I know the ide has a file system upload command but I can’t find a corresponding download. Sometimes my script will create files and I’d like to view or download the file system contents for debugging. Is this possible?
If not, does anyone have script code that can display the file sytem using serial out?
A conversation about that already occurred in ESP8266FS- file uploader for ESP (a hint to the GitHub - kash4kev/vscode-esp8266fs: Visual Studio Code extension for ESP8266/ESP32 File System (SPIFFS) tool)
Are you using the SPIFFS or LittleFS filesystem?
LittleFS
****************** line to oveerride stupid 20 char rule in this forum
I see. Well it should be fairly easy to write an extra_script for it that takes the information of where the filesystem would be uploaded to and then use esptool.py to download that memory region and mklittlefs (or mkspiffs) to unpack it. This can then also be proposed as a direct extension to the platform-espressif8266 (or espressif32 for that matter) platform so that it’s directly a built-in “platform task”.
I’ll have a look at that.
I’ve created an extractor plugin script at GitHub - maxgerhardt/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader: Script for expanding PlatformIO's ability to download LittleFS and SPIFF filesystems from ESP32 and ESP8266 chips and their contents. I’ve tested with ESP8266 (SPIFFS + LitteFS) and ESP32 (SPIFFS) and it works in all tested cases. Downloads the memory content from the chip and extracts / decodes the filesystem content.
Can you give that a test?
@monsterthews @maxromanovsky for your interest.
FYI I’ve opened Add project task to download configured filesystem from MCU again · Issue #238 · platformio/platform-espressif8266 · GitHub and Add project task to download configured filesystem from MCU again · Issue #460 · platformio/platform-espressif32 · GitHub so that this might some day be included directly in the platform code.
@maxgerhardt Thank you for your plugin script. I’ve tried it on macOS & pio 5.0.4 (which embeds Python 3.9.1).
It doesn’t work due to the fact that subprocess.call expects a list instead of string.
pio run -t downloadfs -v
[...]
command_download_fs(["downloadfs"], [])
Entrypoint
Retrieving filesystem info for ESP8266.
FS_START: 0x300000
FS_END: 0x3fa000
FS_PAGE: 0x100
FS_BLOCK: 0x2000
Recognized LittleFS filesystem.
Parsed FS info: FS type FSType.LITTLEFS Start 0x300000 Len 1024000 Page size 256 Block size 8192 Tool: /Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-mklittlefs/mklittlefs
Executing flash download command.
"/usr/local/Cellar/platformio/5.0.4/libexec/bin/python" "/Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-esptoolpy/esptool.py" --chip esp8266 --port "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART" --baud 115200 --before default_reset --after hard_reset read_flash 0x300000 0xfa000 "/Users/max/Documents/projects/foo/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin"
scons: *** [downloadfs] "/usr/local/Cellar/platformio/5.0.4/libexec/bin/python" "/Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-esptoolpy/esptool.py" --chip esp8266 --port "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART" --baud 115200 --before default_reset --after hard_reset read_flash 0x300000 0xfa000 "/Users/max/Documents/projects/foo/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin": No such file or directory
I’ve fixed in in my fork (just for esp8266 & littlefs): Refactored from string to list · maxromanovsky/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader@c9d85ed · GitHub
However, even after that fix extraction fails
Read 1024000 bytes at 0x300000 in 92.4 seconds (88.7 kbit/s)...
Hard resetting via RTS pin...
Downloaded filesystem binary.
Download was okay: True. File at: /Users/max/Documents/projects/foo/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin
Executing extraction command: ['/Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-mklittlefs/mklittlefs', '-b', '8192', '-p', '256', '--unpack', 'unpacked_fs', '/Users/max/Documents/projects/foo/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin']
Assertion failed: (block < lfs->cfg->block_count), function lfs_bd_read, file littlefs/lfs.c, line 84.
I’ve opened the file with hex editor and saw that there were leading bytes before magic string littlefs: 01 00 00 00 F0 0F FF F7. I’ve tried removing it, and mklittlefs now fails with the other error:
lfs error:969: Corrupted dir pair at 0 1
Assertion failed: (block != 0xffffffff), function lfs_bd_read, file littlefs/lfs.c, line 41.
Anyway, I am able to see the contents of littlefs in the hex editor.
Thank you, and have a great New Year!
Okay path escaping for other OSes needs some more work in this script then, I’ve tested in on Windows. (Or if you’ve rewritten it to a list, I guess that automatically takes care of it).
What’s the full platformio.ini you’re working with? Is it the from my original repository? And the firmware has executed succesfully on the chip and placed the file in the LittleFS, according to the serial output?
I will. This is something a lot of people clamor for.
You see it on Facebook.
@maxgerhardt I’ve tried it previously on my own project by adding extra_scripts = download_fs.py as described in GitHub - maxgerhardt/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader: Script for expanding PlatformIO's ability to download LittleFS and SPIFF filesystems from ESP32 and ESP8266 chips and their contents
Gave it a try today using your project (default_envs = esp8266_littlefs, with upload_speed = 400000 commented out), still received the same error:
pio run -t downloadfs -v
Processing esp8266_littlefs (platform: espressif8266; board: nodemcuv2; framework: arduino; monitor_speed: 74880; board_build.filesystem: littlefs; build_flags: -D DO_LITTLEFS; extra_scripts: download_fs.py; custom_unpack_dir: unpacked_esp8266_littlefs)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIGURATION: https://docs.platformio.org/page/boards/espressif8266/nodemcuv2.html
PLATFORM: Espressif 8266 (2.6.2) > NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module)
HARDWARE: ESP8266 80MHz, 80KB RAM, 4MB Flash
PACKAGES:
- framework-arduinoespressif8266 3.20704.0 (2.7.4)
- tool-esptool 1.413.0 (4.13)
- tool-esptoolpy 1.20800.0 (2.8.0)
- toolchain-xtensa 2.40802.200502 (4.8.2)
LDF: Library Dependency Finder -> http://bit.ly/configure-pio-ldf
LDF Modes: Finder ~ chain, Compatibility ~ soft
Found 29 compatible libraries
Scanning dependencies...
Dependency Graph
|-- <LittleFS(esp8266)> 0.1.0 (/Users/max/.platformio/packages/framework-arduinoespressif8266/libraries/LittleFS)
Building in release mode
Auto-detected: /dev/cu.usbserial-0001
command_download_fs(["downloadfs"], [])
Entrypoint
Retrieving filesystem info for ESP8266.
FS_START: 0x300000
FS_END: 0x3fa000
FS_PAGE: 0x100
FS_BLOCK: 0x2000
Recognized LittleFS filesystem.
Parsed FS info: FS type FSType.LITTLEFS Start 0x300000 Len 1024000 Page size 256 Block size 8192 Tool: /Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-mklittlefs/mklittlefs
Executing flash download command.
['/usr/local/Cellar/platformio/5.0.4/libexec/bin/python', '/Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-esptoolpy/esptool.py', '--chip', 'esp8266', '--port', '/dev/cu.usbserial-0001', '--baud', '115200', '--before', 'default_reset', '--after', 'hard_reset', 'read_flash', '0x300000', '0xfa000', '/Users/max/Downloads/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin']
esptool.py v2.8
Serial port /dev/cu.usbserial-0001
Connecting....
Chip is ESP8266EX
Features: WiFi
Crystal is 26MHz
MAC: a0:20:a6:08:08:96
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
1024000 (100 %)
1024000 (100 %)
Read 1024000 bytes at 0x300000 in 92.2 seconds (88.9 kbit/s)...
Hard resetting via RTS pin...
Downloaded filesystem binary.
Download was okay: True. File at: /Users/max/Downloads/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin
Executing extraction command: ['/Users/max/.platformio/packages/tool-mklittlefs/mklittlefs', '-b', '8192', '-p', '256', '--unpack', 'unpacked_esp8266_littlefs', '/Users/max/Downloads/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin']
Assertion failed: (block < lfs->cfg->block_count), function lfs_bd_read, file littlefs/lfs.c, line 84.
Unpacked filesystem.
Extracted 0 file(s) from filesystem.
===================================================================== [SUCCESS] Took 94.55 seconds =====================================================================
Environment Status Duration
---------------- -------- ------------
esp8266_spiffs IGNORED
esp8266_littlefs SUCCESS 00:01:34.551
esp32dev IGNORED
====================================================================== 1 succeeded in 00:01:34.551 ======================================================================
Can you erase the flash the same way I did? esptool.py erase_flash.
That’s really strange. Can you upload the extracted /Users/max/Downloads/pio-esp32-esp8266-filesystem-downloader/downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin file?
Maybe there really is a mismatch between the configured block count of the downloaded filesystem versus what’s passed into mklittlefs and we think is used.
@maxgerhardt Just tried, but without any luck. Still the same error. And again, tried removing 8 bytes before littlefs magic string and got the same error.
LittleFS reads the file just fine from the firmware.
This is quite old a thread, but I am exactly at the point @maxromanovsky was: I need to download the LittleFS file system contents.
@maxgerhardt Has there been any progress since? I still did not see a “download file system” entry in the PlatformIO menus…
And that is although you downloaded the download_fs.py from the linked repo above, put it in your project folder, and added it to your extra_scripts with
extra_scripts = download_fs.py
in the platformio.ini? This is not some built-in stuff.
Silly me… It is in the “Custom” folder of course. Sorry to bother you 
I seem to have a problem, though. Shall I move over to your Github repo or is it okay to handle it here?
Assertion failed!
Program: C:\Users\Micha\.platformio\packages\tool-mklittlefs\mklittlefs.exe
File: littlefs/lfs.c, Line 84
Expression: block < lfs->cfg->block_count
Sure, you can open an issue at the repo. Make sure to include the platformio.ini of your original project and possible custom partition tables for verification.
Right, I will do as you are suggesting. I doubt it really is an issue, but rather my own fault again, but anyway… 
Hi
I seem to have the same problem. The script runs, a correct size .bin file is created, but this happens -
1024000 (100 %)
Read 1024000 bytes at 0x300000 in 41.7 seconds (196.3 kbit/s)…
Hard resetting via RTS pin…
Downloaded filesystem binary.
Download was okay: True. File at: C:!development!platformio!PROJECTS\ESP8266\DEVICES\downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin
Executing extraction command: “C:\Users\graha.platformio\packages\tool-mklittlefs\mklittlefs” -b 8192 -p 256 --unpack “unpacked_fs” “C:!development!platformio!PROJECTS\ESP8266\DEVICES\downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin”
Assertion failed!
Program: C:\Users\graha.platformio\packages\tool-mklittlefs\mklittlefs.exe
File: littlefs/lfs.c, Line 84
Expression: block < lfs->cfg->block_count
Unpacked filesystem.
Extracted 0 file(s) from filesystem.
If I look at .bin it does seem to have correct content. The project works - I guess the (web page) files must be present, correct, and readable by LFS.
Windows 10
PlatformIO 6.1.5 is currently the newest version available.
The pathlength is not too long – .“C:!development\DEVICES\downloaded_fs_0x300000_0xfa000.bin”
[env:nodemcuv2]
platform = espressif8266
board = nodemcuv2
board_build.ldscript = eagle.flash.4m1m.ld
board_build.filesystem = littlefs
extra_scripts = download_fs.py
I have looked at the github but I cannot see anything. I can’t see the test firmware either - probably not looking at the right place!
That was tracked in Cannot correctly unpack fileimage · Issue #29 · earlephilhower/mklittlefs · GitHub, however I didn’t put further energy in it to debug it.