PIO Inspect does not work.

[zekageri]

Hi! I wanted to analyse my codebase with Inspect.

I had an error at the first inspection which said that my program is bigger than it can be.
Which is strange because i can upload it fine.
After some research i found out that it built the project in debug mode therefore it is a lot bigger.
So i added a line into my ini file to optimise the debug build.

debug_build_flags = -Os

Now if i Inspect it again, it does not produce an error but stuck at 100% and it seems like it will never finish.

I'm using an ESP-wrover-E with 16mb flash and 8mb psram.
I'm using a lot of malloc in my project to fully use the external ram as i can.

What can i do to make the Inspection work?

I will also try the following build flags in the ini file after i waited long enough for the Inspection to finish... ( I suspect it never will )

build_flags =
-DBOARD_HAS_PSRAM
-mfix-esp32-psram-cache-issue
-DCONFIG_MBEDTLS_DYNAMIC_BUFFER=1
-DCONFIG_BT_ALLOCATION_FROM_SPIRAM_FIRST=1
-DCONFIG_SPIRAM_CACHE_WORKAROUND=1

Here is my current ini file

; PlatformIO Project Configuration File
;
;   Build options: build flags, source filter
;   Upload options: custom upload port, speed and extra flags
;   Library options: dependencies, extra library storages
;   Advanced options: extra scripting
;
; Please visit documentation for the other options and examples
; https://docs.platformio.org/page/projectconf.html

[env:esp-wrover-kit]
platform = espressif32

board       = esp-wrover-kit
framework   = arduino
board_build.filesystem = littlefs

board_build.f_cpu   = 240000000L 
upload_protocol = espota
upload_port     = esp
upload_speed    = 921600
monitor_speed   = 115200
monitor_filters = colorize, esp32_exception_decoder

board_upload.flash_size = 16MB
board_build.flash_mode = qio
board_build.partitions = ./Partitions/hshPartition_APP_3MB.csv
board_build.f_flash    = 80000000L 

debug_build_flags = -Os

build_flags =   
    -DBOARD_HAS_PSRAM
    -mfix-esp32-psram-cache-issue
    -mfix-esp32-psram-cache-strategy=memw
    -DCORE_DEBUG_LEVEL=0
    -D ARDUINOTRACE_ENABLE=0
    -std=gnu++17
    -DCONFIG_ARDUINO_ISR_IRAM=0
    -DCONFIG_SPIRAM_USE_MALLOC=1
build_unflags =
    -std=gnu++11

upload_flags = 
    --auth=aSuperSecretUploadPassword

[valeros]

Hi @zekageri, any chance you could share your project to reproduce the issue?

[zekageri]

Unfortunately i can't and it also is a massive app. I can try to build a small project and hope it triggers it.

[valeros]

I can try to build a small project and hope it triggers it.

Would be great.

[zekageri]

Well, i was able to inspect only the RAM usage

But this is obviously not true.
I had to add this flag debug_build_flags = -Os to my ini file and i had to uncheck the "Check Code" toggle.
If it is checked it will never finish. I will give it another try. Will let it sit for hours and see what it will do.

Just some questions

Does PIO inspect sees the external ram? My ini file contains the board definition and some EXT ram build flags.
Does PIO calculate malloc and new when inspecting?

[valeros]

Will let it sit for hours and see what it will do.

It shouldn't take that long. How many files does your project contain?

Does PIO inspect sees the external ram?

PIO analyzes your firmware section by section. In a nutshell, if a symbol is located in a section that occupies memory during app execution then it will considered as RAM.

Does PIO calculate malloc and new when inspecting?

Unfortunately, it doesn't. Unlike the static memory allocation, the dynamically allocated memory (in your case the memory allocated via malloc) can vary based on application requirements at the runtime, so a more complex instruments like Valgrind are required.

[zekageri]

It shouldn't take that long. How many files does your project contain?

Well, I don't know. A lot. A rough estimate is (37 * 2) 74 if each folder contains at least two files. But some folders contains more than 3-4 files so give or take.

Thank you for the info. I will try to create a smaller project and see what it does.

The unknown 217 kb file is really strange to me btw... It is probably some Espressif content.

Will check Valgrind too! Thanks for the tip!