QUERY · ISSUE

docs: Please provide examples to show how to backup and restore the complete contents of flash.

openby adrianblakeyopened 2025-02-27updated 2025-03-04

docstools

Documentation URL

No response

Description

The title says it:

I have tried (and with help from warp) to get the syntax correct to recursively backup the flash contents to my computer. Among several things we arrived at:

mkdir ./pico_backup
mpremote fs cp -r :/ ./pico_backup
mpremote: 'cp -r' destination must be ‘:’

Being able to save and restore the complete contents of flash is (I would have thought) a very common task. Therefore please could we have these as examples in the docs?

Code of Conduct

Yes, I agree

CANDIDATE · PULL REQUEST

mpremote: support 'cp :a :b'

mergedby dpgeorgeopened 2022-08-24updated 2022-08-26

tools

The 'cp' command now supports device-to-device file copy. As part of this the cp command no longer adds any implicit ':' to its arguments.

See related #7602.

Assessment

Q Qwen · medium

PR #9091 modifies the same mpremote cp command and shares the exact error signature ("'cp -r' destination must be ':'"), indicating overlapping scope. However, the PR's purpose is enabling device-to-device copy ('cp :a :b'), not documenting host-backup/restore workflows. The query requests documentation examples for recursive flash backup to a host machine (cp -r :/ ./pico_backup), which is a device-to-host operation. The PR's 2-line docs addition targets the new device-to-device feature, not the backup use case. The query's core ask — documented examples for complete flash backup/restore — remains unaddressed.

Suggested action

Leave open. Link #9091 as context since it touches the same cp error path and may inform a follow-up docs PR. The actual request (host-backup documentation/example) still needs a dedicated docs addition to mpremote.rst covering recursive device-to-host copy.