ESP32-S3 - IDF v5.4-dev-421 fails to build (IDFGH-12835)

[AtkinEngineering]

Answers checklist.

• I have read the documentation ESP-IDF Programming Guide and the issue is not addressed there.
• I have updated my IDF branch (master or release) to the latest version and checked that the issue is present there.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a similar issue and not found a similar issue.

IDF version.

v5.4-dev-421-g4523f3d674

Operating System used.

Linux

How did you build your project?

VS Code IDE

If you are using Windows, please specify command line type.

None

What is the expected behavior?

Building the hello_world example should build correctly.

What is the actual behavior?

Always produces the following error:
error: unexpected output section continuous line "*(.debug)" at line 12052 in "Linker script and memory map" section in "/home/dev/esp/esp-idf/examples/get-started/hello_world/build/hello_world.map" map file

Steps to reproduce.

VSCode & ESP-IDF extension:

1. Configure ESP-IDF Extension, Express with ESP-IDF Version set to master (development branch)
2. Open /get-started/hello_world folder
3. Set target to ESP32s3 with ESP-PROG
4. Build

Build or installation Logs.

*  Executing task: /home/dev/.espressif/python_env/idf5.4_py3.11_env/bin/python /home/dev/esp/master/esp-idf/tools/idf_size.py /home/dev/esp/master/esp-idf/examples/get-started/hello_world/build/hello_world.map 

error:  unexpected output section continuous line "*(.debug)" at line 12052 in "Linker script and memory map" section in 
"/home/dev/esp/master/esp-idf/examples/get-started/hello_world/build/hello_world.map" map file

 *  The terminal process "/usr/bin/bash '-c', '/home/dev/.espressif/python_env/idf5.4_py3.11_env/bin/python /home/dev/esp/master/esp-idf/tools/idf_size.py /home/dev/esp/master/esp-idf/examples/get-started/hello_world/build/hello_world.map'" terminated with exit code: 1.

More Information.

I have tried this with my development code and the examples and both the same.

[fhrbata]

Hello @AtkinEngineering,

thank you for reporting this issue and apologies for the inconvenience. The problem stems from recent changes in the linker scripts (2b36636) that were implemented to properly handle orphan sections.

While the build itself is fine, it appears that the VSC extension is automatically running esp-idf-size after the build. Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize empty output sections introduced by the aforementioned changes. We have already developed a fix for esp-idf-size and hope it will be merged soon.

In the meantime, you can use the legacy version of esp-idf-size as a workaround, because it doesn't have this problem. For context, esp-idf-size currently has two implementations: legacy and refactored, which can be dynamically switched. The refactored version has a more rigorous link map file parser, supports multiple output formats, and is easily extendable. It's by default enabled since v5.3.

To switch to the legacy version in VSC:

1. Go to File -> Preferences -> Settings and search for idf.customExtraVars.
2. Choose whether you want to change the esp-idf-size behavior globally by selecting the User tab, or just for a specific project by selecting the Workspace tab.
3. Click on Add Item.
4. Add the ESP_IDF_SIZE_LEGACY item(env. variable) with the value 1.

Alternatively, you can directly edit the .vscode/settings.json file in your project/workspace. Here are my settings for reference.

{
    "C_Cpp.intelliSenseEngine": "default",
    "idf.adapterTargetName": "esp32s3",
    "idf.customExtraPaths": "/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf-gdb/14.2_20240403/xtensa-esp-elf-gdb/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/riscv32-esp-elf-gdb/14.2_20240403/riscv32-esp-elf-gdb/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240305/xtensa-esp-elf/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/riscv32-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240305/riscv32-esp-elf/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/esp32ulp-elf/2.38_20240113/esp32ulp-elf/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.12.0-esp32-20240318/openocd-esp32/bin:/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/esp-rom-elfs/20240305",
    "idf.customExtraVars": {
        "OPENOCD_SCRIPTS": "/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.12.0-esp32-20240318/openocd-esp32/share/openocd/scripts",
        "ESP_ROM_ELF_DIR": "/home/fhrbata/.espressif/tools/esp-rom-elfs/20240305/",
        "ESP_IDF_SIZE_LEGACY": "1"
    },      
    "idf.espIdfPath": "/home/fhrbata/esp/master/esp-idf",
    "idf.openOcdConfigs": [
        "interface/ftdi/esp32_devkitj_v1.cfg",
        "target/esp32.cfg"
    ],      
    "idf.port": "/dev/ttyUSB0",
    "idf.pythonBinPath": "/home/fhrbata/.espressif/python_env/idf5.4_py3.12_env/bin/python",
    "idf.toolsPath": "/home/fhrbata/.espressif",
    "idf.flashType": "UART"
}

Hopefully, this can temporarily help to address this problem.

Thank you

[AtkinEngineering]

Hello @fhrbata,
This is fantastic, and makes sense.
Your suggestion works.
Thank you.