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