SPSDK allows user to install additional plugins and integrate them with SPSDK functionality. They allow to extend the normal SPSDK functionality with additional features.
Due to increasingly complex codebase it was decided to move some functionality into plugins. This allows to keep the core SPSDK codebase clean and focused on the main functionality. The repository containing the plugins is located at: https://github.com/nxp-mcuxpresso/spsdk_plugins Plugins are also released on PyPi.
Affected functionality is the following:
- J-Link debug probe support (using the PyLink library), installable via
pip install spsdk-jlink - PE Micro debug probe support, installable via
pip install spsdk-pemicro - Added support for Lauterbach debug probe, installable via
pip install spsdk-lauterbach
J-Link and PE Micro over PyOCD are also in a form of a plugin, but they are installed by default in SPSDK.
The table bellow shows the list of support plugin types with associated package entrypoints, cookiecutter templates and base class they are derived from.
| Plugin | Entrypoint | Template name | Base class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signature Provider | spsdk.sp | cookiecutter-spsdk-sp-plugin.zip | spsdk.crypto.signature_provider.SignatureProvider |
| Mboot Device Interface | spsdk.device.interface | cookiecutter-spsdk-device-interface-plugin.zip | spsdk.mboot.protocol.base.MbootProtocolBase |
| SDP Device Interface | spsdk.device.interface | cookiecutter-spsdk-device-interface-plugin.zip | spsdk.sdp.protocol.base.SDPProtocolBase |
| WPC Service | spsdk.wpc.service | cookiecutter-spsdk-wpc-service-plugin.zip | spsdk.wpc.utils.WPCCertificateService |
| Debug probe | spsdk.debug_probe | cookiecutter-spsdk-debug-probe-plugin.zip | spsdk.debuggers.debug_probe.DebugProbeCoreSightOnly |
There are basically two ways how a plugin can be implemented.
- A Python package installed in the environment (preferred)
- A single Python module with the plugin implementation in it
The actual implementation depends on actual plugin type. In general every plugin must be derived from the plugin base class and implement it's methods.
All the plugins installed in the Python environment will be discovered automatically. The only requirement for package is to add specific entrypoint metadata into the package.
You can find the list of plugin entrypoints based on the plugin type in the table above.
In order to make the implementation of the plugins easier, a cookiecutter template can be used.
You can find all the cookiecutter templates in the /templates folder.
The instructions for generating plugin package from cookiecutter template:
- Install cookiecutter:
pip install cookiecutter - Create plugin:
cookiecutter <spsdk_root>/examples/plugins/templates/<plugin_template>.zip - Follow the instructions in the command prompt
- A new plugin package is created in current folder
- Install plugin:
pip install <my_project_path>(for development use-e/--editableflag)
In some situations the installation into the Python environment is not possible.
For such scenarios a plugin as a single Python module can be implemented.
In this case the plugin is not loaded automatically.
The plugin will be loaded if the --plugin <path_to_py_file> option is used in SPSDK application command.
Part of this repository is also codecheck tool. It is a simple set of checking tools for accepting code quality for NXP python projects. It is a standalone tool that can be used to check the code quality of any python project. It is also used in the CI/CD pipeline of the SPSDK project.
