Interfacing an Arduino Uno (uploading etc.) with the Arduino IDE (using the Fedora package) works fine under Fedora 21.

But I rather want to use vim + make + vim-quickfix-mode etc.

How can I do that?

Preferably via the tools available from the Fedora repositories.

I assume that the IDE calls externals command line utilities for the uploading etc.

The equivalent to the IDE's serial monitor is probably connecting a terminal emulator (e.g. screen) to /dev/ttyACM0, right?

Perhaps there is a good example project one can look at the makefile?


I would suggest Googling for Makefile projects. I did one a while back for the Blink program, by basically seeing what got generated by the IDE and replicating that in a more general way.

# Simple Arduino Makefile
# Author: Nick Gammon
# Date: 18th March 2015

# where you installed the Arduino app
ARDUINO_DIR = C:/Documents and Settings/Nick/Desktop/arduino-1.0.6/

# various programs
CC = "$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-gcc"
CPP = "$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-g++"
AR = "$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-ar"
OBJ_COPY = "$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-objcopy"

MAIN_SKETCH = Blink.cpp

# compile flags for g++ and gcc

# may need to change these
F_CPU = 16000000
MCU = atmega328p

# compile flags
GENERAL_FLAGS = -c -g -Os -Wall -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -mmcu=$(MCU) -DF_CPU=$(F_CPU)L -MMD -DUSB_VID=null -DUSB_PID=null -DARDUINO=106
CPP_FLAGS = $(GENERAL_FLAGS) -fno-exceptions

# location of include files
INCLUDE_FILES = "-I$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/arduino/cores/arduino" "-I$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/arduino/variants/standard"

# library sources
LIBRARY_DIR = "$(ARDUINO_DIR)hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/"


    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)avr-libc/malloc.c -o malloc.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)avr-libc/realloc.c -o realloc.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)WInterrupts.c -o WInterrupts.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)wiring.c -o wiring.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)wiring_analog.c -o wiring_analog.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)wiring_digital.c -o wiring_digital.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)wiring_pulse.c -o wiring_pulse.c.o
    $(CC) $(CC_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)wiring_shift.c -o wiring_shift.c.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)HardwareSerial.cpp -o HardwareSerial.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)IPAddress.cpp -o IPAddress.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)main.cpp -o main.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)new.cpp -o new.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)Print.cpp -o Print.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)Stream.cpp -o Stream.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)Tone.cpp -o Tone.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)USBCore.cpp -o USBCore.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)WMath.cpp -o WMath.cpp.o
    $(CPP) $(CPP_FLAGS) $(INCLUDE_FILES) $(LIBRARY_DIR)WString.cpp -o WString.cpp.o
    rm core.a
    $(AR) rcs core.a malloc.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a realloc.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a WInterrupts.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a wiring.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a wiring_analog.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a wiring_digital.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a wiring_pulse.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a wiring_shift.c.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a CDC.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a HardwareSerial.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a HID.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a IPAddress.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a main.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a new.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a Print.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a Stream.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a Tone.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a USBCore.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a WMath.cpp.o
    $(AR) rcs core.a WString.cpp.o
    $(CC) -Os -Wl,--gc-sections -mmcu=$(MCU) -o $(MAIN_SKETCH).elf $(MAIN_SKETCH).o core.a -lm
    $(OBJ_COPY) -O ihex -j .eeprom --set-section-flags=.eeprom=alloc,load --no-change-warnings --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 $(MAIN_SKETCH).elf $(MAIN_SKETCH).eep
    $(OBJ_COPY) -O ihex -R .eeprom $(MAIN_SKETCH).elf $(MAIN_SKETCH).hex

You would need to change ARDUINO_DIR at least, to reflect where you installed the IDE. If you use other things like the Wire library you would need to expand it somewhat to compile additional libraries. Again, you can use what the IDE generates itself to guide your changes.

The lines with the leading spaces above would need the tab character instead of spaces, as is normal for a Makefile.

  • 2
    An upload section in the make file would also be useful, to upload the compiled sketch to the arduino (using avr-dude). – Gerben Sep 8 '15 at 9:04
  • That would definitely be useful. However as, so far, the IDE has met my needs for compiling and uploading, I am not strongly motivated to work out how to do it. :) – Nick Gammon Sep 8 '15 at 9:46
  • Take a look at Metamorphic answer for an easier solution – Victor Lamoine Sep 30 '17 at 21:48

I use the command-line interface to the arduino command.

I run it like this:

arduino --upload sketch/sketch.ino --port /dev/ttyUSB*

There is a page which describes other command-line tools, like inotool. That page also has an example Makefile. These alternatives seem enticing, but apparently, as of this writing, none of them work. I'm assuming this is due to some recent changes in Arduino IDE distribution files which they depend on.

Running arduino as above is a bit slow, because it has to load Java I guess, but at least it works. There is also an arduino-builder command that comes with the Arduino IDE distribution. As of this writing, it was not sufficiently well-documented for me to be able to figure out how to use it. For instance there are no example command lines in the README or in any of the tutorials I came across, and I couldn't figure out how to use it to upload code to the board. However, presumably it is able to give us a faster compile than arduino. The README also mentions being able to reuse object files from a previous compile, so there is some make-like functionality.

To view serial output I use something like

stty -F /dev/ttyUSB* 1000000 raw -clocal -echo
cat /dev/ttyUSB*

The number 1000000 should match the number you pass to Serial.begin() in your board code. You can also use screen if you a board program which is appropriately interactive, or you can use whatever utility to write directly to the device. By the way, my Due shows up as /dev/ttyACM0 (rather than /dev/ttyUSB0 for the Uno).

  • Make sure you have a single *.ino file in the directory, as it does not seem to necessarily upload the one mentioned by the --upload parameter. – Chris Stryczynski Apr 19 at 12:39

What you need is a Makefile. There are a few Makefile projects around for Arduino. Googling for "Arduino Makefile" returns many results including what looks like a good one on Github: https://github.com/sudar/Arduino-Makefile

Compiling from the command line isn't trivial due to the way the Arduino IDE handles libraries.


For the serial monitor I would recommend minicom. It is a fully functional terminal emulator (vt102) on the command line.

minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200

... for example.


If you want a fully compatible solution for your arduino project (yes, you can share your project with other people that use just plain Arduino IDE) you need to check amake a tool to simplify the cli of the arduino, I use it with Geany but others are using it with vi, Atom, etc.

It's inspired and the now dead Ino and Arturo projects; please take 5 minutes to test it and please give feedback.

Example use:

cd ~/Arduino/Blink/
[move to your arduino project folder]

amake -v uno Blink.ino
[to compile/verify your code]

amake -u uno Blink.ino /dev/ttyUSB0
[to upload your code to an arduino connected via USB]

It has some smart glue in there, it can remember the board and file, and even autodetect the usb of the board; so after a successfull "amake -v" command you can do this on the command line and it will work.

amake -v
[to compile/verify your code]

amake -u
[to upload your code to an arduino connected via USB]

If you use some IDE macros you can craft the compile and upload commands easily, for example using Geany IDE it will became:

  • Compile/Verify: cd %d; amake -v uno %f
  • Upload: cd %d; amake -u uno %f

You can get more help running just "amake" or "amake -h" once installed.

Also, it can support EVERY board/lib/programmer you have installed/configured in your Arduino IDE, yes, modern board like the Adafuit Trinket M0 / Arduino M0 etc...

Just fire your Arduino IDE, go to the board manager, install support and that's all, jut follow some simple instructions and your are set.

The board you have is not supported? not a problem, detect the fqbn (read the README.md file) and pass it along as the board name.

I'm looking for testers to grow up the number or board aliases and auto detection of the proper USB signatures.

Remember this is a private grown tool, now shared with the public, you know, just a programmer scratching it's itch...


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