These instructions are valid for Podman and Docker. If you use Docker just replace podman with docker. See Podman and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for installation and basic usage of Podman.

ESP-IDF Container builds

Check the page of ESP-IDF releases and find:

• latest stable release (v4.0.1)
• Long Term Support release (v3.3.2)

Find the closest docker image tags for these:

• release-v4.0
• v3.3.2

and pull them from Docker Hub with:

podman pull espressif/idf:release-v4.0
podman pull espressif/idf:v3.3.2

Go to your project’s directory then build with one of:

podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project espressif/idf:v3.3.2 idf.py build
podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project espressif/idf:release-v4.0 idf.py build

or do an interactive build with one of:

podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project -it espressif/idf:v3.3.2
podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project -it espressif/idf:release-v4.0

then execute the commands that you want:

idf.py menuconfig
idf.py build

To use the commands that interact with the serial port like:

• idf.py flash
• idf.py monitor

first connect your board then launch the container with the --device=/dev/ttyUSB0 parameter, assuming dev/ttyUSB0 is for your USB-serial convertor:

podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project --device=/dev/ttyUSB0 -it espressif/idf:release-v4.0

Notes for ESP-IDF components

For ESP-IDF components remember that the component name is its directory name ! This means that you have to start the container at least one level above component’s directory for it to keep its name.

I have a code library with a structure like this:

CodeLibrary
├── ESP32
│   ├── ESP32DLEDController
│   │   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   │   ├── example
│   │   ├── LICENSE-GPLv3.txt
│   │   ├── README.md
│   │   └── src
│   ├── ESP32RMT
│   │   ├── CMakeLists.txt
... ... ...

To build the example for ESP32DLEDController component I have to preserve that directory name so I launch the container from CodeLibrary/ESP32 directory.

cd the-path-to/CodeLibrary/ESP32
podman run --rm -v $PWD:/project -w /project -it espressif/idf:release-v4.0

# inside the container
cd ESP32DLEDController/example
idf.py build

As a side note, this way allows examples that need multiple components from the CodeLibrary.

Alternative

I do not recommend it but an alternative would be to use it like this:

cd the-path-to/CodeLibrary/ESP32/ESP32DLEDController
podman run --rm -v $PWD:/ESP32DLEDController -w /ESP32DLEDController -it espressif/idf:release-v4.0

# inside the container
cd example
idf.py build

because it needs a custom command for each component and does not allow applications / examples that need multiple components.

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