Do I need all those MPLABXLog.xml… files?

Question

I am using MPLABX for a simple project with just one PIC assembler source code file, running under Linux Fedora. I have noticed a lot of files, more than 20, in my home directory with names that start with MPLABXLog.xml... So, please, do I need them, can I delete them and can I avoid creating them?

Have I inadvertently created them in my floundering attempts to use Mercurial for version control in this project? -- I have now sorted that out and will be using Mercurial outside the MPLABX IDE.

Answer 1

Mercurial doesn't create such files. They all belong to MPLAB. If you don't want to track changes in these files then add them to .hgignore:

syntax: glob
MPLABXLog.xml*

You can use any shell patterns. Also, consider adding compiled binaries to .hgignore too. It is good thing to do since anybody can get binaries from sources at any time. For example, if output folder of your compiler is bin then you should add to .hgignore the row

bin/

More info about .hgignore.

Answer 2

My working .hgignore is:

# use glob syntax.
syntax: glob
build/**
dist/**
nbproject/private/**
nbproject/Makefile-*
*.mk
*.bash
*.mcc

Refered from guidelines given here: http://microchip.wikidot.com/faq:72 Don't remove all XML files from version control. Otherwise you will end up with messed up project configuration in MPLAB-X.