Manifest File .build-test-rules.yml

A .build-test-rules.yml file is the manifest file to control whether the app will be built or tested under the rules.

One typical manifest file look like this:

[folder]:
  enable:
    - if: [if clause]
      temporary: true  # optional, default to false. `reason` is required if `temporary` is true
      reason: [your reason]  # optional
    - ...
  disable:
    - if: [if clause]
    - ...
  disable_test:
    - if: [if clause]
    - ...

Terms

Supported Targets

This refers to the targets that are fully supported by the ESP-IDF project. You may check the supported targets by running idf.py --list-targets.

idf-build-apps will get this information dynamically from your $IDF_PATH. For ESP-IDF release 5.3, the supported targets are:

  • esp32

  • esp32s2

  • esp32c3

  • esp32s3

  • esp32c2

  • esp32c6

  • esp32h2

  • esp32p4

Preview Targets

This refers to the targets that are still in preview status. You may check the preview targets by running idf.py --list-targets --preview.

idf-build-apps will get this information dynamically from your $IDF_PATH. For ESP-IDF release 5.3, the preview targets are:

  • linux

  • esp32c5

  • esp32c61

if Clauses

Operands

  • Capitalized Words

    • Variables defined in IDF_PATH/components/soc/[TARGET]/include/soc/*_caps.h or in IDF_PATH/components/esp_rom/[TARGET]/*_caps.h. e.g., SOC_WIFI_SUPPORTED, ESP_ROM_HAS_SPI_FLASH

    • IDF_TARGET

    • IDF_VERSION (IDF_VERSION_MAJOR.IDF_VERSION_MINOR.IDF_VERSION_PATCH. e.g., 5.2.0. Will convert to Version object to do a version comparison instead of a string comparison)

    • IDF_VERSION_MAJOR

    • IDF_VERSION_MINOR

    • IDF_VERSION_PATCH

    • INCLUDE_DEFAULT (The default value of supported targets is 1, and the default value of preview targets is 0)

    • CONFIG_NAME (config name defined in Sdkconfig & Config Rules)

    • environment variables, default to 0 if not set

  • String, must be double-quoted. e.g., "esp32", "12345"

  • Integer, support decimal and hex. e.g., 1, 0xAB

  • List of strings or integers, or both types at the same time. e.g., ["esp32", 1]

Operators

  • ==, !=, >, >=, <, <=

  • and, or

  • in, not in with list

  • parentheses

Limitations

All operators are binary operators. For more than two operands, you may use the nested parentheses trick. For example:

  • A == 1 or (B == 2 and C in [1,2,3])

  • (A == 1 and B == 2) or (C not in ["3", "4", 5])

Warning

Chained and and or operators are not supported. The operands start from the third one will be ignored.

For example, A == 1 and B == 2 and C == 3 will be interpreted as A == 1 and B == 2.

Enable/Disable Rules

By default, we enable build and test for all supported targets. In other words, all preview targets are disabled.

To simplify the manifest file, if an app needs to be build and tested on all supported targets, it does not need to be added in a manifest file. The manifest files are files that set the violation rules for apps.

Three rules (disable rules are calculated after the enable rules):

  • enable: run CI build/test jobs for targets that match any of the specified conditions only

  • disable: will not run CI build/test jobs for targets that match any of the specified conditions

  • disable_test: will not run CI test jobs for targets that match any of the specified conditions

Each key is a folder. The rule will recursively apply to all apps inside.

Overrides Rules

If one sub folder is in a special case, you can overwrite the rules for this folder by adding another entry for this folder itself. Each folder’s rules are standalone, and will not inherit its parent’s rules. (YAML inheritance is too complicated for reading)

For example, in the following code block, only disable rule exists in examples/foo/bar. It’s unaware of its parent’s enable rule.

examples/foo:
  enable:
    - if: IDF_TARGET == "esp32"

examples/foo/bar:
  disable:
    - if: IDF_TARGET == "esp32s2"

Practical Example

Here’s a practical example:

examples/foo:
  enable:
    - if IDF_TARGET in ["esp32", 1, 2, 3]
    - if IDF_TARGET not in ["4", "5", 6]
  # should be run under all targets!

examples/bluetooth:
  disable:  # disable both build and tests jobs
    - if: SOC_BT_SUPPORTED != 1
    # reason is optional if there's no `temporary: true`
  disable_test:
    - if: IDF_TARGET == "esp32"
      temporary: true
      reason: lack of ci runners  # required when `temporary: true`

examples/bluetooth/test_foo:
  # each folder's settings are standalone
  disable:
    - if: IDF_TARGET == "esp32s2"
      temporary: true
      reason: no idea
  # unlike examples/bluetooth, the apps under this folder would not be build nor test for "no idea" under target esp32s2

examples/get-started/hello_world:
  enable:
    - if: IDF_TARGET == "linux"
      reason: this one only supports linux!

examples/get-started/blink:
  enable:
    - if: INCLUDE_DEFAULT == 1 or IDF_TARGET == "linux"
      reason: This one supports all supported targets and linux

Enhanced YAML Syntax

Switch-Like Clauses

The Switch-Like clauses are supported by two keywords in the YAML file: depends_components and depends_filepatterns.

Operands

Switch cases have two main components: the if clause and the default clause. Just like a switch statement in c language, The first matched if clause will be applied. If no if clause matched, the default clause will be applied. Here’s an example:

test1:
  depends_components:
    - if: IDF_VERSION == "{IDF_VERSION}"
      content: [ "component_1" ]
    - if: CONFIG_NAME == "AWESOME_CONFIG"
      content: [ "component_2" ]
    - default: [ "component_3", "component_4" ]

default clause is optional. If you don’t specify any default clause, it will return an empty array.

Limitations

You cannot combine a list and a switch in one node.

Reuse Lists

To reuse the items defined in a list, you can use the + and - postfixes respectively. The order of calculation is always + first, followed by -.

Array Elements as Strings

The following YAML code demonstrates how to reuse the elements from a list of strings:

.base_depends_components: &base-depends-components
  depends_components:
    - esp_hw_support
    - esp_rom
    - esp_wifi

examples/wifi/coexist:
  <<: *base-depends-components
  depends_components+:
    - esp_coex
  depends_components-:
    - esp_rom

After interpretation, the resulting YAML will be:

examples/wifi/coexist:
  depends_components:
    - esp_hw_support
    - esp_wifi
    - esp_coex

This means that the esp_rom element is removed, and the esp_coex element is added to the depends_components list.

Array Elements as Dictionaries

In addition to reuse elements from a list of strings, you can also perform these operations on a list of dictionaries. The matching is done based on the if key. Here’s an example:

.base: &base
  enable:
    - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.2.0"
    - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.3.0"

foo:
  <<: *base
  enable+:
    # this if statement dictionary will override the one defined in `&base`
    - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.2.0"
      temp: true
    - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.4.0"
      reason: bar

After interpretation, the resulting YAML will be:

foo:
  enable:
  - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.3.0"
  - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.2.0"
    temp: true
  - if: IDF_VERSION == "5.4.0"
    reason: bar

In this case, the enable list is extended with the new if statement and reason dictionary.

It’s important to note that the if dictionary defined in the + postfix will override the earlier one when the if statement matches.

This demonstrates how you can use the + and - postfixes to extend and remove elements from both string and dictionary lists in our YAML.