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Managing Device Family Packs (DFPs) in the MPLAB® X IDE for Different Projects

Last modified by Microchip on 2024/06/24 06:34
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How do you manage Device Family Packs (DFPs) for different MPLAB® X IDE project types?

Normal MPLAB X IDE Projects

A base set of DFPs are installed with MPLAB X IDE (System DFPs) while updates are installed via the Pack Manager in the IDE (User DFPs).

Shows the install dpfs from source window

DFP Persistence

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

Archiving your Project's DFP

To rebuild your project, you will need to archive the DFP version used with your project.

DFP Repository

The DFP repository used by the Packs Manager in MPLAB X IDE is hosted on GitHub.

shows the list of DFP packs in the microchip repository

DFP File

DFP files are published with an ATPACK extension and can be re-installed through the Pack Manager as shown in the accompanying image.

reinstalling a DFP pack

For command-line usage, you can extract the contents of the DFP in a folder browser, by simply replacing the ATPACK extension with ZIP and extracting the archive on your computer. You can then use the -mdfp switch to specify a DFP to use for compilation:

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

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MPLAB Harmony 3 Projects

The Harmony 3 framework maintains its own repository of DFPs on GitHub.

When you use the Harmony 3 Content Manager to download components to your PC, a copy of this repository is also downloaded.

showing the dfp in the harmony 3 content manager

When you build a Harmony 3 application using MPLAB Harmony 3 Configurator, all the required DFP files are copied into the Harmony 3 project folder. The MPLAB X IDE DFPs are not used.

shows the dfps in the harmony 3 project folder

Summary

  • A Harmony 3 project is self-contained (no dependency on DFP).
  • The project can be shared without the need to archive, share or install a DFP.

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