West workspace

[Christopher]

Hello,

I have created a standalone application using the NCS nrf SDK and Zephyr. I do manage all my project dependencies using West. I have some questions related to the west workspace:

1. Should I always create a west workspace using the `west init` command? Can I store a west workspace with its .west/config file in git? Or should I only store the west.yml and source files? I think it would be easier for the user only to clone one repo and do a `west update` instead of creating a workspace, cloning a git repo inside the workspace, and finally updating the dependencies.

2. Is there a way to store all dependencies in a subfolder in the workspace or is the "Zephyr" folder mandatory?

Thank you and best regards.

Christopher

[Simon]

1. Should I always create a west workspace using the `west init` command? Can I store a west workspace with its .west/config file in git? Or should I only store the west.yml and source files? I think it would be easier for the user only to clone one repo and do a `west update` instead of creating a workspace, cloning a git repo inside the workspace, and finally updating the dependencies.

I don't think there should be any issues adding .west/config in git, and then clone the project, and run west update (requires two steps).

However, another approach is to use the west init -m <url> command, which will clone the project and create a west workspace in one command, then you can run west update (this approach also requires only two steps).

Take a look at this project for a demonstration how to go about this: https://github.com/OeySa/nRF9160-Hello_Board 

This project will also fetch all the nRF Connect SDK dependencies when running west update (https://github.com/OeySa/nRF9160-Hello_Board/blob/95f6cb7fb44e0269396be983e4298b2b1366211b/west.yml#L10(the only thing you need to do to update NCS is to modify the NCS version)

2. Is there a way to store all dependencies in a subfolder in the workspace or is the "Zephyr" folder mandatory?

I played around and created a project with the following structure:

• hello_world
  • ...
  • west.yml
• my_dependencies
• ncs_dependencies
  • .west

It is located here: https://github.com/simon-iversen/application_as_manifest 

Then you can run west init -m https://github.com/simon-iversen/application_as_manifest, and then west update (from ncs_dependencies). Then all the ncs dependenceis will be put into ncs_dependencies. I could not figure out how to keep the .west file in the top directory and still place all the ncs specific modules inside the ncs_dependencies.

Please let me know if you are looking for something like this, and I will figure out how to do this properly.

Best regards,

Simon

[Christopher]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for your message and the resources.

I did not really find the same example in my use case.

1. In your example, I see this PR: https://github.com/OeySa/nRF9160-Hello_Board/pull/1. Should I make a Zephyr module or not ?

2. In your example, what will be the content of the ZEPHYR_ROOT variable? Is west setting it for me manually or should I source the Zephyr I want to use? I saw there was an issue when opening a console from the nRF Connect PC app (toolchain manager, see https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-toolchain-manager/commit/554c9a2dc656f0371d3cb45e0d9bf939bfc2ea20#diff-c275fec9c453c2a42515bc5ab47e30fa4130ff1426aef2f6e000a9a34e122cb8R25).

I would be interested in having a .west folder on the top level of my repository, and I would also like to store the .west/config file in a repository. This would let the user clone the repo as any repo, and not learn and use a specific tool for that purpose.

Thank you.

Christopher

[Simon]

Christopher said:

1. In your example, I see this PR: https://github.com/OeySa/nRF9160-Hello_Board/pull/1. Should I make a Zephyr module or not ?

I don't think this is necessary. I think this was done to be able to add an out-of-tree board to the project.

Christopher said:

I would be interested in having a .west folder on the top level of my repository, and I would also like to store the .west/config file in a repository. This would let the user clone the repo as any repo, and not learn and use a specific tool for that purpose.

I will get back to you about this

Christopher said:

I would be interested in having a .west folder on the top level of my repository

I was able to make this work using path-prefix, check it out here https://github.com/simon-iversen/application_as_manifest. If you follow the steps in the readme, you will end up with .west/config located in the root folder, and the ncs specific stuff will be put into the ncs_dependencies folder.

Christopher said:

and I would also like to store the .west/config file in a repository.

I asked a developer internally that's working with west and got the following reply:

"It is not recommended to store the entire workspace in a git repository. Some users try to do this and it may happen to work in some cases, but there are no guarantees. It is not a supported use case. Workspaces should be created via west init."

Best regards,

Simon

[Simon]

Christopher said:

2. In your example, what will be the content of the ZEPHYR_ROOT variable? Is west setting it for me manually or should I source the Zephyr I want to use? I saw there was an issue when opening a console from the nRF Connect PC app (toolchain manager, see https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-toolchain-manager/commit/554c9a2dc656f0371d3cb45e0d9bf939bfc2ea20#diff-c275fec9c453c2a42515bc5ab47e30fa4130ff1426aef2f6e000a9a34e122cb8R25).

I see that I still haven't answered this question.

Did you figure this out?