Nerves provides tooling and libraries for building small, self-contained software images using the rock-solid Erlang virtual machine hardware support of Linux, and happy development experience of Elixir for microprocessor-based embedded systems.
While the Nerves project provides base runtime libraries for hardware access and network configuration, nearly all of the Elixir ecosystem is available, including:
- Phoenix and LiveView for interactive local web user interfaces
- Elixir Nx for numerical computing and machine learning
- Livebook for interactive code notebooks on your device
- Scenic for local on-screen user interfaces
Or just keep it simple and use whatever libraries you need from the Hex package manager. Nerves only includes what you use so your embedded software can remain small.
Nerves uses the Linux kernel to support a large variety of hardware. It is not a Linux distribution, though, and contains little of what you would find on a typical embedded Linux system. Instead, it starts the Erlang runtime as one of the first OS processes and lets Erlang and Elixir take over from there. Not to fear, if you need something from Linux, Nerves provides a way to use most of the packages available through Buildroot.
Our project is spread over many repositories in order to focus on a limited scope per repository.
This repository (nerves-project/nerves) is an entrance to Nerves and provides the core tooling and documentation.
The Nerves core team maintains the projects in the nerves-project organization
with the help of many in the Elixir community. Projects under other GitHub
organizations are maintained by their respective organization, but listed here
since they're so commonly used in conjunction with the core libraries and tools.
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| Erlinit | Replacement for /sbin/init that launches an Erlang/OTP Release |  |
| Nerves.Bootstrap | The Nerves new project generator and low level hooks into Mix |  |
| Nerves.Runtime | Small, general runtime utilities for Nerves devices |  |
| NervesPack | Initialization setup for Nerves devices |  |
| NervesSystemBR | Buildroot based build platform for Nerves Systems |  |
| RingLogger | A ring buffer backend for Elixir Logger with IO streaming |  |
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| Circuits Quickstart | Try out Elixir Circuits with prebuilt Nerves firmware |  |
| NervesExamples | Small example programs using Nerves | |
| Nerves Livebook | Develop on embedded devices with Livebook and Nerves |  |
These are the officially supported hardware ports. Many others exist in the community.
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| NervesSystemBBB | Base Nerves system configuration for the BeagleBone-based boards |  |
| NervesSystemOSD32MP1 | Base system for Octavo OSD32MP1 |  |
| NervesSystemRPi | Base Nerves system configuration for the Raspberry Pi A+ and B+ |  |
| NervesSystemRPi0 | Base Nerves system configuration for the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W |  |
| NervesSystemRPi2 | Base Nerves system configuration for the Raspberry Pi 2 |  |
| NervesSystemRPi3 | Base Nerves system configuration for the Raspberry Pi 3 |  |
| NervesSystemRPi3A | Nerves system for the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ w/ gadget mode and Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W |  |
| NervesSystemRPi4 | Base Nerves system configuration for the Raspberry Pi 4 |  |
| NervesSystemRPi5 | Not available yet. See the discussion on ElixirForum for more info. | |
| NervesSystemVultr | Experimental configuration for a Vultr cloud server |  |
| NervesSystemX86_64 | Generic Nerves system configuration x86_64 based hardware |  |
| NervesSystemGrisp2 | Base Nerves system configuration for the GRiSP 2 |  |
| NervesSystemMangoPiMQPro | Base Nerves system configuration for the MangoPi MQ-Pro |  |
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| VintageNet | Network configuration and management for Nerves |  |
| VintageNetWiFi | WiFi networking for VintageNet |  |
| VintageNetDirect | Direct network connection support for VintageNet |  |
| VintageNetEthernet | Ethernet support for VintageNet |  |
| VintageNetMobile | Mobile connection support for VintageNet |  |
| VintageNetQMI | VintageNet technology support for QMI mobile connections |  |
| VintageNetWireGuard | Wireguard VPN support |  |
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| Circuits.GPIO | Use GPIOs in Elixir |  |
| Circuits.I2C | Use I2C in Elixir |  |
| Circuits.SPI | Communicate over SPI from Elixir |  |
| Circuits.UART | Discover and use UARTs and serial ports in Elixir |  |
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| NervesMOTD | Message of the day for Nerves devices |  |
| NervesSSH | Manage an SSH daemon and subsystems on Nerves devices |  |
| SSHSubsystemFwup | Erlang SSH Subsystem for Nerves firmware updates |  |
| Toolshed | A toolshed of shell-like IEx helpers |  |
Nerves provides a C/C++ cross-toolchain to ensure consistency builds on all supported host platforms. These are built using crosstool-ng and are similar to other GCC toolchains.
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| nerves_toolchain_ctng | Crosstool-NG integration for building Nerves toolchains |  |
| nerves_toolchain_aarch64_nerves_linux_gnu | 64-bit ARM toolchain |  |
| nerves_toolchain_armv5_nerves_linux_musleabi | 32-bit ARM toolchain for older ARM processors |  |
| nerves_toolchain_armv6_nerves_linux_gnueabihf | 32-bit ARM toolchain for Raspberry Pi A, B, and Zero |  |
| nerves_toolchain_armv7_nerves_linux_gnueabihf | 32-bit ARM toolchain for most 32-bit ARMs |  |
| nerves_toolchain_i586_nerves_linux_gnu | 32-bit Intel x86 toolchain |  |
| nerves_toolchain_mipsel_nerves_linux_musl | 32-bit MIPS toolchain |  |
| nerves_toolchain_riscv64_nerves_linux_gnu | 64-bit RISC-V toolchain |  |
| nerves_toolchain_x86_64_nerves_linux_musl | 64-bit x86 toolchain using the musl libc |  |
| nerves_toolchain_x86_64_nerves_linux_gnu | 64-bit x86 toolchain using GNU libc |  |
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| boardid | Print out a platform-specific board serial number |  |
| NervesFWLoaders | A collection of firmware loaders for boards with internal storage |  |
| NervesHeart | Erlang heartbeat support for Nerves |  |
| Shoehorn | Help handle OTP application failures and start order |  |
| UBootEnv | Read and write to U-Boot environment blocks |  |
These projects are new or experimental and are in various stages of being ready to promote to the above categories.
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| NervesLogging | Route system log messages through the Elixir logger |  |
| NervesUEvent | Simple UEvent monitor for detecting hardware and automatically loading drivers |  |
| PropertyTable | In-memory key-value store with subscriptions |  |
| nerves_initramfs | An initramfs for early boot handling of Nerves devices |  |
| nerves_system_linter | Mix task to check Nerves system configuration files |  |
| nerves_systems | Build scripts for maintaining multiple repositories | unreleased |
See outdated/inactive projects...
| Name | Description | Release |
|---|---|---|
| nerves_leds | Functions to drive LEDs on embedded systems |  |
| system_registry | Serial nested term storage and dispatch registry |  |
| system_registry_term_storage | Simple term storage for SystemRegistry |  |
| nerves_system_test | ||
| nerves_test_server |
There is also a gravesite for old Nerves libraries at https://github.com/nerves-project-attic.
- Mac OS 10.13+ (High Sierra and later)
- 64-bit Linux (tested on Debian / Ubuntu / Redhat / CentOS / Arch)
- Windows 10 with Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
- Elixir ~> 1.11
See Installation Docs for software dependencies.
mix nerves.new my_appexport MIX_TARGET=rpi3
mix deps.get # Fetch the dependencies
mix firmware # Cross-compile dependencies and create a .fw file
mix firmware.burn # Burn firmware to an inserted SD cardNote: The mix firmware.burn target relies on the presence of ssh-askpass. Some
users may need to export the SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable to point to their askpass
binary. On Arch Linux systems, this is in /usr/lib/ssh/ssh-askpass
This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.
Please see our Contributing Guide for details on how you can contribute in various ways.
Metal level sponsors are companies that allow core team members to maintain and extend Nerves for a portion of each work week. Nerves is not a product of any one company. We also have a soft spot for supporting makers and hobbyists using the BEAM, and it would be difficult to do this without them.
[Become a metal level sponsor]
Thank you to all our monetary backers! Hardware costs money and without support, we wouldn't be able to support nearly as many devices. 🙏 [Become a backer]
Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Become a sponsor]
Copyright (C) 2015-2021 by the Nerves Project developers nerves@nerves-project.org