining the QNX development environment and how to build, run, and debug your QNX^® Operating System (OS) applications and systems.
QNX Hypervisor User's Guide
This User's Guide explains the QNX hypervisor architecture and provides instructions for installing and running a QNX Hypervisor system, changing system components and configuration, and using hypervisor features such as virtual devices (vdevs).
Typographical Conventions, Support, and Licensing
This section describes the typographical conventions used throughout the documentation, explains how to obtain technical support, and provides some information about licensing.

Serial communication

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A serial connection allows the IDE to debug a program but not to use any profiling or analysis tools. You generally set up this connection type only when TCP/IP networking isn't available on the target.

First, you must physically connect the host and target machines through a serial port. Then, you must configure your target to use the serial link:

If it's not already running, start the appropriate serial driver on the target.
Typically, x86-based machines use the devc-ser8250 driver. ARM-based machines use a board-specific driver; for details on the starting the right driver, consult your BSP User's Guide. When the serial driver is running, you can run ls /dev/ser* to see the path of the serial device.
Start the pseudo-terminal communications manager, devc-pty, by entering the following command:
# devc-pty &
Determine the baud rate used by the serial port, using stty (this example assumes that you're using the first serial port):
# stty </dev/ser1

This command lists all parameters of the serial port. Look for the baud=baudrate entry; you'll need this information to properly configure both the target and host sides of the connection.
Start the debugging agent, pdebug, while specifying the previously reported baud rate:
# pdebug /dev/ser1,115200 &

This example uses a baud rate of 115200 but the stty-reported rate on your system may differ.

You can now use the newly enabled serial link to debug a program on the target. The link transports data between the debugger on the host (GDB) and the supporting agent on the target (pdebug).

Page updated: August 11, 2025