FAQ

NSH Tricks

How to increase the command line length?

You can increase the Max command line length from 64 to other value, this way:

Application Configuration  --->
        NSH Library  --->
            Command Line Configuration  --->
                (64) Max command line length

How do I enable editing support on the command line?

You need to change Command Line Editor from “Minimal readline” to “Command Line Editor”, this way:

Application Configuration  --->
    NSH Library  --->
        Command Line Configuration  --->
            Command Line Editor (Command Line Editor)  --->

How to enable command line history?

You need to enable these options in the menuconfig:

Application Configuration  --->
    System Libraries and NSH Add-Ons  --->
        -*- readline() Support  --->
            [*]     Command line history
            (80)      Command line history length
            (16)      Command line history records

Note: If you are using the “Command Line Editor” instead of the “readline” then you need to use this other option:

Application Configuration  --->
    System Libraries and NSH Add-Ons  --->
        -*- EMACS-like Command Line Editor  --->
            [*]   Command line history
            (80)    Command line history length
            (16)    Command line history records

How to enable autocomplete on the command line?

You need to enable these options in the menuconfig:

Application Configuration  --->
    System Libraries and NSH Add-Ons  --->
        -*- readline() Support  --->
            [*]     Tab completion
            (64)      Maximum built-in matches
            (64)      Maximum external command matches

Note: autocomplete is not enabled when “Command Line Editor” instead of the “readline”.

How to interrupt an NSH Application using Ctrl^C ?

You need to enable these options in the menuconfig:

RTOS Features --->
    Signal Configuration --->
        [*] Default signal actions --->
            [*] SIGINT and SIGKILL
Device Drivers --->
    Serial Driver Support --->
        [*] Serial TERMIOS support
        [*]   Support SIGINT
        (0x03)  Serial parse SIGINT characters

Board Initialization

How to start directly my application instead starting NSH?

You can start you application directly instead of starting the default NSH terminal. Lets support your application is called “hello”, then you will modify the ENTRYPOINT to call “hello_main” instead of “nsh_main”:

RTOS Features --->
    Tasks and Scheduling  --->
        (hello_main) Application entry point

Why after putting my application on ENTRYPOINT it stops to work?

When you replace the ENTRYPOINT from “nsh_main” to your application some initialization flow are changed, for instance the NSH_ARCHINIT is not executed anymore and so some drivers initialization that are called from it also stops to work.

You can fix it enabling the Board Late Initialization that will replace the NSH_ARCHINIT to call those drivers initialization. Just enable it:

RTOS Features --->
    RTOS hooks --->
        [*] Custom board late initialization

Also you need to disable the architecture-specific initialization:

Application Configuration --->
    NSH Library --->
        [ ] Have architecture-specific initialization

Why isn’t /dev/ttySx created when using USB Console even when UART is enabled?

If you don’t use serial console then /dev/ttyS0 will not be created, even if you enable the UART peripheral at “System Type”.

You can fix it enabling the Serial Upper-Half Driver:

Device Drivers --->
    Serial Driver Support --->
        [*]   Enable standard "upper-half" serial driver

Network

How to detect Ethernet cable connection/disconnection?

NuttX supports Ethernet connection/disconnection events from Ethernet PHY using signals (see nuttx/drivers/net/phy_notify.c). The network monitor thread at apps/netutils/netinit (see CONFIG_NETINIT_MONITOR) will handle taking the network down if the cable is unplugged and bringing it back up when the cable is restored. It is important to note that your Ethernet controller driver of your MCU needs to support CONFIG_ARCH_PHY_INTERRUPT (and implement arch_phy_irq()).

How to define the MTU and MSS for the network packets?

As you probably know the “MSS = MTU - 40”, so you just need to setup the MTU. If you search for MTU in the menuconfig you will not find it, but you can setup the MTU using the CONFIG_NET_ETH_PKTSIZE here:

Networking Support  --->
    Driver buffer configuration  --->
        (590) Ethernet packet buffer size

Then just figure it out using this formula:

MTU = NET_ETH_PKTSIZE - 14

MSS = MTU - 40

In this case you have MTU = 590 - 14 => MTU = 576!

And the MSS = 576 - 40 => MSS = 536.