Bug#1087555: ITP: espflash -- command-line tool for flashing Espressif devices
Hi Jonas,
On Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 09:59:53AM +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> Hash: SHA512
>
> * Package name : espflash
> Version : 3.2.0
> Upstream Contact: https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash/issues
> * URL : https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash
> * License : Apache-2.0 or Expat
> Programming Lang: Rust
> Description : command-line tool for flashing Espressif devices
Thank you for packaging espflash!
espflash is a rewrite of esptool, both of which are maintained by
Espressif. I have spent a considerable amount of time contributing to
esptool so I'm a little familiar with some of the issues there.
Like esptool, espflash's upstream source contains precompiled
binaries[1], built from freely licensed sources, that are clearly not
Debian main-material. In the case of esptool and stubs specifically, my
understanding is that they are not strictly needed but cripple the
functionality a bit if they're missing. I'm not sure about espflash.
1: https://github.com/esp-rs/espflash/tree/main/espflash/resources
For esptool, we've managed to build several, but not all, of the stubs
with the toolchain that's in Debian. See the changelog for esptool
4.5.1+dfsg-0.1, as well as the history outlined in #1043168.
My understanding is that with espflash, Espressif also rewrote the stubs
in Rust, and therefore you won't be able to reuse our approach. Judging
from the READMEs[2][3], it may make sense to package the stubs in
separate package(s) so that both esptool and espflash can benefit from
them.
2: https://github.com/esp-rs/esp-flasher-stub
3: https://github.com/espressif/esptool-legacy-flasher-stub/
Best of luck & let me know if you need another set of eyes or help.
Faidon
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