Latest releases : some binaries missing?

[georgep]

Hi!
I've not seen anything mentioning this but recent releases seem to include far fewer binary files (see below - I keep 'sets' of binary files in separate directories).
Is there a reason why a number of the earlier pre-built binaries seem to have "disappeared"??

Code: Select all

george@geo-laptop:~/esp$ ls 20190823/ | wc -l
40
george@geo-laptop:~/esp$ ls 20190827/ | wc -l
41
george@geo-laptop:~/esp$ ls 20190830/ | wc -l
39
george@geo-laptop:~/esp$ ls 20190903/ | wc -l
27
george@geo-laptop:~/esp$ ls 20190925/ | wc -l
24

Thanks!
George

[TD-er]

Yep, there is a check in the build script to see if the resulting binary will fit on the flash.
If they will not fit, they are not included in the ZIP file.

I think it is useful to also maintain a txt log file to list which ones are included (and their size) and which are not.

But the main issue, we're running out of space for the binaries and will have to make new plugin arrangements to reduce the size of the binaries.

The core libraries are also increasing in size, so it is even more challenging for 1 MB units to have the full firmware with all features running.

[georgep]

The core libraries are also increasing in size, so it is even more challenging for 1 MB units to have the full firmware with all features running.

Ah OK - I understand, but aren't some of the missing builds for 4MB units?
I was testing the latest core/sdk builds on 4M hardware and unless I'm wrong (I'm not at home now to check) they have also disappeared.

[TD-er]

Sure, but also the "dev" and "test" builds are very close to the max sketch size.
That's a little under 1 MB in size. So regardless the flash size, on an ESP8266 a sketch cannot exceed 1044464 bytes.
For an 1MB flash module, the max. is 892912 bytes (120 kB SPIFFS)
For 1MB Minimal OTA is the max. 616448 Bytes.
For ESP32, I have defined the partition layout myself, so the max sketch size is then 1900544 bytes. (which we are also approaching, core libs for ESP32 are a lot bigger than for ESP8266)

[georgep]

Sure, but also the "dev" and "test" builds are very close to the max sketch size.
That's a little under 1 MB in size. So regardless the flash size, on an ESP8266 a sketch cannot exceed 1044464 bytes.

Thanks @TD-er for the detailed explanation.

So the way forward is ..???

• I can see the desire to continue to develop more functionality - lots of people need lots of different transducers, sensors, outputs etc., so 'ditching' a lot of device plugins simply to make the code fit will not be popular and it also stifles ongoing development.

• The need to make the core functionality stable is fundamental. If current users with an active interest in the project cannot test the latest code developments because sketches with the latest fixes (and plugins they don't need) won't fit onto the hardware, then they will (a) move to something like Tasmota; (b) write their own ESP8266 code in Arduino IDE; (c) Compile EasyESP themselves; (d) ???

• Sonoff-Tasmota addresses these issues by offering different binaries focussed on selected plugins (basic, classic, sensors, display, minimal...) plus different WiFi configuration options. See https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/releases for details

• I can't think of more right now!

I really like EasyESP (although I do also use tasmota) and I'd be happy to devote some of my free time (such as it is) to helping.

This clearly isn't the best place for further lengthy discussion on this topic so please feel free to copy/move this post and/or redirect me elsewhere

George

[TD-er]

I did find a bug in my deploy script, which did leave out (almost) all builds with "4M1M" in the name.
So that will be fixed for the next build.

Still, we're running out of space for the binary, so I will disable some features and/or define new build sets.
See also: https://github.com/letscontrolit/ESPEasy/issues/2590