Posted by MSchultz on 2017-06-16 21:18

I’d recommend using the open-source utility “srec_cat” to embed a CRC into your object file. It’s also capable of doing a lot of other things related to manipulating object code files.

http://srecord.sourceforge.net/

I recently wrote a bootloader for a project I worked on recently, and I had do come up with a way to do exactly what you describe - insert a CRC of the image into a fixed location within the object code file. I used srec_cat to accomplish this.

You will want to run the srec_cat utility as part of your post-build process. I’d suggest making a small shell script (batch file) that runs the srec_cat program, and run the script/batch containing all the utilities you want to run (including srec_cat) as your post-build step.

Learning how to use the SRecord utilities can be a bit dauting. They can do a lot of nice things related to manipulating object code files, but this flexibility comes at the expense of ease of use. Fortunately, the author does provide comprehensive documentation.

I can provide some assistance in using srec_cat and setting up a post-build script to do this if you need it.

Posted by MarkV6 on 2017-06-17 11:30

Thanks looks good. I guess you add the srec_cat to the build steps? What is your command there? Does the srec_cat glues the crc to the end of the file?
It can be handy to place a const struct on a fixed position in the flash, any idea how to do that?

Posted by MarkV6 on 2017-06-17 19:42

C:\Ac6\workspace\Project_M0_BL_App\Debug>srec_cat Project_M0_BL_App.bin -crc32-b-e 0x8013C20

srec_cat: Project_M0_BL_App.bin: 1: warning: ignoring garbage lines
srec_cat: Project_M0_BL_App.bin: 4: file contains no data