Prebuilt Binary Blobs#

Some SDK components ship with prebuilt binary files (.a, .lib, .bin, etc.) that are not included in the git repository itself. Instead they are fetched on demand from a dedicated blob repository using the west blobs command.

This keeps the main SDK checkout small and fast while still making the binaries available immediately when you need them.

When do you need to fetch blobs?#

You typically need blobs when:

You are building an example that links against a prebuilt library (e.g. a machine learning inference engine, a wireless stack library, or a graphics middleware).
After a fresh west init + west update, the build fails with a linker error about a missing .a or .lib file.
You run west blobs check and see MISSING entries.

Quick start#

Run these commands from your SDK workspace root (the directory that contains manifests/ and mcuxsdk/):

# 1. See what blobs are available and whether they are already present
west blobs check

# 2. Fetch any missing blobs
west blobs fetch

# 3. Confirm everything is present
west blobs check

A green result looks like:

mcu-sdk-examples: 1078/1078 entries: OK

Fetch blobs for a specific project only#

If you only need blobs for one component, pass the west project name:

west blobs fetch mcu-sdk-examples

Use west blobs list to see available project names and their blob files:

west blobs list

License#

By fetching blobs you accept the license terms bundled with each blob set. The applicable license file is located alongside mcux_blobs.yml in the relevant SDK subdirectory (for example mcuxsdk/examples/LICENSE).

Some blob sets require explicit license acceptance. If a blob has click-through: True, west blobs fetch will prompt you to confirm before downloading.

Keeping blobs up to date#

After running west update (which updates the SDK source), re-run:

west blobs fetch

Blobs that are already present and whose sha256 matches are skipped automatically; only new or changed blobs are downloaded.

Troubleshooting#

Build error: cannot find `-lsomething` or missing `.a` / `.bin`#

west blobs fetch          # fetch all missing blobs
west blobs check          # verify

Re-fetch a corrupted or incomplete blob#

# Remove locally cached blobs for one project and re-download
west blobs clean mcu-sdk-examples
west blobs fetch mcu-sdk-examples

Network / proxy issues#

west blobs fetch downloads files over HTTPS. If your network requires a proxy, set the standard environment variables before running the command:

export HTTPS_PROXY=http://your-proxy:port
west blobs fetch

Checking without downloading#

west blobs check          # shows OK or MISSING per entry; does not download
west blobs list           # lists all declared blobs; does not download

Next steps#

Building Your First Project — build and run an SDK example
Exploring the SDK — workspace layout and example organization

Prebuilt Binary Blobs

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