eSim Tool Manager — README

This was part of a FOSSEE Fellowship task. The goal? Build a working CLI-based tool manager that can handle installation, version checking, updates, and PATH validation for tools like ngspice and KiCad. I focused entirely on Windows — didn’t bother with Linux or Mac because I wanted to go all-in on making one platform work cleanly.

---

🚀 What It Can Do

• Install ngspice or KiCad with Chocolatey (on Windows)
• Check if those tools are already installed, and what version
• Detect if your PATH is broken (and optionally fix it)
• Run basic sanity checks (Python version, admin rights, etc.)
• Give you a clean CLI or a simple menu UI if you don’t like typing commands
• Log everything it does — good or bad — to a file

---

📦 Tools This Manages

Tool	Expected Version
ngspice	41.0.0
KiCad	9.0

(If you’ve got a different version, it’ll tell you — and you can upgrade right from the CLI.)

---

🔧 Setup (Windows Only)

I didn’t want to half-support Linux or Mac — so this is fully Windows-focused and tested.

Step 1: Install Chocolatey

https://chocolatey.org/install

Step 2: Install Python 3.8 or newer

Step 3: Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/VaradhaCodes/esim-tool-manager.git
cd esim-tool-manager

Step 4: Install Python dependencies

If you want to use the interactive menu, you'll need to install typer — so just run this:

pip install typer

Highly recommend using the menu — it makes it way easier to test everything in one place without typing out each command.

---

✅ How to Use It

Option 1: CLI commands

# Install ngspice
python main.py install ngspice

# Check installed tools
python main.py check

# Update a tool
python main.py update kicad

# Fix missing PATH entries
python main.py configure

# Uninstall a tool
python main.py uninstall ngspice

# List supported tools
python main.py list

# Check Python/Choco/admin status
python main.py diagnose

Option 2: Menu (for simpler use)

python menu.py

It’s a basic numbered menu — nothing fancy, but it saves a hell of a lot of time when you just want to get stuff done quickly.

---

📁 Logs

Every action is logged to logs/tool_manager.log. If something fails, check the log.

[2025-04-06 10:52:03] [INSTALL] Tool: ngspice | Status: SUCCESS | Installed via Chocolatey

---

❓ Real-World Fixes for Real Problems

Problem	Fix
Chocolatey not found	Install it and restart your terminal
PATH is still broken	Use python main.py configure, then restart terminal
Installation failed	Try running as admin, or check the logs
Python too old	Upgrade to 3.8+

---

🛠️ Future Ideas

• Add Linux install support (apt, pacman, etc.)
• Config file for custom version preferences
• Support more tools (GHDL, Verilator, etc.)
• GUI wrapper for people who hate terminals
• CI pipeline and unit tests

---

Author

Varadha — built this from scratch as part of FOSSEE Summer Fellowship 2025. Prioritized working code over buzzwords. If you're reading this to evaluate the submission: everything here was written, tested, and structured to actually run without surprises. Thank you for reading!

Name : Varadharam R S. Email : vr428@snu.edu.in

---