I am building an image for the flash using mkifs.
I need to use big data files in-place(don’t load them in RAM because of the RAM shortage).
There are options [code=copy|uip] and [data=copy|uip] that shall affect an image, but I didn’t see any difference in the size of the image.
Did somebody experiment with these flags?
May be you know other way to use the data files directly from flash?
The uip flags won’t save any space in the image, they will save you space in RAM (which is your stated goal). You can compress the image, but only if your are copying it to RAM. on boot (defeats the purpose of saving RAM).
If using uip, the data files would need to be read only, if you require write access you will either need to disable uip (copy to RAM), or install a second flash device with an efs on it.
You are right. My explanation of the matter is mistaken.
What I really meant is I didn’t see any changes in the ram usage (I used Momentics IDE System Summary window to check) although I assumed that QNX should stop loading data files into RAM.
Are you specifying that the image should not be copied to RAM (by specifying the both the image and ram attributes in the build file) ?
I afraid that we don’t understand each other because you know more than I am.
I didn’t find any relevant ram or image attributes.
I have pre-built data files that are copied into the raw flash image:
pre-built directory structures
[search=.]
/etc = etc
/usr/local = usrlocal
These are not executables. Some of these files can be used during an execution.
I don’t mind if these files will be copied into the RAM during execution and then will be discarded. I am upset that all the data is coming into the RAM from flash when the execution starts.
I kept these files in the FFS but I suspect that devf-generic has a bug that screw me and I try different work-arounds.
I don’t understand how copy | uip approach works in this case, but it is the only relevant flags I found in the mkifs description.
If you have an example how to use ram and image attributes on the per file basis in the same image, please, post it.
I have a notion that the whole procboot image is copied into RAM any way. If you can support or deny this statement it would be helpful as well. It will save my time.
Thanks for your help.
If you specify the image attributes to be at addresses that are in flash, and ram attributes that are addresses in RAM, then the image will reside in flash, and the uip flags become relevant (if both attributes are not specified) then the image is copied into RAM.
Note that you cannot use devf-generic on a single flash device if you are running the image from flash, since the devf-generic will put the device in command mode for certain operations (at which point your image effectively disappears - and if you are XIP - this is a bad thing).
The documentation for mkifs is quite good, but you have to read between the lines a little bit, I am trying to aid you in reading between the lines.
As for an example; the docs do have example buildfiles, and these are probably more illustrative than anything I could concoct in a message.
Your welcome !
The picture you painted was so scared that I even didn’t try to implement it. I have a 64M image with the hundreds of files that are listed in the some logical order, not in accordance with their loading status. The word “addressâ€
[quote=“ytarash”]
The picture you painted was so scared that I even didn’t try to implement it. I have a 64M image with the hundreds of files that are listed in the some logical order, not in accordance with their loading status. The word “addressâ€