Compiler/TMS320F28379D: Compiler support for variable length arrays

Yes, the TI compiler does support VLA in C99 mode. It does so by using dynamic allocation, so you are right to check .sysmem. I can't see anything wrong with the code you post, and when I run it myself, it runs fine. Perhaps your program needs more that 0x400 for the heap?

Are you running this program under CCS? The normal flow for a program which reaches exit is that exit calls abort, which has an infinite loop. CCS sets a breakpoint at a special label in this infinite loop; if you don't set a breakpoint there, the program will execute the infinite loop. Are you sure this breakpoint is still there when you run the program? It is possible for some setups that you can only have a limited number of breakpoints.

Richard Poley said:

I am building with C99 and relaxed ANSI, and .sysmem is 0x400 in length.

The lib\src\vla_alloc.cpp source file in the run time library is used to allocate / deallocate variable length arrays. On the first attempt to allocate a VLA vla_alloc.cpp needs to allocate the VLA storage pool which as of TI compiler v16.9.5 requires 1500 words.

Therefore, a system of length 0x400 is insufficient to allocate the VLA storage pool, and exit() will be called on the first attempt to allocate a VLA since vla_alloc.cpp fails to allocate the VLA storage pool. i.e. increase the size of sysmem to allow space for the 1500 words for the VLA storage pool as well as the VLA arrays.