Question about --testcase parameter in PeakRDL

[ardas-mips]

Hi,
I came across the --testcase parameter that can be used to generate a C test case for the generated header file. Could someone clarify what exactly the generated test case is intended to check at the moment? Does it do reset value checks for the registers?
Thanks in advance!

[amykyta3]

The testcase validates that the generated C struct accurately represents the intended address offsets.

GCC will nearly always pack structs as expected, but in some rare cases this is not possible and GCC may silently insert additional padding into the struct that throws things off. This is avoided by using GCC's packed attribute pragma, but in case folks want to verify, the testcases are for this purpose.
You'll also notice that the generated header output also includes static asserts as another mechanism to verify this.

The testcases are also used in the PeakRDL tests that are run prior to a release to ensure the exporter is doing what it is supposed to.

[ardas-mips]

Thank you for the reply!
Just to confirm, is PeakRDL currently capable of generating a test case that could help validate the generated header against an RTL build? For example, something that checks reset values.

[amykyta3]

I'm not aware of an existing PeakRDL tool that does that, but it sounds like something that would be easy to make.
Check out the plugin guide here: https://peakrdl.readthedocs.io/en/latest/for-devs/exporter-plugin.html
PeakRDL plugins are really easy to implement, and are perfect for quick auto-generated things like this.