How To Install and Make Use Of Arduino-CLI¶
Arduino CLI is an All-in-One solution for managing libraries and boards, building and uploading sketches and many other tools. It can be used for all boards and platforms compatible with Arduino. It enables you to control them via the command line.
Arduino CLI is not only a stand-alone tool, but also the heart of all official Arduino development software (Arduino IDE, Arduino Web Editor).
Installation of the Arduino-CLI on macOS¶
On macOS it‘s most convenient to make use of HomeBrew to install the Arduino-CLI:
brew update
brew install arduino-cli
Validating the installation¶
To check the installation you can let arduino-cli print its version number in the terminal:
arduino-cli version arduino-cli Version: 0.34.2 Commit: 963c1a76 Datum: 2023-09-11T09:50:44Z
arduino-cli help core
Arduino-Kern-Operationen.
Usage:
arduino-cli core [command]
Beispiele:
arduino-cli core update-index
...
The Arduino CLI consists of a single executable file. By default, the Arduino CLI uses three directories for its functionalities.
data - for storing all configurations and platform files downloads - for downloading installation packages, libraries, etc. user - where the libraries and sketches are stored
The paths to these directories are determined by:
arduino-cli config dump board_manager:
additional_urls: []
build_cache:
compilations_before_purge: 10
ttl: 720h0m0s
daemon:
port: "50051"
directories:
data: /Users/<user>/Library/Arduino15
downloads: /Users/<user>/Library/Arduino15/staging
user: /Users/<user>/Documents/Arduino
library:
enable_unsafe_install: false
logging:
file: ""
format: text
level: info
metrics:
addr: :9090
enabled: true
output:
no_color: false
sketch:
always_export_binaries: false
updater:
enable_notification: true
The data folder is the same as the Arduino IDE folder where all your platforms and configurations are stored. This path should not be changed. The download directory can also be retained. However, the user directory may need to be changed if you want to use already installed libraries and created sketches. To do this, a configuration file must be created specifically for the Arduino CLI. This can be done with the following command:
arduino-cli config init
This simply creates a new YAML file in the data directory. This file has the same content as when you execute the config dump command. You can then open the file in a text editor and change the user directory to the existing sketches directory and save it.
In my case this folder is set tof: ~/Development/personal/arduino/Sketches.
To test whether the configuration works, simply try to list the installed libraries with the following command:
arduino-cli lib list Name Installiert Verfügbar Ort Beschreibung
Arduino_TensorFlowLite 2.4.0-ALPHA - LIBRARY_LOCATION_USER -
ezTime 0.8.3 - LIBRARY_LOCATION_USER. -
M5ez 2.3.0 - LIBRARY_LOCATION_USER -
M5Stack 0.4.6 - LIBRARY_LOCATION_USER. -
Building a sketch¶
The target board must be known in order to translate a sketch. The Fully Qualified Board Name (FQBN) is decisive. The following command is used to determine the FQBN of a board connected via USB:
arduino-cli board list Port Protokoll Typ Platinenname FQBN Kern
/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port serial Serial Port Unbekannt
/dev/cu.usbmodem2101 serial Serial Port (USB) Arduino Nano 33 BLE arduino:mbed:nano33ble arduino:mbed
Serial Port (USB) Arduino Nano 33 BLE arduino:mbed_nano:nano33ble arduino:mbed_nano
In this example an Arduino Nano 33 BLE is connected via USB.
The compile command gets called from the parent directory using the specification of:
- FQBN of the target board
- Name of the sketch
arduino-cli compile --fqbn arduino:mbed:nano33ble Blink
Der Sketch verwendet 84280 Bytes (8%) des Programmspeicherplatzes. Das Maximum sind 983040 Bytes.
Globale Variablen verwenden 43968 Bytes (16%) des dynamischen Speichers, 218176 Bytes für lokale Variablen verbleiben. Das Maximum sind 262144 Bytes.
Used platform Version Pfad
arduino:mbed 3.3.0 /Users/<user>/Library/Arduino15/packages/arduino/hardware/mbed/3.3.0