VS Code Workspace Tools for the CoRE Simulation Models for OMNeT++

This project is supposed to help you set up VS Code as your IDE for OMNeT++ development with the CoRE simulation models. What you will find is a set of scripts and configuration files to set up your workspace and to create build and run tasks for all models.

I got inspiration from this repository: https://github.com/rjmalves/omnetpp-VS Code

This is a work in progress and suggestions and additions are welcome!

Features

Prerequisites

On Windows use the WSL: Windows Subsystem for Linux (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install)
- Recommended distro is Ubuntu (mine is currently running 22.04 LTS)
- NOTE: In the WSL there is no Papierkorb (Recycle Bin) so be careful when deleting files.
OMNeT++ (https://omnetpp.org/)
- Follow the install guide for Linux and your distro
VS Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/)
- Some Usefull plugins for VS Code are:
  - On Windows: WSL
  - C/C++
  - C/C++ Extension Pack
  - Makefile Tools
  - OMNeT++ NED
  - Github Copilot (+Chat)

Setup VS Code Workspace

Open this repository in VS Code and install the recommended extensions. Inside the .VS Code folder you will find the settings.JSON, c_cpp_properties.JSON and a default tasks.JSON file.

Adjust the paths in the settings.JSON and c_cpp_properties.JSON to your OMNeT++ installation.

The tasks.JSON file contains a default setup for tasks, which should work if you use the setup_models.sh script to setup the workspace. If the tasks do not work for you checkout the create_tasks.py script, adjust it to your needs, and generate new tasks.

The launch.JSON file contains a default setup for launch configs, which should work if you use the setup_models.sh script to setup the workspace. If the launch configs do not work for you checkout the create_tasks.py script and look for everything containing "run", adjust it to your needs, and generate new launch configs.

Setup models

In the top level of this repository is a script to clone all models and checkout the correct branches.

Launch the script with ./setup_models.sh.

By default, the inet framework will be cloned from GitHub; all CoRE simulation models will be cloned from the inet rg git. Make sure you have access to the repositories and SSH is configured correctly.

For now you have to edit the script to change the branches to checkout or to exclude some of our models from git clone.

Clone repo into existing OMNeT++ workspace

If you already have an OMNeT++ workspace and want to add this repository to it, you can do so by cloning this repository into your workspace.

cd <path to your workspace>
rm -rf .git
git init
git remote add origin git@github.com:CoRE-RG/OMNeT4VS Code.git
git fetch
git checkout origin/master -t --mixed

Make sure though that all frameworks exist in the correct place to use the scripts, tasks, and lauch configurations in this repository.

Create Build Tasks

In the top level of this repository is a python script create_tasks.py to create build tasks for all models. At the top of the script there are some definitions you might want to adjust to your needs, note that they use relative paths depending on the settings.JSON, so they should work out of the box if you use the setup_models.sh script. Then there are a lot of helper functions to create the tasks. At the bottom of the script is the actual execution of the functions to create the tasks, which you can adjust to your needs, e.g., if you do not want exclude specific models.

Run the script using python3 create_tasks.py in the repository root. It will create a tasks.JSON file in the .VS Code folder. If there was an old tasks.JSON file it will be moved to tasks.JSON.old with an index if there are multiple so you do not loose a task configuration.

Building the models

To build the models go to the top menu and select Terminal -> Run Task.... You can select a specific model or build all models at once. There are two build tasks for each model, one for debug and one for release builds. You can also clean the build directories with the clean task.

Create run tasks

In the create_tasks.py script, there are also functions to create launch configs for simulations (look for "run" in the names). There are four launch configs that all run a simulation for the currently openned file with qtenv: Debug (uses opp_run_dbg) and Release (uses opp_run), each with and without building all models beforehand. It should be possible to adjust the script to create more run tasks, e.g., for parameter studies or batch runs in cmdenv. This is future work...

Run a simulation

To launch a simulation go to the run and debug tab of VS Code and select the config you want to run. Make sure you have the main simulation ini file (e.g., omnetpp.ini) open in the editor. Just click run and the simulation should start. The debugger will be attached automatically and you can use breakpoints and step through the code.

CoRE-RG/OMNeT4VSCode