Run the PlatformIO command-line builder in a docker container. This image will take it from there and turn your PlatformIO project into a binary which you then can flash to the ESP8266.
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IoT application developers
They just need a ready-made firmware.
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Occasional firmware hackers
They don't need full control over the complete tool chain and don't want to setup a Linux VM with the build environment.
This image has been created for purposes of the THiNX IoT management platform.
Follow the instructions at https://docs.docker.com/get-started/.
Start terminal and change to the your PlatformIO project directory. Then run:
docker run --rm -ti -v `pwd`:/opt/workspace suculent/platformio-docker-build
Depending on the performance of your system it takes 1-3min until the compilation finishes. The first time you run this it takes longer because Docker needs to download the image and create a container.
docker pull suculent/platformio-docker-build
Note for Windows users
(Docker on) Windows handles paths slightly differently. The command thus becomes (c equals C drive i.e. c:):
docker run --rm -it -v //c/Users/<user>/<workspace>:/opt/platformio-builder suculent/platformio-docker-build
If the Windows path contains spaces it would have to be wrapped in quotes as usual on Windows.
`docker run --rm -it -v "//c/Users/monster tune/"/opt/workspace suculent/platformio-docker-build``
The firmware file is created in the bin sub folder of your root directory. You will also find a mapfile in the bin folder with the same name as the firmware file but with a .map ending.
You can pass the following optional parameters to the Docker build like so docker run -e "<parameter>=value" -e ....
WORKDIRJust an parametrization example, will deprecate or be used for additional libraries.
There are several tools to flash the firmware to the ESP8266. If you were to use esptool (like I do) you'd run:
esptool.py --port <USB-port-with-ESP8266> write_flash 0x00000 <workspace>/bin/firmware.bin
You may edit Dockerfile in order to pre-build image with your preferred platform. Initially, this image is configured to kick-start builds for ESP8266 and ESP32.
Don't leave comments on Docker Hub that are intended to be support requests. First, Docker Hub doesn't notify me when you write them, second I can't properly reply and third even if I could often it doesn't make much sense to keep them around forever and a day. Instead ask a question on StackOverflow and assign the platformio and docker tags.
For bugs and improvement suggestions create an issue at https://github.com/suculent/platformio-docker-build/issues.
Thanks to Marcel Stoer who inspired me with his NodeMCU firmware builder on http://frightanic.com