As well as the [esp-idf-template](https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf-template) project mentioned in the setup guide, ESP-IDF comes with some example projects in the [examples](examples) directory.
Once you've found the project you want to work with, change to its directory and you can configure and build it.
This will flash the entire project (app, bootloader and partition table) to a new chip. The settings for serial port flashing can be configured with `make menuconfig`.
The `make monitor` target uses the [idf_monitor tool](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/get-started/idf-monitor.html) to display serial output from the ESP32. idf_monitor also has a range of features to decode crash output and interact with the device. [Check the documentation page for details](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/get-started/idf-monitor.html).
ESP-IDF supports compiling multiple files in parallel, so all of the above commands can be run as `make -jN` where `N` is the number of parallel make processes to run (generally N should be equal to or one more than the number of CPU cores in your system.)
Multiple make functions can be combined into one. For example: to build the app & bootloader using 5 jobs in parallel, then flash everything, and then display serial output from the ESP32 run:
Once you've compiled your project, the "build" directory will contain a binary file with a name like "my_app.bin". This is an ESP32 image binary that can be loaded by the bootloader.
A single ESP32's flash can contain multiple apps, as well as many different kinds of data (calibration data, filesystems, parameter storage, etc). For this reason a partition table is flashed to offset 0x8000 in the flash.
Each entry in the partition table has a name (label), type (app, data, or something else), subtype and the offset in flash where the partition is loaded.
The simplest way to use the partition table is to `make menuconfig` and choose one of the simple predefined partition tables:
* "Single factory app, no OTA"
* "Factory app, two OTA definitions"
In both cases the factory app is flashed at offset 0x10000. If you `make partition_table` then it will print a summary of the partition table.
For more details about partition tables and how to create custom variations, view the [`docs/api-guides/partition-tables.rst`](docs/api-guides/partition-tables.rst) file.
The `make flash` target does not erase the entire flash contents. However it is sometimes useful to set the device back to a totally erased state, particularly when making partition table changes or OTA app updates. To erase the entire flash, run `make erase_flash`.
This can be combined with other targets, ie `make erase_flash flash` will erase everything and then re-flash the new app, bootloader and partition table.
* Documentation for the latest version: https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/. This documentation is built from the [docs directory](docs) of this repository.
* [Check the Issues section on github](https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/issues) if you find a bug or have a feature request. Please check existing Issues before opening a new one.
* If you're interested in contributing to ESP-IDF, please check the [Contributions Guide](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contribute/index.html).
