Where are the header files in Project Explorer?

[jlthompson]

Where are the header files in Project Explorer? I can open Application/User/main.c and see that it includes main.h, but it's nowhere to be found in the Project Explorer. If i right-click main.h in its includfe statement in main.c and select 'Open Declaration', it opens main.h. Hovering on the editor tab, I see it's in my project under 'Inc', but that folder does not show up in Project explorer, either.

So I use File Explorer and find it in my project folder in the 'Inc' folder that does not appear in Project Explorer. I don't understand this; someone please explain it to me.

Also, I want to add a header file, so I select File/New/Header File, and it opens a dialog box where I use the 'Browse...' button to select a home for it. The 'Inc' folder does not appear there, either. Where do I put my new header file? I'm totally at sea on this.

I'm using:

STM32CubeIDE
Version: 1.18.1
Build: 24813_20250409_2138 (UTC)

Thanks!

[Andrew Neil]

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@jlthompson wrote:

 I see it's in my project under 'Inc', but that folder does not show up in Project explorer

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It should do!

What host OS are you running on?

Please post a screenshot of your Project Explorer.

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@jlthompson wrote:

I want to add a header file, so I select File/New/Header File, and it opens a dialog box where I use the 'Browse...' button to select a home for it. The 'Inc' folder does not appear there, either.

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Again, it should.

Please also show a screenshot of the actual folder structure on disk.

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@jlthompson wrote:

Where do I put my new header file?

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Anywhere you like!

It will need to be somewhere covered by your Include Paths.

[jlthompson]

Here are screenshots of

File Explorer showing Inc folder with main header file

Project Explorer not showing Inc folder

New File Folder Selector not showing Inc folder

[jlthompson]

Also, if I put headers in the File Explorer Inc folder. main.c seems to know how to access them. But if I put them in the Project Explorer Application/User folder, it does not. I'm confused.

I'm in the process of adding the 'funbiscuit' Embedded CLI to a copy of the USART_Communication_TxRx_DMA_Init example project. Maybe that's the culprit. The icons on main.c and stm32g0xx_it.c are pretty hard to read, but they may be trying to indicate they are links and not actual files.

[Andrew Neil]

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@jlthompson wrote:

if I put headers in the File Explorer Inc folder. main.c seems to know how to access them. But if I put them in the Project Explorer Application/User folder, it does not. I'm confused.

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That'll be because the first is included in your Include Paths, but the second isn't.

[jlthompson]

It just seems quite odd to me that Project Explorer does not give access to the the Inc folder, and that I can't even create a new header there using File/New/Header File. I've never encountered this in any of other IDEs I worked with.

[Karl Yamashita · Accepted solution]

In the project tree, right click on the User folder and click Import>File System.

Then browse to where the Inc folder is located and select it. Then in the left pane, select the Inc folder, which then should select all the files in the right pane. Then check the Create Top-level folder, Finish.  

Below is an example.

[jlthompson]

Thanks, Karl!! Some developers like to separate header and source files, but I've never seen headers hidden like this! It must be a relatively paradigm, and I hope it doesn't catch on.