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Where are Device Family Packs (DFPs) Installed?

Last modified by Microchip on 2025/06/04 05:19

Depending on your software project type (bare-metal C, MPLAB® Harmony v3 project, etc.), Device Family Packs (DFPs) can be installed at several locations on your computer.

DFPs Managed and Used by MPLAB® X IDE

DFPs managed and used by MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) are installed in two locations on your computer, as shown in the Pack Manager.

DFP Locations Tab

System Packs Location

DFPs that are distributed and installed during the MPLAB X IDE installation are called System Packs and are located in the following folders:

Windows®

C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLABX\<ide_version>\packs\Microchip\<device_pack>\<dfp_version>

macOS®

/Applications/microchip/mplabx/<version>/packs/Microchip/<device_pack>/<dfp_version>

Installed System Packs are indicated in the Pack Manager window with the word Installed with a lock icon, as seen in the accompanying image.

Pack Manager window Installed

User Packs Location

This folder contains all DFPs which have been installed through the Pack Manager Update mechanism or manually installed by the user.

Windows

C:\Users\<user_name>\.mchp_packs\MIcrochip\<device_pack>\<dfp_version>

macOS

/Users/<user_name>/.mchp_packs/Microchip/<device_pack>/<dfp_version>

Installed User Packs are indicated with the word Uninstall in the Pack Manager window as shown in the accompanying image.

Pack Manager window Uninstall

DFP Persistence with MPLAB X IDE

When you uninstall MPLAB X IDE, you uninstall the system DFPs. However, the user DFPs will persist on your computer.

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DFPs Managed and Used by the MPLAB Harmony v3 Framework

The MPLAB Harmony v3 framework maintains its own repository of DFPs on GitHub.

When you use MPLAB Harmony v3 Content Manager to download components to your PC, a copy of this repository is also downloaded.

MPLAB Harmony Content Manager window

When you build an MPLAB Harmony v3 application using MPLAB Harmony Configurator (MHC), all the required DFP files are copied into the MPLAB Harmony project folder. The MPLAB X IDE DFPs are not used.

Harmony 3 Project Folder

Benefits of the MPLAB Harmony DFP usage strategy are:

  • Project is self-contained
  • Removed dependency on DFP
  • Project can be shared without the need to share and install the DFP

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DFPs Components No Longer Bundled With MPLAB XC Compilers

MPLAB XC compilers will no longer ship with a set of resources (MCU header files) derived from a DFP release as of MPLAB XC8 v3.10, MPLAB XC-DSC v3.30, and MPLAB XC32 v5.00.

When using the compiler for MPLAB X IDE projects, you can use the default (MPLAB X IDE-managed) DFPs or use the Pack Manager (Tools > Packs) to select DFP versions.

When using the compiler for standalone compilation on the command line, you can use the -mdfp switch to specify a DFP to use for compilation:

-mdfp="C:/My Folder/SAME54_DFP/3.2.56"

You can find and download DSPs from Microchip Packs Repository and store them on your host machine in the .mchp_packs directory. They are ZIP files that can be unpacked by most archiver applications. However, it is best to unpack and install these packs using the Pack Manager (in MPLAB X IDE choose Install from local source and select the .atpack file you have downloaded).

A utility is available for working with packs on the command line. For details, see:

C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLABX\vx.xx\mplab_platform\bin\packmanagercli.bat -help

where x.xx is the MPLAB X IDE version.

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