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Managing NI Packages with vipm.toml

VIPM supports managing NI Package Manager (NIPM) dependencies alongside VIPM packages in a single vipm.toml manifest. This gives you a unified view of all your project's dependencies — both community packages from vipm.io and NI packages from NI feeds.

vipm.toml format

NIPM dependencies use three dedicated sections in vipm.toml:

[nipm.feeds]
ni = "https://download.ni.com/support/nipkg/products/ni-d/ni-daqmx/24.5/released/"

[nipm.dependencies]
ni-daqmx = "24.5.0"

[nipm.dev-dependencies]
ni-teststand = "2023.1.0"

[nipm.feeds]

Maps human-readable aliases to NI package feed URLs. Feed aliases are referenced by dependencies to specify where to download the package.

[nipm.feeds]
ni-daqmx-feed = "https://download.ni.com/support/nipkg/products/ni-d/ni-daqmx/24.5/released/"
ni-visa-feed = "https://download.ni.com/support/nipkg/products/ni-v/ni-visa/2024Q1/released/"

[nipm.dependencies] and [nipm.dev-dependencies]

Declare NIPM packages your project depends on. Two formats are supported:

Simple format — version string only:

[nipm.dependencies]
ni-daqmx = "24.5.0"

Detailed format — with feed alias:

[nipm.dependencies]
ni-daqmx = { version = "24.5.0", feed = "ni-daqmx-feed" }

Use [nipm.dev-dependencies] for packages only needed during development or testing.

Note

NIPM dependencies require explicit version numbers. Unlike VIPM packages, version auto-resolution is not available for NIPM packages.

Workflow

Adding NIPM dependencies

Use vipm add --nipm to add NI packages to your manifest:

# Add with explicit version (required)
vipm add --nipm ni-daqmx@24.5.0

# Add with a feed alias
vipm add --nipm ni-daqmx@24.5.0 --feed ni-daqmx-feed

# Register a new feed and add the package
vipm add --nipm ni-daqmx@24.5.0 --feed ni-daqmx-feed --feed-url "https://download.ni.com/..."

# Add as a dev dependency
vipm add --nipm ni-teststand@2023.1.0 --dev

On Windows with NI Package Manager installed, VIPM can auto-detect the installed version if you omit the version number, and can discover which feed provides the package.

Removing NIPM dependencies

vipm remove --nipm ni-daqmx
vipm remove --nipm ni-teststand --dev

Locking

vipm lock includes NIPM dependencies in the lock file alongside VIPM packages:

vipm lock

The lock file records each NIPM package's name, version, feed URL, and checksum (when available).

Installing

When you run vipm install on a project with NIPM dependencies, VIPM installs both VIPM and NIPM packages:

vipm install

Windows only

NIPM package installation requires Windows with NI Package Manager installed. On other platforms, VIPM manages the manifest entries but cannot install NI packages. VIPM will display a warning if NIPM is not available.

Planned: selective installation

vipm install does not yet support --no-nipm or --no-vipm flags to install only one type of package. Currently it installs both VIPM and NIPM dependencies together.

Listing

vipm list shows NIPM dependencies alongside VIPM packages when listing from a vipm.toml:

vipm list vipm.toml

Planned: selective listing

vipm list does not yet support --no-nipm or --no-vipm flags to filter by package type. Currently it shows all dependencies together.

Inspecting NI packages

Use vipm info --nipm to view metadata for an installed NI package:

vipm info --nipm ni-daqmx

To see which files a package installed:

vipm info --nipm ni-daqmx --installed-files

vipm info --nipm requires Windows with NI Package Manager installed.

Filtering by package type

Several commands include both VIPM and NIPM packages by default. Use --no-nipm or --no-vipm to filter:

Command --nipm --no-nipm --no-vipm
vipm add Select NIPM mode — —
vipm remove Select NIPM mode — —
vipm info Query NIPM package — —
vipm install — Planned Planned
vipm list — Planned Planned
vipm sbom — Exclude NIPM Exclude VIPM
vipm sync — Exclude NIPM Exclude VIPM

Examples:

# Generate SBOM with only VIPM packages
vipm sbom vipm.toml --format cyclonedx --schema-version 1.5 --no-nipm --output bom.json

# Generate SBOM with only NI packages
vipm sbom vipm.toml --format cyclonedx --schema-version 1.5 --no-vipm --output bom.json

# Sync vipm.toml from project, excluding NI packages
vipm sync --from MyProject.lvproj --no-nipm

Complete example

[project]
name = "instrument-control"
version = "1.0.0"
labview-version = "2024"
labview-bitness = 64

[dependencies]
oglib_array = "6.0.1.20"
jki_lib_state_machine = "2.0.0.50"

[dev-dependencies]
caraya = "1.4.5.165"

[nipm.feeds]
ni-daq = "https://download.ni.com/support/nipkg/products/ni-d/ni-daqmx/24.5/released/"

[nipm.dependencies]
ni-daqmx = { version = "24.5.0", feed = "ni-daq" }

[nipm.dev-dependencies]
ni-teststand = "2023.1.0"

# Add all dependencies
vipm add oglib_array jki_lib_state_machine
vipm add --dev caraya
vipm add --nipm ni-daqmx@24.5.0 --feed ni-daq

# Lock and install
vipm lock
vipm install

# Generate SBOM including both VIPM and NI packages
vipm sbom vipm.toml \
  --format cyclonedx \
  --schema-version 1.5 \
  --product-name "Instrument Control" \
  --product-version 1.0.0 \
  --output build/bom.json

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