ID string in a flash

I normally place some meta data (such as crc, version info etc) in last bytes of flash. But if I place the information in the last 16 bytes, that is still at a fixed position. I might decide to have the normal build place 12 byte of info at the end, but leave the last four byte. Then run a post-process program that computes CRC32 and fills the last four bytes with the CRC of the image.

I normally place some meta data (such as crc, version info etc) in last bytes of flash. But if I place the information in the last 16 bytes, that is still at a fixed position. I might decide to have the normal build place 12 byte of info at the end, but leave the last four byte. Then run a post-process program that computes CRC32 and fills the last four bytes with the CRC of the image.

Actually that is exactly what I need (except that post-processing app will write a program size along with checksum there).
So the question is still the same - how do I make a build to place this metadata array at the end of a program ?

I tried to follow the procedure suggested by Pontus Thuvesson in
http://www.keil.com/forum/docs/thread16466.asp

That is what I did:
in a main:

#pragma arm section rodata = "codeEnd"
const uint8_t metadata[19] = {'J','0','0','_','1,'1',1, 3,57,0x08,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x44,0x44,0x44,0x44,0x55};

===================
then I edited the scatter file to this:

; *************************************************************
; *** Scatter-Loading Description File generated by uVision ***
; *************************************************************

LR_IROM1 0x08000000 0x00020000  {    ; load region size_region
  ER_IROM1 0x08000000 0x00020000  {  ; load address = execution address
   *.o (RESET, +First)
   *(InRoot$$Sections)
   .ANY (+RO)
   *.o(codeEnd, +Last)
  }
  RW_IRAM1 0x20000000 0x0000C000  {  ; RW data
   .ANY (+RW +ZI)
  }
}

and unchecked 'used memory layout from a target dialog'.

Nevertheless the metadata[] array does not appear at the end of a program. Is there anything i did wrong ? or haven't done ?

I am still trying to get rid of extra data appearing at the end of an image after my string.
According to http://www.keil.com/support/docs/3512.htm
these is compressed RW initialization data.
According to the difference between sizes of Load Region LR_IROM1 and Execution Region ER_IROM1 in a memory map, amount of these data is 124 bytes. I actually have 125, but maybe I miscalculated something.

Anyway, all attempts to eliminate these data were unsuccessful. I tried adding --datacompressor=off in a linker options, some other staff - no luck.

While doing extensive research on a forum, I saw quite a few references to 'putting metadata / special data at the very end of a rom image'. So it seems like there is a lot of expertise on this issue.

Please, could someone point me in a right direction.

Gennady

I think that what your wanting is similar to what I described in:

http://www.keil.com/forum/docs/thread16898.asp

Unfortunately, I found/got no solution.

How about this?

; *************************************************************
; *** Scatter-Loading Description File generated by uVision ***
; *************************************************************

LR_IROM1 0x08000000 0x00020000  {    ; load region size_region
  ER_IROM1 0x08000000 0x00020000  {  ; load address = execution address
   *.o (RESET, +First)
   *(InRoot$Sections)
   .ANY (+RO)
  }
  RW_IRAM1 0x20000000 0x0000C000  {  ; RW data
   .ANY (+RW +ZI)
  }
}

LR_IROM2 +0 {
  ER_IROM2 +0  {
   *.o(codeEnd, +Last)
  }
}

Mike, thank you so much !

It works, and I see how you've done it.
Beautiful.

Gennady