Read all memory sections to single hex file

[mcuee]

#1195 (comment)

@MCUdude @stefanrueger @McMCCRU @dl8dtl

PR #1195 adds a convenient way to write all the memory sections using a single elf file. (Edit --> elf may be difficult as avrdude needs to learn to write a valid ELF file).

What about memory reading?

I am thinking of a new memory name called all and I think it is nice to have the following command to be able to read the chip and write to an ELF file a hex file. Any comments? This can be in a new enhancement.

avrdude -c xxx -p xxx -U:all:r:readhackall.hex:i

[mcuee]

From here:
#1204 (comment)

We may even be able to read the Flash and EEPROM into single hex file (currently not supported), this should be easier than ELF file.

0x00000000 up to 0x0007FFFF for Flash memory,
0x00800000 up to 0x0080FFFF for RAM, and
0x00810000 up to 0x0081FFFF for EEPROM.

[stefanrueger]

Even better, looking at elf_mem_limits() in fileio.c we can map the writeable memories to

Low	High	Memories
0x00000000	0x0007FFFF	Flash
0x00800000	0x0080FFFF	RAM
0x00810000	0x0081FFFF	EEPROM
0x00820000	0x0082FFFF	Fuses(*)
0x00830000	0x0083FFFF	Lock byte(s)

(*) The mapping of the respective fuse bytes to offset locations follows historic name convention as in elf_mem_limits().

This means we can, indeed, transform our .hex files to act as container files for how a part has been prepared. Above is only valid for classic parts. More modern parts have their own, different mapping into a linear address space, so clearly that mapping needs to be per part family (or is worse comes to worst) per part.

Useful applications would be to make a backup of all (writeable) memories of a part in a single .hex file. And, extending the -U file.hex syntax into "Write all memories that are mentioned in the .hex file" a la PR #1195 would have an obvious benefit, too.

Comments welcome from those who are more AVR-literate than me: @MCUdude, @SpenceKonde, @WestfW, @dl8dtl, ...

[mcuee]

The comments in PR #1206 should help as well.

• Fix reading of .elf files #1206 (comment)

Comment by @stefanrueger.
So, it would make sense to extend elf_mem_limits() to

Low	High	Memories
0x00000000	0x007FFFFF	Flash
0x00800000	0x0080FFFF	RAM
0x00810000	0x0081FFFF	EEPROM (*)
0x00820000	0x0082FFFF	Fuses
0x00830000	0x0083FFFF	Lock bytes
0x00840000	0x0084FFFF	Signature
0x00850000	0x0085FFFF	User signatures (*)

(*) Not available in all parts

[mcuee]

I think this feature request does not gain much traction and I will close this for now as not planned.

We can always revisit this in the future if someone is interested and prepare a PR for this.

[mcuee]

Close this discussion for now.