[avrdude-dev] Autodetection of output-file-format ;-(

[Jan-Hinnerk Reichert]

Hi,

there's a very neat feature in avrdude. If I don't specify the 
output-file-format, I get the following error message:

  avrdude: writing output file "test.hex"
  avrdude: error opening test.hex: No such file or directory
  avrdude: output file test.hex auto detected as invalid format
  avrdude: invalid output file format: -1
  avrdude: write to file 'test.hex' failed

IMHO this error message can be quite confusing. It is totally OK for 
the output file not to exist. For the user it is not obvious that the 
real error is that she hasn't specified the file-format.

Also, I think that it can be quite confusing that the same call is 
working if the file already exists. A script calling avrdude can work 
perfectly well and if it fails later (becuase the output file doesn't 
already exist) nobody knows why  ;-(

Does anyone think that there is an useful application of 
output-autodetection or can we just drop it.

I would be glad to do the changes when we have agreed on what to do.

Cheers
  Jan-Hinnerk