.. _west:

West (Zephyr's meta-tool)
#########################

The Zephyr project includes a swiss-army knife command line tool named
``west``\ [#west-name]_. West is developed in its own `repository`_.  Like
``git`` and ``docker``, the top-level ``west`` command takes some common
options, a sub-command to run, and then options and arguments for that
sub-command::

  west [common-opts] <command> [opts] <args>

West's built-in commands provide a multiple repository management system with
features inspired by Google's Repo tool and Git submodules. West is also
pluggable: you can write your own west "extension commands" which add
additional features to west.  Zephyr provides extension commands for building
applications, debugging them, and more.

You can run ``west --help`` (or ``west -h`` for short) to get top-level help
for available west commands, and ``west <command> -h`` for detailed help on
each command.

The following pages document west's ``v0.5.x`` releases, and provide additional
context about the tool.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1

   repo-tool.rst
   manifest.rst
   config.rst
   extensions.rst
   build-flash-debug.rst
   sign.rst
   why.rst
   without-west.rst
   planned.rst

For details on west's Python APIs (including APIs provided by extensions in the
zephyr), see :ref:`west-apis`.

.. rubric:: Footnotes

.. [#west-name]

   Zephyr is an English name for the Latin `Zephyrus
   <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Zephyrus>`_, the ancient Greek god of the
   west wind.

.. _repository:
   https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/west