Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user107732 — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 06:08:58 GMT

Hi Andy,

Adding -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS=-DAPP_DBG_LEVEL=4 in the extra flags field is one way to do this. But this is not a shareable way.

Could you try doing it the following way.?

Add a flag to control compilation flags on the command line, and set additional flags in an if/else in the cmakelists.txt file. This is how you can implement this:

In cmake, set up a flag that controls the behavior - for instance "APP_DBG_LEVEL". Then, in the cmake code, you can check this flag, and activate other settings or behavior depending on the value. Take a look at this Stack overflow answer, for example: https://stackoverflow.com/a/48984477/2495121. In the answer, a flag called USE_MY_LIB is added to control compilation flags and other things.

Where the snippet in that answer says "#add some compilation flags", you could do

target_compile_definitions(app PRIVATE ABC=5)

which creates a define called "ABC" that can be referenced in the source code.

This way, there is no need to specify -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="-DABC=5" on the command line to get the expected behavior, but could enable different configuration types through more understandable command line flags, if required. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Swathy

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 12:48:07 GMT

This has not been resolved. Any other ideas? It seems like a fundamental feature that is trivial to configure in all other IDE's I've worked with

What am I missing??

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 13:02:07 GMT

Any other ideas? Seems like such a basic thing in any IDE to configure debug and release build configurations with some compiler flags present on one but not the other. How can this be accomplished in a vscode project??

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 13:32:06 GMT

Could you clarify: where does the "target_compile_definitions" directive needs to be added? In CMakeLists.txt?
If that's the case it does not solve my problem. My ultimate goal is to have 2 configurations, one for debug and one for release. In the debug configuration the APP_DBG_LEVEL is 4 and in the release one it's 0 . And those configurations need to be shareable. How do I accomplish that?
Thank you

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user107732 — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 13:01:24 GMT

Hi Andy,

Sorry for the late response..

The field Extra flags for CMAKE adds variables that CMake understands and those are not saved, so they only apply to the build just being created.

Adding -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS=-DAPP_DBG_LEVEL=4 in the extra flags field is one way to do this.. To make it shareable, try adding it in the cmake file by using the following command:

target_compile_definitions(app PRIVATE -DAPP_DBG_LEVEL=4)

Best Regards,

Swathy

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 18:17:54 GMT

Any other ideas? I'm stuck

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:23:44 GMT

Did a bit more experimentation. The only way I could make this work was to add the following to CMakeLists.txt
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -DAPP_DBG_LEVEL=4")
But that does achieve my goal of setting that flag to a certain value based on a condition ( debug vs release build )
When I set that flag in the build configuration window "Extra flags for CMAKE" I see it appear in the output but the flag is not processed by the preprocessor so it remains undefined in the code
#ifndef APP_DBG_LEVEL
#error App debug level undefined
#endif

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 17:20:54 GMT

Another question. The build configuration generated by the nRF extension has hard coded paths that are specific to my PC

I am not the only developer working on this project. Which means that they will have to recreate the build configuration on their machine? And add <all> extra compile flags? Is there a way to add compile flags in such a way that it can be shared across the team?

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user77539 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 17:17:15 GMT

According to that article the extra cmake flags can be added in "additional cmake flags" field. I did that and when I hover a mouse over the build directory I see the flag that I added. But when I reference it in the code I get an error
In build config->additional cmake flags:-DDBG_LEVEL=4
In the code
printk("Debug level:%d",DBG_LEVEL);
Error: DBG_LEVEL is undefined

RE: Compiler flags in vscode with nRF connecy extension

user107732 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:17:18 GMT

Hi Andy,

Kindly take a look at the documentation for nRF Desktop application that includes several build types which also include Debug and Release option : https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/applications/nrf_desktop/README.html#id22

Best Regards,

Swathy