variants/linux: meshcorectl, a dependency-free client for the console - #11
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meshcorectl, a dependency-free client for the console#11mmmorks wants to merge 1 commit into
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meshcore-cli's repeater mode covers interactive use of the console well. What it does not cover is scripting: its one-shot form exits 0 whatever the daemon answered, waits a fixed 0.3 s and reads once, and has no way to take commands from stdin -- so a deploy script cannot tell "set freq" from "ERR: bad value" or from a daemon that never read the line. It is also a pipx install that pulls in the BLE stack, on a host that may be a Pi Zero with nothing but python3. meshcorectl is one file on the Python standard library: a readline REPL with history and Tab completion of the real command set (the tables are checked against the dispatch literals in CommonCLI.cpp and MyMesh.cpp), a one-shot form, and a piped form, exiting 0 only if every command was actually run by the daemon. The echo is the proof: the daemon echoes a command byte by byte as it consumes it and only then replies, so text that starts with the echo is a reply and anything else is the reason nothing ran. That makes `reboot` count as run, and a later command in the same script, finding the console hung up, fail with a message that says why. It resolves the console the same way the daemon publishes it (/run/meshcored/console, then $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/meshcore/console, then /tmp/meshcore-<uid>/console); -s PATH or MESHCORED_CONSOLE overrides. Exercised against a stand-in console (a Python PTY driven like the firmware loop) on macOS and Linux: one-shot, piped, --help, a missing path, a non-console path, a command with no reply text, and a piped script that continues past reboot. Reported no-reply is no longer asserted as "never read": a stall means the echo has not come back yet, and the daemon may still run the command. The four commands that take the console down (reboot, clkreboot, poweroff, shutdown) are the exception in the other direction -- closing the master vhangups the slave and flushes its input queue, so their echo can be lost even though the command ran, and a hangup right after writing one is success rather than failure. Each command flushes the console's input queue before writing and locates its echo anywhere in the reply rather than requiring it at the front, so a reply that arrives after the previous command's idle gap (erase, start ota) cannot be misread as this command's or reported against the wrong line. An interrupt exits 130 instead of printing a traceback, and the console descriptor is closed on every path. Two table corrections: radio.fem.rxgain is not a `set` key (fem_rxgain is a serializer key only, and CommonRadioPrefs dispatches just radio.rxgain), and extra.sf is readable but not writable outside USE_LR2021, so it belongs in the get-only pool.
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Summary
A client for the PTY console, for the cases
meshcore-cli -rdoes not cover. Its repeater mode is fine interactively, but in one-shot form it exits0whatever the daemon answered, waits a fixed 0.3 s and reads once, and cannot take commands from stdin, so a deploy script cannot tellset freq 868fromERR: bad valueor from a daemon that never read the line. It is also apipxinstall that pulls in the BLE stack, on a host that may be a Pi Zero with nothing butpython3.meshcorectlis one file on the standard library:~/.meshcorectl_history, and Tab completion of the real command set (tables checked against the dispatch literals inCommonCLI.cppandMyMesh.cpp;getandsethave separate key pools).meshcorectl set name foo) and piped (printf 'ver\nneighbors\n' | meshcorectl) forms.0only if every command was actually run by the daemon. The echo is the proof: the daemon echoes a command byte by byte as it consumes it and only then replies, sorebootcounts as run, and a later command in the same script that finds the console hung up fails with a message saying why./run/meshcored/console, then$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/meshcore/console, then/tmp/meshcore-<uid>/console);-s PATHorMESHCORED_CONSOLEoverrides.Its docstring records the firmware behaviours it cannot fix (
clock syncneeds a sender timestamp the console passes as 0;region loadis multi-line).What changed
variants/linux/meshcorectl: the client.meshcoredin §1; §5 shows it next tomeshcore-cli;## The control CLIgains the three ways to drive it and the exit-code contract.How it was tested
Exercised against a stand-in console (a Python PTY driven like the firmware loop) on macOS and in the arm64 container: one-shot, piped,
--help, a missing path, a non-console path, a command with no reply text, and a piped script that continues pastreboot(exit 1 with the reason). Not yet run against a real node.Dependencies
Stacked on the PTY console hardening PR (
pr/05-pty-console). Review the last commit only. Optional: the console works withmeshcore-cliwithout this.Shared code touched
None.