Frédéric Desbiens f3ab36dacc Made the example builds work with LLVM, and fixed four that were broken on Linux (#594)
* Made the example builds work with LLVM, and fixed four that were broken on Linux

The gnu example builds are the natural LLVM path: Arm Toolchain for Embedded is
LLVM based, consumes GNU ld linker scripts, and needs none of the scatter files
or Arm DS projects the ac6 examples carry. So rather than port the ac6 examples,
teach the gnu scripts to drive either toolchain.

Each script now selects the toolchain from a TOOLCHAIN variable that defaults to
gnu, so every existing invocation behaves exactly as before. TOOLCHAIN=atfe
switches the compiler, adds the target triple, passes the entry symbol through
to the linker rather than to the driver, and links the toolchain's own
semihosting library in place of --specs=nosys.specs, which is a GCC spec file
mechanism with no LLVM equivalent. That last choice avoids adding a syscall stub
source to every example.

The scripts are parameterised rather than duplicated. Copies of build scripts
would drift the first time one side was edited, which is the failure this
repository has just spent several changes recovering from.

Four sample scripts could not run on a case-sensitive filesystem at all. They
compiled MP_PrivateTimer.s and V7.s while the files on disk are
MP_PrivateTimer.S and v7.s, and the Cortex-A5 and A9 scripts named MP_GIC.s
where the file is MP_GIC.S. The link lines named V7.o accordingly. Corrected to
match the files, which is why the Cortex-A5, A7, A8 and A9 examples now build on
Linux where before they could not.

Extend scripts/check_clang.sh to link the example builds as well as compile the
sources, since compiling proves the sources parse while only linking exercises
entry symbols, linker scripts and the C library together.

Eight examples are listed as not expected to link, each with its reason, so the
gaps stay visible rather than being silently skipped. Five of them fail with the
GNU toolchain too and are therefore not LLVM problems: the Cortex-M0 example's
crt0 references __text_load_start__, __text_start__ and __text_end__, which its
linker script never defines, while the Cortex-M4 script defines the equivalents;
the arm9, arm11, Cortex-R4 and Cortex-R5 examples need newlib multilib variants
that are not present in every GNU toolchain packaging. The Cortex-A12, A15 and
A17 examples fail only with LLVM, because their link line omits -nostartfiles so
the toolchain's own crt0 is linked and wants picolibc's __data_start,
__data_source, __data_size and __bss_size, which their linker script does not
define.

Verified by building every example with both toolchains. Seven link with both:
Cortex-A5, A7, A8, A9, M3, M4 and M7. The GNU results are unchanged where they
worked before, and now also succeed for the four scripts with the case bug.

Assisted-by: Claude Code (Opus 5) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Resolved the compiler path before running the example builds

The example stage runs each build script from inside its own directory, so a
relative path passed with --clang stopped resolving there and every example
build failed instantly. Local runs passed an absolute path and did not show it;
the CI job passes a path relative to the workspace root, which did.

Resolve the compiler to an absolute path once, before any directory change, and
print it so the toolchain in use is visible in the log.

Assisted-by: Claude Code (Opus 5) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Parameterised the archiver as well, and stopped the check hiding failures

The toolchain selection covered the compiler but not arm-none-eabi-ar, which the
scripts invoke 628 times to assemble the library archive. A machine with an LLVM
toolchain and no GNU one therefore could not build any example, which is exactly
the situation in CI: the runner has no Arm GNU toolchain installed. Local runs
had one, so this only appeared once the job ran.

Select the archiver alongside the compiler, taking llvm-ar from beside clang in
the toolchain. The four scripts that call arm-none-eabi-ld directly are left
alone: they are arm9, arm11, Cortex-R4 and Cortex-R5, all already listed as not
expected to link, and their invocations are specific to GNU ld in ways that
parameterising would not resolve.

The check reported "example build produced no image" and then filtered the log
for lines containing "error", which hid the actual cause, since a missing tool
reports "command not found" or "No such file or directory". It now prints the
tail of the log. That filtering cost two CI round trips to diagnose something
the first run already knew.

Verified by shadowing arm-none-eabi-gcc, arm-none-eabi-ar, arm-none-eabi-ld and
the aarch64 equivalents with stubs that fail loudly, then running the whole
check: all 711 sources assemble, all eight profiles compile and all seven
example builds link without any GNU tool being invoked. The GNU default path
still produces an identical image. The diagnostics were confirmed by pointing
the archiver at a name that does not exist and checking that the reason appears.

Assisted-by: Claude Code (Opus 5) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-10 15:10:34 -04:00
2024-02-27 15:20:47 +08:00
2026-06-30 17:31:42 -04:00

Eclipse ThreadX RTOS

This advanced real-time operating system (RTOS) is designed specifically for deeply embedded applications. Among the multiple benefits it provides are advanced scheduling facilities, message passing, interrupt management, and messaging services. Eclipse ThreadX RTOS has many advanced features, including picokernel architecture, preemption threshold, event chaining, and a rich set of system services.

Here are the key features and modules of ThreadX:

ThreadX Key Features

Getting Started

Eclipse ThreadX has been integrated to the semiconductor's SDKs and development environment. You can develop using the tools of choice from STMicroelectronics, NXP, Renesas and Microchip.

We also provide getting started guide and samples using development boards from semiconductors you can build and test with.

See Overview of Eclipse ThreadX RTOS for the high-level overview.

Repository Structure and Usage

Directory layout

.
├── cmake                        # CMakelist files for building the project
├── common                       # Core ThreadX files
├── common_modules               # Core ThreadX module files
├── common_smp                   # Core ThreadX SMP files
├── docs                         # Documentation supplements
├── ports                        # Architecture and compiler specific files. See below for directory breakdown
│   ├── cortex_m7
│   │   ├── iar                  # Example IAR compiler sample project
│   │   │   ├── example build    # IAR workspace and sample project files
│   │   │   ├── inc              # tx_port.h for this architecture
│   │   │   └── src              # Source files for this architecture
│   │   ├── ac6                  # Example ac6/Keil sample project
│   │   ├── gnu                  # Example gnu sample project
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
├── ports_modules                # Architecture and compiler specific files for threadX modules
├── ports_smp                    # Architecture and compiler specific files for threadX SMP
├── samples                      # demo_threadx.c
└── utility                      # Test cases and utilities

Branches & Releases

The master branch has the most recent code with all new features and bug fixes. It does not represent the latest General Availability (GA) release of the library. Each official release (preview or GA) will be tagged to mark the commit and push it into the Github releases tab, e.g. v6.2-rel.

When you see xx-xx-xxxx, 6.x or x.x in function header, this means the file is not officially released yet. They will be updated in the next release. See example below.

/**************************************************************************/
/*                                                                        */
/*  FUNCTION                                               RELEASE        */
/*                                                                        */
/*    _tx_initialize_low_level                          Cortex-M23/GNU    */
/*                                                           6.x          */
/*  AUTHOR                                                                */
/*                                                                        */
/*    Scott Larson, Microsoft Corporation                                 */
/*                                                                        */
/*  DESCRIPTION                                                           */
/*                                                                        */
/*    This function is responsible for any low-level processor            */
/*    initialization, including setting up interrupt vectors, setting     */
/*    up a periodic timer interrupt source, saving the system stack       */
/*    pointer for use in ISR processing later, and finding the first      */
/*    available RAM memory address for tx_application_define.             */
/*                                                                        */
/*  INPUT                                                                 */
/*                                                                        */
/*    None                                                                */
/*                                                                        */
/*  OUTPUT                                                                */
/*                                                                        */
/*    None                                                                */
/*                                                                        */
/*  CALLS                                                                 */
/*                                                                        */
/*    None                                                                */
/*                                                                        */
/*  CALLED BY                                                             */
/*                                                                        */
/*    _tx_initialize_kernel_enter           ThreadX entry function        */
/*                                                                        */
/*  RELEASE HISTORY                                                       */
/*                                                                        */
/*    DATE              NAME                      DESCRIPTION             */
/*                                                                        */
/*  09-30-2020      Scott Larson            Initial Version 6.1           */
/*  xx-xx-xxxx      Scott Larson            Include tx_user.h,            */
/*                                            resulting in version 6.x    */
/*                                                                        */
/**************************************************************************/

Supported Architecture Ports

ThreadX

arc_em      cortex_a12        cortex_m0     cortex_r4
arc_hs      cortex_a15        cortex_m23    cortex_r5
arm11       cortex_a17        cortex_m3     cortex_r7
arm9        cortex_a34        cortex_m33
c667x       cortex_a35        cortex_m4
linux       cortex_a5         cortex_m55
risc-v32    cortex_a53        cortex_m7
rxv1        cortex_a55        cortex_m85
rxv2        cortex_a57
rxv3        cortex_a5x
win32       cortex_a65
xtensa      cortex_a65ae
            cortex_a7
            cortex_a72
            cortex_a73
            cortex_a75
            cortex_a76
            cortex_a76ae
            cortex_a77
            cortex_a8
            cortex_a9

ThreadX Modules

Eclipse ThreadX Modules component provides an infrastructure for applications to dynamically load modules that are built separately from the resident portion of the application.

cortex_a35
cortex_a35_smp
cortex_a7
cortex_m0+
cortex_m23
cortex_m3
cortex_m33
cortex_m4
cortex_m7
cortex_r4
rxv2

ThreadX SMP

Eclipse ThreadX SMP is a high-performance real-time SMP kernel designed specifically for embedded applications.

arc_hs_smp
cortex_a34_smp
cortex_a35_smp
cortex_a53_smp
cortex_a55_smp
cortex_a57_smp
cortex_a5x_smp
cortex_a5_smp
cortex_a65ae_smp
cortex_a65_smp
cortex_a72_smp
cortex_a73_smp
cortex_a75_smp
cortex_a76ae_smp
cortex_a76_smp
cortex_a77_smp
cortex_a78_smp
cortex_a7_smp
cortex_a9_smp
linux

Adaptation layer for ThreadX

ThreadX is an advanced real-time operating system (RTOS) designed specifically for deeply embedded applications. To help ease application migration to ThreadX RTOS, Eclipse ThreadX provides adaption layers for various legacy RTOS APIs (FreeRTOS, POSIX, OSEK, etc.).

Component dependencies

The main components of ThreadX RTOS are each provided in their own repository, but there are dependencies between them, as shown in the following graph. This is important to understand when setting up your builds.

dependency graph

You will have to take the dependency graph above into account when building anything other than ThreadX itself.

Building and using the library

Instruction for building the ThreadX as static library using Arm GNU Toolchain and CMake. If you are using toolchain and IDE from semiconductor, you might follow its own instructions to use ThreadX RTOS components as explained in the Getting Started section.

  1. Install the following tools:

  2. Cloning the repo

    $ git clone https://github.com/eclipse-threadx/threadx.git
    
  3. Define the features and addons you need in tx_user.h and build together with the component source code. You can refer to tx_user_sample.h as an example.

  4. Building as a static library

    Each component of ThreadX RTOS comes with a composable CMake-based build system that supports many different MCUs and host systems. Integrating any of these components into your device app code is as simple as adding a git submodule and then including it in your build using the CMake add_subdirectory().

    While the typical usage pattern is to include ThreadX into your device code source tree to be built & linked with your code, you can compile this project as a standalone static library to confirm your build is set up correctly.

    An example of building the library for Cortex-M4:

    $ cmake -Bbuild -GNinja -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/cortex_m4.cmake .
    
    $ cmake --build ./build
    

Licensing

License terms for using Eclipse ThreadX are defined in the LICENSE.txt file of this repo. Please refer to this file for all definitive licensing information for all content, incl. the history of this repo.

Resources

The following are references to additional ThreadX RTOS resources:

You can also check previous questions or ask new ones on StackOverflow using the threadx-rtos and threadx tags.

Security

Eclipse ThreadX provides OEMs with components to secure communication and to create code and data isolation using underlying MCU/MPU hardware protection mechanisms. It is ultimately the responsibility of the device builder to ensure the device fully meets the evolving security requirements associated with its specific use case.

Contribution

Please follow the instructions provided in the CONTRIBUTING.md for the corresponding repository.

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