Embedded Build Tools for VS Code

A Visual Studio Code extension that provides embedded build tools (ARM GCC, GDB, CMake, Ninja, Python) for embedded ARM development.

This extension has no views. It exposes an API and VS Code commands that other extensions and launch configurations can use to obtain the paths to the packaged tools, and downloads the correct platform-specific bundle on first use.

Tools Provided

Supported Platforms

• Windows x64
• Linux x64
• Linux arm64
• macOS x64 (Intel)
• macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon)

How It Works

On first activation, the extension automatically starts downloading the appropriate pre-built bundle from the embedded-build-tools releases in the background (with a progress notification). The bundle is stored in VS Code's global storage directory and persists across extension updates.

It always downloads the latest release of mylonics/embedded-build-tools.

You can also manually trigger (re-)installation via the Command Palette:

Embedded Build Tools: Install / Update Tools

Using Paths in Launch Configurations

All tool paths are exposed as VS Code commands, allowing them to be used directly in launch.json via the ${command:...} syntax:

// .vscode/launch.json
{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Debug (BMP)",
      "type": "cortex-debug",
      "request": "launch",
      "miDebuggerPath": "${command:embeddedBuildTools.getGdbPath}",
      "miDebuggerArgs": "--interpreter=mi2"
    }
  ]
}

Available Commands

getGccBinDir is useful when you need to construct a path to any binary that is not individually exposed (e.g. arm-none-eabi-nm, arm-none-eabi-strip) — just join the returned directory with the binary filename.

API for Extension Authors

Other extensions (e.g. bmp-debug) can consume this extension's API to obtain tool paths without bundling the binaries themselves:

import type { EmbeddedBuildToolsApi } from 'mylonics.embedded-build-tools';

const ext = vscode.extensions.getExtension<EmbeddedBuildToolsApi>(
  'mylonics.embedded-build-tools'
);

if (ext) {
  const api = await ext.activate();

  // Ensure tools are downloaded (shows progress notification if needed)
  const ok = await api.ensureToolsInstalled();

  if (ok) {
    const gdbPath    = await api.getGdbPath();    // arm-none-eabi-gdb
    const gccPath    = await api.getGccPath();    // arm-none-eabi-gcc
    const gppPath    = await api.getGppPath();    // arm-none-eabi-g++
    const cmakePath  = await api.getCmakePath();  // cmake
    const ninjaPath  = await api.getNinjaPath();  // ninja
    const pythonPath = await api.getPythonPath(); // portable python

    // Directory containing all ARM GCC binaries
    const gccBinDir  = await api.getGccBinDir();

    // Root directory containing all tool sub-directories
    const toolsDir   = api.getToolsDir();
  }
}

Full API Reference

interface EmbeddedBuildToolsApi {
  /** Download tools if not already present.  Returns true on success. */
  ensureToolsInstalled(): Promise<boolean>;

  getGccPath():     Promise<string | undefined>;  // arm-none-eabi-gcc
  getGppPath():     Promise<string | undefined>;  // arm-none-eabi-g++
  getGdbPath():     Promise<string | undefined>;  // arm-none-eabi-gdb
  getObjcopyPath(): Promise<string | undefined>;  // arm-none-eabi-objcopy
  getSizePath():    Promise<string | undefined>;  // arm-none-eabi-size
  getCmakePath():   Promise<string | undefined>;  // cmake
  getNinjaPath():   Promise<string | undefined>;  // ninja
  getPythonPath():  Promise<string | undefined>;  // portable python

  /** Directory containing all ARM GCC binaries (arm-none-eabi-*). */
  getGccBinDir():   Promise<string | undefined>;

  /** Root directory that contains all tool sub-directories. */
  getToolsDir(): string;
}

Building

npm install
npm run compile      # development build
npm run package      # production build (for packaging)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.