RFC: Rework configuration methods

[SergioGasquez]

At the moment we have several ways of configuring esplfash/cargo-espflash behavior:

• Package metadata (only for cargo-espflash)
  • Allows to specify paths to bootloader and partition table files and image format.
• Global configuration file
  • There is also a request for https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash/issues/469
  • Allows to specify a serial ports and/or USB VID/PID
• Some arguments can be specified via environment variables: ESPFLASH_BAUD and ESPFLASH_PORT

The idea would be to simplify and integrate most of this configuration options into a single one.

Related issues: https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash/issues/504, https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash/issues/469

[SergioGasquez]

I'll list some pros and cons about each method:

• Environment variables:
  • Pros:
  • Can be combined with setting them in the [env] section of the config.toml when using cargo-espflashor the proposed cargo feature of espflash. This would allow modifying settings at different levels.
  • Env variables can be used in when not using cargo or not in a Rust project folder
  • Cons:
    • Not sure how to support array tables like we use at the moment for VID/PID.
    • config.toml may also have some further limitations
• Package metadata:
  • Pros:
  • Common way of modifying settings in Rust ecosystem
  • Cons:
  • It may require some extra logic or the user to use cargo-espflash/the cargo feature of espflash
  • Not useful when not in a Rust project folder.
• espflash config file:
  • Pros:
  • Can be configured at different levels (project and global configuration at least)
  • Decoupled from Cargo and user environment
  • Cons:
  • More work on our side

[bjoernQ]

I never used package metadata (since I never use cargo-espflash) or global config file (didn't knew that exists) but I use env variables for a few things a lot!

e.g. my use-case is I have a few boards attaches, have a terminal open for working with each of them and set ESPFLASH_PORT the right way in each terminal

I don't think we should use env vars as a general config mechanism but for the things we currently support we should definitely keep them. e.g. I have seen people committing their working baud rate (or even serial port) to .cargo/config.toml runner ... makes not too much sense since it depends on your setup what works and what not

In general, those two env vars are also not really config but an alternative way to specify something which is usually given as a command line parameter (we even use a clap feature for that)

TL;DR I don't care much about any config files since I don't use them but please, please, please keep the env vars

[kevin-june]

I use package metata useful in my daily development workflow, specifically the partition_table option. I can envision some projects might use the bootloader option to reference a precompiled bootloader, but I don't do tha tmyself.

While I don't currently use environment variables, I can see how they could be quite convenient.

[SergioGasquez]

Relevant link: configuration file of esptool