littlefs for Python¶
littlefs-python provides a thin wrapper around littlefs, a filesystem targeted for small embedded systems. The wrapper provides a pythonic interface to the filesystem and allows the creation, inspection and modification of the filesystem or individual files. Even if this package uses Cython, the goal is not to provide a high performance implementation. Cython was chosen as an easy method is offered to generate the binding and the littlefs library in one step.
Quick Examples¶
Let’s create a image ready to transfer to a flash memory using the pythonic interface:
from littlefs import LittleFS
# Initialize the File System according to your specifications
fs = LittleFS(block_size=512, block_count=256)
# Open a file and write some content
with fs.open('first-file.txt', 'w') as fh:
fh.write(b'Some text to begin with\n')
# Dump the filesystem content to a file
with open('FlashMemory.bin', 'wb') as fh:
fh.write(fs.context.buffer)
The same can be done by using the more verbose C-Style API, which closely resembels the steps which must be performed in C:
from littlefs import lfs
cfg = lfs.LFSConfig(block_size=512, block_count=256)
fs = lfs.LFSFilesystem()
# Format and mount the filesystem
lfs.format(fs, cfg)
lfs.mount(fs, cfg)
# Open a file and write some content
fh = lfs.file_open(fs, 'first-file.txt', 'w') as fh:
lfs.file_write(fs, fh, b'Some text to begin with\n')
lfs.file_close(fs, fh)
# Dump the filesystem content to a file
with open('FlashMemory.bin', 'wb') as fh:
fh.write(cfg.user_context.buffer)
Installation¶
This is as simple as it can be:
pip install littlefs-python
At the moment wheels (which require no build) are provided for the following platforms, on other platforms the source package is provided:
- Linux: Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 & 3.8 / 32- & 64-bit
- Windows: Python 3.5, 3.6 & 3.7 / 32- & 64-bit
Development Setup¶
Start by checking out the source repository of littlefs-python:
git clone https://github.com/jrast/littlefs-python.git
The source code for littlefs is included as a submodule which must be checked out after the clone:
cd <littlefs-python>
git submodule update --init
this ensures that the correct version of littlefs is cloned into the littlefs folder. As a next step install the dependencies and install the package:
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .
Note
It’s highly recommended to install the package in a virtual environment!