PlatformIO is a cross-platform, cross-architecture, multiple framework, professional tool for embedded systems engineers and for software developers who write applications for embedded products.

Installation

PlatformIO does not require administrative / elevated permissions.

#!/bin/bash

set -e

# download installation script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio-core-installer/master/get-platformio.py -o get-platformio.py

# install PlatformIO Core
python3 get-platformio.py

# add links to the executables
# ~/.local/bin/ is part of the systemd file system hierarchy and in the user's $PATH search path
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/platformio ~/.local/bin/platformio
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/pio ~/.local/bin/pio
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/piodebuggdb ~/.local/bin/piodebuggdb

# install udev rules for PlatformIO supported boards/devices
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio-core/master/scripts/99-platformio-udev.rules | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-platformio-udev.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Note: instead of installing udev rules for PlatformIO, you can use another approach and add only the rules you want, see the Non-root access for ST-LINK and USB-to-serial devices article.

Create a test project

#!/bin/bash

set -e

# create a directory for the new project
testDir=$(mktemp -d -t pio_test_XXXXX --tmpdir="$PWD")
cd "$testDir"

# initialize a new project
testBoard="esp32dev"
pio project init --board $testBoard
# ...
# Project has been successfully initialized! Useful commands:
# `pio run` - process/build project from the current directory
# `pio run --target upload` or `pio run -t upload` - upload firmware to a target
# `pio run --target clean` - clean project (remove compiled files)
# `pio run --help` - additional information

cat << 'EOF' > src/main.cpp
#include <Arduino.h>

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
    Serial.println("Hello world!");
    delay(1000);
}
EOF

pio run
pio run --silent --target clean

pio commands

All the commands are in CLI Guide.

• pio platform list Lists installed development platforms
• pio platform install <platform> Installs <platform>
• pio platform uninstall <platform> Uninstalls <platform>
• pio update is a combination of pio platform update and pio lib update

Custom boards

Each project can have custom boards. The default location for project-specific board definitions is the boards directory in the root of the project.

With the default settings, PlatformIO looks for boards in this order:

• project’s boards directory
• ~/.platformio/boards directory
• ~/.platformio/platforms/*/boards directory

You can add a board in ~/.platformio/boards to be available for multiple projects.

If you use the Arduino framework you need an Arduino Variant for your board. See Custom STM32 board for PlatformIO and Arduino, CMSIS, STM32Cube and LibOpenCM3 for details.

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