ME7idatool is a bit more than a fancy way to name variables. Some of you have asked about it after I posted some mysterious IDA screen dumps of files for which there are no public a2l/dam files available.

@nyet, since it is not compiled code anyone can see it in it's full glory(?) and anyone with a lot of patience can modify it as they wish. Github? I've never worked with it.

@prj, some lines might still be a carbon copy of your short IDA code snippets which can be found here on the forum. Thank you, those got me interested in IDApython.

@fluke9, a line or two of your python code might also be found, I don't remember, but thank you.

I dedicate this script or rather what it can achieve to my father who passed away earlier this year. Please have mercy, the script is really ugly but it is quite capable. I had zero knowledge of Python or similar coding when I started on this project. Therefore some (most?) things are really ugly and not written in a Pythonic way while other parts are quite smart and heavily optimized to keep all often used functions responding quick enough. I never thought it finally would become this automated, therefore it is based on routines meant for manual CLI work. To begin with my plan was to import dam/a2l and nothing else. At some places code are added to fix something instead of fixing the original faulty code.

Some things could have been done much more easily if I would have used more external libraries (eg. pandas) but until I needed to use the pywin32 for clipboard I tried to work with plain Python and IDA idc. It is developed on a borrowed laptop with genuine IDA pro 7.2 32-bit. (thank you Mr Z)

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What can it help you with?

* Primarily it can help you save tens or even hundreds of hours of work depending of what your goal is.

* Can import .ecu, .dam and .a2l files although with .ecu you are very limited. Always start with a fresh .idb.  Handles german umlauten correctly (at least on the system I used). .dam and .a2l needs to be directly from VAG without any change of file format for this to work.
These imported files help you achieve a nice IDA file.

* Show a list of what was not automatically named from a2l/dam. Can be easily clicked on and then if address look like a match it can manually be set by pressing p on keyboard. It can label the routines according to a threshold. Those who do not reach threshold can be handled manually and it gives the most probable names as suggestions depending on what it find.

* Can create patches that can easily be pasted directly into TunerPro. Very nice when working with code patches and an emulator like Roadrunner. For example while hacking hex code directly in ida without Keil. Unfortunately it does not handle faulty variables that can be found in certain .ecu files. Eg. some dual bank wideband lambda files. Avoid using .ecu if not absolutely needed.

Now on to the more fancy stuff...

* Makes most of the nice idb portable(!?). It does this by up/down search and ability to copy/paste naming from one idb to another. Almost zero knowledge needed to find similar code in another bin. Select what you need to find in another plain idb.

* It can export .dam and .a2l after you have ported from one idb to another. If you use a correctly matching file from similar year/version/family of ECU it will probably output what you need.
 
Avoid adding your own comments if you care for the portability to other similar binaries. Keep a copy of your original ME7idatool prepared .idb when you start working manually in the file. Some parts of this tool rely heavily on clipboard, be sure not to mess with it while working with the tool.


PS. If you feel an urge to help me buy my own copy of IDApro you can make a paypal donation. Email can be found in profile. ME7idatool can easily save you countless hours of work.

me7getmnem()   (in source ida window after marking text)

me7findcode()   (possible to use startaddress. eg 0x810000, ommit to use cursor position)

me7findcodereverse()

me7nameit()

me7prereq() (needed if closing ida and starting over again later, loads dam or a2l)

me7makeit_stage1()

me7makeit_stage2()

me7makeit_stage3()

me7identfunc()  (me7prereq() needed if IDA has been closed since last working with the file)

me7identfunc(nosfp)

me7setfuncname() (use this after me7identfunc() )

me7setfuncname()

me7list_names_wo_ref()

me7jumptable()

me7addresscmt()

me7cleancmt()

me7export()

me7tppatch()

me7patchbytes()

me7makefunc()

v0.9.8

Good

Anything I've posted here is fair game, have at it.

This script makes code even more understandable after using ME7idatool on C25ea01g.bin . Though it might break some features of ME7idatool, i've not tested me7findcode() and me7nameit() afterwords yet.
Unfortunately I need to fix some things before it works well on an ST10 file like C25ea01g.bin.

btw. If someone source the IROM of 022906032CA this particular bin/a2l with addition would make a highly useful idb for working with any ME7.

edit 221013:
I posted a bit too early. I forgot that I had not fixed a few names in the attached file. Will post a better version later.

Thanks for this tool, DT!!!

Here how it worked for me on a x64 machine using Windows 11 and IDA Pro 7.2
1.) Install Python 2.7.18 (Get it here: https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.18/python-2.7.18.amd64.msi)
2.) Add "C:\Python27" and "C:\Python27\Scripts" to environment variable PATH
3.) Execute "pip install pywin32" from commandline
4.) Run IDA Pro, open/start project and add script via Alt+F7
5.) Call functions listed above.

Previously, I tried to run it on a x86 machine using Windows 10 and IDA Pro 6.6, but that didn't work.
Python and pywin32 were installed correctly and running fine, but IDA Pro trew an error message while importing the modules "win32clipboard" and "win32api".

Well, yes. But they do look a bit funky and does not match what is addressed from flash.

Though the first 32kb from one of these line up perfectly.
022906032bg
022906032cn
022906032cs
022906032ge


btw. nice python explanation

I have seen this in various threads where you posted, nice of you to finally release it, looks great.

Might give it a go sometime, see how is it vs the conventional scripts on this site.