GNU MCU Eclipse plug-ins v4.6.1-201909231407 released

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Liviu Ionescu.

Version 4.6.1-201909231407 is a new release; the main changes are the addition of support for the new xPack Dev Tools and performance fixes for the CMSIS Packs manager.

Binary files »

The @xpack-dev-tools scope

• c424f652 - [Issue:#351] in the initial implementation, the binary tools were grouped in the @gnu-mcu-eclipse scope; since most of them were not related to Eclipse, they were moved to a separate @xpack-dev-tools scope; the Eclipse plug-ins were updated to support multiple xPack names and add the new names in the @xpack-dev-tools scope were added to each plug-in.

The commands to install the new xPack are:

$ xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc@latest
$ xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/openocd@latest
$ xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/qemu-arm@latest
$ xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/riscv-none-embed-gcc@latest

Other new features

• 60359ef5 - [Issue:#362] Show version date in Packs View
• 69ec486e - [Issue:#359] Add support for TrustZone (--mcmse)

Addressed bugs

• a90aeb0f - [Issue:#335] Retrieving the package size for some CMSIS packages (like Silicon Labs) failed due to the server sending the file in chunks and requiring a more complex processing; fixed.
• 7342e6d4 - [Issue:#336] In certain conditions, computing the cluster address in the Peripheral registers view failed since the increment was not identified properly fixed.
• e6de2688 - [Issue:#347] Due to a problem in CDT, using libraries with spaces in names failed the build; fixed, and the issue was reported to Eclipse maintainers (551089)
• 142eee35 - [Issue:#341] When initialising the CMSIS Packages plugin, if the location was changed from the default, the Packages folder was still created in the default location; fixed.
• 22bd0c77 - [Issue:#346] The size reserved for the xPack version was too small on GNU/Linux; fixed.
• 8410a731 - [Issue:#343] Due to a typo in SvdUtils, the ‘t’ prefix (for tera) was not recognised; fixed.
• 0eff481e - [Issue:#340] In order to accept more legal content in the IP address field of the J-Link Debug plug-in, the validator was removed and any characters are now allowed.

CMSIS Packs default location

• 4345cd17 - [Issue:#357]: in the initial implementation, the default location of CMSIS Packs was in the same folder as the workspace; when using multiple Eclipse workspaces, in different locations, this resulted in multiple CMSIS Packs folders; to avoid this, the default location of CMSIS Packs was changed from the current workspace folder to a unique folder in the user folder.

The new location is platform dependent:

• macOS: ${HOME}/Library/CMSIS-Packs
• Linux: ${HOME}/opt/cmsis-packs
• Windows: %APPDATA%\CMSIS-Packs

It is also possible to change these defaults by using the CMSIS_PACKS_FOLDER environment variable.

The new default applies when installing new Eclipse environments; for compatibility reasons, if an existing environment contains a Packages folder in the same location as the workspace, then it will be used as before.

Other changes

• 2b053de3 - [Issue:#338] the list of accepted devices/architectures was (-mcpu & -march) was updated for GCC 8.x;
• 94409173 - [Issue:#358] the list of accepted compiler standards (-std=) was updated for GCC 9;
• 7ee535e6 - [Issue:#360] the Refresh All action in the Packs view was optimised and the pack size is retrieved only for the latest version;
• 903b4537 - [Issue:#361] the CMSIS Packs manager now accepts to install recent packages up to CMSIS Packs v1.6.0 specs;
• 69090d90 - [Issue:#355] given the change in processing ABI warnings in GCC, the project templates no longer pass -Wabi to the created projects.

Template changes

• none

Known problems

• none

Eclipse packages

For convenience, this version of the plug-ins is also available as an Eclipse package:

• GNU MCU Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers 2019-09 20190923 which packs together the 2019-09 version (Eclipse 4.13) of the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers standard distribution with the GNU MCU Eclipse plug-ins.

For historical reasons, packages using the previous Eclipses are also available:

• GNU MCU Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers 2019-06 20190923 which packs together the 2019-06 version (Eclipse 4.12) of the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers standard distribution with the GNU MCU Eclipse plug-ins;
• GNU MCU Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers 2019-03 20190923 which packs together the 2019-03 version (Eclipse 4.11) of the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers standard distribution with the GNU MCU Eclipse plug-ins;