Beyond Hello World: Advanced Arm Compiler 5 Features

Beyond "Hello World": advanced compiler features

The Building "hello world" using Arm Compiler tutorial shows you how to build a simple C program with the Arm Compiler 5 toolchain.

This tutorial moves beyond the basics to explore some of the more advanced features of the Arm Compiler 5 toolchain.

This tutorial assumes you have installed and licensed Arm DS-5 Development Studio. For more information, see Getting Started with Arm DS-5 Development Studio.

The Arm assembler, armasm reads assembly language source code and outputs object code.

The Arm compiler, armcc compiles C and C++ source to object code.

The Arm linker, armlink combines the contents of one or more object files with any required libraries to produce an executable program.

The following example shows how to use armasm, armcc, and armlink from DS-5 to build a project containing both C and assembly source files.

1. Create a new C project and add a new source file my_strcopy.s containing the following assembly code:

       PRESERVE8
       AREA    SCopy, CODE, READONLY
       EXPORT my_strcopy ; Export symbol
   my_strcopy            ; R0 -> dest string
                         ; R1 -> source string
       LDRB R2, [R1],#1  ; Load byte + update addr
       STRB R2, [R0],#1  ; Store byte + update addr
       CMP  R2, #0       ; Check for null
       BNE  my_strcopy   ; Keep going if not
       BX   lr           ; Return
       END

   The function my_strcopy() is exported so that it is available to be used from C.

2. Add a new source file to the project with the name test.c containing the following C code:

   #include <stdio.h>
   
   /* Declare the assembly function */
   extern void my_strcopy(char *d, const char *s);
   
   int main()
   {
     const char *srcstr = "First string - source ";
     char dststr[] = "Second string - dest ";
   
     printf("Before copying:\n");
     printf("  %s\n  %s\n",srcstr,dststr);
   
     my_strcopy(dststr,srcstr);
   
     printf("After copying:\n");
     printf("  %s\n  %s\n",srcstr,dststr);
     return (0);
   }

3. Build the project.

   The Arm Compiler toolchain does the following:

   1. Assembles my_strcopy.s with armasm to produce the object file my_strcopy.o.
   2. Compiles test.c with armcc to produce the object file test.o.
   3. Links the object files with armlink to produce an executable image.

   When you run the executable image, it produces the following output:

   Before copying:
     First string - source 
     Second string - dest 
   After copying:
     First string - source 
     First string - source

The usual way to define constants in C code is to use #defines, or in assembly code to use EQU directives. If your project contains a mixture of C and assembly code, there might be some constant definitions that are common to both. If so, to avoid maintaining two separate lists, you can create one list of common definitions and include them in both your C and assembly code.

To do this, you can use C-style #include and #define directives directly in your assembly source code. You can pass this source code through the armcc C preprocessor. This outputs a preprocessed version of your assembly code which armasm can then assemble.

The following example shows how to do this.

1. Add a header file called my_strcopy.h to the project, containing the following line:

   #define ONE_CONSTANT 1
   
   

2. Add this line to the top of my_strcopy.s, created in the previous example:

   
   #include "my_strcopy.h"
   
   

3. In my_strcopy.s, replace the occurrences of #1 with #ONE_CONSTANT, for example:

   
      LDRB R2, [R1], #ONE_CONSTANT 
   
   

 

4. Pass my_strcopy.s through the C preprocessor. If you tried to build the project without first doing this, armasm would report a syntax error for the #include statement you added to my_strcopy.s.

   Open the Project Settings dialog. Then, under C/C++ build, select Settings.

   In the Tool Settings tab, under Arm Assembler 5, select Preprocessor, then tick the box marked Preprocess input before assembling (--cpreproc).

 

armasm automatically passes some command-line options to the C preprocessor. If you need to pass other simple command-line options to the C preprocessor, for example –D or –I, specify them in the field marked Preprocessor options (--cpreproc_opts).

Linker feedback lets the compiler and linker collaborate to improve the removal of unused code.

The linker can produce a text file containing a list of unused functions and functions that have been inlined. This information can be fed back to the compiler, which rebuilds the objects, placing these functions in their own sections. These sections can then be removed by the linker during usual unused section elimination.

The following example shows how linker feedback works.

1. Create a new C project and add a new source file fb.c containing the following code:

            #include <stdio.h>
                void legacy()
                 {
                   printf("This is an unused function.\n");
                 }
                
                int cubed(int i)
                 {
                   return i*i*i;
                 }
                
                int main(void)
                 {
                  int n = 3;
                  printf("%d cubed = %d\n",n,cubed(n));
                 }
        

2. Open the Properties dialog box for your project, and select C/C++ Build > Settings.

6. Build the project.

   For this first compilation, the feedback file does not exist at compilation time. At link time, the linker identifies legacy() as the unused function, and creates a feedback file fb.txt containing this information.

7. Clean the project (Project > Clean...), to remove the object and image files.
8. Rename the diagnostics file fbout.txt to fbout_orig.txt to let you compare it to the next build.

9. Build the project again.

   This time, the feedback file does exist at compilation time. Because the feedback file informs the compiler that legacy() is an unused function, the compiler can now omit this function from the generated object code.

You can compare the two diagnostics files, fbout.txt and fbout_orig.txt, to see the sizes of the image components (for example, Code, RO Data, RW Data, and ZI Data). The Code component is smaller, because armlink has removed the legacy() function from the final image.

• --cpreproc
• --cpreproc_opts=option[,option,…]
• Using the C preprocessor

Arm Compiler armcc User Guide

• --feedback=filename

• About linker feedback
• Example of using linker feedback
• --feedback=filename