Safely detect, if function is called from an ISR?

Question

I'm developing software for an ARM Cortex M3 (NXP LPC1769) microncontroller. At the moment I'm searching for a mechansim to detect if my function is called within an ISR. I asume that I have to check a register. Based on this information I would like to call difficult functions.

I already checked the reference manual, if there is a register containing the necessary information.

For example I tried to detect if I'm called from an ISR (I used SysTick-ISR) based on the "Interrupt Active Bit Register" (IABR) register. This register should be != 0 if an ISR is active. But the value was 0x00000000. This implies that no interrupt is active. Besides this test I checked the NVIC and SC register in the reference manual searching for a register containing the necessary flag but I didn't found one.

Does anybody know a suitable register / mechanism for my problem?

Answer 1

You need to test the VECTACTIVE field of the Interrupt Control State Register.

I use the following:

//! Test if in interrupt mode
inline bool isInterrupt()
{
    return (SCB->ICSR & SCB_ICSR_VECTACTIVE_Msk) != 0 ;
}

SCM and SCB_ICSR_VECTACTIVE_Msk are defined in the CMSIS (core_cm3.h), which I imagine would be included indirectly by your part specific header (lpc17xx.h or similar I guess). I am using C++, including stdbool.h in C will get you a bool type, or change to an int or typedef of your own.

It is then used thus for example:

void somefunction( char ch )
{
    if( isInterrupt() )
    {
        // Do not block if ISR
        send( ch, NO_WAIT ) ;
    }
    else
    {
        send( ch, TIMEOUT ) ;
    }
}

If a solution is required that assumes no knowledge of the architecture consider the following:

volatile int interrupt_nest_count = 0 ;
#define ENTER_ISR() interrupt_nest_count++
#define EXIT_ISR()  interrupt_nest_count--
#define IN_ISR() (interrupt_nest_count != 0)

void isrA()
{
     ENTER_ISR() ;
     somefunction( 'a' ) ;
     EXIT_ISR() ;
}

void isrB()
{
     ENTER_ISR() ;
     somefunction( 'b' ) ;
     EXIT_ISR() ;
}

void somefunction( char ch )
{
    if( IN_ISR() )
    {
        // Do not block if ISR
        send( ch, NO_WAIT ) ;
    }
    else
    {
        send( ch, TIMEOUT ) ;
    }
}

However the question refers to safely detecting the interrupt context, and this relies on the enter/exit macros being added to all ISRs.