OpenOCD
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1 // This file is part of the Doxygen Developer Manual
2 /** @page tasks Pending and Open Tasks
3 
4 This page lists pending and open tasks being considered or worked upon
5 by the OpenOCD community.
6 
7 @section thelist The List
8 
9 Most items are open for the taking, but please post to the mailing list
10 before spending much time working on anything lists here. The community
11 may have evolved an idea since it was added here.
12 
13 Feel free to send patches to add or clarify items on this list, too.
14 
15 @section thelisttcl TCL
16 
17 This section provides possible things to improve with OpenOCD's TCL support.
18 
19 - Fix problem with incorrect line numbers reported for a syntax
20  error in a reset init event.
21 
22 - organize the TCL configurations:
23  - provide more directory structure for boards/targets?
24  - factor configurations into layers (encapsulation and re-use)
25 
26 - Fix handling of variables between multiple command line "-c" and "-f"
27  parameters. Currently variables assigned through one such parameter
28  command/script are unset before the next one is invoked.
29 
30 - Isolate all TCL command support:
31  - Pure C CLI implementations using --disable-builtin-tcl.
32  - Allow developers to build new dongles using OpenOCD's JTAG core.
33  - At first, provide only low-level JTAG support; target layer and
34  above rely heavily on scripting event mechanisms.
35  - Allow full TCL support? add --with-tcl=/path/to/installed/tcl
36  - Move TCL support out of foo.[ch] and into foo_tcl.[ch] (other ideas?)
37  - See src/jtag/core.c and src/jtag/tcl.c for an example.
38  - allow some of these TCL command modules to be dynamically loadable?
39 
40 @section thelistadapter Adapter
41 
42 This section list issues that need to be resolved in the Adapter layer.
43 
44 @subsection thelistadapterrework Code restructuring
45 
46 This section lists pending reworks to complete the restructure from the
47 old JTAG centric implementation to a generic Adapter layer.
48 This restructuring is very invasive and will prevent the merge of several
49 changes pending in gerrit.
50 
51 - rename folder src/jtag/ to src/adapter/
52 - rename var "jtag" to "adapter" in src/jtag/core.c
53 - split content of src/adapter/ in the different protocols jtag.[ch],
54  swd.[ch], ...
55 - wrap the calls to adapter->transport_ops->api() with transport_api()
56  and reduce the visibility of global var "adapter"
57 - complete the migration of JTAG-only drivers to adapter->reset()
58 - try to remove JTAG_SLEEP also from JTAG mode?
59 - tap_set_state(TAP_RESET) is already done in src/jtag/core.c. No need
60  to replicate it in the drivers, apart in case the driver sets TRST
61  independently
62 - add .hla_ops to "adapter"
63 - HLA is a API level (.hla_ops). Transport should simply be {jtag,swd},
64  not {hla_jtag,hla_swd}.
65 
66 @subsection thelistadapterjtagcore JTAG Core
67 
68 The following tasks have been suggested for cleaning up the JTAG layer:
69 
70 - use tap_set_state everywhere to allow logging TAP state transitions
71 - Encapsulate cmd_queue_cur_state and related variable handling.
72 - add slick 32 bit versions of jtag_add_xxx_scan() that avoids
73 buf_set_u32() calls and other evidence of poor impedance match between
74 API and calling code. New API should cut down # of lines in calling
75 code by 100's and make things clearer. Also potentially be supported
76 directly in minidriver API for better embedded host performance.
77 
78 The following tasks have been suggested for adding new core JTAG support:
79 
80 - Improve autodetection of TAPs by supporting tcl escape procedures that
81  can configure discovered TAPs based on IDCODE value ... they could:
82  - Remove guessing for irlen
83  - Allow non-default irmask/ircapture values
84 - SPI/UART emulation:
85  - (ab)use bit-banging JTAG interfaces to emulate SPI/UART
86  - allow SPI to program flash, MCUs, etc.
87 
88 @subsection thelistadapterinterfaces Interface drivers
89 
90 There are some known bugs to fix in Interface drivers:
91 
92 - For JTAG_STATEMOVE to TAP_RESET, all drivers must ignore the current
93  recorded state. The tap_get_state() call won't necessarily return
94  the correct value, especially at server startup. Fix is easy: in
95  that case, always issue five clocks with TMS high.
96  - amt_jtagaccel.c
97  - arm-jtag-ew.c
98  - bitbang.c
99  - bitq.c
100  - gw16012.c
101  - jlink.c
102  - usbprog.c
103  - vsllink.c
104  - rlink/rlink.c
105 - bug: USBprog is broken with new tms sequence; it needs 7-clock cycles.
106  Fix promised from Peter Denison openwrt at marshadder.org
107  Workaround: use "tms_sequence long" @par
108  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-July/009426.html
109 
110 The following tasks have been suggested for improving OpenOCD's JTAG
111 interface support:
112 
113 - rework USB communication to be more robust. Two possible options are:
114  -# use libusb-1.0.1 with libusb-compat-0.1.1 (non-blocking I/O wrapper)
115  -# rewrite implementation to use non-blocking I/O
116 - J-Link driver:
117  - fix to work with long scan chains, such as R.Doss's svf test.
118 - Autodetect USB based adapters; this should be easy on Linux. If there's
119  more than one, list the options; otherwise, just select that one.
120 
121 The following tasks have been suggested for adding new JTAG interfaces:
122 
123 - TCP driver: allow client/server for remote JTAG interface control.
124 This requires a client and a server. The server is built into the
125 normal OpenOCD and takes commands from the client and executes
126 them on the interface returning the result of TCP/IP. The client
127 is an OpenOCD which is built with a TCP/IP minidriver. The use
128 of a minidriver is required to capture all the jtag_add_xxx()
129 fn's at a high enough level and repackage these cmd's as
130 TCP/IP packets handled by the server.
131 
132 @section thelistbs Boundary Scan Support
133 
134 - add STAPL support?
135 - add BSDL support?
136 
137 A few possible options for the above:
138  -# Fake a TCL equivalent?
139  -# Integrate an existing library?
140  -# Write a new C implementation a la Jim?
141 
142 Once the above are completed:
143 - add support for programming flash using boundary scan techniques
144 - add integration with a modified gerber view program:
145  - provide means to view the PCB and select pins and traces
146  - allow use-cases such as the following:
147  - @b Stimulus
148  -# Double-click on a pin (or trace) with the mouse.
149  - @b Effects
150  -# The trace starts blinking, and
151  -# OpenOCD toggles the pin(s) 0/1.
152 
153 @section thelisttargets Target Support
154 
155 - Many common ARM cores could be autodetected using IDCODE
156 - general layer cleanup: @par
157  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006590.html
158 - regression: "reset halt" between 729(works) and 788(fails): @par
159 https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-July/009206.html
160 - registers
161  - add flush-value operation, call them all on resume/reset
162 - mcr/mrc target->type support
163  - missing from ARM920t, ARM966e, XScale.
164  It's possible that the current syntax is unable to support read-modify-write
165  operations(see arm966e).
166  - mcr/mrc - retire cp15 commands when there the mrc/mrc commands have been
167  tested from: arm926ejs, arm720t, cortex_a8
168 - ARM7/9:
169  - clean up "arm9tdmi vector_catch". Available for some arm7 cores? @par
170 https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-October/011488.html
171 https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-October/011506.html
172  - add reset option to allow programming embedded ice while srst is asserted.
173  Some CPUs will gate the JTAG clock when srst is asserted and in this case,
174  it is necessary to program embedded ice and then assert srst afterwards.
175 - ARM926EJS:
176  - reset run/halt/step is not robust; needs testing to map out problems.
177 - ARM11 improvements (MB?)
178  - add support for asserting srst to reset the core.
179  - Single stepping works, but should automatically
180  use hardware stepping if available.
181  - mdb can return garbage data if read byte operation fails for
182  a memory region(16 & 32 byte access modes may be supported). Is this
183  a bug in the .MX31 PDK init script? Try on i.MX31 PDK:
184  mdw 0xb80005f0 0x8, mdh 0xb80005f0 0x10, mdb 0xb80005f0 0x20. mdb returns
185  garabage.
186  - implement missing functionality (grep FNC_INFO_NOTIMPLEMENTED ...)
187 - Thumb2 single stepping: ARM1156T2 needs simulator support
188 - Cortex-A8 support (ML)
189  - add target implementation (ML)
190 - Cortex-M3 support
191  - when stepping, only write dirtied registers (be faster)
192  - when connecting to halted core, fetch registers (startup is quirky)
193 - Generic ARM run_algorithm() interface
194  - tagged struct wrapping ARM instructions and metadata
195  - not revision-specific (current: ARMv4+ARMv5 -or- ARMv6 -or- ARMv7)
196  - usable with at least arm_nandwrite() and generic CFI drivers
197 - ETM
198  - don't show FIFOFULL registers if they're not supported
199  - use comparators to get more breakpoints and watchpoints
200  - add "etm drivers" command
201  - trace driver init() via examine() paths only, not setup()/reset
202 - MC1322x support (JW/DE?)
203  - integrate and test support from JW (and DE?)
204  - get working with a known good interface (i.e. not today's jlink)
205 - AT91SAM92xx:
206  - improvements for unknown-board-atmel-at91sam9260.cfg (RD)
207 - STR9x: (ZW)
208  - improvements to str912.cfg to be more general purpose
209 - AVR: (SQ)
210  - independently verify implementation
211  - incrementally improve working prototype in trunk. (SQ)
212  - work out how to debug this target
213  - AVR debugging protocol.
214 - FPGA:
215  - Altera Nios Soft-CPU support
216 - Coldfire (suggested by NC)
217  - can we draw from the BDM project? @par
218  http://bdm.sourceforge.net/
219 
220  or the OSBDM package @par
221  http://forums.freescale.com/freescale/board/message?board.id=OSBDM08&thread.id=422
222 
223 @section thelistsvf SVF/XSVF
224 
225 - develop SVF unit tests
226 - develop XSVF unit tests
227 
228 @section thelistflash Flash Support
229 
230 - finish documentation for the following flash drivers:
231  - avr
232  - pic32mx
233  - ocl
234  - str9xpec
235 
236 - Don't expect writing all-ones to be a safe way to write without
237  changing bit values. Minimally it loses on flash modules with
238  internal ECC, where it may change the ECC.
239  - NOR flash_write_unlock() does that between sectors
240  - there may be other cases too
241 
242 - Make sure all commands accept either a bank name or a bank number,
243  and be sure both identifiers show up in "flash banks" and "nand list".
244  Right now the user-friendly names are pretty much hidden...
245 
246 @subsection thelistflashcfi CFI
247 
248 - finish implementing bus width/chip width handling (suggested by NC)
249 - factor vendor-specific code into separate source files
250  - add new callback interface for vendor-specific code
251 - investigate/implement "thin wrapper" to use eCos CFI drivers (ØH)
252 
253 @section thelistdebug Debugger Support
254 
255 - add support for masks in watchpoints? @par
256  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-October/011507.html
257 - breakpoints can get lost in some circumstances: @par
258  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-June/008853.html
259 - add support for masks in watchpoints. The trick is that GDB does not
260  support a breakpoint mask in the remote protocol. One way to work around
261  this is to add a separate command "watchpoint_mask add/rem <addr> <mask>", that
262  is run to register a list of masks that the gdb_server knows to use with
263  a particular watchpoint address.
264 - integrate Keil AGDI interface to OpenOCD? (submitted by Dario Vecchio)
265 
266 @section thelisttesting Testing Suite
267 
268 This section includes several related groups of ideas:
269 - @ref thelistunittests
270 - @ref thelistsmoketests
271 - @ref thelisttestreports
272 - @ref thelisttestgenerichw
273 
274 @subsection thelistunittests Unit Tests
275 
276 - add testing skeleton to provide frameworks for adding tests
277 - implement server unit tests
278 - implement JTAG core unit tests
279 - implement JTAG interface unit tests
280 - implement flash unit tests
281 - implement target unit tests
282 
283 @subsection thelistsmoketests Smoke Test Tools
284 
285 -# extend 'make check' with a smoketest app
286  - checks for OOCD_TEST_CONFIG, etc. in environment (or config file)
287  - if properly set, runs the smoke test with specified parameters
288  - openocd -f ${OOCD_TEST_CONFIG}
289  - implies a modular test suite (see below)
290  - should be able to run some minimal tests with dummy interface:
291  - compare results of baseline sanity checks with expected results
292 
293 -# builds a more complete test suite:
294  - existing testing/examples/ look like a great start
295  - all targets should be tested fully and for all capabilities
296  - we do NOT want a "lowest common denominator" test suite
297  - ... but can we start with one to get going?
298  - probably requires one test configuration file per board/target
299  - modularization can occur here, just like with targets/boards/chips
300  - coverage can increase over time, building up bundles of tests
301 
302 -# add new 'smoketest' Makefile target:
303  - calls 'make check' (and the smoketest app)
304  - gather inputs and output into a report file
305 
306 @subsection thelisttestreports Test Feedback Tools
307 
308 These ideas were first introduced here: @par
309  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006358.html
310 
311 - provide report submission scripts for e-mail and web forms
312 - add new Makefile targets to post the report:
313  - 'checkreportsend' -- send to list via e-mail (via sendmail)
314  - 'checkreportpost' -- send web form (via curl or other script)
315 
316 @subsection thelisttestgenerichw Generic Hardware Tester
317 
318 - implement VHDL to use for FPGA-based JTAG TAP testing device
319 - develop test suite that utilizes this testing device
320 
321 @section thelistautotools Autotools Build System
322 
323 - make entire configure process require less user consideration:
324  - automatically detect the features that are available, unless
325  options were specifically provided to configure
326  - provide a report of the drivers that will be build at the end of
327  running configure, so the users can verify which drivers will be
328  built during 'make' (and their options) .
329 - eliminate sources of confusion in @c bootstrap script:
330  -# Make @c bootstrap call 'configure --enable-maintainer-mode <opts>'?
331  -# Add @c buildstrap script to assist with bootstrap and configure steps.
332 - automatically build tool-chains required for cross-compiling
333  - produce mingw32, arm-elf, others using in-tree scripts
334  - build all required target code from sources
335 - make JTAG and USB debug output a run-time configuration option
336 
337 @section thelistarchitecture Architectural Tasks
338 
339 The following architectural tasks need to be accomplished and should be
340 fairly easy to complete:
341 
342 
343 - use dynamic allocations for working memory. Scan & fix code
344 for excessive stack allocations. take linux/scripts/checkstack.pl and
345 see what the worst offenders are. Dynamic stack allocations are found
346 at the bottom of the list below. Example, on amd64:
347 
348  $ objdump -d | checkstack.pl | head -10
349  0x004311e3 image_open [openocd]: 13464
350  0x00431301 image_open [openocd]: 13464
351  0x004237a4 target_array2mem [openocd]: 4376
352  0x0042382b target_array2mem [openocd]: 4376
353  0x00423e74 target_mem2array [openocd]: 4360
354  0x00423ef9 target_mem2array [openocd]: 4360
355  0x00404aed handle_svf_command [openocd]: 2248
356  0x00404b7e handle_svf_command [openocd]: 2248
357  0x00413581 handle_flash_fill_command [openocd]: 2200
358  0x004135fa handle_flash_fill_command [openocd]: 2200
359 - clean-up code to match style guides
360 - factor code to eliminate duplicated functionality
361 - rewrite code that uses casts to access 16-bit and larger types
362  from unaligned memory addresses
363 - libopenocd support: @par
364  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006405.html
365 - review and clean up interface/target/flash APIs
366 
367 The following strategic tasks will require ambition, knowledge, and time
368 to complete:
369 
370 - overhaul use of types to improve 32/64-bit portability
371  - types for both host and target word sizes?
372  - can we use GDB's CORE_TYPE support?
373 - Allow N:M:P mapping of servers, targets, and interfaces
374 - loadable module support for interface/target/flash drivers and commands
375  - support both static and dynamic modules.
376  - should probably use libltdl for dynamic library handing.
377 
378 @section thelistadmin Documentation Tasks
379 
380 - Develop milestone and release guidelines, processes, and scripts.
381 - Develop "style" guidelines (and scripts) for maintainers:
382  - reviewing patches
383  - committing to git
384 - Review Users' Guide for documentation errors or omissions
385  - "capture" and "ocd_find" commands
386 - Update Developer's Manual (doxygen output)
387  - Add documentation describing the architecture of each module
388  - Provide more Technical Primers to bootstrap contributor knowledge
389 
390 */
391 /** @file
392 This file contains the @ref thelist page.
393 */