# Trace Compass RCP

The Trace Compass RCP version is a stand-alone application based on Eclipse's Rich Client Platform (RCP). The purpose of this is to provide a lightweight application to view and analyze traces. It includes most standard features found in the Trace Compass project.

## Getting Started

To start the Trace Compass RCP, go to the directory where it is installed and then run the executable named tracecompass. During startup, the program will create, if necessary, an Eclipse workspace under the user's home directory with the name .tracecompass. It also creates, if needed, a default tracing project called Tracing.

Now the application can be used as described in the regular User Guide. (see section References).

## Updating the application

The RCP is pre-configured to point to the update site of its release "track". For example, if you download a "nightly" RCP, it will update using that "nightly" update site. These settings are configurable in the preferences, but in most cases, the user should not have to change them.

The program does not check automatically for updates. To check manually, you can click on Help -> Check for Updates. If updates are available, a standard Eclipse update dialog will offer their installation.

## Opening a Trace

To open a trace, click on the File menu and select Open Trace.... A new dialog will show up for selecting a trace to open. Select a trace file and then click on OK. Note that for traces that are directories (such as Common Trace Format (CTF) traces) any file in the trace directory can be selected to open the trace. The auto detection algorithm will then validate the trace against all known trace types. If multiple trace types are valid, a trace type is chosen based on a confidence criteria. The validation process and the computation of the confidence level are trace type specific. After successful validation, the trace will be opened with the detected trace type.

Alternatively the user can launch tracecompass with the command-line argument --cli --open <trace-path>. The trace will then automatically open using the same algorithm than described above.

In both of the above cases, the trace will be linked to the default project.

## Run From Command Line

Trace Compass has some command line options that can be used to act on the application at startup. The argument list must be preceded by the --cli option.

To list all the command line options, one can get the help text by running tracecompass --cli --help or tracecompass --cli -h.