The Target Communication Framework is a useful plugin to establish a powerful network access to a agent running on the remote target with Linux. It can be used to open debug sessions to the target.

Install plugin on Eclipse host machine

First install the TCF plugin into Eclipse from this repository.

Install agent on target

For connecting with the target, the tcf-agent is needed to be build and run on target.

debian@beaglebone~/$ sudo apt-get install git uuid uuid-dev libssl-dev gdbserver gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
debian@beaglebone~/$ git clone https://git.eclipse.org/r/tcf/org.eclipse.tcf.agent.git
debian@beaglebone~/$ cd org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent
debian@beaglebone~/org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent$ make

Now the build tcf agent can be tested just in place.

debian@beaglebone~/org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent$ obj/GNU/Linux/arm/Debug/agent –S

Install it into systemd of debian.

debian@beaglebone~/org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent$ make install
debian@beaglebone~/org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent$ sudo make install INSTALLROOT=
debian@beaglebone~/org.eclipse.tcf.agent/agent$ sudo update-rc.d tcf-agent defaults

Start and check if it is running under systemctl.

debian@beaglebone~/$ sudo systemctl start tcf-agent.service
debian@beaglebone~/$ systemctl status tcf-agent.service

From now on the tcf-agent is automatically started at bootup and has elevated permissions.

Create a remote target with TCF

If the agent on the target is running and the network is configured properly, the target should appear under Neighborhood in the System Management-view:

By a right clicking the detected neighbor and selecting connect, a New connection dialog appears:

The forms are prefilled and it is just required to give the connection a name. Finish the new connection should appear under Connections in the tree view.

Configure the target connection

For having access to processes, file sytem and launchers on the target, enable the view in the content of the target explorer:

After that, the selected items could be accessed under the tree of the TCF-connection to the target:

Setup a debug configuration for the project

Add a new debug configuration from Target Communication Framework:

Give it a new name and check whether the remote TCF agent is visible:

In Application-tab set project and the executable to copy to target. Be sure that root has access to the remote path on the target, e.g. /tmp/….:

Set an argument to the executable: