Analyze OS Configuration (Compact 2013)
3/26/2014
This topic discusses how to analyze your OS configuration — the set of catalog items that your OS includes — in order to eliminate unnecessary code and files and ensure that you include only the features that your design needs.
Each catalog item is associated with a Sysgen variable. When you select a catalog item in Platform Builder, Windows Embedded Compact 2013 adds the code that the associated Sysgen requires. Some catalog items depend on other catalog items, which also must be included for the feature to work properly. These additional catalog items are called dependencies. When you select a catalog item in Platform Builder, Platform Builder automatically adds all dependencies. You cannot remove or deselect the dependencies unless you deselect the original catalog item.
View Dependencies
To view the dependencies of a catalog item in Platform Builder, right-click the catalog item and then click either of the following:
- Reasons for Inclusion of Item opens the Remove Dependent Catalog Item message box, which lists actions you must take before you can remove the catalog item from your design.
- Show Dependencies opens the Catalog Item Dependencies viewer, which contains two trees — one for the items the selected catalog item depends on, and one for the items that depend on the catalog item.
You can also use Windows Explorer to browse the batch files in %_WINCEROOT%\public\CEBase\oak\misc. During OS design and build time, Platform Builder uses these batch files to resolve dependencies. You can examine them to see the Sysgens that are pulled in by other Sysgens. For example, in winceos.bat, the Bluetooth Personal Area Networking (SYSGEN_BTH_PAN) catalog item requires the Network Driver Architecture (SYSGEN_NDIS) and the Bluetooth Stack with Universal Loadable Driver (SYSGEN_BTH) items, as shown in the following excerpt.
.png "Analyzing ROM Size - Dependencies")
Get a Complete Module List
To see the complete list of modules that your OS includes, examine the header file ceconfig.h in the flat release directory. This header file contains a #define statement for each included module. For example, if you include the XAML for Windows Embedded catalog item in your OS, some of the modules listed in ceconfig.h are:
.png "Analyzing ROM Size - Module List")
You can use this module list to look for modules that your design might not need. Eliminating unnecessary modules reduces final image size. You can also design and implement a custom automated comparison of ceconfig.h between builds to report when modules are added or removed.