configuring the compile command string.

[Littlechay]

I've just discovered textadept and like what I see. I'm try to configure it for a bit of C development for microcontrollers.

My compile command as used in Geany etc.. is:
cd build && rm -rf * && cmake ..

my build command is:
cd build && make

and then I want to configure a run command like:
sudo -S openocd -f interface/cmsis-dap.cfg -f target/rp2040.cfg -c "adapter speed 5000" -c "program %d/build/%e.elf verify reset exit

However I have fallen at the first hurdle :)

I attempted to configure the compile command in init.lua like this:
textadept.run.compile_commands.c = 'cd build && rm -rf * && cmake ..'

The command appears when I select compile from the menu but when I hit ENTER to run it I get an error that cd failed to run no such file or directory. The output buffer looks like this, the paths are all good:

> cd /home/christopher/picoDev/isquaredc
> cd build && rm -rf * && cmake ..
/home/christopher/textadept/modules/textadept/run.lua:150: cd build && rm -rf * && cmake ..: Failed to execute child process “cd” (No such file or directory)

I know SFA about lua but am keen to learn .. Any suggestions on how to set this up more than welcome.

OH... OS is Debian 12

Cheers
Chris

[orbitalquark]

Textadept's compile/run/build/test/project commands are not run directly in a shell like bash. Instead, they are treated as executables with arguments and invoked directly. For your first case, you'd either create a shell script and have Textadept invoke that, or you'd simply run cmake and accept the incremental build result.

For your second case, make -C build will work.

I'm unsure about your third use case. That trailing exit looks problematic, but I don't know if that's an argument or a shell command. When it comes to interactive prompts, Textadept sends the entire line to the process, so you'd also want to pass -p '' or --prompt '' to sudo, and then enter your password. Keep in mind Textadept will not mask any passwords if a command is waiting for input.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

[Littlechay]

OK; so I got my third case above (send the file to the programmer) working by using textadept to run a bash script. My script is like this:

#!/usr/bin/bash
echo [password] | sudo -S openocd -f interface/cmsis-dap.cfg -f target/rp2040.cfg -c "adapter speed 5000" -c "program $1/build/$2.elf verify reset exit"

And using this in the init.lua to call the script with the run command.
textadept.run.run_commands.c = '%d/picotool.sh %d %e'

I'm still stuck on the build command though. I must have screwed up something fundamental or am missing a really basic step as selecting build from the tools menu or Ctrl+shift+B appears to do absolutely nothing... in other words no command appears above the status bar (not even an empty command bar), nothing in the output buffer.

Any pointers on troubleshooting this please?

Solve this build issue and I have a fully functioning raspberry pi pico microcontroller IDE that is beautifully lightweight, slick and elegant.. IMNSHO :)

[orbitalquark]

textadept.run.build_commands is a table of project directories assigned to build commands. (You cannot assign a bare string like you did.) The project directories must be under version control (or at least have a top-level .git/, .hg/, etc. directory). Whenever you run Tools > Build, Textadept looks at the current file, finds its project, and then invokes that project's build command.

Normally, if your Makefile is in the project root, then you don't have to do anything and Textadept will simply invoke that. However, since yours is in build/, you need to set textadept.run.build_commands['/path/to/project/root'] = 'make -C build'.

[Littlechay]

The project directories must be under version control (or at least have a top-level .git/, .hg/, etc. directory). Whenever you run Tools > Build, Textadept looks at the current file, finds its project, and then invokes that project's build command.

This is a new concept for me, needing a project directory with specific naming conventions... Can you give me an example of the structure that textadept would be satisfied with? Currently the build command doesn't trigger even if I set the '/path/to/project/root' e.g. '%d/build' .

[orbitalquark]

Let's suppose you have a project at /home/me/projects/myproject. In order for Textadept to recognize it as a project, there needs to be a version control folder in the root directory of that project. You have a couple of options:

1. If you have Git or Mercurial installed, you can open a terminal and run git init or hg init from the myproject directory.
2. You can create an empty .git or .hg directory in the myproject directory. Note that this is a "hidden" folder and may not be visible by default in your file browser or terminal. You can use a file browser or terminal to do this.

Since your Makefile is in /home/me/projects/myproject/build, you'd tell Textadept about it like this:

textadept.run.build_commands['/home/me/projects/myproject'] = 'make -C build'

Note that the '%' macros for compile and run commands do not work for build, test, or project commands.

[Littlechay]

Awesome, thanks, that the was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. I'll write this up and share it later in case anybody else is following my path :)