Implementing a Module¶
This chapter details how to implement a core module in MicroPython. MicroPython modules can be one of the following:
Built-in module: A general module that is be part of the MicroPython repository.
User module: A module that is useful for your specific project that you maintain in your own repository or private codebase.
Dynamic module: A module that can be deployed and imported at runtime to your device.
A module in MicroPython can be implemented in one of the following locations:
py/: A core library that mirrors core CPython functionality.
extmod/: A CPython or MicroPython-specific module that is shared across multiple ports.
ports/<port>/: A port-specific module.
Note
This chapter describes modules implemented in py/
or core modules.
See Extending MicroPython in C for details on implementing an external module.
For details on port-specific modules, see Porting MicroPython.
Implementing a core module¶
Like CPython, MicroPython has core builtin modules that can be accessed through import statements.
An example is the gc
module discussed in Memory Management.
>>> import gc
>>> gc.enable()
>>>
MicroPython has several other builtin standard/core modules like io
, array
etc.
Adding a new core module involves several modifications.
First, create the C
file in the py/
directory. In this example we are adding a
hypothetical new module subsystem
in the file modsubsystem.c
:
#include "py/builtin.h"
#include "py/runtime.h"
#if MICROPY_PY_SUBSYSTEM
// info()
STATIC mp_obj_t py_subsystem_info(void) {
return MP_OBJ_NEW_SMALL_INT(42);
}
MP_DEFINE_CONST_FUN_OBJ_0(subsystem_info_obj, py_subsystem_info);
STATIC const mp_rom_map_elem_t mp_module_subsystem_globals_table[] = {
{ MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR___name__), MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_subsystem) },
{ MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_info), MP_ROM_PTR(&subsystem_info_obj) },
};
STATIC MP_DEFINE_CONST_DICT(mp_module_subsystem_globals, mp_module_subsystem_globals_table);
const mp_obj_module_t mp_module_subsystem = {
.base = { &mp_type_module },
.globals = (mp_obj_dict_t *)&mp_module_subsystem_globals,
};
MP_REGISTER_MODULE(MP_QSTR_subsystem, mp_module_subsystem, MICROPY_PY_SUBSYSTEM);
#endif
The implementation includes a definition of all functions related to the module and adds the
functions to the module’s global table in mp_module_subsystem_globals_table
. It also
creates the module object with mp_module_subsystem
. The module is then registered with
the wider system via the MP_REGISTER_MODULE
macro.
After building and running the modified MicroPython, the module should now be importable:
>>> import subsystem
>>> subsystem.info()
42
>>>
Our info()
function currently returns just a single number but can be extended
to do anything. Similarly, more functions can be added to this new module.