Indefinite Build Processes

[kurt.harrison]

Could someone assist with resolve issues with build processes? Any build processes (clean, build, rebuild) I start hangs indefinitely after executing the command.

Additional details, including software versions:

• VisualGDB version 6.0R6 (build 5262)
• Provided a valid license key
• Visual Studio Community 2022 (64-bit) Version 17.13.3
• Build commands launched from Visual Studio’s “Build” menus
• Attempting to build a STM32H757 project
• Reinstall VisualGDB did not resolve the issue
• Cancelling the build does result in a successful build

I was able to build my project during the trial version. The issue first occurred when I attempt to build after the trial expired and before entering a license key. I expect nothing to happen during that run. However, the indefinite build issue persists after entering a valid license key.

Example logs:

Run "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sysprogs\VisualGDB\make.exe CONFIG=Debug clean -j8" in directory <project path> on local computer
C:\Program Files (x86)\Sysprogs\VisualGDB\make.exe CONFIG=Debug clean -j8

Sending Ctrl-C...
The operation was canceled.

========== Project Clean Summary ==========
STM32H757Eval-CM7 cleant in 01:23
========== Clean: 0 Succeeded, 1 Failed, 0 Skipped ==========

 

 

[kurt.harrison]

Correction: Cancelling a build does not result in a success

[support]

Hi,

This could be due to a bug in the GNU Make where it sometimes just lock up on multi-core systems. So, normally, we would advise using CMake + Ninja or MSBuild instead. These systems are much more modern and work way better.

If you have to use GNU Make, you may need to experiment with other similar projects to see what exactly triggers the lockup.

[kurt.harrison]

Thank you for the recommendations. I will try these out and give an update later.

[kurt.harrison]

I resolved my issue with indefinite build times. This is neither an issue with VisualGDB nor the aforementioned GNU Make bug. After much troubleshooting, the error turned out to be case-sensitivity of echo commands in Makefile documents. The project’s creator is able to execute capitalized Echo commands in their developer environment, whereas I cannot with my environment.

[support]

Hi,

Good to know it works and thanks for letting us know.

[Ancaritha]

So the source of the infinite build error was not the Echo vs echo command (which was still a weird issue), but is actually a sub-makefile we call that I ripped directly from the TouchGFX Designer program that ST makes for their UI stuff.  It checks to find if the CubeProgrammer utility is installed on the machine.  This is the section we believe to be causing it to fail:

ifneq (“$(shell find “$(program_files_win64)/$(stm32cube_programmer_filepath)” 2> nul )”,””)
program_files_path := $(program_files_win64)
else ifneq (“$(shell find “$(program_files_win32)/$(stm32cube_programmer_filepath)” 2> nul )”,””)
program_files_path := $(program_files_win32)
else ifneq (“$(shell find “$(program_files_CLT)/$(stm32cube_programmer_filepath)” 2> nul )”,””)
program_files_path := $(program_files_CLT)
endif

It works perfectly fine on my machine, unsure why it is failing on Kurt’s.  Would you be able to tell me which shell program/exe VisualGDB makefiles are going to end up calling?

 

Thanks!

[support]

We don’t really have any special code for calling a particular shell. It’s up to the Make executable and we don’t have much insights into it. CMake+Ninja (or MSBuild) works way better and way faster, so we recommend using it instead.

[Ancaritha]

Doh, ok.  I was hoping that a particular shell program was included with the VisualGDB installs (since it comes with it’s own make.exe) and there was a high probability that was the one that would be called.  Back to trying to figure out which shell program is being executing via makefile commands.

I do really hate makefiles, but unfortunately it would be a substantial effort to migrate off of them.  We’ve made heavy modifications to various parts of it and have probably two dozen projects running on the same foundational code.

 

Thanks!

[Author]

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