Are printf()s allowed within xTimer callbacks?

Kernel
1

I understand that blocking functions are not permitted within an xTimer callback.

Short form:

Is printf() considered a blocking function?

Details:

I’m observing a case where I’m getting an illegal memory reference within uxListRemove(), following an xTimer callback and a printf(). Specifically, the pxItemToRemove->pxNext = 0x1, which is clearly not a valid pointer.

When I removed the call to printf(), I do not get the illegal memory reference.

As far as I can tell from the sources I inherited, we’re running FreeRTOS V9.0.0. Let me know if additional info is needed.

2

The point the removing the call to printf makes the crash go away indicates towards a memory corruption/stack overflow. Have you enabled stack overflow detection? You can also try to increase the timer task stack size.

Thanks.

3

Many thanks. Will enable stack overflow detection and will report back.

4

@aggarg Thank you for the suggestions, but no luck: I’ve added:

void vApplicationStackOverflowHook( TaskHandle_t xTask,
                                signed char *pcTaskName ) {
  (void)xTask;
  (void)pcTaskName;
  __asm("nop");
}

to my code, placed a breakpoint on the nop and set configCHECK_FOR_STACK_OVERFLOW to 1 (and tried 2 as well), but it still bombs out with an illegal reference.

Question: since I can identify the place in the code that gets the illegal access, is there a FreeRTOS call I can insert there that will validate the state of the stack?

UPDATE:

Increasing TIMER_TASK_STACK_SIZE from 100 to 200 did the trick. So I believe your analysis was correct: it’s overflowing the stack, probably because the standard printf() makes heavy use of the stack.