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PMunch / mpfshell

A simple shell based file explorer for ESP8266 Micropython based devices
MIT License
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mpfshell

2016-06-21, sw@kaltpost.de. Forkbase
2017-02-17, latest version. Forked by and modified for LoPy use by github.com/PMunch

A simple shell based file explorer for ESP8266, WiPy, and LoPy Micropython based devices.

The shell is a helper for up/downloading files to the ESP8266 (over serial line and Websockets) and WiPy/LoPy (serial line and telnet). It basically offers commands to list and upload/download files on the flash FS of the device.

Table of contents generated with markdown-toc

Main features:

Note: This version is tested on Manjaro and Windows but only supports Python 3. Some setups are known to not work with tab-completion

Requirements

General:

For the shell:

IMPORTANT: PySerial versions before 2.7 really don't work!!! It is highly recommended to use PySerial version 3.x and Python3.

Note: The tools only works if the REPL is accessible on the device!

Installing

To install this tool for Python 3, execute the following:

sudo pip3 install pyserial
sudo pip3 install colorama
sudo pip3 install websocket_client
sudo python3 setup.py install

Known Issues

General

TAB Completion

The shell supports TAB completion for commands and file names. So it totally is worth it pressing TAB-TAB every now and then. This feature is known to not work for all setups, why is still unclear.

File/Directory Names

File-names including whitespaces are supported, but such names need to be enclosed in quotes. E.g. accessing a file named "with white space.txt" needs to quoted:

get "with white space.txt"
put "with white space.txt" without-white-space.txt
put without-white-space.txt "with white space.txt"

The following characters are accepted for file and directory names:

A-Za-z0-9 _%#~@/\$!\*\.\+\-

The use of . and .. is currently not supported for file names in get and put commands.

Local vs. Remote

In mpfshell terminology the machine running mpfshell is local and the device connected is remote. This matters when you want to use put and get commands in order to get the arguments right. When using the shell many of the commands can also be prefaced with l in order do use a local command. Examples of this is lls and lcd which lists and changes directory respectively on the machine running mpfshell.

Shell Usage

Help

If you are stuck you can use the help command which shows you all available commands and can be used in conjunction with commands like help cd to see what the do.

mpfs> help
mpfs> help <command>

Prefixes and Suffixes

Some commands come in multiple version. Here are some common prefixes and suffixes that distinguish certain commands

Running and connecting

Note: Since version 0.7.1, the shell offers caching for file and directory names. It is now enabled by default. To disable caching, add the --nocache flag on the command line. In some cases the cash is not properly invalidated and old data could be present. For debugging purposes please use --nocache.

Start the shell with:

mpfshell

At the shell prompt, first connect to the device. E.g. to connect via serial line:

mpfs> open ttyUSB0

Note: On Linux machines ttyUSBX might not be owned by the user. Either run mpfshell as root (discouraged), or add your user to the appropriate group. A good way to do this is to run ls -l /dev | grep ttyUSB and see which group it belongs do (typically dialout or uucp) and then add it according to your distribution documentation.

Or connect via websocket (ESP8266 only):

mpfs> open ws:192.168.1.1,python

Or connect via telnet (WiPy/LoPy only):

mpfs> open tn:192.168.1.1,micro,python

Note: Login and password are optional. If left out, they will be asked for.

REPL

Since this is MicroPython there is also a REPL available. To access the REPL simply use:

repl

To exit REPL and return to the file shell use Ctrl+Alt+]. To soft reboot the device while in the REPL use Ctrl+D, this will run the main.py file and is a good way to test code.

Scripting

In order to be easier to use with your existing editor mpfshell is also scriptable. This means that you don't have to enter the interactive mode and manually type out commands. Automated build systems or simple editor shortcuts can benefit greatly from this.

E.g. to connect to the device, and then enter the shell:

mpfshell -c "open ttyUSB0"

Or to copy the file "boot.py" to the device, and don't enter the shell at all:

mpfshell -n -c "open ttyUSB0; put boot.py"

It is also possible to put multiple shell commands in a file, and then execute them from that file.

E.g. creating a file called "myscript.mpf":

open ttyUSB0 
put boot.py
put main.py
ls

And execute it with:

mpfshell -s myscript.mpf

Sample use

Here are some examples on what you can do once connected to a device with mpfshell.

You can list the files in the current directory with:

mpfs> ls

To upload e.g. the local file "boot.py" to the device use:

mpfs> put boot.py

If you like to use a different filename on the device, you could use this:

mpfs> put boot.py main.py

Or to upload all files that match a regular expression from the current local directory to the current remote directory:

mpfs> mput .*\.py

And to download e.g. the file "boot.py" from the device use:

mpfs> get boot.py

Using a different local file name:

mpfs> get boot.py my_boot.py

Or to download all files that match a regular expression from the current remote directory to the current local directory:

mpfs> mget .*\.py

To remove a file (or directory) on the device use:

mpfs> rm boot.py

Or remove all remote files that match a regular expression:

mpfs> mrm test.*\.py

To create a new remote directory:

mpfs> md test

To navigate remote directories:

mpfs> cd test
mpfs> cd ..
mpfs> cd /some/full/path

See which is the current remote directory:

mpfs> pwd

Remove a remote file or directory:

mpfs> rm test

Note: Directories to delete needs to be empty!

Remove a remote directory recursively:

mpfs> rmr test

To navigate on the local filesystem, use:

lls, lcd lpwd

Running the Shell in a Virtual Environment

Somtimes it is the easiest way to setup a virtual environment to satisfy the requirements. E.g. on Debian Jessi (which still has PySerial 2.6), this could be done like so (assuming you are within the mpfshell base directory:

Install support for virtual environments:

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

Create a new virtual environment:

pyvenv venv

Activate it (so the following pip3 install commands goes to the new virtuel environment):

source venv/bin/activate

Now install the dependencies to the virtual environment:

pip3 install pyserial
pip3 install colorama
pip3 install websocket_client

Now run the shell with the following command:

python3 -m mp.mpfshell

Note: The environment always need to be activated with the above source command.

Python 2 support

The original version of this script included support for Python2. This support was unknowingly broken at some point during the rewrite. However since Python3 came out in 2008, almost 10 years ago, we've decided to not strive to be Python2 compatible and rather focus on creating new features and improving the software. If you still need Python2 support for something and would like to contribute patches to make it compatible please feel free to do so but officially Python2 support is dead.