Guide: Installing the manifest tool

Tip: If you cannot access some of the repos referenced in this section, please contact us to request access.

The manifest tool is a cross-platform Python application that creates manifests for use with Device Management Update.

Tip: If you want to keep the manifest tool's installation isolated from your work environment, for example to protect clashing Python versions, set up a virtual environment.

Set up the manifest tool

1. Check your version of Python. If you are using:

   • 2.7, it must be at least version 2.7.11.
   • 3.5, it must be at least version 3.5.1.

   You can use the following command to check:

   python --version
   

2. Install the manifest tool using one of the following methods (note they all use pip):

   • Install from GitHub over HTTPS:

     $ pip install -U git+https://github.com/PelionIoT/[email protected]
     

   • Install from GitHub over SSH:

     $ pip install -U git+ssh://[email protected]/PelionIoT/[email protected]
     

   • Install from a local copy of the repository:

     $ pip install .
     

3. Check the tool has installed correctly:

   manifest-tool -h
   

   If it has installed correctly, the output looks like this:

   usage: manifest-tool [-h] [-l {debug,info,warning,exception}] [--version]
                    {create,parse,verify,cert,init} ...
   
   Create or transform a manifest
   
   positional arguments:
     {create,parse,verify,cert,init}
       create              Create a new manifest
       parse               Parse an existing manifest
       verify              Verify an existing manifest
       cert                Create or examine a certificate
       init                Set default values for manifests
   
   optional arguments:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -l {debug,info,warning,exception}, --log-level {debug,info,warning,exception}
     --version             display the version
   

If the install fails, contact your Device Management support representatives, and ask them to give you access to the manifest-tool repository.

Tool options

• To list the options available to the manifest tool, use the --help option:

  manifest-tool --help
  

• To list the options available to any subcommand, use the --help option:

  manifest-tool <cmd> --help
  

Manifest tool in-depth information

If you're interested in more in-depth information about the manifest tool, see the full README file and the manifest format descriptions.

Manifest tool v2.0

Manifest tool v2.0 is now available. The new tool version features a simplified command line interface and new commands to streamline the developer flow and support delta updates. Please see the manifest tool v2.0 repo for more information about installing and using manifest tool v2.0.