Feature request: ability to change NVS namespace

[toptensoftware]

I'm working on a project that implements multiple virtual keyboard devices.

When switching devices I call NimBLEDevice::deinit(true) and then reinitialize again with init(). It works fine, but I'm limited in the number of devices by the nimble bond store. What's worse is that pairing/unpairing multiple devices on one virtual device can break bonding on others.

What would be ideal is a way to change NimBLE's NVS namespace name - that would keep bound devices for each virtual device separate.

I've hacked this by redefining NIMBLE_NVS_NAMESPACE in ble_store_nvs.c

//#define NIMBLE_NVS_NAMESPACE                     "nimble_bond"
const char* NIMBLE_NVS_NAMESPACE = "nimble_bond";

and updating it in my code:

extern const char* NIMBLE_NVS_NAMESPACE;

    // deinit before

    sprintf(nvsName, "nimble_bond_%i", virtualDeviceIndex);
    NIMBLE_NVS_NAMESPACE = nvsName;

    // reinit after

The above works, but an official way to do this would be nice.

(Also open to suggestions for an existing correct way to do this).

[h2zero]

How many bonds do you need? You could just increase the max bonds value to that.

[toptensoftware]

Thanks for the quick reply. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding how it works.

Suppose I have 3 virtual devices and max bonds set to 3. I activate and pair virtual device 1 and 2. Now I activate virtual device 3 and pair it three times... wouldn't that evict the bonds for virtual devices 1 and 2?

With separate nvs namespaces, everything is kept nice and separate.

[h2zero]

I guess this depends on how the devices are implemented, if each one has it's own identity address then re-pairing will just delete the old bond info and overwrite it with the new info. The only time other bonds are deleted is if the new pairing is with a device that hasn't already been bonded.

Your proposed solution is good however, my only issue is that it is a file that is maintained upstream, maybe we can suggest it there.

[toptensoftware]

I guess for moment, I'll just keep using the hack - it's a one line tweak to the library.

As for proposing upstream, that sounds good. Do you have a way to do that or do you want me to do it?