Libraries included with board don't show up as expected

harbaum · September 16, 2022, 7:33am

I am the author of the ftDuino (http://ftduino.de). This is a arduino meant to be used with the fischertechnik construction toy. It's based on the Atmega32u4/Leonardo.

The board package comes with three built-in libraries (see ftduino/ftduino/libraries at master · harbaum/ftduino · GitHub). In IDE 1.X these always showed up as three regular libraries when the ftDuino was selected. However in 2.0 they show up as a single blank entry in the examples above the "examples for ftDuino" text. Furthermore the contents of all three libraries are combined into one single menu tree creating even multiple entries with the same name for similar named examples that occur in more than one of the three libraries.

How do I fix this?

harbaum · September 16, 2022, 7:35am

Some I2C demos exist in different versions in the ftduino and the ftduino-simple library. Since the examples are named identical they now show up multiple times:

ptillisch · September 16, 2022, 7:42am

Hi @harbaum. Thanks for your report.

This bug is being tracked by the Arduino IDE developers here:

github.com/arduino/arduino-ide

Incorrect handling of Legacy format libraries by File > Examples menu

opened 04:21PM - 25 Feb 21 UTC

closed 11:41AM - 05 Oct 22 UTC

ubidefeo

conclusion: resolved topic: code type: imperfection criticality: medium

### Describe the bug The examples of installed "1.0 format" libraries are not… correctly handled by the IDE's **File > Examples** menu. ##### Background: [The "1.5 library format"](https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/dev/library-specification/#library-layout) is attained by the addition of [a `library.properties` metadata file](https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/dev/library-specification/#library-metadata) to the library root folder. The decade of Arduino library development before the introduction of this format produced many "1.0 format" libraries, which are still supported by the Arduino development software for the sake of backwards compatibility. ### To Reproduce 1. Download https://github.com/arduino-libraries/RestClient/archive/refs/heads/master.zip NOTE: this is just an arbitrary 1.0 format library. The issue will occur with any such library. 1. Select **Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library...** from the Arduino IDE menus. 1. Select the downloaded file (`RestClient-master.zip`). 1. Click the <kbd>Open</kbd> button. 1. Close the Arduino IDE. 1. Start the Arduino IDE. (there is a separate bug that causes the examples of libraries installed via **Add .ZIP Library...** to not be shown until restart) 1. Open the **File > Examples** menu Note that the expected "**RestClient-master**" entry is missing. Note that there is a blank entry in the menu that contains all examples of all installed 1.0 format libraries: ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/8572152/139392704-370257bd-0fad-40a8-9052-b1129a74a886.png) ### Expected behavior Handling of "1.0 format" libraries to be done the same as in the classic Arduino IDE: A menu entry is added to the **File > Examples** menu for each library which provides example sketches, regardless of its format. Since 1.0 format libraries don't provide a name via the `name` field of the `library.properties` metadata file, the name is determined by the name of the library's installation folder. ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/8572152/139394393-253e1e61-2739-403c-9bbe-1b00747c2e21.png) ### Desktop OS: Windows 10 Version: 2.0.0-beta.2-snapshot.f9730ab Date: 2021-02-18T13:01:31.751Z CLI Version: 0.16.0 alpha [c977a238] ### Additional context #### Incidence in platform bundled libraries The original demonstration of this issue used the [platform bundled libraries](https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/dev/platform-specification/#platform-bundled-libraries) of the "Arduino Mbed OS Boards" platform. The bug still affects versions of that platform up to, and including, version 2.5.2: ![Clipboard01-2](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1894487/109182916-b672c100-778d-11eb-9d99-987685291dc7.png) After 2.5.2, the platform's libraries were converted to "1.5 format" as a workaround for this bug (https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed/pull/340), so the later versions of the platform are not affected. For this reason, I changed the demo to using a manually installed "1.0 format" library, which is a less dramatic demo. However, it may be that "1.0 format" libraries are still relatively common in bundled libraries of 3rd party platforms, since they are not distributed through Library Manager, which has been the primary reason for converting libraries to the 1.5 format. #### Reports - Originally reported publicly (incidentally) at: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/invalid-dfu-suffix-signature/679244/11 - Originally reported internally by @per1234 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/libraries-included-with-board-dont-show-up-as-expected/1032334

The workaround is to add a library.properties metadata file to the root folder of each of the libraries.

You can learn about this file here:

https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/latest/library-specification/#library-metadata

The contents of the file are really not so important as long as you make sure to comply with the specification. The workaround only requires the presence of a valid metadata file in each of the libraries.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about that.

I have to jump into a meeting right now, but I promise to follow up on this ASAP.

ptillisch · September 16, 2022, 9:33am

OK, I'm back. This is a side effect of all the examples of all the "1.0"/"legacy" format libraries being grouped together under a single File > Examples menu item.

So the workaround I described above of converting the libraries to "1.5" format by adding the library.properties files will also resolve this issue.

harbaum · September 16, 2022, 10:16am

Thanks a lot. Yes, adding the library.properties did indeed solve both of these problems.

However, I am facing a strange unrelated issue now: I have some menu entries in the board.txt. These don't properly show up. So I tried to approach this issue step by step by commenting stuff in boards.txt. It turned out, that these menus are cached somewhere. Once a board.txt has been parsed further changes in the menu structure don't show any effect.

I already tried deleting ~/.arduinoIDE and /tmp/arduino* but the menus simply stay the same when I reload the IDE. Are these cached? Where?

Edit: Deleting ~/.config/arduino-ide does remove the cached entries

ptillisch · September 16, 2022, 10:42am

I'm glad the library.properties workaround resolved the problem with the examples. Even though the IDE should fully support the legacy library format, I think it is a good thing to update to the modern library format.

This bug is being tracked by the Arduino IDE developers here:

github.com/arduino/arduino-ide

Changes to custom board option definitions in `boards.txt` are not picked up

opened 05:00PM - 09 Jun 22 UTC

KurtE

topic: code type: imperfection

### Describe the problem I install in this case support for Teensy boards. I …verify that it works and notice some of the options were not enabled in boards.txt. So I go and edit the boards.txt to enable it. So I then restart the IDE and my changes are not reflected in menu. ### To reproduce Install support for Teensy: :update preferences with: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_156/package_teensy_index.json Install the boards, and then for example Choose Teensy 3.2 / 3.1 Look at the CPU speed menu item and see that 144mhz is not in the list. Go edit the boards.txt file: ``` ... #uncomment these if you want to try faster overclocking #teensy31.menu.speed.144=144 MHz (overclock) #teensy31.menu.speed.168=168 MHz (overclock) ... ``` And lets say uncomment the 144 Mhz line. And save the changes restart the IDE and then look at the CPU speeds for and the new item is not in the list. ### Expected behavior I would expect in this case the 144 mhz cpu speed to show up, like it does in Arduino 1.x I am assuming you are caching the data out of the different tools.txt files and as such not being seen. Maybe the cache code need to remember modification dates or the like. Alternatively need some mechanism to tell the IDE to refresh it's cache. ### Arduino IDE version RC7 which was released today ### Operating system Windows ### Operating system version Windows 10 ### Additional context Note: I first noticed this when I was trying to update @PaulStoffregen package for TD1.56 to use the stuff from 1.57 Beta 2, so I was updating the boards.txt to have an additional USB type for T4.x and soon T3.x But used the CPU speed example as it is easier to reproduce. I have not yet checked to see if you pickup changes or the creation of the local.boards.txt file or not Edit: I tried adding the line for 144mhz to local.boards.txt and restarted the IDE and it still was not seen --- Additional reports: - https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/issues/1258 - https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/issues/801#issuecomment-1196334934 - https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/LilyGo-LoRa-Series/issues/75#issuecomment-1273642230 - https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/issues/1751 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/partition-scheme-ide-2-0-x/1065762 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/manual-edits-to-boards-txt-not-picked-up/1045377 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/arduino-ide-2-0-0-board-package-modifications/1035933 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/libraries-included-with-board-dont-show-up-as-expected/1032334/5 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/modifying-board-manager/1065046 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/adding-a-partition-table-to-arduino-2-0-ide/1170025 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/esp32-d0wd-v3-board-azdelivery-esp32-dev-kit-c-v4/1255674 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/upload-speed-menu-has-no-entry-for-74880/1285826/4 - https://forum.arduino.cc/t/issue-with-boards-txt-working-in-arduino-ide-1-x-but-not-in-2-x/1314293 - https://www.reddit.com/r/esp32/comments/1gnlp9h/esp32s3_partition_tables_and_optimizing_memory/?rdt=43645 ### Issue checklist - [X] I searched for previous reports in [the issue tracker](https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/issues?q=) - [X] I verified the problem still occurs when using the latest [nightly build](https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide#nightly-builds) - [X] My report contains all necessary details

You can subscribe to that issue to get notifications of any new developments related to this subject.

harbaum · September 16, 2022, 12:23pm

Thanks again for your valuable input.

I just released a new version of my ftDuino board integration and so far it seems to work fine with the new IDE.

ptillisch · September 16, 2022, 12:30pm

Excellent! Please let us know if you run into any other problems.

Regards, Per

harbaum · September 20, 2022, 6:55am

Just a quick remark: After adding the library.properties one should test against the 1.x IDE as well. In my case I had no version field in library.properties. The IDE 2.0 did not care but 1.0 was complaining and more importantly didn't show the library examples at all.

ptillisch · September 20, 2022, 8:19am

A useful tool for checking for this sort of problem is Arduino Lint:

https://arduino.github.io/arduino-lint/latest/

For platforms developed in a GitHub repository, there is a GitHub Actions action available:

By adding a simple YAML file to your repository, you can automatically run the check on every push and pull request. This is used in the official Arduino boards platform repositories. You can see an example here:

github.com

arduino/ArduinoCore-avr/blob/master/.github/workflows/check-arduino.yml

name: Check Arduino

# See: https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows
on:
  push:
  pull_request:
  schedule:
    # Run every Tuesday at 8 AM UTC to catch breakage caused by new rules added to Arduino Lint.
    - cron: "0 8 * * TUE"
  workflow_dispatch:
  repository_dispatch:

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

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harbaum · September 20, 2022, 11:20am

Thanks again. This tool reported that it was missing a toolsDependencies entry in the package_index.json. However that wants me to specify a version for each tool. I think I omitted the entry for exactly that reason back when I started as I did not find documentation on what to set there.

Basically my board is happy with whatever is already there and I don't see a reason to force a specific version. What do I specify in the toolsDependencies if I don't care for the exact version?

ptillisch · September 20, 2022, 4:17pm

The general documentation for the package index file is here:

https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/latest/package_index_json-specification/

This explains the data format and handling, but doesn't tell you what specific tool dependencies you should define in your package index because that is different from one platform to another.

There isn't any way to specify a dependency on a tool without also specifying the tool version.

However, if you don't want to specify any tool dependencies (which means you are expecting the tool dependencies will be available on the user's system as a result of installing other boards platforms which have dependencies on those tools), then you can add an empty toolsDependencies array:

toolsDependencies: []

Here is an example of a package index that does this in some of the platform releases:

https://mcudude.github.io/MiniCore/package_MCUdude_MiniCore_index.json

system · March 19, 2023, 4:17pm

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Libraries included with board don't show up as expected

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