Segger Embedded Studio: Debug and Release build configurations

[Learner]

I created two build configurations a Debug and a Release in SES IDE.

Build > Build Configurations...

I wanted to select the  DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS level for the Debug build configuration and the SPEED_OPTIMIZATIONS for the Release one.

In Project Explorer, select the top Solution then select the 'Debug' build Configuration

Project > Configure nRF Connect Project... > DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS > Configure > Save solution (if prompted)

Then in Project Explorer, select the top Solution then select the 'Release' build Configuration

Project > Configure nRF Connect Project... > SIZE_OPTIMIZATIONS > Configure > Save solution (if prompted)

However, when I go back and select the 'Debug' build configuration to view its optimisation setting I find

Project > Configure nRF Connect Project... > SIZE_OPTIMIZATIONS   

NOT DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS as expected.

It looks like whichever build configuration is set last overwrites the other one.

Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong.

Thank you.

Mohamed Belaroussi

[Kenneth]

This seems like a bug in SES, I can report it, I assume you are using v4.52?

In the meantime you can also control this in prj.conf by setting e.g. CONFIG_DEBUG_OPMTIMIZATIONS=y

[Learner]

Thank you Kenneth.

I don't use the command line tools. I am using SES IDE and like any other IDE I used before I should be able to set debug and release configurations within SES Nordic Edition. I tried to get help from Segger but they directed me to Nordic because SES (Nordic Edition) is not supported by Segger. 

Kenneth said:

I don't know how this can be done in SES, but

If you don't know how it can be done maybe you can ask one of your colleagues or even Segger.

I asked this question over six months ago, I was hoping by now someone somewhere would have figured out how to do this within SES. As I said earlier Segger were not willing to help me but if someone from Nordic approached them they might be be more accommodating.

While waiting for a resolution to my ticket I am using two project configuration files prj-debug,conf and prj-release.conf, an extract from the two variants is shown below. My question is this,

Do I need to remove the logging configurations (text in blue below) from the release project file prj-release.conf ?

prj-debug.conf

---------------------

...

### COMPILER OPTIONS ###
#
CONFIG_DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS=y

### Logging ####
#
# For the PID 4 hardware we must set CONFIG_SERIAL=n because otherwise the SPI CS/BUSY
# pins will be allocated to UART0 CTS/RTS pins.
CONFIG_SERIAL=n
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_USE_SEGGER_RTT=y
CONFIG_RTT_CONSOLE=y
#CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC=y
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_FLOAT_PRINTF=y
CONFIG_PRINTK=y

...

prj-release.conf

----------------------

...

### COMPILER OPTIONS ###
#
#CONFIG_CODING_GUIDELINE_CHECK is not set
# CONFIG_NATIVE_APPLICATION is not set
CONFIG_SIZE_OPTIMIZATIONS=y
CONFIG_SPEED_OPTIMIZATIONS=y
CONFIG_DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS=n
# CONFIG_NO_OPTIMIZATIONS is not set
CONFIG_COMPILER_OPT=""
# end of Compiler Options

### Logging ####
#
# For the PID 4 hardware we must set CONFIG_SERIAL=n because otherwise the SPI CS/BUSY
# pins will be allocated to UART0 CTS/RTS pins.
CONFIG_SERIAL=n
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_USE_SEGGER_RTT=y
CONFIG_RTT_CONSOLE=y
#CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC=y
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_FLOAT_PRINTF=y
CONFIG_PRINTK=y

...

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Learner]

Hi Kenneth,

Thank you for your on-going support. I do appreciate it.

I have found the root cause of my problem. It is self-inflicted.

I inherited a CMakelists.txt and in there I found these configuration lines,

if (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE debug)
endif()

# Set main PID4 configuration file
set(CONF_FILE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/prj_${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}.conf")

So, it was always the prj_debug.conf that was used. It seems the content of the CMakelists.txt overrides whatever I specify in SES using -DCONF_FILE=....

Tools > Options > nRF Connect then added -DCONF_FILE=prj_release.conf

Now, I just change the line highlighted in yellow above to switch between debug and release configuration.

However, I still cannot create debug and release configurations in SES. I asked the question over a year ago in this ticket but I still don't know how to do it. Can you hel?

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Kenneth]

I searched through all the CMakeLists.txt in ncs, and I could not find these lines used anywhere, do you know where you have gotten these lines of code? In any case, I suggest to remove them and follow the description in the documentation how to set build type.

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/gs_modifying.html#configuring-build-types 

[Learner]

Hi Kenneth,

Maybe I did not make myself very clear in my previous message.

I inherited the CMakelists.txt from a colleague not from ncs.

I would appreciate it a great deal if you could address the following:

I still cannot create debug and release configurations in SES. I asked this question over a year ago in this ticket but I still don't know how to do it. Can you help?

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Kenneth]

If you take a random application example, e.g. nRF Desktop which have a lot of build types:
nrf\applications\nrf_desktop

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/applications/nrf_desktop/README.html#selecting-a-build-type 
https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/applications/nrf_desktop/README.html#nrf-desktop-requirements-build-types 

Does that work as you expect? I don't understand what problems you may have, since there are examples that already does this that you should be able to compare with.

Kenneth

[Learner]

Thank you Kenneth.

I should be able to build different build configurations in SES e.g. 'debug' or 'release'

Build > Build Configurations...

However, when I try to do this SES stop responding to any subsequent key presses. I have to press the ESC key to get SES to escape from this strange mode. However, this also means I escaped the Build Configurations... menu. So, I cannot build configurations. The only one available is the default Common configuration shown in the top left hand side above the Project explorer in SES IDE.

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Kenneth]

Which version of NCS are you working on, and are you using the SES that is bundled with the NCS release or a newer one?

Kenneth

[Learner]

I am using nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0. Zephyr OS build v2.6.99-ncs1
and SES-Nordic Edition v5.60

SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM
Release 5.60  Build 2021081102.47262
Nordic Edition
Windows x64

© 2014-2021 SEGGER Microcontroller GmbH
© 1997-2021 Rowley Associates Ltd.

segger-as: version 2.11
segger-cc: version 12.2.1
segger-cc-ng: version 12.91.6
segger-ld: version 4.12.1
segger-rtl: version 2.22.0

Thank you for your support.

Kind regards

Mohamed

[Kenneth]

I just opened the nrf_desktop example I referenced and it seems to work here, I did however use NCS v1.7.1.

Kenneth