Build Configurations

Article
06/30/2006

During the build process, Platform Builder gives you the ability to select one of two base build configurations for your platform. These configurations are called debug and retail configurations, and offer different options. You can also create a custom ship configuration for your platform by copying and modifying a retail configuration. For more information, see Creating a Custom Ship Configuration.

You can select a different configuration at any given point within the building process in order to fit your needs at a particular point.

From the Build menu in the integrated development environment (IDE), select Set Active Configuration. The following table shows the possible build configurations that you can select.

Build configuration	Description
Debug	Building a debug configuration produces a very large image, which has full debugging enabled. From the Build menu, select Set Active Configuration. This sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=debug.
Retail	Building a retail configuration produces a smaller image, which has limited debugging enabled. Retail configurations still support OutputDebugMessage, and can be configured for debugging. From the Platform menu, select Settings, and then verify that both the KITL and Kernel Debug checkboxes are selected on the Build Options tab. This sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=retail.
Ship	Building a ship configuration produces an image with no debugging enabled. For more information, see Creating a Custom Ship Configuration. Select a retail build configuration, and then from the Build Options tab, verify that the KITL and Kernel Debugging check boxes are deselected and that the Enable Ship Build check box is selected. This sets the environment variables WINCEDEBUG=retail and WINSHIP=1.

Debug

Building a debug configuration produces a very large image, which has full debugging enabled.

From the Build menu, select Set Active Configuration. This sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=debug.

Retail

Building a retail configuration produces a smaller image, which has limited debugging enabled. Retail configurations still support OutputDebugMessage, and can be configured for debugging.

From the Platform menu, select Settings, and then verify that both the KITL and Kernel Debug checkboxes are selected on the Build Options tab. This sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=retail.

Ship

Building a ship configuration produces an image with no debugging enabled.

For more information, see Creating a Custom Ship Configuration.

Select a retail build configuration, and then from the Build Options tab, verify that the KITL and Kernel Debugging check boxes are deselected and that the Enable Ship Build check box is selected. This sets the environment variables WINCEDEBUG=retail and WINSHIP=1.

You do not need to switch your entire platform between a retail configuration and a ship configuration if you want to selectively build a few executables for debugging purposes in a retail configuration.

Note When you switch between a retail configuration and a ship configuration, you must do a clean rebuild of your platform. This is because ship and retail configurations place their binaries in the same place, which can lead to conflicts between the two configurations.

The following process shows how you can selectively build a few executables for debugging purposes in a retail configuration.

Build retail and debug configurations of your platform.
From the build release directory in the debug configuration, copy the executable (.exe) files that you want to debug into the build release directory of the retail configuration.
Run Makeimg.exe in the retail configuration, which will link the copied executables into your image.

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Build Configurations

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