save(); dump(); load(); what about clear() -> use reset(true)

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-02-16 by @MaBecker

Is it planed to have clear() to erase saved program code ?

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2016-02-16 by @gfwilliams

No... reset() then save() has almost the same effect.

What's list()? Or did you mean load()?

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-02-16 by @MaBecker

ups, yes I mean load()

can you please change the title ?

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2016-02-16 by @gfwilliams

No problem :)

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-02-17 by @allObjects

reset() then save() has almost the same effect... as a clear() would have.

Would it be possible to actually make it this way? ...because after a first save() on a flashed Espruino reset() always leaves residues. Only a re-flash gets you back to the realy clean slate... state. The startup is different with the residues.

What ere these few hundred bytes that still are saved anyway after a reset ()?

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-02-17 by UliMerkel

AFAIK, some bytes are still occupied holding the (command) history for the Web IDE.

Source: http://forum.espruino.com/comments/12713514/

Also, try adding: global["\xFF"].history=[];
It's a hack but it removes the command history - something that could have been using memory that would have stopped you saving.

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2016-02-17 by @gfwilliams

After reset();save(); the only command history left will be that of you typing save(). While there may seem to be a few hundred bytes used most of that is just an artefact of compressing ~80kB of zeros.

I think you'll find that reset();save() reports almost exactly the same number of bytes used as if you just flashed a fresh Espruino image and typed save()

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-12-09 by @MaBecker

On ESP8266 there are some lines of code after reset() coming from jshReset(), so reset();save(); is not a appropriate option.

The reason behind this is, that saved code caused trouble on ESP8266 when updating to a new release in the past. Sure "erase_flash" is an option, but works only over serial connection AFAIK.

But require("Flash").erasePage(addr); will do.

So this is my clear();

var clear = function() {
        require('Flash').erasePage(your_save_code_page);
};

>clear();
=undefined
>load();
=undefined
No code in flash!
> 

I purposely did not name addr. If this is helpful for you, than lookup it up at the Espruino ESP8266 board documentation page section "SAVING CODE TO FLASH"

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2016-12-09 by @gfwilliams

Thanks - if you want to do it when you flash a new firmware, you could just add a line to flash blank.bin to the correct place to overwrite your saved code.

If we had a 1Mb image file that could just be written to the device (like you can with the 512k one) it'd solve a lot of this trouble

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-12-09 by @MaBecker

On the ESP8266 side you normarly use wiflash :-)

This is a ota implementation - the easiest way to flash the ESPs with new firmware.

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-12-09 by @MaBecker

A 1MB file would damage a lot of sections with special ESP setting, what causes a bricked ESP that has to be flash with the original AT firmware to unbrick.

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2016-12-12 by @gfwilliams

Are you sure about that? The 512k combined image works perfectly

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2016-12-12 by @MaBecker

Not sure, I only know for sure that there is a size limit of 479232 bytes for a single image file for ESPs.

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2018-02-08 by @MaBecker

just changed the tile because with 1v94 reset(true) is the one that can be used to erase save pages.