Arduino IDE (development environment) *portable* install

An additional directory makes the Arduino IDE much more usable!

There are many advantages to installing the Arduino IDE in "portable mode". This logically separates the actual IDE from the personal settings, libraries and core architecture.

A normal Arduino IDE installation quickly overflows with additionally installed libraries, board definitions and other things. You can hardly find your way around in this chaos. A small trick ensures that the actual development environment and data for your own projects are cleanly separated from each other.

Many simple projects in can be accomplished in the Arduino world with the standard installation of the Arduino IDE. However, as soon as you need special sensors, other microcontroller boards or additional libraries, the installation fills up with more and more files and becomes increasingly confusing. Even worse: Some libraries for different projects do not work together, require different versions or simply overwrite each other. If you switch back and forth between your projects, you have to adjust the IDE settings and install board definitions and libraries every time. So you lose a lot of time and at some point you lose interest.

The Arduino team has obviously recognised this and fortunately provides a practical solution: the "portable version" of the IDE. The basic installation of the Arduino IDE remains more or less untouched. Project-related board definitions, libraries and settings move into a special directory that can easily be saved and/or replaced. It is also very clever how easy it is to set this up: Simply create the portable directory in the Arduino directory - done.

The "Portable Arduino IDE" - many advantages

What are the concrete advantages of the portable version of the Arduino IDE? A few examples:

  • One's own programming environment - and thus one's own work - can easily be backed up completely by backup only the /portable directory.
  • Once installed portably and prepared for certain projects, the portable IDE can be rolled out to many computers (synchronise PC, workstation and notebook, pre-installed IDE for training and so on).
  • If you regularly work with different microcontrollers/architectures and programmers, it is faster to copy the respective portable directories than to click through the options of the Arduino IDE.
  • A portable Arduino IDE can be installed on a USB stick to always carry your personal programming environment in your pocket.

How to set up the Arduino IDE "portably

Under any GNU/Linux distribution, Arduino is quickly converted to the portable version. By the way, I use the from the init monster systemd free Devuan GNU/Linux 4.0 "Chimaera " in the 64-bit version on Dell Precision T5500 and HP Z600 workstations.

The installation runs completely in the terminal with the following commands:

cd ~/Downloads wget https://downloads.arduino.cc/arduino-1.8.19-linux64.tar.xz cd ~ mkdir -p ~/bin tar xvf Downloads/arduino-1.8.19-linux64.tar.xz -C ~/bin mkdir ~/bin/arduino-1.8.19/portable

The last command turns the standard IDE into a portable IDE.

Tip: After that, some basic adjustments should be done in the IDE.