Depending on how you obtained the CDT, you might have also received a toolchain with a built-in CDT integration. However, if you downloaded the CDT from an update site, then you will require a toolchain before you can build and debug any projects.
The base CDT supports integration with the GNU toolchain. This includes GNU's make, gcc compiler, and gdb debugger utilities. If you require a toolchain to build software for your development host, this is the best choice to get started.
Each platform that runs the CDT requires different steps to acquire this toolchain.
All Linux distributions include the GNU toolchain. They may not, however, be installed by default. For instructions about installing the GNU toolchain for Linux, see the instructions for your particular distribution.
For windows, MinGW, and Cygwin are the two main choices for acquiring the GNU toolchain:
MinGW is a port of the GNU toolchain to the Windows platform. The biggest difference over Cygwin is that MinGW uses the Windows C runtime libraries (mscvrt) instead of GNU's libc. As a result, a compatibility layer is not required, thus avoiding the GPL issues with Cygwin. There are differences, though, between the Windows and GNU C runtime libraries that will make writing portable applications more difficult.
However, MinGW provides the best integration support with the CDT due to it's direct support for the Windows environment.
The following are instructions and links on how to install the old version of MinGW (GCC 3). Note that these links may become inaccurate over time as new versions of MinGW components are introduced. Please check the MinGW File Release section for the latest versions.
Do not install the MinGW Make feature as the MSYS version of make from step 5 is a more complete implementation of make.
The GNU toolchain is supported on all platforms that the CDT supports. For instructions about installing the GNU toolchain on your platform, see your platform vendor.