Don’t like having to update your boards- especially if you have a lot of them? Well my dad and I made a program that will more or less do it for you. It even updates your libraries for you! And best of all- it’s open source and super flexible. As of writing this, it works and has been tested on macOS and Raspberry Pi.
Features:
– Update CircuitPython and corresponding library bundle
– Default case should be automatic, with reasonable additional flexibility
– Back-up board files before updating and restoring
– Attempt to warn of compatibility concerns related to major versions, pre-release versions, or library reorganization
– Install stable or unstable (pre-release) versions
– Update full library bundle or just the ones installed
– Runs on macOS and Rasbian (and maybe others?)
How does it work?
The updater starts by checking for the “board path” directory, and tries to extract the board type (e.g. “Trinket M0”) and installed version from boot_out.txt; it also looks for lib/lib_bundle.txt where it stores the version of the library bundle it installs.
It then attempts to guess the board’s URL on circuitpython.org based on a “slug” from the board name and extracts the download link for the board’s build of CircuitPython, and gets the download link for the latest corresponding library bundle.
After comparing the version numbers, a summary of what needs updating is printed; if the major version is changing or either of the versions was a pre-release build, it also prompts before continuing, since there may be incompatible changes.
Finally, the UF2 and/or library bundle are downloaded if necessary, the board files are backed up, and the board is ejected, updated and restored. If there were fewer than 100 items in the lib directory originally, only those and not the full bundle are copied onto the device.
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