Under Linux many commands are executed from the command line, which is OK. But if the program you are starting has a mouse driven GUI in my view the command line doesn't really make sense.
NOTE: In all the following <install dir> means where you installed Intel® System Studio. On my system this is /opt/intel/system_studio_2014.0.025. Use the location you chose during installation.
VTune Amplifier is for me such a case. To start it from the command line you need to
$ source <install_dir>/vtune_amplifier_2014_for_systems/amplxe-vars.sh $ amplxe-gui&
Wouldn't it be much nicer to just click on a symbol in the launcher?
Unfortunately right clicking on the already running VTune Amplifier and choosing "lock to launcher" doesn't work. The only solution I know of is to create a .desktop file.
Here is a good explanation how these files work and what to do with them https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles
My .desktop file for VTune is:
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Version=1.0 Name=VTune Amplifier For Systems Comment=VTune Exec=/opt/intel/system_studio_2014.0.025/vtune_amplifier_for_systems/bin64/amplxe-gui %U Icon=/opt/intel/vtune-icon.png Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=Development;Profiling StartupNotify=true MimeType=application/vtune
This tells the launcher where to find the executable and where the icon for the launcher is. There is a .desktop file and an icon file inside the ZIP file attached to this article you can use.
What you need to do:
- Open the .desktop file in your editor and change the line "Exec" to point to where your VTune is stored.
- Be sure to select either the 32-bit or 64-bit binary depending on your Ubuntu version
- Change the line "Icon" to point to where you stored the icon.png file
- Store this file under ~/.local/share/applications as vtune.desktop
- Drag & drop your .desktop file onto the launcher - voila you have new item on the launcher!
This works brilliantly for local analysis - but not for remote analysis. When working with a remote target you need to tell VTune where the collector is stored by setting an environment variable. (see here for details: https://software.intel.com/node/be35e056-5640-48b0-a4e6-d03704de0207).
This can also be done in the .desktop file! (details are here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables)
You need to add an option to the "Exec" line in the .desktop file to set the environment variable. The syntax is:
Exec= env AMPLXE_TARGET_PRODUCT_DIR=<path to vtune files on target> <path to vtune binary on host>
To
Exec= env AMPLXE_TARGET_PRODUCT_DIR=/opt/intel/vtune_amplifier_2014_for_systems /opt/intel/system_studio_2014.0.025/vtune_amplifier_2014_for_systems/bin64/amplxe-gui
Using the same mechanics it is also easy to create a .desktop file for Eclipse. I put a suitable .desktop file in the ZIP file attached to to this article to get you started.
I would be delighted to hear if this article helped you.