ESPAsyncWebServer Library Compatibility Issues with ESP32-S3 and ESP-IDF

[ayhamalji2]

Platform

ESP32

IDE / Tooling

PlatformIO

What happened?

Environment

• Platform: ESP32-S3 (4D Systems GEN4-ESP32 16MB)
• Framework: Arduino + ESP-IDF
• ESP-IDF Version: 4.4.6
• PlatformIO Version: Latest
• Library: ESPAsyncWebServer (multiple versions tested)

What happened?

The ESPAsyncWebServer library and its dependencies are experiencing compatibility issues with newer ESP-IDF versions, specifically with the ESP32-S3 platform. The library was designed for older ESP-IDF versions and hasn't been updated to support the newer networking stack changes.

Key Issues:

1. IP Address Structure Changes: The ip_addr_t structure has been updated in newer ESP-IDF versions, where the .addr member has been replaced with .u_addr.
2. Missing Headers: The interrupts.h header file is no longer available or has been moved in the current ESP-IDF version.
3. Library Version Mismatch: The ESPAsyncWebServer library and its dependencies (RPAsyncTCP, ESPAsyncTCP) were designed for older ESP-IDF versions.

Stack Trace

Stack Trace

1. RPAsyncTCP Library Errors

.pio/libdeps/4d_systems_esp32s3_gen4_r8n16/RPAsyncTCP/src/RPAsyncTCP.cpp:231:8: error: 'ip_addr_t' {aka 'struct ip_addr'} has no member named 'addr'; did you mean 'u_addr'?
   addr.addr = ip;
        ^~~~
        u_addr

Multiple occurrences of this error in:

• AsyncClient::connect(IPAddress, uint16_t)
• AsyncClient::connect(const char*, uint16_t)
• AsyncClient::operator==(const AsyncClient&) const
• AsyncClient::_dns_found(ip_addr_t*)
• AsyncClient::getRemoteAddress() const
• AsyncClient::getLocalAddress() const
• AsyncServer::begin()

2. ESPAsyncTCP Missing Header

.pio/libdeps/4d_systems_esp32s3_gen4_r8n16/ESPAsyncTCP/src/SyncClient.cpp:25:10: fatal error: interrupts.h: No such file or directory

Minimal Reproductible Example (MRE)

Minimal Reproducible Example (MRE)

platformio.ini

[env:4d_systems_esp32s3_gen4_r8n16]
platform = espressif32
board = 4d_systems_esp32s3_gen4_r8n16
framework = arduino, espidf
board_build.mcu = esp32s3
board_build.f_cpu = 240000000L
board_build.psram = enabled
board_build.filesystem = littlefs
board_build.partitions = custom_partitions.csv
build_type = debug
build_flags = 
	-Wno-error
	-Wno-reorder
	-Wno-logical-op
	-Wno-maybe-uninitialized
	-Wno-format-truncation
	-Wno-unused-variable
	-Wno-implicit-fallthrough
	-Wno-address
	-DCONFIG_MBEDTLS_KEY_EXCHANGE_PSK_ENABLED=1
	-DCONFIG_MBEDTLS_SSL_PSK_MODES=1
	-DLITTLEFS_ENABLED=1
	-DARDUINO_LITTLEFS=1
lib_ldf_mode = deep
lib_extra_dirs = 
	lib
	.pio/libdeps/4d_systems_esp32s3_gen4_r8n16
lib_deps = 
	esp32async/ESPAsyncWebServer@^3.7.10

main.cpp

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <ESPAsyncWebServer.h>

AsyncWebServer server(80);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  
  server.on("/", HTTP_GET, [](AsyncWebServerRequest *request){
    request->send(200, "text/plain", "Hello World!");
  });
  
  server.begin();
  Serial.println("HTTP server started");
}

void loop() {
  delay(1000);
}

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create a new PlatformIO project with the above configuration
2. Add the ESPAsyncWebServer library to lib_deps
3. Create the main.cpp file with the minimal example
4. Run pio run

Expected Result: Successful compilation and upload
Actual Result: Compilation fails with the errors shown in the stack trace

Impact

This issue prevents the use of ESPAsyncWebServer library on ESP32-S3 devices with current ESP-IDF versions, which is a significant limitation for projects requiring asynchronous web server functionality.

Requested Actions

1. Update RPAsyncTCP library to use the correct ip_addr_t structure members (.u_addr instead of .addr)
2. Fix ESPAsyncTCP library to handle the missing interrupts.h header
3. Test compatibility with ESP32-S3 and current ESP-IDF versions
4. Update documentation to reflect supported platforms and versions

Additional Context

This issue affects multiple ESPAsyncWebServer library variants and appears to be a systematic problem with the underlying TCP/Async libraries not being updated for newer ESP-IDF versions.

---

Note: This issue affects the entire ESPAsyncWebServer ecosystem and should be addressed at the dependency level (RPAsyncTCP, ESPAsyncTCP) as well as the main library level.

I confirm that:

• I have read the documentation.
• I have searched for similar discussions.
• I have searched for similar issues.
• I have looked at the examples.
• I have upgraded to the lasted version of ESPAsyncWebServer (and AsyncTCP for ESP32).

[mathieucarbou]

compatibility issues with newer ESP-IDF versions,

The ESP-IDF version is 5.x now.

You are still pointing to Arduino Core 2 with platform = espressif32.

Did you try to switch to Arduino Core 3 with ESP-IDF 5 ?

platform = https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32/releases/download/55.03.30-1/platform-espressif32.zip

[mathieucarbou]

Converting to a support discussion - I do not see any bugs at the moment to fix.