arduino-ci-script

Bash script for continuous integration of Arduino projects. This is currently targeted for use with Travis CI but it could be easily adapted to other purposes.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Publishing job reports
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing

Installation

The script can be used in multiple ways:

Clone the latest release

Include the latest release of the script in your project by adding the following lines to your build configuration file:

  # Clone the script repository
  - git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/per1234/arduino-ci-script.git "${HOME}/scripts"
  - cd "${HOME}/scripts"
  # Get new tags from the remote
  - git fetch --tags
  # Checkout the latest tag
  - git checkout $(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
  - source "${HOME}/scripts/arduino-ci-script.sh"

Local copy

If you're passing a token to the script's publish report functions then best security practices would be to use a static copy of the script so you can be sure of the commands the token is used with:

• Download the latest version of the script from https://github.com/per1234/arduino-ci-script/releases by clicking one of the Source code links.
• Unzip the downloaded file.
• Copy arduino-ci-script.sh to a convenient location.
• Include the script in your project by adding the following line to your build configuration file:

  - source arduino-ci-script.sh

Be sure to check for new releases of the script so that you can benefit from the ongoing development work. You can receive notifications of releases by watching the repository.

Usage

See https://github.com/per1234/WatchdogLog/blob/master/.travis.yml for an example of the script in use.

Please configure your continuous integration system to make the minimum number of downloads and sketch verifications necessary to effectively test your code. This will prevent wasting Arduino and Travis CI's bandwidth and keep the build durations short.

set_script_verbosity SCRIPT_VERBOSITY_LEVEL

Control the level of verbosity of the script's output in the Travis CI log. Verbose output can be helpful for debugging but in normal usage it makes the log hard to read and may cause the log to exceed Travis CI's maximum log size of 4 MB, which causes the job to be terminated. The default verbosity level is 0.

• Parameter: SCRIPT_VERBOSITY_LEVEL - 0, 1 or 2 (least to most verbosity).

set_application_folder APPLICATION_FOLDER

• Parameter: APPLICATION_FOLDER - The folder to install the Arduino IDE (and Artistic Style if you use check_code_formatting) to. This should be set to /usr/local/share or a subfolder of that location. The folder will be created if it doesn't already exist. The Arduino IDE will be installed in the arduino subfolder.

set_sketchbook_folder SKETCHBOOK_FOLDER

• Parameter: SKETCHBOOK_FOLDER - The folder to be set as the Arduino IDE's sketchbook folder. The folder will be created if it doesn't already exist. Libraries installed via install_library will be installed to the libraries subfolder. Non-Boards Manager hardware packages installed via install_package will be installed to the hardware subfolder. This setting is only supported by Arduino IDE 1.5.6 and newer.

set_board_testing BOARD_TESTING

Turn on/off checking for problems with the board definition that generate a warning message during sketch verification but don't ordinarily cause it to fail, such as missing bootloader file. If this is turned on and a problem is detected the build_sketch command will return a non-zero exit status. This feature is off by default.

• Parameter: BOARD_TESTING - true/false

set_library_testing LIBRARY_TESTING

Turn on/off checking for problems with libraries that generate a warning message during sketch verification but don't ordinarily cause it to fail, such as missing or invalid items in the library.properties file. If this is turned on and a problem is detected the build_sketch command will return a non-zero exit status. This feature is off by default.

• Parameter: LIBRARY_TESTING - true/false

Special version names:

• all: Refers to all versions of the Arduino IDE (including the hourly build). In the context of install_ide this means all IDE versions compatible with the script (those that support the command line interface, 1.5.2 and newer). In the context of all other functions this means all IDE versions that were installed via install_ide.
• oldest: The oldest release version of the Arduino IDE. In the context of install_ide this is the oldest of the IDE versions compatible with the script (1.5.2, the first version to have a command line interface). In the context of build_sketch this means the oldest IDE version that was installed via install_ide.
• newest: In the context of install_ide this means the newest IDE release version. In the context of all other functions this means the newest IDE release version that was installed via install_ide. 'newest' will only match to the hourly build if that is the only version available.
• hourly: The hourly build of the Arduino IDE. Note that this IDE version is intended for beta testing only.

install_ide [IDEversionList]

Install a list of Arduino IDE version(s).

• Parameter(optional): IDEversionList - A list of the versions of the Arduino IDE you want installed, in order from oldest to newest. e.g., '("1.6.5-r5" "1.6.9" "1.8.2")'. If no arguments are supplied all IDE versions will be installed. The script allows you to install all IDE versions with a command line interface (1.5.2 and newer) for the sake of being complete but I don't see a good reason for testing with the 1.5.x versions of the Arduino IDE. Please only install the IDE versions you actually need for your test to avoid wasting Arduino's bandwidth. This will also result in a shorter build duration. Installation of the IDE will be skipped if it's found to already be installed in the folder specified via the set_application_folder function so install_ide can also be used simply to inform the script which IDE versions are available.

install_ide startIDEversion [endIDEversion]

Install a range of version(s) of the Arduino IDE.

• Parameter: startIDEversion - The oldest version of the Arduino IDE to install.
• Parameter(optional): endIDEversion - The newest version of the Arduino IDE to install. If this argument is omitted then only startIDEversion will be installed.

install_package

"Manually" install the hardware package from the current repository. Packages are installed to $SKETCHBOOK_FOLDER/hardware. Assumes the hardware package is located in the root of the download or repository and has the correct folder structure.

install_package packageURL

"Manually" install a hardware package downloaded as a compressed file. Packages are installed to $SKETCHBOOK_FOLDER/hardware. Assumes the hardware package is located in the root of the file and has the correct folder structure.

• Parameter: packageURL - The URL of the hardware package download. The scheme component of the URL (e.g., http://, https://) is required.

install_package packageURL [branchName]

"Manually" install a hardware package by cloning from a Git repository. Packages are installed to $SKETCHBOOK_FOLDER/hardware. Assumes the hardware package is located in the root of the repository and has the correct folder structure.

• Parameter: packageURL - The URL of the Git repository. The scheme component of the URL (e.g., http://, https://) is required. The URL must end in .git.
• Parameter(optional): branchName - Branch of the repository to install. If this argument is not specified or is left blank the default branch will be used.

install_package packageID [packageURL]

Install a hardware package using the Arduino IDE (Boards Manager). Only the Arduino AVR Boards package is included with the Arduino IDE installation. Packages are installed to $HOME/.arduino15/packages. You must call install_ide before this function. This feature is only available with Arduino IDE 1.6.4 and newer.

• Parameter: packageID - package name:platform architecture[:version]. If version is omitted the most recent version will be installed. e.g., arduino:samd will install the most recent version of Arduino SAMD Boards.
• Parameter(optional): packageURL - The URL of the Boards Manager JSON file for 3rd party hardware packages. This can be omitted for hardware packages that are included in the official Arduino JSON file (e.g., Arduino SAM Boards, Arduino SAMD Boards, Intel Curie Boards).

install_library

Install the library from the current repository. Assumes the library is in the root of the repository. The library is installed to the libraries subfolder of the sketchbook folder.

install_library libraryName

Install a library that is listed in the Arduino Library Manager index. The library is installed to the libraries subfolder of the sketchbook folder. You must call install_ide before this function. This feature is only available with Arduino IDE 1.6.4 and newer installed.

• Parameter: libraryName - The name of the library to install. You can specify a version separated from the name by a colon, e.g., "LiquidCrystal I2C:1.1.2". If no version is specified the most recent version will be installed. You can also specify comma-separated lists of library names.

install_library libraryURL [newFolderName]

Download a library in a compressed file from a URL. The library is installed to the libraries subfolder of the sketchbook folder.

• Parameter: libraryURL - The URL of the library download or library name in the Arduino Library Manager. The scheme component of the URL (e.g., http://, https://) is required. The download file can be in any compressed file format. Assumes the library is located in the root of the file.
• Parameter(optional): newFolderName - Folder name to rename the installed library folder to. This can be useful if the default folder name of the downloaded file is problematic. The Arduino IDE gives include file preference when the filename matches the library folder name. GitHub's "Download ZIP" file is given the folder name {repository name}-{branch name}. Library folder names that contain - or . are not compatible with Arduino IDE 1.5.6 and older, arduino will hang if it's started with a library using an invalid folder name installed.

install_library libraryURL [branchName [newFolderName]]

Install a library by cloning a Git repository. The library is installed to the libraries subfolder of the sketchbook folder. Assumes the library is located in the root of the repository.

• Parameter: libraryURL - The URL of the library download or library name in the Arduino Library Manager. The scheme component of the URL (e.g., http://, https://) is required. The URL must end in .git.
• Parameter(optional): branchName - Branch of the repository to install. If this argument is not specified or is left blank the default branch will be used.
• Parameter(optional): newFolderName - Folder name to rename the installed library folder to. This can be useful if the default folder name of the downloaded file is problematic. The Arduino IDE gives include file preference when the filename matches the library folder name. Library folder names that contain - or . are not compatible with Arduino IDE 1.5.6 and older, arduino will hang if it's started with a library using an invalid folder name installed. If the newFolderName argument is specified the branchName argument must also be specified. If you don't want to specify a branch then use "" for the branchName argument.

set_verbose_output_during_compilation verboseOutputDuringCompilation

Turn on/off arduino verbose output during compilation (same as the IDE's File > Preferences > Show verbose output during: > compilation). This will show all the commands arduino runs during the process rather than just the compiler output. This is usually not very useful output and only clutters up the log. This feature is off by default.

• Parameter: verboseOutputDuringCompilation - true/false

check_sketch_structure searchPath

Check sketches to ensure they have the correct structure.

• Parameter: searchPath - Path containing sketches. The path will be searched recursively and all sketches found under it will be checked.

check_library_structure basePath [depth]

Check libraries to ensure they have the correct structure. This will also run check_sketch_structure on all sketches bundled with the library.

• Parameter: basePath - Path containing a library.
• Parameter(optional): depth - Folder depth relative to basePath where the libraries are located. A depth of 0 will check the library located at basePath. The default value is 0.

check_library_properties searchPath [maximumSearchDepth]

Check library.properties library metadata files for errors.

• Parameter: searchPath - Path containing library.properties.
• Parameter(optional): maximumSearchDepth - The recursive search depth. A depth of 0 will only search searchPath and no subfolders. The default value is 0.

check_keywords_txt searchPath [maximumSearchDepth]

Check keywords.txt files for errors.

• Parameter: searchPath - Path containing keywords.txt files.
• Parameter(optional): maximumSearchDepth - The recursive search depth. A depth of 0 will only search searchPath and no subfolders. The default value is 0.

check_library_manager_compliance libraryPath

Make some additional checks for compliance with the requirements for adding a library to the Library Manager index. This function should be used in combination with check_library_structure and check_library_properties to ensure full compliance with the requirements.

• Parameter: libraryPath - Path of the library to check.

check_code_formatting strictness excludedPathList targetPath

Check code formatting for compliance with the Arduino code style. The Artistic Style formatter tool is used for this check. If it's not already installed, it will be installed to the astyle subfolder of the folder specified to set_application_folder. Note that in the Travis CI job logs, the check_code_formatting output is "folded" to make it easier to browse. You can click the triangle in the left margin of the command to unfold the output.

• Parameter: strictness - Determines how strict to be about code formatting compliance: 1 (least strict) - 3 (most strict). Each strictness level is based on the previous one, but with additional requirements.
  • 1: The Arduino IDE's auto format configuration.
  • 2: The configuration Arduino uses to format their example sketches.
  • 3: A custom configuration based on a study of the prevailing styles used in official Arduino code.
• Parameter: excludedPathList - A comma-separated list of paths to exclude from the check.
• Parameter: targetPath - The path to run the check on. All code files will be checked recursively.

build_sketch sketchPath boardID allowFail IDEversion

build_sketch sketchPath boardID allowFail [IDEversionList]

build_sketch sketchPath boardID allowFail startIDEversion endIDEversion

Verify/compile sketch(es). build_sketch will echo the arduino exit status to the log, which is documented at https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/blob/master/build/shared/manpage.adoc#exit-status. Note that in the Travis CI job logs, the compilation output is "folded" to make it easier to browse. You can click the triangles in the left margin to unfold.

• Parameter: sketchPath - Path to a sketch or folder containing sketches. If a folder is specified it will be recursively searched and all sketches will be verified.
• Parameter: boardID - package:arch:board[:parameters] ID of the board to be compiled for. e.g., arduino:avr:uno. Board-specific parameters are only supported by Arduino IDE 1.5.5 and newer.
• Parameter: allowFail - true, require, or false. Allow the verification to fail without causing the CI build to fail. require will cause the build to fail if the sketch verification doesn't fail.
• Parameter: IDEversion - A single version of the Arduino IDE to use to verify the sketch.
• Parameter(optional): IDEversionList - A list of versions of the Arduino IDE to use to verify the sketch. e.g., '("1.6.5-r5" "1.6.9" "1.8.2")'. If no version list is provided all installed IDE versions will be used.
• Parameter: startIDEversion - The start (inclusive) of a range of versions of the Arduino IDE to use to verify the sketch.
• Parameter: endIDEversion - The end (inclusive) of a range of versions of the Arduino IDE to use to verify the sketch.

display_report

Echo a tab separated report of all verification results to the log. The report is located in the ${HOME}/arduino-ci-script_report folder and will be named according to the build number and job number. Note that Travis CI runs each build of the job in a separate virtual machine so if you have multiple jobs you will have multiple reports. The only way I have found to generate a single report for all tests is to run them as a single job. This means not setting multiple matrix environment variables in .travis.yml's env array. See: https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/environment-variables. The report consists of one line per verification:

• Build timestamp - Timestamp of the sketch verification in UTC.
• Build - The Travis CI build number.
• Job - Travis CI job number.
• Job URL - The URL of the Travis CI job log.
• Build Trigger - The cause of this Travis CI build. Possible values are push, pull_request, api, cron.
• Allow Job Failure - Whether the Travis CI configuration was set to allow the failure of this job without failing the build. See: https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/customizing-the-build/#Rows-that-are-Allowed-to-Fail.
• PR# - Pull request number (if build was triggered by a pull request).
• Branch - The branch of the repository that was built.
• Commit - Commit hash of the build.
• Commit range - The range of commits that were included in the push or pull request.
• Commit Message - First line of the commit message.
• Sketch filename
• Board ID
• IDE version
• Program Storage (bytes) - Program storage usage of the compiled sketch.
• Dynamic Memory (bytes) - Dynamic memory usage by global variables in the compiled sketch (not available for some boards).
• # Warnings - Number of warnings reported by the compiler during the sketch compilation.
• Allow Failure - Whether the sketch verification was allowed to fail (set by the allowFail argument of build_sketch).
• Exit Status - Exit status returned by arduino after the sketch verification.
• # Board Issues - The number of board issues detected.
• Board Issue - Short description of the last board issue detected.
• # Library Issues - The number of library issues detected. Library issues are things that cause warnings in the sketch verification output that come from the IDE, rather than the compiler.
• Library Issue - Short description of the last library issue detected.

publish_report_to_repository REPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN repositoryURL reportBranch reportFolder doLinkComment

Add the report to a repository. See the instructions for publishing job reports for details.

• Parameter: REPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN - The hidden or encrypted environment variable containing the GitHub personal access token.
• Parameter: repositoryURL - The .git URL of the repository to publish the report to. This URL can be found by clicking the "Clone or download" button on the home page of the repository. The repository must already exist.
• Parameter: reportBranch - The branch to publish the report to. The branch must already exist.
• Parameter: reportFolder - The folder to publish the report to. The folder will be created if it doesn't exist.
• Parameter: doLinkComment - true or false Whether to comment on the GitHub thread of the commit that triggered the build with a link to the report.

publish_report_to_gist REPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN REPORT_GIST_URL doLinkComment

Add the report to the report gist. See the instructions for publishing job reports for details.

• Parameter: REPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN - The hidden or encrypted environment variable containing the GitHub personal access token.
• Parameter: REPORT_GIST_URL - The URL of the report gist.
• Parameter: doLinkComment - true or false Whether to comment on the GitHub thread of the commit that triggered the build with a link to the report.

Publishing job reports

The script offers the option of publishing the job result reports to a repository or GitHub gist by using the publish_report_to_repository or publish_report_to_gist functions. This makes it easier to view the reports or to import them into a spreadsheet program. You also have the option of having the link to the reports automatically added in a comment to the commit that triggered the build. This requires some configuration, which is described in the instructions below.

NOTE: For security reasons, reports for builds of pull requests from a fork of the repository can not be published. If the owner of that fork wants to publish reports they can create a GitHub token (and gist if using publish_report_to_gist) and configure the Travis CI settings for their fork of the repository following these instructions.

Creating a GitHub personal access token

This is required for either publishing option.

1. Sign in to your GitHub account.
2. Click your avatar at the top right corner of GitHub > Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens > Generate new token.
3. Check the appropriate permissions for the token:
4. If using publish_report_to_gist check gist.
5. If using publish_report_to_repository or setting the doLinkComment argument of publish_report_to_gist check public_repo (for public repositories only) or repo (for private and public repositories).
6. Click the Generate token button.
7. When the generated token is displayed click the clipboard icon next to it to copy the token.
8. Open the settings page for your repository on the Travis CI website.
9. In the Environment Variables section enter REPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN in the Name field and the token in the Value field. Make sure the Display value in build log switch is in the off position.
10. Click the Add button.

An alternative to using a Travis CI hidden environment variable as described above is to define the GitHub personal access token as an encrypted environment variable: https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/environment-variables/#Encrypting-environment-variables.

Creating a gist

This is required for use of the publish_report_to_gist function.

1. Open https://gist.github.com/
2. Sign in to your GitHub account.
3. Type an appropriate name in the Filename including extension... field. Gists sort files alphabetically so the filename should be something that will sort before the report filenames, which start at travis_ci_job_report_00001.001.tsv.
4. Add some text to the file contents box.
5. Click Create secret gist if you don't want the gist to be discoverable (it can still be read by anyone who knows the URL), or Create public gist to make it discoverable.
6. Copy the URL of the gist.
7. Open the settings page for your repository on the Travis CI website.
8. In the Environment Variables section enter REPORT_GIST_URL in the Name field and the URL of the gist in the Value field. You can turn the Display value in build log switch to the on position. The gist URL is not secret and this will provide more information in the log.
9. Click the Add button.

Troubleshooting

Script hangs after an arduino command

The Arduino IDE will usually try to start the GUI whenever there is an error in the command. Since the Travis CI build environment does not support this it will just hang for ten minutes until Travis CI automatically cancels the job. This means you get no useful information on the cause of the problem.

Verbose output

Verbose output results in a harder to read log so you should leave it off or minimized when possible but it can be useful for troubleshooting. Note that turning on verbose output for a large build may cause the log to exceed 4 MB, which causes Travis CI to terminate the job.

• Verbose script output - See set_script_verbosity documentation in the Usage section.
• Verbose output during compilation - See set_verbose_output_during_compilation documentation in the Usage section.
• Verbose output for Travis CI - Add one or both of the following lines to your .travis.yml file to get more details of the Travis CI build process.
  • Print shell input lines as they are read:
    • - set -o verbose
  • Print a trace of simple commands, for commands, case commands, select commands, and arithmetic for commands and their arguments or associated word lists after they are expanded and before they are executed. The value of the PS4 variable is expanded and the resultant value is printed before the command and its expanded arguments.
    • - set -o xtrace

Problematic IDE versions

Some older versions of the Arduino IDE have bugs or limitations that may cause problems if used with this script:

• 1.5.1 and older - The command line interface was added in 1.5.2, thus no version older than that can be used.
• 1.5.4 and older - Do not support board-specific parameters, set by custom Tools menu items.
• 1.5.5 and older - Do not support setting preferences (--pref), thus set_sketchbook_folder can not be used if no newer IDE version has been installed.
• 1.5.5-r2 and older - Don't recognize libraries that have a library.propertiesfile that doesn't define acore-dependencies` property. The file include is successful but compilation of sketches that use the library functions will fail.
• 1.5.6 and older - - or . are not allowed in sketch or library folder names. If any are present the Arduino IDE will hang indefinitely when it's executed.
• 1.6.2 - Moves its hardware packages to the .arduino15 folder, causing all other IDE versions to use those cores, some of which are not compatible. For this reason 1.6.2 is not installed when a version range containing, but not starting or ending in, 1.6.2 is passed to install_ide. 1.6.2 is installed if it is explicitly specified in a version list.
• 1.6.3 and older - Do not support installing boards (--install-boards), thus install_package can't be used if no newer IDE version has been installed.

Contributing

Pull requests or issue reports are welcome! Please see the contribution rules for instructions.