esptool complement not loading correctly (ESPTOOL-1024)

[Tinyu-Zhao]

Operating System

macOS 14.7.4

Esptool Version

4.8.1

Python Version

3.13.2

Full Esptool Command Line that Was Run

esptool.py xxxxxxx

Esptool Output

What is the Expected Behaviour?

No response

More Information

The esptool I installed via brew install esptool prompts me when I press tab after entering any parameter or part of a parameter.

However, after importing the idf environment by executing the following command, the autocomplete feature of esptool disappears when I press tab after typing any parameter or part of a parameter.
$HOME/Developer/Code/uiflow_micropython/esp-idf/export.sh.
or
. $HOME/Developer/esp/master/esp-idf/export.sh.

But any other command will work fine, for example, just type ls /dev/cu. and press tab and the serial port will show up.

I tried uninstalling the local global esptool by brew uninstall esptool and restarting the terminal, then importing the idf environment, the esptool is patched, why is that, the esptool versions are all the same!

Other Steps to Reproduce

No response

[github-actions]

Hi @Tinyu-Zhao! Please be aware that (1) the following suggestions are generated by a bot and haven't been fact-checked by Espressif Systems, (2) burning eFuses and enabling security features are irreversible operations and can damage your ESP32 device. We hope that this message will help you until an Espressif Engineer looks at your issue.

---

Based on the information provided in the GitHub issue, I can offer some insights and suggestions regarding the esptool autocompletion problem. This issue seems to be related to shell completions for esptool.py after sourcing the ESP-IDF environment.

The esptool documentation provides information on how to set up shell completions for different shells. According to the Installation and Dependencies page, there are specific steps to activate autocompletion for esptool.py, espsecure.py, and espefuse.py.

For Bash (assuming the user is using Bash), the recommended command is:

eval "$(_ESPTOOL_PY_COMPLETE=bash_source esptool.py espsecure.py espefuse.py)"

or for newer versions:

eval "$(register-python-argcomplete esptool.py espsecure.py espefuse.py)"

It's possible that when sourcing the ESP-IDF environment script, it's modifying the PATH or other environment variables in a way that affects the autocompletion setup.

Here are some suggestions for the user:

1. Check if the autocompletion command is present in their shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile).

2. After sourcing the ESP-IDF environment, try running the autocompletion command again manually to see if it restores the functionality.

3. Investigate if there are any conflicts between the Homebrew-installed esptool and the one provided by ESP-IDF. They might want to use the ESP-IDF version exclusively when working with ESP-IDF projects.

4. Ensure that the Python environment is consistent before and after sourcing the ESP-IDF environment. The change in behavior might be due to switching Python versions.

5. Check if the issue persists with a newer version of ESP-IDF, as it might have been addressed in recent updates.

If these steps don't resolve the issue, the user might want to file a bug report with the ESP-IDF repository, as this seems to be specifically related to the interaction between ESP-IDF's environment setup and esptool's autocompletion.

ESP-IDF Development Tools Guide mentions that idf.py uses esptool.py for various commands, so it's important that the tooling works correctly within the ESP-IDF environment.

[peterdragun]

Hi @Tinyu-Zhao, please note that we are not maintaining the package from brew, if you have any issues with that I would recommend opening the issue in the brew repository: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core.

Even if the package installed by brew and one from ESP-IDF are the same version they may not work correctly as they are installed using two different package managers in two different locations. I would suggest using the esptool within your esp-idf environment to avoid this clashing or if you want to install it globally use pip, as suggested by our documentation: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/esp32/installation.html#global-installation

[Tinyu-Zhao]

Hi @Tinyu-Zhao, please note that we are not maintaining the package from brew, if you have any issues with that I would recommend opening the issue in the brew repository: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core.

Even if the package installed by brew and one from ESP-IDF are the same version they may not work correctly as they are installed using two different package managers in two different locations. I would suggest using the esptool within your esp-idf environment to avoid this clashing or if you want to install it globally use pip, as suggested by our documentation: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/esp32/installation.html#global-installation

Thanks for your help.