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

[Learner]

Hi Kenneth,

I have created two build build configurations, Debug and Release. However, I am not sure how to tailor each one using specific build options. For example, for the Release build configuration I would like to to use option -O2 instead -Og etc...

How do I edit the two newly created building configurations ?

Thank you.

Kind regards
Mohamed

[Kenneth]

I don't know how this can be done in SES, but typically when using the command line tool (west), then you can have different conf files depending on which you want to build, e.g.:

west build samples/bluetooth/peripheral_lbs -- -DCONF_FILE='prj_minimal.conf'

[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

[Kenneth]

You may find this useful: 
https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/gs_modifying.html#selecting-a-build-type-in-ses 

Kenneth

[Learner]

Hi Kenneth,

Thank you.

In the Extra CMake Build Options field, specify -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=selected_build_type. For example, for ZRelease set the following value: -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=ZRelease.

The above may be useful if I knew what is behind ZRelease and if I can edit its content in case I am not happy with some of the settings. So, where can I find the definition of ZRelease?

Also, I would appreciate it if you could answer my question about the two project configuration (prj-debug.conf and prj-release.conf) files from my previous reply.

Learner said:

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

Kind regards

Mohamed