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West Manifests 

This page contains detailed information about west’s multiple repository model, manifest files, and the west manifest command. For API documentation on the west.manifest module, see west.manifest. For a more general introduction and command overview, see Basics.

Multiple Repository Model 

West’s view of the repositories in a west workspace, and their history, looks like the following figure (though some parts of this example are specific to upstream Zephyr’s use of west):

The history of the manifest repository is the line of Git commits which is “floating” on top of the gray plane. Parent commits point to child commits using solid arrows. The plane below contains the Git commit history of the repositories in the workspace, with each project repository boxed in by a rectangle. Parent/child commit relationships in each repository are also shown with solid arrows.

The commits in the manifest repository (again, for upstream Zephyr this is the zephyr repository itself) each have a manifest file. The manifest file in each commit specifies the corresponding commits which it expects in each of the project repositories. This relationship is shown using dotted line arrows in the diagram. Each dotted line arrow points from a commit in the manifest repository to a corresponding commit in a project repository.

Notice the following important details:

Projects can be added (like P1 between manifest repository commits D and E) and removed (P2 between the same manifest repository commits)
Project and manifest repository histories don’t have to move forwards or backwards together:
- P2 stays the same from A → B, as do P1 and P3 from F → G.
- P3 moves forward from A → B.
- P3 moves backward from C → D.
One use for moving backward in project history is to “revert” a regression by going back to a revision before it was introduced.
Project repository commits can be “skipped”: P3 moves forward multiple commits in its history from B → C.
In the above diagram, no project repository has two revisions “at the same time”: every manifest file refers to exactly one commit in the projects it cares about. This can be relaxed by using a branch name as a manifest revision, at the cost of being able to bisect manifest repository history.

Manifest Files 

West manifests are YAML files. Manifests have a top-level manifest section with some subsections, like this:

manifest:
  remotes:
    # short names for project URLs
  projects:
    # a list of projects managed by west
  defaults:
    # default project attributes
  self:
    # configuration related to the manifest repository itself,
    # i.e. the repository containing west.yml
  version: "<schema-version>"
  group-filter:
    # a list of project groups to enable or disable

In YAML terms, the manifest file contains a mapping, with a manifest key. Any other keys and their contents are ignored (west v0.5 also required a west key, but this is ignored starting with v0.6).

The manifest contains subsections, like defaults, remotes, projects, and self. In YAML terms, the value of the manifest key is also a mapping, with these “subsections” as keys. As of west v0.10, all of these “subsection” keys are optional.

The projects value is a list of repositories managed by west and associated metadata. We’ll discuss it soon, but first we will describe the remotes section, which can be used to save typing in the projects list.

Remotes 

The remotes subsection contains a sequence which specifies the base URLs where projects can be fetched from.

Each remotes element has a name and a “URL base”. These are used to form the complete Git fetch URL for each project. A project’s fetch URL can be set by appending a project-specific path onto a remote URL base. (As we’ll see below, projects can also specify their complete fetch URLs.)

For example:

manifest:
  # ...
  remotes:
    - name: remote1
      url-base: https://git.example.com/base1
    - name: remote2
      url-base: https://git.example.com/base2

The remotes keys and their usage are in the following table.

remotes keys
Key	Description
`name`	Mandatory; a unique name for the remote.
`url-base`	A prefix that is prepended to the fetch URL for each project with this remote.

Above, two remotes are given, with names remote1 and remote2. Their URL bases are respectively https://git.example.com/base1 and https://git.example.com/base2. You can use SSH URL bases as well; for example, you might use git@example.com:base1 if remote1 supported Git over SSH as well. Anything acceptable to Git will work.

Projects 

The projects subsection contains a sequence describing the project repositories in the west workspace. Every project has a unique name. You can specify what Git remote URLs to use when cloning and fetching the projects, what revisions to track, and where the project should be stored on the local file system. Note that west projects are different from modules.

Here is an example. We’ll assume the remotes given above.

manifest:
  # [... same remotes as above...]
  projects:
    - name: proj1
      description: the first example project
      remote: remote1
      path: extra/project-1
    - name: proj2
      description: |
        A multi-line description of the second example
        project.
      repo-path: my-path
      remote: remote2
      revision: v1.3
    - name: proj3
      url: https://github.com/user/project-three
      revision: abcde413a111

In this manifest:

proj1 has remote remote1, so its Git fetch URL is https://git.example.com/base1/proj1. The remote url-base is appended with a / and the project name to form the URL.

Locally, this project will be cloned at path extra/project-1 relative to the west workspace’s root directory, since it has an explicit path attribute with this value.

Since the project has no revision specified, master is used by default. The current tip of this branch will be fetched and checked out as a detached HEAD when west next updates this project.
proj2 has a remote and a repo-path, so its fetch URL is https://git.example.com/base2/my-path. The repo-path attribute, if present, overrides the default name when forming the fetch URL.

Since the project has no path attribute, its name is used by default. It will be cloned into a directory named proj2. The commit pointed to by the v1.3 tag will be checked out when west updates the project.
proj3 has an explicit url, so it will be fetched from https://github.com/user/project-three.

Its local path defaults to its name, proj3. Commit abcde413a111 will be checked out when it is next updated.

The available project keys and their usage are in the following table. Sometimes we’ll refer to the defaults subsection; it will be described next.

projects elements keys
Key(s)	Description
`name`	Mandatory; a unique name for the project. The name cannot be one of the reserved values “west” or “manifest”. The name must be unique in the manifest file.
`description`	Optional, an informational description of the project. Added in west v1.2.0.
`remote`, `url`	Mandatory (one of the two, but not both). If the project has a `remote`, that remote’s `url-base` will be combined with the project’s `name` (or `repo-path`, if it has one) to form the fetch URL instead. If the project has a `url`, that’s the complete fetch URL for the remote Git repository. If the project has neither, the `defaults` section must specify a `remote`, which will be used as the project’s remote. Otherwise, the manifest is invalid.
`repo-path`	Optional. If given, this is concatenated on to the remote’s `url-base` instead of the project’s `name` to form its fetch URL. Projects may not have both `url` and `repo-path` attributes.
`revision`	Optional. The Git revision that `west update` should check out. This will be checked out as a detached HEAD by default, to avoid conflicting with local branch names. If not given, the `revision` value from the `defaults` subsection will be used if present. A project revision can be a branch, tag, or SHA. The default `revision` is `master` if not otherwise specified. Using `HEAD~0` [1] as the `revision` will cause west to keep the current state of the project.
`path`	Optional. Relative path specifying where to clone the repository locally, relative to the top directory in the west workspace. If missing, the project’s `name` is used as a directory name.
`clone-depth`	Optional. If given, a positive integer which creates a shallow history in the cloned repository limited to the given number of commits. This can only be used if the `revision` is a branch or tag.
`west-commands`	Optional. If given, a relative path to a YAML file within the project which describes additional west commands provided by that project. This file is named `west-commands.yml` by convention. See Extensions for details.
`import`	Optional. If `true`, imports projects from manifest files in the given repository into the current manifest. See Manifest Imports for details.
`groups`	Optional, a list of groups the project belongs to. See Project Groups for details.
`submodules`	Optional. You can use this to make `west update` also update Git submodules defined by the project. See Git Submodules in Projects for details.
`userdata`	Optional. The value is an arbitrary YAML value. See Repository user data.

Footnotes

Defaults 

The defaults subsection can provide default values for project attributes. In particular, the default remote name and revision can be specified here. Another way to write the same manifest we have been describing so far using defaults is:

manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: remote1
    revision: v1.3

  remotes:
    - name: remote1
      url-base: https://git.example.com/base1
    - name: remote2
      url-base: https://git.example.com/base2

  projects:
    - name: proj1
      description: the first example project
      path: extra/project-1
      revision: master
    - name: proj2
      description: |
        A multi-line description of the second example
        project.
      repo-path: my-path
      remote: remote2
    - name: proj3
      url: https://github.com/user/project-three
      revision: abcde413a111

The available defaults keys and their usage are in the following table.

defaults keys
Key	Description
`remote`	Optional. This will be used for a project’s `remote` if it does not have a `url` or `remote` key set.
`revision`	Optional. This will be used for a project’s `revision` if it does not have one set. If not given, the default is `master`.

Self 

The self subsection can be used to control the manifest repository itself.

As an example, let’s consider this snippet from the zephyr repository’s west.yml:

manifest:
  # ...
  self:
    path: zephyr
    west-commands: scripts/west-commands.yml

This ensures that the zephyr repository is cloned into path zephyr, though as explained above that would have happened anyway if cloning from the default manifest URL, https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr. Since the zephyr repository does contain extension commands, its self entry declares the location of the corresponding west-commands.yml relative to the repository root.

The available self keys and their usage are in the following table.

self keys
Key	Description
`path`	Optional. The path `west init` should clone the manifest repository into, relative to the west workspace topdir. If not given, the basename of the path component in the manifest repository URL will be used by default. For example, if the URL is `https://git.example.com/project-repo`, the manifest repository would be cloned to the directory `project-repo`.
`west-commands`	Optional. This is analogous to the same key in a project sequence element.
`import`	Optional. This is also analogous to the `projects` key, but allows importing projects from other files in the manifest repository. See Manifest Imports.

Version 

The version subsection declares that the manifest file uses features which were introduced in some version of west. Attempts to load the manifest with older versions of west will fail with an error message that explains the minimum required version of west which is needed.

Here is an example:

manifest:
  # Marks that this file uses version 0.10 of the west manifest
  # file format.
  #
  # An attempt to load this manifest file with west v0.8.0 will
  # fail with an error message saying that west v0.10.0 or
  # later is required.
  version: "0.10"

The pykwalify schema manifest-schema.yml in the west source code repository is used to validate the manifest section.

Here is a table with the valid version values, along with information about the manifest file features that were introduced in that version.

`version`	New features
`"0.7"`	Initial support for the `version` feature. All manifest file features that are not otherwise mentioned in this table were introduced in west v0.7.0 or earlier.
`"0.8"`	Support for `import: path-prefix:` (Option 3: Mapping)
`"0.9"`	Use of west v0.9.x is discouraged. This schema version is provided to allow users to explicitly request compatibility with west v0.9.0. However, west v0.10.0 and later have incompatible behavior for features that were introduced in west v0.9.0. You should ignore version “0.9” if possible.
`"0.10"`	Support for: `submodules:` in `projects:` (Git Submodules in Projects) `manifest: group-filter:`, and `groups:` in `projects:` (Project Groups) The `import:` feature now supports `allowlist:` and `blocklist:`; these are respectively recommended as replacements for older names as part of a general Zephyr-wide inclusive language change. The older key names are still supported for backwards compatibility. (Manifest Imports, Option 3: Mapping)
`"0.12"`	Support for `userdata:` in `projects:` (Repository user data)
`"0.13"`	Support for `self: userdata:` (Repository user data)
`"1.0"`	Identical to `"0.13"`, but available for use by users that do not wish to use a `"0.x"` version field.
`"1.2"`	Support for `description:` in `projects:` (Projects)

Note

Versions of west without any new features in the manifest file format do not change the list of valid version values. For example, version: "0.11" is not valid, because west v0.11.x did not introduce new manifest file format features.

Quoting the version value as shown above forces the YAML parser to treat it as a string. Without quotes, 0.10 in YAML is just the floating point value 0.1. You can omit the quotes if the value is the same when cast to string, but it’s best to include them. Always use quotes if you’re not sure.

If you do not include a version in your manifest, each new release of west assumes that it should try to load it using the features that were available in that release. This may result in error messages that are harder to understand if that version of west is too old to load the manifest.

Group-filter 

See Project Groups.

Active and Inactive Projects 

Projects defined in the west manifest can be inactive or active. The difference is that an inactive project is generally ignored by west. For example, west update will not update inactive projects, and west list will not print information about them by default. As another example, any Manifest Imports in an inactive project will be ignored by west.

There are two ways to make a project inactive:

Using the manifest.project-filter configuration option. If a project is made active or inactive using this option, then the rules related to making a project inactive using its groups: are ignored. That is, if a regular expression in manifest.project-filter applies to a project, the project’s groups have no effect on whether it is active or inactive.

See the entry for this option in Built-in Configuration Options for details.
Otherwise, if a project has groups, and they are all disabled, then the project is inactive.

See the following section for details.

Project Groups 

You can use the groups and group-filter keys briefly described above to place projects into groups, and to enable or disable groups.

For example, this lets you run a west forall command only on the projects in the group by using west forall --group. This can also let you make projects inactive; see the previous section for more information on inactive projects.

The next section introduces project groups. The following section describes Enabled and Disabled Project Groups. There are some basic examples in Project Group Examples. Finally, Group Filters and Imports provides a simplified overview of how group-filter interacts with the Manifest Imports feature.

Groups Basics 

The groups: and group-filter: keys appear in the manifest like this:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: some-project
      groups: ...
  group-filter: ...

The groups key’s value is a list of group names. Group names are strings.

You can enable or disable project groups using group-filter. Projects whose groups are all disabled, and which are not otherwise made active by a manifest.project-filter configuration option, are inactive.

For example, in this manifest fragment:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: project-1
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: project-2
      groups:
        - groupB
        - groupC
    - name: project-3

The projects are in these groups:

project-1: one group, named groupA
project-2: two groups, named groupB and groupC
project-3: no groups

Project group names must not contain commas (,), colons (:), or whitespace.

Group names must not begin with a dash (-) or the plus sign (+), but they may contain these characters elsewhere in their names. For example, foo-bar and foo+bar are valid groups, but -foobar and +foobar are not.

Group names are otherwise arbitrary strings. Group names are case sensitive.

As a restriction, no project may use both import: and groups:. (This is necessary to avoid some pathological edge cases.)

Enabled and Disabled Project Groups 

All project groups are enabled by default. You can enable or disable groups in both your manifest file and Configuration.

Within a manifest file, manifest: group-filter: is a YAML list of groups to enable and disable.

To enable a group, prefix its name with a plus sign (+). For example, groupA is enabled in this manifest fragment:

manifest:
  group-filter: [+groupA]

Although this is redundant for groups that are already enabled by default, it can be used to override settings in an imported manifest file. See Group Filters and Imports for more information.

To disable a group, prefix its name with a dash (-). For example, groupA and groupB are disabled in this manifest fragment:

manifest:
  group-filter: [-groupA,-groupB]

Note

Since group-filter is a YAML list, you could have written this fragment as follows:

manifest:
  group-filter:
    - -groupA
    - -groupB

However, this syntax is harder to read and therefore discouraged.

In addition to the manifest file, you can control which groups are enabled and disabled using the manifest.group-filter configuration option. This option is a comma-separated list of groups to enable and/or disable.

To enable a group, add its name to the list prefixed with +. To disable a group, add its name prefixed with -. For example, setting manifest.group-filter to +groupA,-groupB enables groupA, and disables groupB.

The value of the configuration option overrides any data in the manifest file. You can think of this as if the manifest.group-filter configuration option is appended to the manifest: group-filter: list from YAML, with “last entry wins” semantics.

Project Group Examples 

This section contains example situations involving project groups and active projects. The examples use both manifest: group-filter: YAML lists and manifest.group-filter configuration lists, to show how they work together.

Note that the defaults and remotes data in the following manifests isn’t relevant except to make the examples complete and self-contained.

Note

In all of the examples that follow, the manifest.project-filter option is assumed to be unset.

Example 1: no disabled groups

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB
    - name: baz

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is not set (you can ensure this by running west config -D manifest.group-filter).

No groups are disabled, because all groups are enabled by default. Therefore, all three projects (foo, bar, and baz) are active. Note that there is no way to make project baz inactive, since it has no groups.

Example 2: Disabling one group via manifest

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  group-filter: [-groupA]

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is not set (you can ensure this by running west config -D manifest.group-filter).

Since groupA is disabled, project foo is inactive. Project bar is active, because groupB is enabled.

Example 3: Disabling multiple groups via manifest

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  group-filter: [-groupA,-groupB]

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is not set (you can ensure this by running west config -D manifest.group-filter).

Both foo and bar are inactive, because all of their groups are disabled.

Example 4: Disabling a group via configuration

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is set to -groupA (you can ensure this by running west config manifest.group-filter -- -groupA; the extra -- is required so the argument parser does not treat -groupA as a command line option -g with value roupA).

Project foo is inactive because groupA has been disabled by the manifest.group-filter configuration option. Project bar is active because groupB is enabled.

Example 5: Overriding a disabled group via configuration

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: baz
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  group-filter: [-groupA]

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is set to +groupA (you can ensure this by running west config manifest.group-filter +groupA).

In this case, groupA is enabled: the manifest.group-filter configuration option has higher precedence than the manifest: group-filter: [-groupA] content in the manifest file.

Therefore, projects foo and bar are both active.

Example 6: Overriding multiple disabled groups via configuration

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: baz
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  group-filter: [-groupA,-groupB]

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is set to +groupA,+groupB (you can ensure this by running west config manifest.group-filter "+groupA,+groupB").

In this case, both groupA and groupB are enabled, because the configuration value overrides the manifest file for both groups.

Therefore, projects foo and bar are both active.

Example 7: Disabling multiple groups via configuration

The entire manifest file is:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
    - name: bar
      groups:
        - groupA
    - name: baz
      groups:
        - groupA
        - groupB

  defaults:
    remote: example-remote
  remotes:
    - name: example-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com

The manifest.group-filter configuration option is set to -groupA,-groupB (you can ensure this by running west config manifest.group-filter -- "-groupA,-groupB").

In this case, both groupA and groupB are disabled.

Therefore, projects foo and bar are both inactive.

Group Filters and Imports 

This section provides a simplified description of how the manifest: group-filter: value behaves when combined with Manifest Imports. For complete details, see Manifest Import Details.

Warning

The below semantics apply to west v0.10.0 and later. West v0.9.x semantics are different, and combining group-filter with import in west v0.9.x is discouraged.

In short:

if you only import one manifest, any groups it disables in its group-filter are also disabled in your manifest
you can override this in your manifest file’s manifest: group-filter: value, your workspace’s manifest.group-filter configuration option, or both

Here are some examples.

Example 1: no overrides

You are using this parent/west.yml manifest:

# parent/west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: child
      url: https://git.example.com/child
      import: true
    - name: project-1
      url: https://git.example.com/project-1
      groups:
        - unstable

And child/west.yml contains:

# child/west.yml:
manifest:
  group-filter: [-unstable]
  projects:
    - name: project-2
      url: https://git.example.com/project-2
    - name: project-3
      url: https://git.example.com/project-3
      groups:
        - unstable

Only child and project-2 are active in the resolved manifest.

The unstable group is disabled in child/west.yml, and that is not overridden in parent/west.yml. Therefore, the final group-filter for the resolved manifest is [-unstable].

Since project-1 and project-3 are in the unstable group and are not in any other group, they are inactive.

Example 2: overriding an imported `group-filter` via manifest

You are using this parent/west.yml manifest:

# parent/west.yml:
manifest:
  group-filter: [+unstable,-optional]
  projects:
    - name: child
      url: https://git.example.com/child
      import: true
    - name: project-1
      url: https://git.example.com/project-1
      groups:
        - unstable

And child/west.yml contains:

# child/west.yml:
manifest:
  group-filter: [-unstable]
  projects:
    - name: project-2
      url: https://git.example.com/project-2
      groups:
        - optional
    - name: project-3
      url: https://git.example.com/project-3
      groups:
        - unstable

Only the child, project-1, and project-3 projects are active.

The [-unstable] group filter in child/west.yml is overridden in parent/west.yml, so the unstable group is enabled. Since project-1 and project-3 are in the unstable group, they are active.

The same parent/west.yml file disables the optional group, so project-2 is inactive.

The final group filter specified by parent/west.yml is [+unstable,-optional].

Example 3: overriding an imported `group-filter` via configuration

You are using this parent/west.yml manifest:

# parent/west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: child
      url: https://git.example.com/child
      import: true
    - name: project-1
      url: https://git.example.com/project-1
      groups:
        - unstable

And child/west.yml contains:

# child/west.yml:
manifest:
  group-filter: [-unstable]
  projects:
    - name: project-2
      url: https://git.example.com/project-2
      groups:
        - optional
    - name: project-3
      url: https://git.example.com/project-3
      groups:
        - unstable

If you run:

west config manifest.group-filter +unstable,-optional

Then only the child, project-1, and project-3 projects are active.

The -unstable group filter in child/west.yml is overridden in the manifest.group-filter configuration option, so the unstable group is enabled. Since project-1 and project-3 are in the unstable group, they are active.

The same configuration option disables the optional group, so project-2 is inactive.

The final group filter specified by parent/west.yml and the manifest.group-filter configuration option is [+unstable,-optional].

Git Submodules in Projects 

You can use the submodules keys briefly described above to force west update to also handle any Git submodules configured in project’s git repository. The submodules key can appear inside projects, like this:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: some-project
      submodules: ...

The submodules key can be a boolean or a list of mappings. We’ll describe these in order.

Option 1: Boolean 

This is the easiest way to use submodules.

If submodules is true as a projects attribute, west update will recursively update the project’s Git submodules whenever it updates the project itself. If it’s false or missing, it has no effect.

For example, let’s say you have a source code repository foo, which has some submodules, and you want west update to keep all of them in sync, along with another project named bar in the same workspace.

You can do that with this manifest file:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      submodules: true
    - name: bar

Here, west update will initialize and update all submodules in foo. If bar has any submodules, they are ignored, because bar does not have a submodules value.

Option 2: List of mappings 

The submodules key may be a list of mappings, one list element for each desired submodule. Each submodule listed is updated recursively. You can still track and update unlisted submodules with git commands manually; present or not they will be completely ignored by west.

The path key must match exactly the path of one submodule relative to its parent west project, as shown in the output of git submodule status. The name key is optional and not used by west for now; it’s not passed to git submodule commands either. The name key was briefly mandatory in west version 0.9.0, but was made optional in 0.9.1.

For example, let’s say you have a source code repository foo, which has many submodules, and you want west update to keep some but not all of them in sync, along with another project named bar in the same workspace.

You can do that with this manifest file:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      submodules:
        - path: path/to/foo-first-sub
        - name: foo-second-sub
          path: path/to/foo-second-sub
    - name: bar

Here, west update will recursively initialize and update just the submodules in foo with paths path/to/foo-first-sub and path/to/foo-second-sub. Any submodules in bar are still ignored.

Repository user data 

West versions v0.12 and later support an optional userdata key in projects.

West versions v0.13 and later supports this key in the manifest: self: section.

It is meant for consumption by programs that require user-specific project metadata. Beyond parsing it as YAML, west itself ignores the value completely.

The key’s value is arbitrary YAML. West parses the value and makes it accessible to programs using West APIs as the userdata attribute of the corresponding west.manifest.Project object.

Example manifest fragment:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
    - name: bar
      userdata: a-string
    - name: baz
      userdata:
        key: value
  self:
    userdata: blub

Example Python usage:

manifest = west.manifest.Manifest.from_file()

foo, bar, baz = manifest.get_projects(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'])

foo.userdata # None
bar.userdata # 'a-string'
baz.userdata # {'key': 'value'}
manifest.userdata # 'blub'

Manifest Imports 

You can use the import key briefly described above to include projects from other manifest files in your west.yml. This key can be either a project or self section attribute:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: some-project
      import: ...
  self:
    import: ...

You can use a “self: import:” to load additional files from the repository containing your west.yml. You can use a “project: … import:” to load additional files defined in that project’s Git history.

West resolves the final manifest from individual manifest files in this order:

imported files in self
your west.yml file
imported files in projects

During resolution, west ignores projects which have already been defined in other files. For example, a project named foo in your west.yml makes west ignore other projects named foo imported from your projects list.

The import key can be a boolean, path, mapping, or sequence. We’ll describe these in order, using examples:

Boolean
Relative path
Mapping with additional configuration
Sequence of paths and mappings
- Example 4.1: Downstream with sequence of manifest files
- Example 4.2: Import order illustration

A more formal description of how this works is last, after the examples.

Troubleshooting Note 

If you’re using this feature and find west’s behavior confusing, try resolving your manifest to see the final results after imports are done.

Option 1: Boolean 

This is the easiest way to use import.

If import is true as a projects attribute, west imports projects from the west.yml file in that project’s root directory. If it’s false or missing, it has no effect. For example, this manifest would import west.yml from the p1 git repository at revision v1.0:

manifest:
  # ...
  projects:
    - name: p1
      revision: v1.0
      import: true    # Import west.yml from p1's v1.0 git tag
    - name: p2
      import: false   # Nothing is imported from p2.
    - name: p3        # Nothing is imported from p3 either.

It’s an error to set import to either true or false inside self, like this:

manifest:
  # ...
  self:
    import: true  # Error

Example 1.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release

You have a source code repository you want to use with Zephyr v1.14.1 LTS. You want to maintain the whole thing using west. You don’t want to modify any of the mainline repositories.

In other words, the west workspace you want looks like this:

my-downstream/
├── .west/                     # west directory
├── zephyr/                    # mainline zephyr repository
│   └── west.yml               # the v1.14.1 version of this file is imported
├── modules/                   # modules from mainline zephyr
│   ├── hal/
│   └── [...other directories..]
├── [ ... other projects ...]  # other mainline repositories
└── my-repo/                   # your downstream repository
    ├── west.yml               # main manifest importing zephyr/west.yml v1.14.1
    └── [...other files..]

You can do this with the following my-repo/west.yml:

# my-repo/west.yml:
manifest:
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
  projects:
    - name: zephyr
      remote: zephyrproject-rtos
      revision: v1.14.1
      import: true

You can then create the workspace on your computer like this, assuming my-repo is hosted at https://git.example.com/my-repo:

west init -m https://git.example.com/my-repo my-downstream
cd my-downstream
west update

After west init, my-downstream/my-repo will be cloned.

After west update, all of the projects defined in the zephyr repository’s west.yml at revision v1.14.1 will be cloned into my-downstream as well.

You can add and commit any code to my-repo you please at this point, including your own Zephyr applications, drivers, etc. See Application Development.

Example 1.2: “Rolling release” Zephyr downstream

This is similar to Example 1.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release, except we’ll use revision: main for the zephyr repository:

# my-repo/west.yml:
manifest:
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
  projects:
    - name: zephyr
      remote: zephyrproject-rtos
      revision: main
      import: true

You can create the workspace in the same way:

west init -m https://git.example.com/my-repo my-downstream
cd my-downstream
west update

This time, whenever you run west update, the special manifest-rev branch in the zephyr repository will be updated to point at a newly fetched main branch tip from the URL https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr.

The contents of zephyr/west.yml at the new manifest-rev will then be used to import projects from Zephyr. This lets you stay up to date with the latest changes in the Zephyr project. The cost is that running west update will not produce reproducible results, since the remote main branch can change every time you run it.

It’s also important to understand that west ignores your working tree’s zephyr/west.yml entirely when resolving imports. West always uses the contents of imported manifests as they were committed to the latest manifest-rev when importing from a project.

You can only import manifest from the file system if they are in your manifest repository’s working tree. See Example 2.2: Downstream with directory of manifest files for an example.

Example 1.3: Downstream of a Zephyr release, with module fork

This manifest is similar to the one in Example 1.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release, except it:

is a downstream of Zephyr 2.0
includes a downstream fork of the modules/hal/nordic module which was included in that release

# my-repo/west.yml:
manifest:
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
    - name: my-remote
      url-base: https://git.example.com
  projects:
    - name: hal_nordic         # higher precedence
      remote: my-remote
      revision: my-sha
      path: modules/hal/nordic
    - name: zephyr
      remote: zephyrproject-rtos
      revision: v2.0.0
      import: true             # imported projects have lower precedence

# subset of zephyr/west.yml contents at v2.0.0:
manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: zephyrproject-rtos
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
  projects:
  # ...
  - name: hal_nordic           # lower precedence, values ignored
    path: modules/hal/nordic
    revision: another-sha

With this manifest file, the project named hal_nordic:

is cloned from https://git.example.com/hal_nordic instead of https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/hal_nordic.
is updated to commit my-sha by west update, instead of the mainline commit another-sha

In other words, when your top-level manifest defines a project, like hal_nordic, west will ignore any other definition it finds later on while resolving imports.

This does mean you have to copy the path: modules/hal/nordic value into my-repo/west.yml when defining hal_nordic there. The value from zephyr/west.yml is ignored entirely. See Resolving Manifests for troubleshooting advice if this gets confusing in practice.

When you run west update, west will:

update zephyr’s manifest-rev to point at the v2.0.0 tag
import zephyr/west.yml at that manifest-rev
locally check out the v2.0.0 revisions for all zephyr projects except hal_nordic
update hal_nordic to my-sha instead of another-sha

Option 2: Relative path 

The import value can also be a relative path to a manifest file or a directory containing manifest files. The path is relative to the root directory of the projects or self repository the import key appears in.

Here is an example:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: project-1
      revision: v1.0
      import: west.yml
    - name: project-2
      revision: main
      import: p2-manifests
  self:
    import: submanifests

This will import the following:

the contents of project-1/west.yml at manifest-rev, which points at tag v1.0 after running west update
any YAML files in the directory tree project-2/p2-manifests at the latest commit in the main branch, as fetched by west update, sorted by file name
YAML files in submanifests in your manifest repository, as they appear on your file system, sorted by file name

Notice how projects imports get data from Git using manifest-rev, while self imports get data from your file system. This is because as usual, west leaves version control for your manifest repository up to you.

Example 2.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release with explicit path

This is an explicit way to write an equivalent manifest to the one in Example 1.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release.

manifest:
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
  projects:
    - name: zephyr
      remote: zephyrproject-rtos
      revision: v1.14.1
      import: west.yml

The setting import: west.yml means to use the file west.yml inside the zephyr project. This example is contrived, but shows the idea.

This can be useful in practice when the name of the manifest file you want to import is not west.yml.

Example 2.2: Downstream with directory of manifest files

Your Zephyr downstream has a lot of additional repositories. So many, in fact, that you want to split them up into multiple manifest files, but keep track of them all in a single manifest repository, like this:

my-repo/
├── submanifests
│   ├── 01-libraries.yml
│   ├── 02-vendor-hals.yml
│   └── 03-applications.yml
└── west.yml

You want to add all the files in my-repo/submanifests to the main manifest file, my-repo/west.yml, in addition to projects in zephyr/west.yml. You want to track the latest development code in the Zephyr repository’s main branch instead of using a fixed revision.

Here’s how:

# my-repo/west.yml:
manifest:
  remotes:
    - name: zephyrproject-rtos
      url-base: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos
  projects:
    - name: zephyr
      remote: zephyrproject-rtos
      revision: main
      import: true
  self:
    import: submanifests

Manifest files are imported in this order during resolution:

my-repo/submanifests/01-libraries.yml
my-repo/submanifests/02-vendor-hals.yml
my-repo/submanifests/03-applications.yml
my-repo/west.yml
zephyr/west.yml

Note

The .yml file names are prefixed with numbers in this example to make sure they are imported in the specified order.

You can pick arbitrary names. West sorts files in a directory by name before importing.

Notice how the manifests in submanifests are imported before my-repo/west.yml and zephyr/west.yml. In general, an import in the self section is processed before the manifest files in projects and the main manifest file.

This means projects defined in my-repo/submanifests take highest precedence. For example, if 01-libraries.yml defines hal_nordic, the project by the same name in zephyr/west.yml is simply ignored. As usual, see Resolving Manifests for troubleshooting advice.

This may seem strange, but it allows you to redefine projects “after the fact”, as we’ll see in the next example.

Example 2.3: Continuous Integration overrides

Your continuous integration system needs to fetch and test multiple repositories in your west workspace from a developer’s forks instead of your mainline development trees, to see if the changes all work well together.

Starting with Example 2.2: Downstream with directory of manifest files, the CI scripts add a file 00-ci.yml in my-repo/submanifests, with these contents:

# my-repo/submanifests/00-ci.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: a-vendor-hal
      url: https://github.com/a-developer/hal
      revision: a-pull-request-branch
    - name: an-application
      url: https://github.com/a-developer/application
      revision: another-pull-request-branch

The CI scripts run west update after generating this file in my-repo/submanifests. The projects defined in 00-ci.yml have higher precedence than other definitions in my-repo/submanifests, because the name 00-ci.yml comes before the other file names.

Thus, west update always checks out the developer’s branches in the projects named a-vendor-hal and an-application, even if those same projects are also defined elsewhere.

Option 3: Mapping 

The import key can also contain a mapping with the following keys:

file: Optional. The name of the manifest file or directory to import. This defaults to west.yml if not present.
name-allowlist: Optional. If present, a name or sequence of project names to include.
path-allowlist: Optional. If present, a path or sequence of project paths to match against. This is a shell-style globbing pattern, currently implemented with pathlib. Note that this means case sensitivity is platform specific.
name-blocklist: Optional. Like name-allowlist, but contains project names to exclude rather than include.
path-blocklist: Optional. Like path-allowlist, but contains project paths to exclude rather than include.
path-prefix: Optional (new in v0.8.0). If given, this will be prepended to the project’s path in the workspace, as well as the paths of any imported projects. This can be used to place these projects in a subdirectory of the workspace.

Allowlists override blocklists if both are given. For example, if a project is blocked by path, then allowed by name, it will still be imported.

Example 3.1: Downstream with name allowlist

Here is a pair of manifest files, representing a mainline and a downstream. The downstream doesn’t want to use all the mainline projects, however. We’ll assume the mainline west.yml is hosted at https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest.

# mainline west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: mainline-app                # included
      path: examples/app
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/app
    - name: lib
      path: libraries/lib
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib
    - name: lib2                        # included
      path: libraries/lib2
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib2

# downstream west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: mainline
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
      import:
        name-allowlist:
          - mainline-app
          - lib2
    - name: downstream-app
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/app
    - name: lib3
      path: libraries/lib3
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/lib3

An equivalent manifest in a single file would be:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: mainline
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
    - name: downstream-app
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/app
    - name: lib3
      path: libraries/lib3
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/lib3
    - name: mainline-app                   # imported
      path: examples/app
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/app
    - name: lib2                           # imported
      path: libraries/lib2
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib2

If an allowlist had not been used, the lib project from the mainline manifest would have been imported.

Example 3.2: Downstream with path allowlist

Here is an example showing how to allowlist mainline’s libraries only, using path-allowlist.

# mainline west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: app
      path: examples/app
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/app
    - name: lib
      path: libraries/lib                  # included
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib
    - name: lib2
      path: libraries/lib2                 # included
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib2

# downstream west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: mainline
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
      import:
        path-allowlist: libraries/*
    - name: app
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/app
    - name: lib3
      path: libraries/lib3
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/lib3

An equivalent manifest in a single file would be:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: lib                          # imported
      path: libraries/lib
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib
    - name: lib2                         # imported
      path: libraries/lib2
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/lib2
    - name: mainline
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
    - name: app
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/app
    - name: lib3
      path: libraries/lib3
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/lib3

Example 3.3: Downstream with path blocklist

Here’s an example showing how to block all vendor HALs from mainline by common path prefix in the workspace, add your own version for the chip you’re targeting, and keep everything else.

# mainline west.yml:
manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: mainline
  remotes:
    - name: mainline
      url-base: https://git.example.com/mainline
  projects:
    - name: app
    - name: lib
      path: libraries/lib
    - name: lib2
      path: libraries/lib2
    - name: hal_foo
      path: modules/hals/foo     # excluded
    - name: hal_bar
      path: modules/hals/bar     # excluded
    - name: hal_baz
      path: modules/hals/baz     # excluded

# downstream west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: mainline
      url: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
      import:
        path-blocklist: modules/hals/*
    - name: hal_foo
      path: modules/hals/foo
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/hal_foo

An equivalent manifest in a single file would be:

manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: mainline
  remotes:
    - name: mainline
      url-base: https://git.example.com/mainline
  projects:
    - name: app                  # imported
    - name: lib                  # imported
      path: libraries/lib
    - name: lib2                 # imported
      path: libraries/lib2
    - name: mainline
      repo-path: https://git.example.com/mainline/manifest
    - name: hal_foo
      path: modules/hals/foo
      url: https://git.example.com/downstream/hal_foo

Example 3.4: Import into a subdirectory

You want to import a manifest and its projects, placing everything into a subdirectory of your west workspace.

For example, suppose you want to import this manifest from project foo, adding this project and its projects bar and baz to your workspace:

# foo/west.yml:
manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: example
  remotes:
    - name: example
      url-base: https://git.example.com
  projects:
    - name: bar
    - name: baz

Instead of importing these into the top level workspace, you want to place all three project repositories in an external-code subdirectory, like this:

workspace/
└── external-code/
    ├── foo/
    ├── bar/
    └── baz/

You can do this using this manifest:

manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      url: https://git.example.com/foo
      import:
        path-prefix: external-code

An equivalent manifest in a single file would be:

# foo/west.yml:
manifest:
  defaults:
    remote: example
  remotes:
    - name: example
      url-base: https://git.example.com
  projects:
    - name: foo
      path: external-code/foo
    - name: bar
      path: external-code/bar
    - name: baz
      path: external-code/baz

Option 4: Sequence 

The import key can also contain a sequence of files, directories, and mappings.

Example 4.1: Downstream with sequence of manifest files

This example manifest is equivalent to the manifest in Example 2.2: Downstream with directory of manifest files, with a sequence of explicitly named files.

# my-repo/west.yml:
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: zephyr
      url: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr
      import: west.yml
  self:
    import:
      - submanifests/01-libraries.yml
      - submanifests/02-vendor-hals.yml
      - submanifests/03-applications.yml

Example 4.2: Import order illustration

This more complicated example shows the order that west imports manifest files:

# my-repo/west.yml
manifest:
  # ...
  projects:
    - name: my-library
    - name: my-app
    - name: zephyr
      import: true
    - name: another-manifest-repo
      import: submanifests
  self:
    import:
      - submanifests/libraries.yml
      - submanifests/vendor-hals.yml
      - submanifests/applications.yml
  defaults:
    remote: my-remote

For this example, west resolves imports in this order:

the listed files in my-repo/submanifests are first, in the order they occur (e.g. libraries.yml comes before applications.yml, since this is a sequence of files), since the self: import: is always imported first
my-repo/west.yml is next (with projects my-library etc. as long as they weren’t already defined somewhere in submanifests)
zephyr/west.yml is after that, since that’s the first import key in the projects list in my-repo/west.yml
files in another-manifest-repo/submanifests are last (sorted by file name), since that’s the final project import

Manifest Import Details 

This section describes how west resolves a manifest file that uses import a bit more formally.

Overview

The import key can appear in a west manifest’s projects and self sections. The general case looks like this:

# Top-level manifest file.
manifest:
  projects:
    - name: foo
      import:
        ... # import-1
    - name: bar
      import:
        ... # import-2
    # ...
    - name: baz
      import:
        ... # import-N
  self:
    import:
      ... # self-import

Import keys are optional. If any of import-1, ..., import-N are missing, west will not import additional manifest data from that project. If self-import is missing, no additional files in the manifest repository (beyond the top-level file) are imported.

The ultimate outcomes of resolving manifest imports are:

a projects list, which is produced by combining the projects defined in the top-level file with those defined in imported files
a set of extension commands, which are drawn from the west-commands keys in the top-level file and any imported files
a group-filter list, which is produced by combining the top-level and any imported filters

Importing is done in this order:

Manifests from self-import are imported first.
The top-level manifest file’s definitions are handled next.
Manifests from import-1, …, import-N, are imported in that order.

When an individual import key refers to multiple manifest files, they are processed in this order:

If the value is a relative path naming a directory (or a map whose file is a directory), the manifest files it contains are processed in lexicographic order – i.e., sorted by file name.
If the value is a sequence, its elements are recursively imported in the order they appear.

This process recurses if necessary. E.g., if import-1 produces a manifest file that contains an import key, it is resolved recursively using the same rules before its contents are processed further.

The following sections describe these outcomes.

Projects

This section describes how the final projects list is created.

Projects are identified by name. If the same name occurs in multiple manifests, the first definition is used, and subsequent definitions are ignored. For example, if import-1 contains a project named bar, that is ignored, because the top-level west.yml has already defined a project by that name.

The contents of files named by import-1 through import-N are imported from Git at the latest manifest-rev revisions in their projects. These revisions can be updated to the values rev-1 through rev-N by running west update. If any manifest-rev reference is missing or out of date, west update also fetches project data from the remote fetch URL and updates the reference.

Also note that all imported manifests, from the root manifest to the repository which defines a project P, must be up to date in order for west to update P itself. For example, this means west update P would update manifest-rev in the baz project if baz/west.yml defines P, as well as updating the manifest-rev branch in the local git clone of P. Confusingly, updating baz may result in the removal of P from baz/west.yml, which “should” cause west update P to fail with an unrecognized project!

For this reason, it’s not possible to run west update P if P is defined in an imported manifest; you must update this project along with all the others with a plain west update.

By default, west won’t fetch any project data over the network if a project’s revision is a SHA or tag which is already available locally, so updating the extra projects shouldn’t take too much time unless it’s really needed. See the documentation for the update.fetch configuration option for more information.

Extensions

All extension commands defined using west-commands keys discovered while handling imports are available in the resolved manifest.

If an imported manifest file has a west-commands: definition in its self: section, the extension commands defined there are added to the set of available extensions at the time the manifest is imported. They will thus take precedence over any extension commands with the same names added later on.

Group filters

The resolved manifest has a group-filter value which is the result of concatenating the group-filter values in the top-level manifest and any imported manifests.

Manifest files which appear earlier in the import order have higher precedence and are therefore concatenated later into the final group-filter.

In other words, let:

the submanifest resolved from self-import have group filter self-filter
the top-level manifest file have group filter top-filter
the submanifests resolved from import-1 through import-N have group filters filter-1 through filter-N respectively

The final resolved group-filter value is then filterN + ... + filter-2 + filter-1 + top-filter + self-filter, where + here refers to list concatenation.

Important

The order that filters appear in the above list matters.

The last filter element in the final concatenated list “wins” and determines if the group is enabled or disabled.

For example, in [-foo] + [+foo], group foo is enabled. However, in [+foo] + [-foo], group foo is disabled.

For simplicity, west and this documentation may elide concatenated group filter elements which are redundant using these rules. For example, [+foo] + [-foo] could be written more simply as [-foo], for the reasons given above. As another example, [-foo] + [+foo] could be written as the empty list [], since all groups are enabled by default.

Manifest Command 

The west manifest command can be used to manipulate manifest files. It takes an action, and action-specific arguments.

The following sections describe each action and provides a basic signature for simple uses. Run west manifest --help for full details on all options.

Resolving Manifests 

The --resolve action outputs a single manifest file equivalent to your current manifest and all its imported manifests:

west manifest --resolve [-o outfile]

The main use for this action is to see the “final” manifest contents after performing any imports.

To print detailed information about each imported manifest file and how projects are handled during manifest resolution, set the maximum verbosity level using -v:

west -v manifest --resolve

Freezing Manifests 

The --freeze action outputs a frozen manifest:

west manifest --freeze [-o outfile]

A “frozen” manifest is a manifest file where every project’s revision is a SHA. You can use --freeze to produce a frozen manifest that’s equivalent to your current manifest file. The -o option specifies an output file; if not given, standard output is used.

Validating Manifests 

The --validate action either succeeds if the current manifest file is valid, or fails with an error:

west manifest --validate

The error message can help diagnose errors.

Here, “invalid” means that the syntax of the manifest file doesn’t follow the rules documented on this page.

If your manifest is valid but it’s not working the way you want it to, turning up the verbosity with -v is a good way to get detailed information about what decisions west made about your manifest, and why:

west -v manifest --validate

Get the manifest path 

The --path action prints the path to the top level manifest file:

west manifest --path

The output is something like /path/to/workspace/west.yml. The path format depends on your operating system.

Example 1: no disabled groups

Example 2: Disabling one group via manifest

Example 3: Disabling multiple groups via manifest

Example 4: Disabling a group via configuration

Example 5: Overriding a disabled group via configuration

Example 6: Overriding multiple disabled groups via configuration

Example 7: Disabling multiple groups via configuration

Example 1: no overrides

Example 2: overriding an imported group-filter via manifest

Example 3: overriding an imported group-filter via configuration

Example 1.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release

Example 1.2: “Rolling release” Zephyr downstream

Example 1.3: Downstream of a Zephyr release, with module fork

Example 2.1: Downstream of a Zephyr release with explicit path

Example 2.2: Downstream with directory of manifest files

Example 2.3: Continuous Integration overrides

Example 3.1: Downstream with name allowlist

Example 3.2: Downstream with path allowlist

Example 3.3: Downstream with path blocklist

Example 3.4: Import into a subdirectory

Example 4.1: Downstream with sequence of manifest files

Example 4.2: Import order illustration

Overview

Projects

Extensions

Group filters

Example 2: overriding an imported `group-filter` via manifest

Example 3: overriding an imported `group-filter` via configuration