Difference between revisions of "Port Projects from Keil uVision to Embedded Studio"

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The following import tutorial will be based on the following Hardware and Software combinations:
 
The following import tutorial will be based on the following Hardware and Software combinations:
   
* SEGGER Embedded Studio 6.34a
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* [https://www.segger.com/products/development-tools/embedded-studio/ SEGGER Embedded Studio] 6.34a
 
* Keil µVision 5.36.0.0
 
* Keil µVision 5.36.0.0
   

Revision as of 09:20, 14 October 2022

This Wiki article describes how to import Keil µVision projects into SEGGER Embedded Studio using the build in project importer. With the project importer you can either keep using the Keil tool chain inside Embedded Studio or
use the SEGGER tool chain that is used inside Embedded Studio. By switching your project to Embedded Studio you can directly benefit from features like multi-threaded compiling, fast and simple project search, indexing and more.
Many features are even available should you still decide to be using the Keil tool chain inside Embedded Studio. A full feature list can be found here.

Setup

The following import tutorial will be based on the following Hardware and Software combinations:

The tutorial should also work with older versions of Embedded Studio and Keil µVision.

Import tutorial

  • Open your copy of Embedded Studio and go to File -> Import Project -> Import Keil MDK Project (ARM Compiler 6) then navigate to the project file you want to import and select it.
Keil Example Project Folder
  • Now you will have the opportunity to choose between:
    • External Toolchain: imports the project and configures it to be built with the original toolchain.
    • Internal Toolchain: imports the project and sets the configuration for the Embedded Studio tool chain.
    • Internal and External Toolchains: creates a set of build configurations to build with the original tool chain and one set to build with the Embedded Studio tool chain.
    • "Keil Installation Directory" where you get the option to use a different external Keil compiler if you have multiple Keil versions installed.
  • To migrate to Embedded Studio it is recommended to create build configurations for internal and external tool chains so you can easily switch between the tool chains later on.
Project importer options
  • If everything worked out well the following status window should pop up:
Successful import
  • Embedded Studio will automatically create build configurations for debug and release versions with the internal and external compiler that have been present in the existing Keil project.
  • To switch between them the drop down menu in the "Project Explorer" can be used.
Build configurations window
  • Embedded Studio have no info about the location of necessary startup files while importing the Keil µVision project. So you will have to add them manually to you project via drag and drop.
  • After that you have to set all the necessary user include directorys to that startup files via: Project Setting -> Preprocessor -> User Include Directory's.
  • To debug the example project with the Keil compiler choose "Target1_External" in the drop down menu and build the project by pressing F7.
  • For most projects this will work out of the box, if it does not build out of the box please refer to section "Troubleshooting".

Note:While it is possible to only run the external configuration where the external tool chain is called, we recommend to switch to the internal SEGGER tool chain as some e.g. debug features are not fully available when debugging code created with external tool chains.

How to switch to internal Embedded Studio compiler

  • To use the full potential of Embedded Studio it is required to use the internal SEGGER compiler which is based on Clang.
  • This can be done in the provided example project by simply going to the drop down menu and select "Target1_Internal".
  • The project will now be built when pressing F7 with the internal SEGGER compiler by default. Other internal compilers (gcc/clang) can be enabled in the project options instead.
  • After a successful build with the internal compiler Embedded Studio will automatically calculate how much flash and RAM will be occupied on your target device and represent it visually in the output window.
Code flash and RAM usage
  • Note: this feature is only available when using the internal compilers.
  • For most projects switching to the internal compiler work out of the box, if it does not build out of the box please refer to section "Troubleshooting".

If you plan on using the internal SEGGER tool chain anyhow we recommend to skip the import tool and create a new project with the project wizard and if available with a CPU support package. This way all Embedded Studio specific and target specifc project settings are already in place. All that is needed to do now is to add the sources from your Keil project to your Embedded Studio folder and fix Keil specific compile errors and eventually the linker script and memory map setup as described in troubleshooting. On average this approach is less time consuming.

Troubleshooting

While imported projects will usually re-build with the external tool chain out-of-the-box, for the internal SEGGER tool chian based project build configurations, some manual changes may be required.

In some cases the sources are created to be clang compatible, then you can seamlessly switch between original tool chain and SEGGER tool chain. When the original project is created from a software pack or SDK, it might already come with SEGGER tool chain compatible source files which can replace the former tool chain compatible files.

The following points list the most common changes which are required to migrate a project to Embedded Studio.

Internal Configuration

Memory Linker Script

The Embedded Studio project importer does not import linker scripts. It sets up the basic memory map for the selected target device, which will put code into the internal flash and data into the internal RAM.

For more advanced or different configurations, the memory map file and the section placement file have to be set up accordingly.

To place memory segments there are two options available in Embedded Studio:

  1. Place segments directly via project options under "Linker -> Memory Segments"
  2. Create a memory map .xml file or edit the default file provided by Embedded Studio and set it in project options under "Linker -> Memory Map File"

For example, a memory-map file representing a device with two memory segments called FLASH and RAM could look something like this in the memory-map editor.

<Root name="Device1">
  <MemorySegment name="FLASH1" start="0x10000000" size="0x10000" />
  <MemorySegment name="RAM1"  start="0x20000000" size="0x1000" />
</Root>

A corresponding linker file will refer to the memory segments of the memory-map file and will list the sections to be placed in those segments. The documentation of the SEGGER Linker can be found here.

To add new segments or sections simply edit the default file linked by Embedded Studio. The linked file can be found in the project options under "Linker -> Linker Script File".

Third Party Software and Libraries

Third party software, especially libraries, might be configured for one tool chain and do not compile with other tool chains.

Check if there is a port of the software for Embedded Studio/SEGGER tool chain or configure and rebuild the software for Embedded Studio/SEGGER tool chain.

Although libraries built for another tool chain may link with Embedded Studio, always take care and check that interfacing with the library works as expected.

Assembly Code

The syntax of assembler code and control commands in assembler files can be different across tool chains.

Although the resulting assembled instructions are identical, the assembler code to be written can be different across tool chains, for example numerical constants need to be declared differently for Keil and GCC/Clang.

Control commands which help writing assembler code is different, too. The syntax for symbols, labels, function definitions, and alike needs to be adjusted to work with the GNU assembler.

The following table shows some "popular" assembler directives that can be substituted by the corresponding conjugate:

Keil assembler directive GCC/Clang assembler directive
EXPORT .global
AREA .section
EQU .equ
SPACE .space
DCD .word
IMPORT .extern
ALIGN .align
IF .if
ELSE .else
ENDIF .endif

For a complete list please refer to the corresponding assembler reference manuals.

However, we would recommend that you create a new ES project for your deice and then add your sources.s.

Project Settings

Most project settings are set automatically by the project importer for the external and internal build configuration. In some more complex projects certain project settings need to be added manually.

For example by default no files are excluded from the internal build configuration, so if there is a compiler incompatible file the compiler will try to compile it and show errors (e.g. GCC/Clang incompatible assembler files).

To do this right click your project in the project explorer and select "Edit options". More information about the individual settings can be found in the Embedded Studio user manual.

User Included Directories

Many more complex projects link their sources from multiple folders in different paths. Make sure all needed folders are included in the build configuration under "Preprocessor -> User Include Directories".

Pre/Post Build Commands

Embedded Studio offers the possibility to use pre/post build commands familiar to the Keil User -> Command Items. However the project importer does not import these as the syntax between Keil and Embedded studio differs.

Should you be using such commands in Keil make sure you mimic them in Embedded Studio in the internal and external build configurations accordingly .

To execute multiple commands at once the use of a batch script is possible.

For example to enable a post link batch script go into the project options for the intended build config, go to "User Build Step" and edit the entry "Post-Link Command".

Now enter the relative or absolute path of the bat file and the optional parameters: Path/Example.bat Param1 Param2 ...

External Configuration

As Embedded Studio simply calls the Keil toolchain via command line it is simply a matter of calling it the same way as µVision does to make the external build work. The import tool will try to detect as many project settings as possible from the Keil project setup. However as the Keil IDE may change with each update, some options may not be detected correctly.

To correct this the easiest method is to export the build command line from Keil and match it with the setup in Embedded Studio as follows:

  • Open your Keil project in µVision
  • Open Project -> Options for Build Configuration -> Output and tick Create Batch File
  • Rebuild project
  • Open the batch file.
  • Now close µVision and open Embedded Studio
  • Right click your project in project explorer and select Export Build
  • Now compare the build command line of µVision and Embedded Studio, if you see options missing on the Embedded Studio side correct them via the Embedded Studio project options as explained below

Now if you successfully matched the build commands of µVision and Embedded Studio, your application should build without errors just like it did in the native Keil setup.