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QUERY · ISSUE

mpremote cp fails with apostrophe in destination filename

openby Josverlopened 2026-01-07updated 2026-01-09
bugtoolsunicode

Port, board and/or hardware

Any platform (Windows, Linux, macOS) - affects mpremote tool when copying files with apostrophe (') in the filename.

MicroPython version

  • mpremote 1.27.0
  • Tested against MicroPython unix port and ESP32

The issue is in mpremote itself, not in MicroPython firmware.

Reproduction

  1. Create a test file with an apostrophe in the name:

    mkdir unicode_test
    echo "test" > "unicode_test\O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt"
    
  2. Attempt to copy to MicroPython device with the same destination name:

    mpremote cp "unicode_test\O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt" ":/O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt"
    
  3. Observe the error.

Expected behaviour

mpremote cp should successfully copy files with apostrophes in filenames. The apostrophe should be properly escaped when constructing Python commands to send to the MicroPython REPL.

Observed behaviour

The command fails with a SyntaxError because the apostrophe breaks the Python string literal sent to the REPL.

PS D:\mypython\unicode_mpy> mpremote cp "unicode_test\O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt" ":/O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt"
cp unicode_test\O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt :/O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt
mpremote: Error with transport:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Additional Information

mpremote sends filenames to MicroPython's REPL as Python string literals using single quotes. When a filename contains an apostrophe ', it prematurely closes the string:

# What mpremote probably sends:
open('/O'zbek_Ismoilov.txt', 'wb')
#        ^ This closes the string prematurely!

# Result is invalid Python syntax

Affected Characters

Any filename containing:

  • Single quote / apostrophe: ' (U+0027)
  • Possibly other quote-like characters that need escaping

Suggested Fix

Properly escape quotes when constructing Python commands to send to the REPL:

Option A: Escape single quotes

# Instead of:
cmd = f"open('{filename}', 'wb')"

# Use:
escaped_filename = filename.replace("\\", "\\\\").replace("'", "\\'")
cmd = f"open('{escaped_filename}', 'wb')"

Option B: Use double quotes for filenames

cmd = f'open("{filename}", "wb")'
# Note: would then need to escape double quotes in filenames

Option C: Use repr() for proper escaping

cmd = f"open({repr(filename)}, 'wb')"

Found via : https://github.com/Josverl/unicode_mpy

Code of Conduct

Yes, I agree

CANDIDATE · ISSUE

mpremote cp -r command fails with "mpremote: cp: -r not specified; omitting directory"

openby jabeloneopened 2025-04-23updated 2025-09-05
bugtools

Port, board and/or hardware

ESP32 on a custom designed ESP32-s3 board

MicroPython version

MicroPython v1.25.0 on 2025-04-15; Generic ESP32S3 module with ESP32S3

Reproduction

  1. install mpremote using the instructions here.
  2. run the command mpremote connect /dev/cu.usbserial-A5069RR4 cp -r configuration/ :configuration/ to recursively copy the configuration directory to the board.

Expected behaviour

I expected the command to recursively copy all files within the configuration directory over to the board to a folder located at /configuration, and to create that folder if it doesn't exist. This expectation comes from the documentation on this page.

mpremote cp -r utils/ :utils/ + soft-reset repl
Same as above, but update the entire utils directory first.

Observed behaviour

The tool returns the following error:

$ mpremote connect /dev/cu.usbserial-A5069RR4 cp -r configuration/ :configuration/
cp configuration/ :configuration/
mpremote: cp: -r not specified; omitting directory

Additional Information

Running on a M1 MacBook Pro, macOS Sequoia 15.3.2.
Using mpremote 1.25.0.

Code of Conduct

Yes, I agree

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