Installation¶
Note
Please note that you do not need to install PlatformIO Core (CLI) if you are going to use PlatformIO IDE. PlatformIO Core (CLI) is built into PlatformIO IDE and you will be able to use it within PlatformIO IDE Terminal.
If you need PlatformIO Core (CLI) outside PlatformIO IDE, please Install Shell Commands.
PlatformIO Core is written in Python and works on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD and ARM-based credit-card sized computers (Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, CubieBoard, Samsung ARTIK, etc.).
System requirements¶
Operating System: | |
---|---|
Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Linux ARMv6+ |
|
Python Interpreter: | |
Python 2.7 or Python 3.5+. See detailed instruction how to Install Python Interpreter for Windows. |
|
Terminal Application: | |
All commands below should be executed in
Command-line
application (Terminal). For macOS and Linux OS - Terminal application,
for Windows OS – |
|
Access to Serial Ports (USB/UART): | |
Windows Users: Please check that you have correctly installed USB driver from board manufacturer Linux Users:
|
Installation Methods¶
Please choose ONE of the following methods:
Python Package Manager¶
The latest stable version of PlatformIO may be installed or upgraded via Python Package Manager (pip) as follows:
pip install -U platformio
If pip
command is not available run easy_install pip
or use
Installer Script which will install pip
and
platformio
automatically.
Note that you may run into permissions issues running these commands. You have a few options here:
- Run with
sudo
to install PlatformIO and dependencies globally - Specify the pip install –user option to install local to your user
- Run the command in a virtualenv local to a specific project working set.
Installer Script¶
Super-Quick (Mac / Linux)¶
To install or upgrade PlatformIO paste that at a Terminal prompt
(MAY require administrator access sudo
):
python -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio/develop/scripts/get-platformio.py)"
Local Download (Mac / Linux / Windows)¶
To install or upgrade PlatformIO, download (save as…)
get-platformio.py
script. Then run the following (MAY require administrator access sudo
):
# change directory to folder where is located downloaded "get-platformio.py"
cd /path/to/dir/where/is/located/get-platformio.py/script
# run it
python get-platformio.py
On Windows OS it may look like:
# change directory to folder where is located downloaded "get-platformio.py"
cd C:\path\to\dir\where\is\located\get-platformio.py\script
# run it
C:\Python27\python.exe get-platformio.py
macOS Homebrew¶
The latest stable version of PlatformIO may be installed or upgraded via macOS Homebrew Packages Manager (brew) as follows:
brew install platformio
Full Guide¶
- Check a
python
version:
python --version
If Python is not installed (command not found), please Install Python Interpreter.
- Install a
platformio
and related packages:
pip install -U platformio
If your computer does not recognize pip
command, try to install it first
using these instructions.
For upgrading platformio
to the latest version:
pip install -U platformio
Or:
pio upgrade
Virtual Environment¶
PlatformIO Core may be installed into isolated Python environment. This method is very good if you don’t want to install PlatformIO Core Python’s dependencies (packages) into your global system scope. PlatformIO IDE uses this method to install PlatformIO Core.
Default and recommended environment folder is “core_dir/penv”. You can print environment folder path using the next command in your system terminal:
python -c "import os; print(os.path.join(os.getenv('PLATFORMIO_CORE_DIR', os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), '.platformio')), 'penv'))"
######################## Examples
# Windows
# C:\Users\UserName\.platformio\penv
# Linux
# ~/.platformio/penv
# /home/username/.platformio/penv
# macOS
# ~/.platformio/penv
# /Users/username/.platformio/penv
Prerequisites¶
Please remove existing PlatformIO Core environment folder if exists. See above command how to get path to environment folder.
Please check that you have a valid Python interpreter running a next command in system terminal. Python 2.7.9+ or Python 3.5+ is recommended.
python --version # or, for Unix (Linux, Mac), you can use `python2` or `python3` aliases python2 --version python3 --version
Warning
Windows Users: If you already tried to install PlatformIO IDE and did not get success, please open system’s Control Panel > Installed Programs, and check if PlatformIO IDE tried to install an own isolated Python 2.7 version. Please uninstall it. Also is good to uninstall all Python interpreters from a system and install manually the latest Python using Install Python Interpreter guide.
Make sure
virtualenv --help
command exists in a system, otherwise, please install it manually usingpip install virtualenv
orpip2 install virtualenv
command.If
pip
(Python Package Manager) does not exists, you have to install it manually. See https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/
Creating¶
Create a folder which contains all the necessary executables to use the packages that PIO Core would need using
virtualenv
command:virtualenv /path/to/.platformio/penv # If you want to use a custom Python interpreter virtualenv --python=/path/to/custom/python /path/to/.platformio/penv # EXAMPLES # Windows virtualenv C:\Users\UserName\.platformio\penv virtualenv --python=C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Users\UserName\.platformio\penv # Unix (Linux, Mac) virtualenv ~/.platformio/penv virtualenv -p python3 ~/.platformio/penv
Activate virtual environment
# Windows C:\Users\UserName\.platformio\penv # Unix (Linux, Mac) source /path/to/.platformio/penv/bin/activate # or . /path/to/.platformio/penv/bin/activate
Install PIO Core into virtual environment
pip install -U platformio
If you plan to use PIO Core commands outside virtual environment, please Install Shell Commands.
Development Version¶
Warning
If you use PlatformIO IDE, please enable development version:
- PlatformIO IDE for Atom: “Menu PlatformIO: Settings > PlatformIO IDE > Use development version of PlatformIO Core”
- PlatformIO IDE for VSCode: Set
platformio-ide.useDevelopmentPIOCore
totrue
in Settings.
Install the latest PlatformIO from the develop
branch:
# uninstall existing version
pip uninstall platformio
# install the latest development version of PlatformIO
pip install -U https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/archive/develop.zip
If you want to be up-to-date with the latest develop
version of PlatformIO,
then you need to re-install PlatformIO each time you see a new commits in
PlatformIO GitHub repository (branch: develop) like so:
pip install -U https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/archive/develop.zip
Or:
pio upgrade --dev
To revert to the latest stable version:
pip uninstall platformio
pip install -U platformio
Install Shell Commands¶
PlatformIO Core (CLI) consists of 2 standalone tools in a system:
platformio
orpio
(short alias) - CLI Guidepiodebuggdb
- alias of platformio debug
If you have PlatformIO IDE already installed, you do not need to install PlatformIO Core (CLI) separately. Just link these tools with your shell:
Unix and Unix-like¶
In Unix and Unix-like systems, there are multiple ways to achieve this.
Method 1¶
You can export PlatformIO executables’ directory to the PATH environmental
variable. This method will allow you to execute platformio
commands from
any terminal emulator as long as you’re logged in as the user PlatformIO is
installed and configured for.
If you use Bash as your default shell, you can do it by editing either
~/.profile
or ~/.bash_profile
and adding the following line:
export PATH=$PATH:~/.platformio/penv/bin
If you use Zsh, you can either edit ~/.zprofile
and add the code above, or
for supporting both, Bash and Zsh, you can first edit ~/.profile
and add
the code above, then edit ~/.zprofile
and add the following line:
emulate sh -c '. ~/.profile'
After everything’s done, just restart your session (log out and log back in) and you’re good to go.
If you don’t know the difference between the two, check out this page.
Method 2¶
Go to the PlatformIO menu → Settings → PlatformIO IDE, scroll down to the Custom PATH for `platformio` command and enter the following: ~/.platformio/penv/bin
. After you’ve done that, you’ll need to go to the PlatformIO menu → Settings → PlatformIO IDE Terminal, scroll down to the Toggles section and uncheck the Login Shell checkbox. Finally, restart your editor/IDE and check out the result.
Method 3¶
You can create system-wide symlinks. This method is not recommended if you have multiple users on your computer because the symlinks will be broken for other users and they will get errors while executing PlatformIO commands. If that’s not a problem, open your system terminal app and paste these commands (MAY require administrator access sudo
):
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/platformio /usr/local/bin/platformio
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/pio /usr/local/bin/pio
ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/piodebuggdb /usr/local/bin/piodebuggdb
After that, you should be able to run PlatformIO from terminal. No restart is required.
Windows¶
Please read one of these instructions How do I set or change the PATH system variable?
You need to edit system environment variable called Path
and append
C:\Users\UserName\.platformio\penv\Scripts;
path in the beginning of a
list (please replace UserName
with your account name).
Uninstall PIO Core and dependent packages¶
Uninstall PIO Core tool
# uninstall standalone PIO Core installed via `pip` pip uninstall platformio # uninstall Homebrew's PIO Core (only macOS users if you installed it via Homebrew before) brew uninstall platformio
Dependent packages, global libraries are installed to core_dir folder (in user’s HOME directory). Just remove it.
Troubleshooting¶
Note
Linux OS: Don’t forget to install “udev” rules file 99-platformio-udev.rules (an instruction is located in the file).
Windows OS: Please check that you have correctly installed USB driver from board manufacturer
For further details, frequently questions, known issues, please refer to Frequently Asked Questions.