Appart of the tasks stacks, what is in FreeRTOS heap ?

damv100 wrote on Tuesday, November 03, 2015:

Hi everybody,

I got a question on the use of the heap of freertos.

I have configured the total heap size to 4200 bytes :
#define configTOTAL_HEAP_SIZE ((size_t)(4200))

I us all this space since when I call xPortGetFreeHeapSize() I got 10 so
only 10 bytes are unused.

However, I don’t understand how this space is used. In fact if I sum the
sizes of the tasks stacks, I get only 2000 bytes :

task1 -> 125 words -> 500 bytes
task2 -> 125 words -> 500 bytes
task3 -> 100 words -> 400 bytes
idleTask -> 50 words -> 200 bytes (configMINIMAL_STACK_SIZE = 50)
timers -> 100 words -> 400 bytes (configTIMER_TASK_STACK_DEPTH = 100)
TOTAL 2000 bytes

Is it normal ? Is there any way to knwow what use the other half of the
freeRTOS heap ?

Thank you for your help

Damien

rtel wrote on Tuesday, November 03, 2015:

When you create a task both the task stack and the task control block (TCB) come from the heap. If you creates queues or semaphores then the memory from those comes from the heap also. Direct to task notifications are faster than semaphores and do not use memory from the heap. http://www.freertos.org/a00111.html

damv100 wrote on Tuesday, November 03, 2015:

Thank you a lot for this quick and clear answer.

I use :
- 1 queue of 6 elements of 1 byte
- 4 binary semaphores
- 1 mutex
- 3 timers

Do you think it explains the 2kB use of heap ?

If so, is there anyway to evaluate the size of each one to replace the bigger elements ?

rtel wrote on Tuesday, November 03, 2015:

Probably not.

You can use FreeRTOS+Trace to see memory allocations.

damv100 wrote on Tuesday, November 03, 2015:

I didnt manage to make the openOCD work on my target, so bumping the memory to get the freeRTOS+trace output is a problem.
Is there any other way ?

damv100 wrote on Wednesday, November 04, 2015:

Any idea ?

rtel wrote on Wednesday, November 04, 2015:

Other than using the trace, I think you would have to add code, or put a break point in pvPortMalloc() to see what was calling it.