QUERY · ISSUE

Verbosity of mpremote commands should be manageable and shouldn't go to stdout

openby Tico06opened 2024-01-27updated 2025-09-05

bugtools

Hi There,

This is related to #8828.

I'd suggest verbosity of mpremote commands should be manageable with an option like -q (quiet) or -v (verbosity), and should not go to stdout but stderr preferably.

This would allow to script mpremote and retrieve some information from the device like:

$> mpremote -q connect /dev/ttyACM0 resume + mount . + exec "import machine;print(machine.unique_id())" > deviceID.txt
$> cat deviceID.txt
16600659686507361317
$>

At the present, it looks more than this:

$> mpremote connect /dev/ttyACM0 resume + mount . + exec "import machine;print(machine.unique_id())" > deviceID.txt
$> cat deviceID.txt
16600659686507361317
Local directory . is mounted at /remote
$>

Thanks and best regards,

Eric.

CANDIDATE · ISSUE

mpremote should not echo command when writing file to stdout

closedby bulletmarkopened 2022-06-28updated 2024-01-26

enhancementtools

Here is an example of the problem:

$ mpremote cat main.py
cat :main.py
print('hello world')

mpremote should not echo the cat :main.py because it corrupts the output of the actual file contents, e.g. if you pipe it somewhere.

MicroPython 1.19.1 on ESP32.

Assessment

S Sonnet · high

Issue 13532 explicitly references #8828. Both concern mpremote sending diagnostic/status output to stdout instead of stderr, corrupting piped output. However, #8828 is narrowly about the cat command echoing the command string, while #13532 is a broader request covering mount notifications and any status output, plus a feature request for -q/-v verbosity control. Neither issue resolves the other — they describe overlapping but distinct aspects of the same underlying design problem. #8828 being labeled "enhancement" and remaining open means 13532's concerns are not yet addressed.

Suggested action

Keep both open. Link them bidirectionally — #13532 already references #8828. Consider consolidating into a single tracking issue for "redirect all mpremote status output to stderr and add verbosity control," with #8828 as the specific cat-echo case and #13532 as the broader request. Do not close either.

Verbosity of mpremote commands should be manageable and shouldn't go to stdout

mpremote should not echo command when writing file to stdout

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