How Do I Build a Custom Feed In NI Package Manager?

Updated May 1, 2023

Environment

Software

  • Package Manager

  • How can I build a custom feed in NI Package Manager? 
  • I want to install NI software though NI Package Manager silently. What commands are needed?

Use an PC has an internet connection established and NI Package Manager and the desired software already installed to download the package files including all dependencies. 
  1. Find the software’s exact package name as per How Can I Find My NI Product Packages “Feed Name”?
  2. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
  3. Navigate to C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Package Manager to invoke the Command Line Interface (CLI) for NI Package Manager.
cd C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Package Manager
  1. Use the package name to download the package manager file: 
nipkg.exe download --all-deps --destination-dir="C:\feeds\<Your Folder Name>" <package name>

Example using the ni-labview-nxg-3.0.0 package. Avoid using file names with spaces or symbols. Here "NXG3" is used: 

nipkg.exe download --all-deps --destination-dir="C:\feeds\NXG3" ni-labview-nxg-3.0.0
  1. Locate <Your Folder Name> on your PC. If successfully installed, it should have NIPKG files inside.


To use this feed to install on client machines you can either:
  • copy the Feed Folder to the target system, or
  • ensure the files are in a network location that target systems can access.
See Installing Packages from a Feed to do this manually, or How Can I Silently Install a NI Package Manager Feed? to automate this process through command line.

Additional Information

If you need to add packages to your feed you can use the nipkgfeed-add-pkg command:
  1. Copy the package file to the same directory as the other packages in this feed
  2. Run the following command in command line:
cd C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Package Manager
nipkg.exe feed-add-pkg <location of feed> <name and filepath of package(s)>
In the below example you have already created a feed at \\mynetwork\Feeds\My Feed. Now you want to add your compdemo-main_1.0.0-7_windows_x64.nipkg package file to this feed.