Plugins

Plugins#

SPSDK allows user to install additional plugins and integrate them with SPSDK functionality. They allow to extend the normal SPSDK functionality with additional features.

SPSDK 2.2 changes#

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: 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 is kept in the base SPSDK installation.

SPSDK 3.0 changes#

Standalone Python module plugin has been deprecated in favor of Python package.

Supported plugin types#

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

SB key derivator

spsdk.sb31kdp

cookiecutter-spsdk-sbkd-plugin.zip

spsdk.sbfile.utils.key_derivator.SB31KeyDerivator

Plugin implementation#

Plugins in SPSDK must be implemented as Python packages installed in the environment.

Note: Single Python module plugins were deprecated in SPSDK 3.0 and are no longer supported.

The actual implementation depends on the specific plugin type. In general, every plugin must be derived from the appropriate plugin base class and implement its 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/--editable flag)

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