70 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
Flashmap descriptors in coreboot
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================================
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Flashmap (https://code.google.com/p/flashmap) is a binary format for representing the layout of
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flash chips. Since coreboot is starting to use a "partition" of this format to describe the flash
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chip layout---both at runtime and when flashing a new image onto a chip---, the project needed a
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reasonably expressive plaintext format for representing such sections in the source tree. Our
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solution is the fmd ("flashmap descriptor") language, and the files in this directory contain a
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scanner, parser, semantic analyser, and flashmap converter. Here's an informal language description:
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# <line comment>
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<image name>[@<memory-mapped address>] <image size> {
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<section name>[(flags)][@<offset from start of image>] [<section size>] [{
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<subsection name>[@<offset from start of parent section>] [<subsection size>] [{
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# Sections can be nested as deeply as desired
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<subsubsection name>[(flags)][@...] [...] [{...}]
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}]
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[<subsection name>[(flags)][@...] [...] [{...}]]
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# There can be many subsections at each level of nesting: they will be inserted
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# sequentially, and although gaps are allowed, any provided offsets are always
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# relative to the closest parent node's and must be strictly increasing with neither
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# overlapping nor degenerate-size sections.
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}]
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}
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Note that the above example contains a few symbols that are actually metasyntax, and therefore have
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neither meaning nor place in a real file. The <.*> s indicate placeholders for parameters:
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- The names are strings, which are provided as single-word---no whitespace---groups of
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syntactically unimportant symbols (i.e. everything except @, {, and }): they are not surrounded
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by quotes or any other form of delimiter.
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- The other fields are nonnegative integers, which may be given as decimal or hexadecimal; in
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either case, a K, M, or G may be appended---without intermediate whitespace---as a multiplier.
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- Comments consist of anything one manages to enter, provided it doesn't start a new line.
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The [.*] s indicate that a portion of the file could be omitted altogether:
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- Just because something is noted as optional doesn't mean it is in every case: the answer might
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actually depend on which other information is---or isn't---provided.
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- The "flag" specifies the attribute or type for given section. The most
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important supported flag is "CBFS", which indicates the section will contain a CBFS structure.
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- In particular, it is only legal to place a (CBFS) flag on a leaf section; that is, choosing
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to add child sections excludes the possibility of putting a CBFS in their parent. Such
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flags are only used to decide where CBFS empty file headers should be created, and do not
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result in the storage of any additional metadata in the resulting FMAP section.
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Additionally, it's important to note these properties of the overall file and its values:
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- Other than within would-be strings and numbers, whitespace is ignored. It goes without saying
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that such power comes with responsibility, which is why this sentence is here.
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- Although the .*section names must be globally unique, one of them may---but is not required to---
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match the image name.
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- It is a syntax error to supply a number---besides 0---that begins with the character 0, as there
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is no intention of adding octals to the mix.
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- The image's memory address should be present on---and only on---layouts for memory-mapped chips.
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- Although it may be evident from above, all .*section offsets are relative only to the immediate
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parent. There is no way to include an absolute offset (i.e. from the beginning of flash), which
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means that it is "safe" to reorder the .*section s within a particular level of nesting, as long
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as the change doesn't cause their positions and sizes to necessitate overlap or zero sizes.
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- A .*section with omitted offset is assumed to start at as low a position as possible---with no
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consideration of alignment---and one with omitted size is assumed to fill the remaining space
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until the next sibling or before the end of its parent.
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- It's fine to omit any .*section 's offset, size, or both, provided its position and size are
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still unambiguous in the context of its *sibling* sections and its parent's *size*. In
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particular, knowledge of one .*section 's children or the .*section s' common parent's siblings
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will not be used for this purpose.
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- Although .*section s are not required to have children, the flash chip as a whole must have at
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least one.
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- Though the braces after .*section s may be omitted for those that have no children, if they are
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present, they must contain at least one child.
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PL people and sympathizers may wish to examine the formal abstract syntax and context-free grammar,
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which are located in fmd_scanner.l and fmd_scanner.y, respectively. Those interested in the
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algorithm used to infer omitted values will feel at home in fmd.c, particularly near the definition
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of validate_and_complete_info().
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