Custom Build-Tool integration

[M-Marvin]

I am currently working on an custom build tool for both java and cpp (and in further maybe rust) projects.
Specifically, I am working on an Eclipse Plugin for my build tool.

So far I have a project nature for my build tool with the necessary property pages, editors and file types (buildfiles).
I also got the java integration almost complete, but I am a bit struggling with C/C++ integration.

I am able to create an CDT makefile or CDT build managed project and add my buildtool nature manually.
The buildtool is then able to compile the project, but there are some problems I am not sure how to solve with CDT, it was straight forward with JDT:

• Dependencies (jar files in JDT, header files on CDT) are provided from my build tool as a list of directories with the header files, but I am not sure how to replace the ones in the CDT project
• I can create CDT projects using the new-wizzard, but this configures them with make, cmake or CDT build, I would like to have a plain C/C++ project without any predefined build tools and apply my own, but if I create an project and add the C nature and the C++ nature, it just gives me an error that this is not an CDT project.
• I would like to create a launch configuration which executes the "launch task" in my build script (which compiles and starts the application) and attach the debugger to it, just like the normal C++ launch configuration
  This last one is actually still work in progress even on the JDT side, but I think I figured a few things out there already.

I would be happy if someone could tell me where I should start looking in the CDT project, since I don't really have an idea where to start here.
I should mention that I am new to the eclipse platform development, this is my first plugin, but I think I already figured most of it out while writing the rest of this projects code.

[M-Marvin]

I did a bit diging in the source code of CDT, and I think I figured out how to get a valid CDT project with my build system and how to sync the include directories.

First I have to create a project with the C and C++ Natures like before, but then I also have to create an basic .cproject file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<?fileVersion 4.0.0?><cproject storage_type_id="org.eclipse.cdt.core.XmlProjectDescriptionStorage">
	<storageModule moduleId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.settings">
		<cconfiguration id="org.eclipse.cdt.core.default.config.205252450">
			<storageModule buildSystemId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.defaultConfigDataProvider" id="org.eclipse.cdt.core.default.config.205252450" moduleId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.settings" name="Configuration">
				<externalSettings/>
				<extensions/>
			</storageModule>
			<storageModule moduleId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.externalSettings"/>
		</cconfiguration>
	</storageModule>
	<storageModule moduleId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.LanguageSettingsProviders"/>
	<storageModule moduleId="org.eclipse.cdt.core.pathentry">
	</storageModule>
</cproject>

(copied this file from an make project after removing all not required make stuff)

Then I can sync my includes using ICProject#setRawPathEntries()
Not sure if this is necessary a good solution, but it seems to work without any problems.
The IDE recognizes my include directories and the files in them, and I can use them to write C/C++ code.

Now I only still need help with the the third problem, an custom launch configuration which launches the C/C++ debugger with my build systems run task, I probably have to pass the process id from the build system to the plugin and somehow tell the IDE to attach the debugger to it.