Crate cortex_m_semihosting

Expand description

Semihosting for ARM Cortex-M processors

What is semihosting?

“Semihosting is a mechanism that enables code running on an ARM target to communicate and use the Input/Output facilities on a host computer that is running a debugger.” - ARM

This crate provides implementations of core::fmt::Write, so you can use it, in conjunction with core::format_args! or the write! macro, for user-friendly construction and printing of formatted strings.

Since semihosting operations are modeled as system calls, this crate exposes an untyped syscall! interface just like the sc crate does.

Forewarning

Semihosting operations are very slow. Like, each WRITE operation can take hundreds of milliseconds.

Example

Using `hio::HStdout`

This example will demonstrate how to print formatted strings.

extern crate cortex_m_semihosting;

use cortex_m_semihosting::hio;
use core::fmt::Write;

// This function will be called by the application
fn print() -> Result<(), core::fmt::Error> {
    let mut stdout = match hio::hstdout() {
        Ok(fd) => fd,
        Err(()) => return Err(core::fmt::Error),
    };

    let language = "Rust";
    let ranking = 1;

    write!(stdout, "{} on embedded is #{}!", language, ranking)?;

    Ok(())
}

On the host side:

$ openocd -f $INTERFACE -f $TARGET -l /tmp/openocd.log
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.9.0 (2016-04-27-23:18)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html

The OpenOCD logs will be redirected to /tmp/openocd.log. You can view those logs in “real time” using tail

$ tail -f /tmp/openocd.log
Info : Unable to match requested speed 1000 kHz, using 950 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 1000 kHz, using 950 kHz
Info : clock speed 950 kHz
Info : STLINK v1 JTAG v11 API v2 SWIM v0 VID 0x0483 PID 0x3744
Info : using stlink api v2
Info : nrf51.cpu: hardware has 4 breakpoints, 2 watchpoints

Alternatively you could omit the -l flag from the openocd call, and the tail -f command but the OpenOCD output will have intermingled in it logs from its normal operation.

Then, we run the program:

$ arm-none-eabi-gdb hello-world
(gdb) # Connect to OpenOCD
(gdb) target remote :3333

(gdb) # Enable OpenOCD's semihosting support
(gdb) monitor arm semihosting enable

(gdb) # Flash the program
(gdb) load

(gdb) # Run the program
(gdb) continue

And you’ll see the output under OpenOCD’s terminal

(..)
Rust on embedded is #1!

Using the syscall interface

This example will show how to print “Hello, world!” on the host.

Target program:

extern crate cortex_m_semihosting;

// This function will be called by the application
fn print() {
    // File descriptor (on the host)
    const STDOUT: usize = 1; // NOTE the host stdout may not always be fd 1
    static MSG: &'static [u8] = b"Hello, world!\n";

    // Signature: fn write(fd: usize, ptr: *const u8, len: usize) -> usize
    let r = unsafe { syscall!(WRITE, STDOUT, MSG.as_ptr(), MSG.len()) };
}