west library / application / bootstrap structure and API

from the user point of view west is the go-to tool intended for repository handling, building, flashing etc.

Internally, west can be seen as:

• bootstrap functionality
• west library (a library which can be reused by build scripts, test, etc)
• application (command line)

With the initial version, v.0.1.0 out and progress is made on v0.2.0, it is important to keep track of the future direction.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Structure and name spacing
• API
• What features of west do we expect other would re-use ?

[marc-hb]

Let me settle this once and for all. The scope of the [meta-!]tool has been described in an issue for a long time now, and we are not going to change it now. zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr#6205

This settles the “one single command” CLI question. I hope the internal implementation, APIs and documentation will keep preserving as much isolation as possible between individual tools and the many benefits of software modularity; not the least troubleshooting and maintenance. I also hope the number of “apparently circular” dependencies like ninja flash-> west flash -> ninja will be kept to a minimum because they make it a bit harder to understand how the whole build system is structured and designed. My 2 cents, thanks!

[ulfalizer]

@mbolivar

I am confused about your continued and persistent insistence on this point, which I feel we have discussed at length already is not correct. It seems like you are looking at what is currently in the west source code and deciding that is all that will ever be in west.

Alright, so we’re adding a repo tool, some building and flashing helpers, and some other tools in the future. Do those tools that we haven’t added yet mean that it makes more sense for the repo tool to be bundled with the building and flashing helpers?

That’s a legit question. I’m not trying to be difficult, but I just don’t get it. We obviously are adding a repo tool and some building and flashing helpers, and it doesn’t seem like those go together at all. Bundling them together leads to weird and bad behavior like the repo tool’s self-update mechanism coming into play when people work on the flashing helpers.

This isn’t some Unix purism thing to me. I just don’t get why we decided to suddenly start putting everything new into a single command. Do we have any criteria for what goes in the west command?

I think we need to avoid confusing West-the-new-hotness with the west command. We could still call it West even if it’s split into pieces. We don’t have to put everything into the same command. 😃

@tejlmand Hmm, so does that mean that Zephyr actually depends on West now, rather than the other way around?

I was thinking you could just do something like ninja flash, to call the flashing helpers in the Zephyr repo (or wherever it makes the most sense to implement them, and you already know where I don’t think it makes sense… 😉.