Arduino-cli: `core install` fails when a core archive doesn't have a single base folder

[dandee]

Bug Report

Current behavior

Attempt to install a new board fails:

> arduino-cli core install arduino:stm32f4
Tool arduino:[email protected] already installed
Downloading packages...
arduino:[email protected] already downloaded
arduino:[email protected] already downloaded
arduino:[email protected] already downloaded
Installing arduino:[email protected]...
arduino:[email protected] installed
Installing arduino:[email protected]...
arduino:[email protected] installed
Installing arduino:[email protected]...
Error: searching package root dir: no unique root dir in archive, found '/Users/mooncake/Library/Arduino15/tmp/package-683071466/cores' and '/Users/mooncake/Library/Arduino15/tmp/package-683071466/drivers'
Error during install

Expected behavior

Board to be successfully installed.

Environment

• CLI version (output of arduino-cli version): arduino-cli Version: 0.4.0 Commit: =98b7be9
• Go version (if building from sources): N/A
• OS version: macOS Mojave 10.14.6 (18G84)

Additional context

/Users/mooncake/Library/Arduino15 is a symbolic link to a directory on another disk (volume?)

[dandee]

List of boards before core install:

>arduino-cli core list
ID              Installed Latest Name
arduino:megaavr 1.8.3     1.8.3  Arduino megaAVR Boards
arduino:sam     1.6.12    1.6.12 Arduino SAM Boards (32-bits ARM Cortex-M3)

when core install failed I've had launched Arduino.app and installed "stm32f4" board through app's GUI, then quit the app. After that core list has given me this (with the same symlink in place as before):

>arduino-cli core list
ID              Installed Latest Name
arduino:megaavr 1.8.3     1.8.3  Arduino megaAVR Boards
arduino:sam     1.6.12    1.6.12 Arduino SAM Boards (32-bits ARM Cortex-M3)
arduino:stm32f4 1.0.1     1.0.1  Arduino STM32F4 Boards

[masci]

This is the same as https://github.com/arduino/arduino-cli/issues/153

The problem is in the package layout; while the IDE performs some logic to address common problems like this one, the CLI hasn't anything like that. The fix should primarily consist in fixing the package but we're discussing internally whether we should do or not in the CLI what the IDE does. I personally think we shouldn't start adding exceptions or it'll be hard to draw a line when they'll become too many.

Thoughts and feedback welcome.

[dandee]

Oh, I didn't know it was a particular package problem, I assumed it's the tool's issue. I agree with you in such a case that adding an exception to the tool is not the best approach.

[facchinm]

Hi @dandee ,
which board were you trying to target by installing arduino:stm32f4 core?

That core only contains StarOtto board from Arduino.org (which was never released AFAIK) so we just decided to remove it to avoid further confusion.

In case you need a generic package for STM32, the community core is much much better

[dandee]

Hi @facchinm ,

I've got a couple of NUCLEO-F411RE boards from STM to play with. Is the suggested package would work with it?

[facchinm]

Yes, it's supported by the community package

[dandee]

Great! Thanks for letting me know!

[facchinm]

I'm closing the issue as wontfix since the behaviour is expected (and conforms with all the documentation we have).