Creating items from debug information

Creating single named items

Use the command line options --characteristic or --measurement to create a single MEASUREMENT or CHARACTERISTIC element in the A2L file for the named global variable or struct member.

The variable name can refer to a struct member or array element. For example, myStruct.member[3].x works, provided it is a valid global name in the ECU software.

Local variables (allocated on the stack) cannot be added to the A2L file.

Example

a2ltool input.a2l --elffile sw.elf --measurement globalVar --output out.a2l

a2ltool input.a2l --elffile sw.elf --characteristic myStruct.member[3].x --output out.a2l

Creating multiple named items using regex

Use the command line options --characteristic-regex or --measurement-regex to insert multiple named items at once using regular expressions. a2ltool matches each variable name against the provided regular expressions and creates a MEASUREMENT or CHARACTERISTIC for every match.

For example, the regular expression some.* matches someFoo and someBar, but not bla_some.

Example

a2ltool input.a2l --elffile sw.elf --measurement-regex "thing\d+.member.[xy]" --output out.a2l

Creating multiple items based on an address range

The command line options --characteristic-range or --measurement-range take a pair of addresses. Any global variable located within this range is added to the A2L file.

Example

Assume that the ECU software has the following variables:

• time at address 0x1200
• space at address 0x1300

The following command adds both variables to the A2L file:

a2ltool input.a2l --elffile sw.elf --characteristic-range 0x1000 0x2000 --output out.a2l

Creating multiple items based on the section

Elements of the embedded software may be placed into distinct named sections. The options --characteristic-section and --measurement-section look up the address range of each section in the ELF file header. All items within the memory range of the specified section are then inserted into the A2L file.

Group assignment

By default, items created from debug information are not assigned to any group. You can change this by using the --target-group option. The specified group will be extended or created as needed.