assert not working any more in 3.2

[pschatzmann]

Board

Any

Device Description

n/a

Hardware Configuration

n/a

Version

latest development Release Candidate (RC-X) and in the meantime also the release 3.2.0

IDE Name

Arduino

Operating System

Linux

Flash frequency

n/a

PSRAM enabled

no

Upload speed

n/a

Description

Up to and including R 3.1 using assert was giving the following type of error messages

assert failed: void setup() file_speeds.ino:100 (SD.begin(PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_CS))

Backtrace: 0x40082541:0x3ffb1f30 0x4008d919:0x3ffb1f50 0x40093afe:0x3ffb1f70 0x400d404b:0x3ffb20a0 0x400dbbbf:0x3ffb2270 0x4008e592:0x3ffb2290

Starting R 3.2 asserts are ignored

Sketch

Just add an assert(false); to the setup()

Debug Message

N/A

Other Steps to Reproduce

No response

I have checked existing issues, online documentation and the Troubleshooting Guide

• I confirm I have checked existing issues, online documentation and Troubleshooting guide.

[pschatzmann]

Any progress ?
I think this is quite serious and I am surprised that in the meantime you also decided to released 3.2.0 with this error...

[me-no-dev]

It took me a bit of searching :) Seems that -DNDEBUG is added by esp-matter by default and that disables assert. You can probably do your own macro that uses abort() instead, which works

[me-no-dev]

cc: @SuGlider

[SuGlider]

I'll take a look, but if Matter Library disables it, it can be fixed by Lib Builder for the next release.

[SuGlider]

@pschatzmann - I have found a work around that fixes this issue using Core 3.2.0 (or any 3.x).
Add a file called build_opt.h to your Arduino project.
In this file add a line with -UNDEBUG, save it, build and upload the project to the ESP32. assert() will work now.

This will undefine NDEBUG and retore assert() functionality.

[pschatzmann]

Thanks a lot for the work around: I confirm that this is working.

Looking forward for the final correction...

[me-no-dev]

@SuGlider what worries me is that matter disables assert throughout our ESP-IDF precompiled libs. Can you check this with the Matter team please?

[SuGlider]

@SuGlider what worries me is that matter disables assert throughout our ESP-IDF precompiled libs. Can you check this with the Matter team please?

Actually, when CHIP builds using release mode, it sets -DNDEBUG in order to avoid executing not necessary debugging code.
Arduino Lib Builder pick it up and includes it into the flags/defines file.

It doesn't affect other IDF components.
It only affects CHIP building process (there is a CHIP scriptBUILD.gn for creating CMakeLists.txt in CHIP before building it).

It doesn't affect esp-matter IDF code or any other IDF component.

[me-no-dev]

it picks it up because the project files are compiled with this flag. If they are compiled with it, chances are that others are compiled also. We extract flags from the 3 empty files in the lib-builder main (c, cpp and S)

[Jason2866]

PR espressif/esp32-arduino-lib-builder#293 to fix the Arduino Lib Builder

[SuGlider]

The main problem here is that -DNDEBUG is used to build all Arduino Static Libraries, therefore, it implies in that all IDF and other Libraries will disable assert() internally as @me-no-dev already mentioned.

I have already isolated the origin of this issue within ESP Matter Library.
I'm working on a definitive fix that will remove -DNDEBUG in the origin and assure that it doesn't affect the static libraries.
-DNDEBUG will also not be picked up by Lib Builder from the very beginning, avoiding it to be copied forward to the DEFINES file in the FLAGS folder.

[Jason2866]

Mhh, in this case the suggested workaround -UNDEBUG makes no sense either.

[me-no-dev]

it makes sense as temporary patch for Arduino code, but not as actual full solution. Maybe we can employ it while @SuGlider is looking into a final solution with the matter team. What do you say @SuGlider ?

[SuGlider]

Mhh, in this case the suggested workaround -UNDEBUG makes no sense either.

Correct. It helps only within the Sketch.
I've confirmed that when using Lib Builder, -DNDEBUG is evaluated at the very beginning of CMake process and as consequence all Arduino Static Libraries are built with assert() disabled.

[SuGlider]

it makes sense as temporary patch for Arduino code, but not as actual full solution. Maybe we can employ it while @SuGlider is looking into a final solution with the matter team. What do you say @SuGlider ?

@me-no-dev @Jason2866 - I have found the issue.
Matter Library is included as ESP Registry Component.
It has a -DNDEBUG explicitly declared in its own CmakeLists.txt which is not in the Matter v1.3 repository and neither in the master repository. It is there only in the v1.4 branch.

I already talked to the matter team and they will push a new ESP Registry Component v1.4.1 to fix it.

[SuGlider]

I also asked matter team to fix a warning message by applying the PR https://github.com./project-chip/connectedhomeip/pull/38069/files into esp_matter v1.4.
It shall be back ported this week to v1.4.1.

[SuGlider]

I also asked matter team to fix a warning message by applying the PR https://github.com./project-chip/connectedhomeip/pull/38069/files into esp_matter v1.4. It shall be back ported this week to v1.4.1.

CHIP PR already in place for the warning message:
project-chip/connectedhomeip#38385

As soon as it is committed, a new ESP_MATTER v1.4.1 will be released with the -DNDEBUG issue also solved.
We shall have it sorted out for the next Arduino Core 3.2.1 release.