mpremote romfs deploy: Directory handling is arguably inconsistent with cp -r

[peterhinch]

Port, board and/or hardware

Board independent. Tested on RP2040

MicroPython version

MicroPython v1.25.0-dirty on 2025-04-19; Raspberry Pi Pico with RP2040

Built with romfs

Reproduction

Issue

$ mpremote deploy foo

where foo is a directory on the PC containing subdirectories

Expected behaviour

The command

$ mpremote cp -r foo :

copies the directory foo with contents and subdirectories to the host. This is consistent with

$ cp -r foo bar

Observed behaviour

By contrast

$ mpremote deploy foo

copies the contents of foo as per

$ cp -r foo/* bar

A typical project might consist of a Python package foo where the executable foo is contained in a directory holding documentation and other resources. The requirement is to copy foo and its contents. Currently this requires a workround involving a temporary directory and a symlink.

Additional Information

Options are either to change this behaviour or provide means of deploying either the directory + contents or contents alone.

Code of Conduct

Yes, I agree

[robert-hh]

In contrast to the application you sketched here, people might NOT want to create a directory in ROMFS but just copy a few files. That would not possible with your suggested change, unless there would be an option whether the target directory is included or not. Or romfs deploy is changed to accept multiple arguments, which may be files or directories.
And no, I would not consider the current behavior a bug.

[peterhinch]

unless there would be an option whether the target directory is included or not.

That would be ideal: both have common use cases.

I would not consider the current behavior a bug.

Well, me neither; but there isn't a tag for "inconsistency" :)

[robert-hh]

You can clear the "bug" label and select "enhancement ".

[smurfix]

unless there would be an option whether the target directory is included or not

What for? Why not teach mpremote deploy foo to create a directory, while mpremote deploy foo/. simply deploys the files therein.

This is how rsyncworks, among other tools. mpremote should work the same way. Principle of least surprise and all that.