Improve resilience and robustness of "configure tools" for ESP-IDF version upgrade (VSCode) (VSC-1739)

[arc12]

This concerns "Configure ESP-IDF Extension", in particular when a new ESP-IDF is being installed.

Problem
Download is large and can cause aborts in the case of network issues, esp on slow connections. This has been noted in #1180 and #1362 and I've experienced multiple times. The downloader used by the VSCode extension seems to be particularly unreliable; I've had it fail many times but using firefox direct to github is more successful. The comments on those two issues refer to network issues as if that is the end of the matter, and the OPs "fault". Rather the download should cope better with network issues!

Additionally, when adding the zip file into the "ESP-IDF container directory", and then running "Configure Tools", the extension does not respect the presence of the zip file; it deletes it. Quite annoying! Also not convenient when trying to share an IDF download among several machines without multiple downloads.

Improvement Part 1
Simple: make the configuration tool respect the presence of a zip file.

Improvement Part 2
Use a more robust network client so that socket issues do not immediately fail with:

esp-idf-v5.4.2.zip progress: 14.55% (194560.00 / 1336780.87) KB
Error: aborted
	at TLSSocket.socketCloseListener (node:_http_client:478:19)
	at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:530:35)
	at node:net:351:12
	at TCP.done (node:_tls_wrap:650:7)
Failed download. Retrying...
Error: Error: HTTP/HTTPS Response error

It looks like the retry is not really trying!

And/or:
Make download available using torrent etc

[arc12]

Or just integrate an option to undertake a "--depth 1" git clone.

[brianignacio5]

Hi, thank you for the feature request.

In the meantime I could take a look see if we can make it respect current zip file and improve the download functionality for better reliability.

We have been working on a cross platform installer which is added with #1355 .

You can test it here: https://github.com/espressif/idf-im-ui

The integration will be added in our next major (v2.0.0) release and moving forward EIM will the default way to install it.

[arc12]

@brianignacio5 thankyou.

I did finally (so many attempts!) get the update to 5.4.2 to complete, but will try the EIM next time.

I hope the new work tolerates manual intervention. For example, it would have been helpful if the configure tools system allowed me to git clone the IDF and then use the extension to complete the IDF setup. Instead: it complained and aborted.

[brianignacio5]

You could use any terminal to git clone esp-idf extract it and later use an existing esp-idf directory with configure tools system with the Find ESP-IDF in your system option in ESP-IDF Setup no ? isn't that the case for you?

I would still look into these 2 cases you mentioned about reuse existing zip but if the connection is aborted I'm not sure how much we can do. (the release version is downloading a zip file, if you want the extension to clone, use a release branch instead of release version option)

[arc12]

@brianignacio5 I think I mis-understood the drop down.
After zip download aborted, I git clone the IDF v5.4.2 then I return to VSCode extension and select 5.4.2 from the dropdown. I did not think "find ESP_IDF in your system" was an option, I thought it was an invitation to me to choose in the drop-down.

Now I know!

[brianignacio5]

I've made a fix in #1625. Please give a try. This should continue zip download from previously aborted attempts.

You can test these changes by installing this VSIX by click menu View -> Command Palette..., type Install from VSIX and then select downloaded esp-idf-extension.vsix file to install the extension.

• esp-idf-extension.vsix.zip