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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.
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.
Overview of OS images
Before you use the IDE to create OS images for your hardware, you must first understand the operations that occur when a system starts up. You must also become familiar with the concepts involved in building images.
Types of images you can create
You can create bootable image filesystems, flash filesystems, or a combination of the two.

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.
  - Overview of OS images
    Before you use the IDE to create OS images for your hardware, you must first understand the operations that occur when a system starts up. You must also become familiar with the concepts involved in building images.
    - Types of images you can create
      You can create bootable image filesystems, flash filesystems, or a combination of the two.
    - Project layout
      A QNX System Builder project can contain your .ifs file and multiple .efs files, as well as your startup code and boot script. You can import the IPL from another location or you can store it inside the project directory.
    - BSP filename conventions
      In our BSP documentation, buildfiles, and scripts, we use a filename convention that relies on prefixes and suffixes to distinguish between file types. The names for Image Filesystem (IFS) files take the form ifs-board_name.elf, and the names for Embedded Filesystem (EFS) files take the form efs-board_name.raw.
  - Creating a QNX System Builder project
    To build an OS image, you need to define a QNX System Builder project. The IDE provides a wizard to set up this project based on your buildfile preferences.
  - Modifying an OS image
    Using the buildfile editor, you can manually add any required components to your OS image.
  - Building an OS image
    To build an OS image, you need to build the QNX System Builder project that contains the relevant buildfile. But unlike for other projects, the IDE doesn't create launch configurations for QNX System Builder projects, so you can't build them through the launch bar. Instead, you can use menu actions.
  - Downloading an image to your target
    The easiest way to transfer an image to your target is using a ROM monitor, a simple program that runs when you first power on the board. The ROM monitor lets you communicate with your board via a command-line interface (over a serial or IP link), so you can download images to the board's system memory and burn images into flash.
- 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.
- 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.

Types of images you can create

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You can create bootable image filesystems, flash filesystems, or a combination of the two.

The IDE helps you create the following image types:

OS image (.ifs file): An image filesystem. A bootable image filesystem holds the procnto module, your boot script, and possibly other components such as drivers and shared objects.
Flash image (.efs file): A flash filesystem. (The e stands for embedded.) You can use your flash memory like a hard disk to store programs and data.
Combined image: An image created by joining together multiple components (IPL, OS image, embedded filesystem image) into a single image. You might want to combine an IPL with an OS image, for example, and then download that single image to the board's memory via a ROM monitor, which you could use to burn the image into flash. The filename extension of a combined image indicates the file's format: .elf, .srec, etc.

If you plan to debug applications on the target, you must include pdebug in /usr/bin. If the target has no other forms of storage, include pdebug in the OS image or flash image.

Page updated: March 05, 2025