avrdude 8.0 release discussion

[mcuee]

avrdude 7.3 release is more or less done and it will be released soon (say next week).

Let's start the discussion on the next release avrdude 7.4.

[mcuee]

Bugs to be sorted out:

• avrintel.h missing from installation #1683
• libavrdude.h fixes and installation of libavrdude-avrintel.h #1688 (bug fix for avrintel.h missing from installation #1683)

Bugs which are nice to be fixed but not essential (again we may need the help from @mariusgreuel )

• AVR-Doper support is broken since version 6.4 #1626
• ftdi_syncbb: very slow D2XX based MSVC build compared to libftdi based MinGW build #1253 (we may need the help from @mariusgreuel )
• avrdude MSVC build problem with USB composite device (avrdude-libusb library issue) -- low priority #968 (again we may need the help from @mariusgreuel )
• PICKit 4, SNAP, Atmel ICE and Power Debugger only work with hidapi but not libusb (low priority) #1221 (again we may need the help from @mariusgreuel )

Nice to have enhancement

• libelf deprecation on macOS #1653
• To add libserialport support to Windows MSVC build #1552
• Support ATmega16/32/64/128(A) using FTDI JTAG -- remaining work from #1324 #1490 (tough issue)
• Missing TPI, JTAG and UPDI support for the STK600 #1047
• Rework PICKit2 programmer to use libhidapi instead of libhid (which will make it work under macOS) #883

Auto-tools build system related issues -- nice to have as well since we still keep them

• Autotools build improvement  #1664
• Improve autotool build (part 1/n) #1681 (WIP PR to deal with Autotools build improvement  #1664)

libavrdude improvement related issues -- nice to have

• Using libavrdude as a standalone library #819
• Remove all calls to exit(3) from libavrdude library functions #774
• Unable to build libavrdude dynamic library under Windows and macOS #1414
• To improve the documentation of libavrdude functions #1057

[mcuee]

Preliminary issues linked to Milestone AVRDUDE 7.4 (need to be updated later)

• https://github.com/avrdudes/avrdude/milestone/5

[mcuee]

Other things to consider:

1. Documentation update

• avrdude documentation improvement  #1674

From @stefanrueger

• avrdude 7.3 release discussion #1473 (comment)

I still think it would be wonderful if we had a short section in the .pdf/.html documentation about (current) limitations.

[MCUdude]

• Add Levenshtein distance checking on the -p parameter as well, so Avrdude can suggest the right part number if there is a typo. Maybe even for -U?
• Maybe also utilize libserialport to "guess" a serial port if the user hasn't specified -P. Very neat if you have only one board connected to your PC.

[mcuee]

For reference only.

Updated on 2024-02-16

Here is the updated situation for avrdude version used by major OS distributions. We will rely on the community to raise ticket to the respective project/distro to upgrade the avrdude version in the distributions.

macOS Homebrew (avrdude 7.3)
https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/avrdude

Arch Linux has avrdude 7.3
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/avrdude/

FreeBSD ports (avrdude 7.3)
https://www.freshports.org/devel/avrdude

Fedora 38/39 are using avrdude 7.2
Fedora 40/41 are using avrdude 7.3
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/avrdude

Windows Scoop -- avrdude 7.3
https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Main/blob/master/bucket/avrdude.json

macOS macPorts (avrdude 7.0)
https://ports.macports.org/port/avrdude/details/

OpenBSD ports (avrdude 6.3)
https://openports.pl/path/devel/avrdude

NetBSD pkgsrc (avrdude 6.4)
https://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/cross/avrdude/index.html

WIndows winget -- avrdude 7.2
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/tree/master/manifests/a/AVRDudes/AVRDUDE/

Windows chocolatey -- avrdude 6.3
https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/avrdude

Debian Linux stable and testing -- avrdude 7.1
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=avrdude

Ubuntu 23.04 and earlier use avrdude 6.3, Ubuntu 23.10 uses avrdude 7.1
https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=avrdude

Haiku ports -- avrdude 7.0
https://depot.haiku-os.org/#!/pkg/avrdude/haikuports/haikuports_x86_64/7/0/-/-/2/x86_64?bcguid=bc261-HDNA

DragonFly BSD -- avrdude 7.2
https://github.com/DragonFlyBSD/DPorts/tree/master/devel/avrdude

Gentoo -- avrdude 7.2
https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-embedded/avrdude

Opensuse Tumbleweed -- avrdude 7.2
https://software.opensuse.org/package/avrdude

Other distros
https://pkgs.org/download/avrdude

[ndim]

The repology.org page (https://repology.org/project/avrdude/versions) might also be helpful for that kind of overview.

[mcuee]

Nice. This is much better than the following link.
https://pkgs.org/download/avrdude

[ndim]

The two sets of operating systems are partially disjunct, though.

[ndim]

With me being new here... is there or what is the (very) rough timeline for 7.4?

Is it more like 2024-04 or more like 2025-01?

[MCUdude]

Great to have you here! And thank you for the work you're putting into the build system. We're very grateful to everyone who wants to contribute to the project, whether it's submitting PR(s) or reporting bug(s). I've been around for about two years, and it's amazing to see how much Avrdude has improved since the v6.3 version.

The schedule since the v7.0 release has been between 6 and 8 months, and I think we're sticking to that unless there are no significant changes to the code base.

[askn37]

AVR64DU32/28

Online Document and errata have also been published.
https://onlinedocs.microchip.com/?find=avr64du32

Online Dpcument
https://onlinedocs.microchip.com/oxy/GUID-3E14380F-9711-4707-8991-A4DB432DDBE5-en-US-6/index.html

Eratta
https://onlinedocs.microchip.com/g/GUID-EF06BA1D-9A85-4F9D-B813-FBFACD12D0F6-en-US-4/index.html

• Unintended error behavior of the NVM_EEPROM_ERASE bit can directly impact the operation of AVRDUDE(SerialUPDI) and programmer firmware.

Unfortunately, sample orders have not started yet, but I have a feeling it will be possible soon.
https://www.microchipdirect.com/samples

[stefanrueger]

I am targeting a new release 8.0 start of July. I am suggesting 8.0 given our major steps towards a libavrdude library with its first working example (Jörg's brilliant GUI example PR #1714 that hopefully will be merged by then) as a showpiece. It would be vvv cool and welcome if @ndim's WIP PRs could be part of that release, and also if @mariusgreuel's self-assigned Windows bugs were to have a solution.

[mcuee]

That would be great. I agree with version number 8.0.