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Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
2.. Copyright (c) 2016 Google, Inc
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07003
4Introduction
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +13005============
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07006
7Firmware often consists of several components which must be packaged together.
8For example, we may have SPL, U-Boot, a device tree and an environment area
9grouped together and placed in MMC flash. When the system starts, it must be
10able to find these pieces.
11
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130012Building firmware should be separate from packaging it. Many of the complexities
13of modern firmware build systems come from trying to do both at once. With
14binman, you build all the pieces that are needed, using whatever assortment of
15projects and build systems are needed, then use binman to stitch everything
16together.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070017
18
19What it does
20------------
21
22Binman reads your board's device tree and finds a node which describes the
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130023required image layout. It uses this to work out what to place where.
24
25Binman provides a mechanism for building images, from simple SPL + U-Boot
26combinations, to more complex arrangements with many parts. It also allows
27users to inspect images, extract and replace binaries within them, repacking if
28needed.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070029
30
31Features
32--------
33
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130034Apart from basic padding, alignment and positioning features, Binman supports
35hierarchical images, compression, hashing and dealing with the binary blobs
36which are a sad trend in open-source firmware at present.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070037
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130038Executable binaries can access the location of other binaries in an image by
39using special linker symbols (zero-overhead but somewhat limited) or by reading
40the devicetree description of the image.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070041
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130042Binman is designed primarily for use with U-Boot and associated binaries such
43as ARM Trusted Firmware, but it is suitable for use with other projects, such
44as Zephyr. Binman also provides facilities useful in Chromium OS, such as CBFS,
45vblocks and and the like.
46
47Binman provides a way to process binaries before they are included, by adding a
48Python plug-in.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070049
50Binman is intended for use with U-Boot but is designed to be general enough
51to be useful in other image-packaging situations.
52
53
54Motivation
55----------
56
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +130057As mentioned above, packaging of firmware is quite a different task from
58building the various parts. In many cases the various binaries which go into
59the image come from separate build systems. For example, ARM Trusted Firmware
60is used on ARMv8 devices but is not built in the U-Boot tree. If a Linux kernel
61is included in the firmware image, it is built elsewhere.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070062
63It is of course possible to add more and more build rules to the U-Boot
64build system to cover these cases. It can shell out to other Makefiles and
65build scripts. But it seems better to create a clear divide between building
66software and packaging it.
67
68At present this is handled by manual instructions, different for each board,
69on how to create images that will boot. By turning these instructions into a
70standard format, we can support making valid images for any board without
71manual effort, lots of READMEs, etc.
72
73Benefits:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +130074
75 - Each binary can have its own build system and tool chain without creating
76 any dependencies between them
77 - Avoids the need for a single-shot build: individual parts can be updated
78 and brought in as needed
79 - Provides for a standard image description available in the build and at
80 run-time
81 - SoC-specific image-signing tools can be accommodated
82 - Avoids cluttering the U-Boot build system with image-building code
83 - The image description is automatically available at run-time in U-Boot,
84 SPL. It can be made available to other software also
85 - The image description is easily readable (it's a text file in device-tree
86 format) and permits flexible packing of binaries
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -070087
88
89Terminology
90-----------
91
92Binman uses the following terms:
93
94- image - an output file containing a firmware image
95- binary - an input binary that goes into the image
96
97
98Relationship to FIT
99-------------------
100
101FIT is U-Boot's official image format. It supports multiple binaries with
102load / execution addresses, compression. It also supports verification
103through hashing and RSA signatures.
104
105FIT was originally designed to support booting a Linux kernel (with an
106optional ramdisk) and device tree chosen from various options in the FIT.
107Now that U-Boot supports configuration via device tree, it is possible to
108load U-Boot from a FIT, with the device tree chosen by SPL.
109
110Binman considers FIT to be one of the binaries it can place in the image.
111
112Where possible it is best to put as much as possible in the FIT, with binman
113used to deal with cases not covered by FIT. Examples include initial
114execution (since FIT itself does not have an executable header) and dealing
115with device boundaries, such as the read-only/read-write separation in SPI
116flash.
117
118For U-Boot, binman should not be used to create ad-hoc images in place of
119FIT.
120
121
122Relationship to mkimage
123-----------------------
124
125The mkimage tool provides a means to create a FIT. Traditionally it has
126needed an image description file: a device tree, like binman, but in a
127different format. More recently it has started to support a '-f auto' mode
128which can generate that automatically.
129
130More relevant to binman, mkimage also permits creation of many SoC-specific
131image types. These can be listed by running 'mkimage -T list'. Examples
132include 'rksd', the Rockchip SD/MMC boot format. The mkimage tool is often
133called from the U-Boot build system for this reason.
134
135Binman considers the output files created by mkimage to be binary blobs
136which it can place in an image. Binman does not replace the mkimage tool or
Michael Heimpold383d2562018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200137this purpose. It would be possible in some situations to create a new entry
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700138type for the images in mkimage, but this would not add functionality. It
Michael Heimpold383d2562018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200139seems better to use the mkimage tool to generate binaries and avoid blurring
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700140the boundaries between building input files (mkimage) and packaging then
141into a final image (binman).
142
143
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300144Using binman
145============
146
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700147Example use of binman in U-Boot
148-------------------------------
149
150Binman aims to replace some of the ad-hoc image creation in the U-Boot
151build system.
152
153Consider sunxi. It has the following steps:
154
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300155 #. It uses a custom mksunxiboot tool to build an SPL image called
156 sunxi-spl.bin. This should probably move into mkimage.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700157
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300158 #. It uses mkimage to package U-Boot into a legacy image file (so that it can
159 hold the load and execution address) called u-boot.img.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700160
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300161 #. It builds a final output image called u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin which
162 consists of sunxi-spl.bin, some padding and u-boot.img.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700163
164Binman is intended to replace the last step. The U-Boot build system builds
165u-boot.bin and sunxi-spl.bin. Binman can then take over creation of
166sunxi-spl.bin (by calling mksunxiboot, or hopefully one day mkimage). In any
167case, it would then create the image from the component parts.
168
169This simplifies the U-Boot Makefile somewhat, since various pieces of logic
170can be replaced by a call to binman.
171
172
173Example use of binman for x86
174-----------------------------
175
176In most cases x86 images have a lot of binary blobs, 'black-box' code
177provided by Intel which must be run for the platform to work. Typically
178these blobs are not relocatable and must be placed at fixed areas in the
Michael Heimpold383d2562018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200179firmware image.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700180
181Currently this is handled by ifdtool, which places microcode, FSP, MRC, VGA
182BIOS, reference code and Intel ME binaries into a u-boot.rom file.
183
184Binman is intended to replace all of this, with ifdtool left to handle only
185the configuration of the Intel-format descriptor.
186
187
188Running binman
189--------------
190
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300191First install prerequisites, e.g::
Simon Glassd8d40742019-07-08 13:18:35 -0600192
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300193 sudo apt-get install python-pyelftools python3-pyelftools lzma-alone \
194 liblz4-tool
Simon Glassd8d40742019-07-08 13:18:35 -0600195
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300196Type::
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700197
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300198 binman build -b <board_name>
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700199
200to build an image for a board. The board name is the same name used when
201configuring U-Boot (e.g. for sandbox_defconfig the board name is 'sandbox').
202Binman assumes that the input files for the build are in ../b/<board_name>.
203
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300204Or you can specify this explicitly::
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700205
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300206 binman build -I <build_path>
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700207
208where <build_path> is the build directory containing the output of the U-Boot
209build.
210
211(Future work will make this more configurable)
212
213In either case, binman picks up the device tree file (u-boot.dtb) and looks
214for its instructions in the 'binman' node.
215
216Binman has a few other options which you can see by running 'binman -h'.
217
218
Simon Glass9c0a8b12017-11-12 21:52:06 -0700219Enabling binman for a board
220---------------------------
221
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +1300222At present binman is invoked from a rule in the main Makefile. You should be
223able to enable CONFIG_BINMAN to enable this rule.
Simon Glass9c0a8b12017-11-12 21:52:06 -0700224
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +1300225The output file is typically named image.bin and is located in the output
226directory. If input files are needed to you add these to INPUTS-y either in the
227main Makefile or in a config.mk file in your arch subdirectory.
Simon Glass9c0a8b12017-11-12 21:52:06 -0700228
229Once binman is executed it will pick up its instructions from a device-tree
230file, typically <soc>-u-boot.dtsi, where <soc> is your CONFIG_SYS_SOC value.
231You can use other, more specific CONFIG options - see 'Automatic .dtsi
232inclusion' below.
233
234
Bin Meng31eefd42021-05-10 20:23:37 +0800235Using binman with OF_BOARD or OF_PRIOR_STAGE
236--------------------------------------------
237
238Normally binman is used with a board configured with OF_SEPARATE or OF_EMBED.
239This is a typical scenario where a device tree source that contains the binman
240node is provided in the arch/<arch>/dts directory for a specific board.
241
242However for a board configured with OF_BOARD or OF_PRIOR_STAGE, no device tree
243blob is provided in the U-Boot build phase hence the binman node information
244is not available. In order to support such use case, a new Kconfig option
245BINMAN_STANDALONE_FDT is introduced, to tell the build system that a standalone
246device tree blob containing binman node is explicitly required.
247
248Note there is a Kconfig option BINMAN_FDT which enables U-Boot run time to
249access information about binman entries, stored in the device tree in a binman
250node. Generally speaking, this option makes sense for OF_SEPARATE or OF_EMBED.
251For the other OF_CONTROL methods, it's quite possible binman node is not
252available as binman is invoked during the build phase, thus this option is not
253turned on by default for these OF_CONTROL methods.
254
255See qemu-riscv64_spl_defconfig for an example of how binman is used with
256OF_PRIOR_STAGE to generate u-boot.itb image.
257
258
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300259Access to binman entry offsets at run time (symbols)
260----------------------------------------------------
261
262Binman assembles images and determines where each entry is placed in the image.
263This information may be useful to U-Boot at run time. For example, in SPL it
264is useful to be able to find the location of U-Boot so that it can be executed
265when SPL is finished.
266
267Binman allows you to declare symbols in the SPL image which are filled in
268with their correct values during the build. For example::
269
270 binman_sym_declare(ulong, u_boot_any, image_pos);
271
272declares a ulong value which will be assigned to the image-pos of any U-Boot
273image (u-boot.bin, u-boot.img, u-boot-nodtb.bin) that is present in the image.
274You can access this value with something like::
275
276 ulong u_boot_offset = binman_sym(ulong, u_boot_any, image_pos);
277
278Thus u_boot_offset will be set to the image-pos of U-Boot in memory, assuming
279that the whole image has been loaded, or is available in flash. You can then
280jump to that address to start U-Boot.
281
282At present this feature is only supported in SPL and TPL. In principle it is
283possible to fill in such symbols in U-Boot proper, as well, but a future C
284library is planned for this instead, to read from the device tree.
285
286As well as image-pos, it is possible to read the size of an entry and its
287offset (which is the start position of the entry within its parent).
288
289A small technical note: Binman automatically adds the base address of the image
290(i.e. __image_copy_start) to the value of the image-pos symbol, so that when the
291image is loaded to its linked address, the value will be correct and actually
292point into the image.
293
294For example, say SPL is at the start of the image and linked to start at address
29580108000. If U-Boot's image-pos is 0x8000 then binman will write an image-pos
296for U-Boot of 80110000 into the SPL binary, since it assumes the image is loaded
297to 80108000, with SPL at 80108000 and U-Boot at 80110000.
298
299For x86 devices (with the end-at-4gb property) this base address is not added
300since it is assumed that images are XIP and the offsets already include the
301address.
302
303
304Access to binman entry offsets at run time (fdt)
305------------------------------------------------
306
307Binman can update the U-Boot FDT to include the final position and size of
308each entry in the images it processes. The option to enable this is -u and it
309causes binman to make sure that the 'offset', 'image-pos' and 'size' properties
310are set correctly for every entry. Since it is not necessary to specify these in
311the image definition, binman calculates the final values and writes these to
312the device tree. These can be used by U-Boot at run-time to find the location
313of each entry.
314
315Alternatively, an FDT map entry can be used to add a special FDT containing
316just the information about the image. This is preceded by a magic string so can
317be located anywhere in the image. An image header (typically at the start or end
318of the image) can be used to point to the FDT map. See fdtmap and image-header
319entries for more information.
320
321
322Map files
323---------
324
325The -m option causes binman to output a .map file for each image that it
326generates. This shows the offset and size of each entry. For example::
327
328 Offset Size Name
329 00000000 00000028 main-section
330 00000000 00000010 section@0
331 00000000 00000004 u-boot
332 00000010 00000010 section@1
333 00000000 00000004 u-boot
334
335This shows a hierarchical image with two sections, each with a single entry. The
336offsets of the sections are absolute hex byte offsets within the image. The
337offsets of the entries are relative to their respective sections. The size of
338each entry is also shown, in bytes (hex). The indentation shows the entries
339nested inside their sections.
340
341
342Passing command-line arguments to entries
343-----------------------------------------
344
345Sometimes it is useful to pass binman the value of an entry property from the
346command line. For example some entries need access to files and it is not
347always convenient to put these filenames in the image definition (device tree).
348
Bin Meng2817c9d2021-05-10 20:23:30 +0800349The -a option supports this::
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300350
Bin Meng2817c9d2021-05-10 20:23:30 +0800351 -a <prop>=<value>
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300352
353where::
354
355 <prop> is the property to set
356 <value> is the value to set it to
357
358Not all properties can be provided this way. Only some entries support it,
359typically for filenames.
360
361
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700362Image description format
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300363========================
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700364
365The binman node is called 'binman'. An example image description is shown
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300366below::
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700367
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300368 binman {
369 filename = "u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin";
370 pad-byte = <0xff>;
371 blob {
372 filename = "spl/sunxi-spl.bin";
373 };
374 u-boot {
375 offset = <CONFIG_SPL_PAD_TO>;
376 };
377 };
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700378
379
380This requests binman to create an image file called u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
381consisting of a specially formatted SPL (spl/sunxi-spl.bin, built by the
382normal U-Boot Makefile), some 0xff padding, and a U-Boot legacy image. The
383padding comes from the fact that the second binary is placed at
384CONFIG_SPL_PAD_TO. If that line were omitted then the U-Boot binary would
385immediately follow the SPL binary.
386
387The binman node describes an image. The sub-nodes describe entries in the
388image. Each entry represents a region within the overall image. The name of
389the entry (blob, u-boot) tells binman what to put there. For 'blob' we must
390provide a filename. For 'u-boot', binman knows that this means 'u-boot.bin'.
391
392Entries are normally placed into the image sequentially, one after the other.
393The image size is the total size of all entries. As you can see, you can
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600394specify the start offset of an entry using the 'offset' property.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700395
396Note that due to a device tree requirement, all entries must have a unique
397name. If you want to put the same binary in the image multiple times, you can
398use any unique name, with the 'type' property providing the type.
399
400The attributes supported for entries are described below.
401
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600402offset:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300403 This sets the offset of an entry within the image or section containing
404 it. The first byte of the image is normally at offset 0. If 'offset' is
405 not provided, binman sets it to the end of the previous region, or the
406 start of the image's entry area (normally 0) if there is no previous
407 region.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700408
409align:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300410 This sets the alignment of the entry. The entry offset is adjusted
411 so that the entry starts on an aligned boundary within the containing
412 section or image. For example 'align = <16>' means that the entry will
413 start on a 16-byte boundary. This may mean that padding is added before
414 the entry. The padding is part of the containing section but is not
415 included in the entry, meaning that an empty space may be created before
416 the entry starts. Alignment should be a power of 2. If 'align' is not
417 provided, no alignment is performed.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700418
419size:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300420 This sets the size of the entry. The contents will be padded out to
421 this size. If this is not provided, it will be set to the size of the
422 contents.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700423
424pad-before:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300425 Padding before the contents of the entry. Normally this is 0, meaning
426 that the contents start at the beginning of the entry. This can be used
427 to offset the entry contents a little. While this does not affect the
428 contents of the entry within binman itself (the padding is performed
429 only when its parent section is assembled), the end result will be that
430 the entry starts with the padding bytes, so may grow. Defaults to 0.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700431
432pad-after:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300433 Padding after the contents of the entry. Normally this is 0, meaning
434 that the entry ends at the last byte of content (unless adjusted by
435 other properties). This allows room to be created in the image for
436 this entry to expand later. While this does not affect the contents of
437 the entry within binman itself (the padding is performed only when its
438 parent section is assembled), the end result will be that the entry ends
439 with the padding bytes, so may grow. Defaults to 0.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700440
441align-size:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300442 This sets the alignment of the entry size. For example, to ensure
443 that the size of an entry is a multiple of 64 bytes, set this to 64.
444 While this does not affect the contents of the entry within binman
445 itself (the padding is performed only when its parent section is
446 assembled), the end result is that the entry ends with the padding
447 bytes, so may grow. If 'align-size' is not provided, no alignment is
448 performed.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700449
450align-end:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300451 This sets the alignment of the end of an entry with respect to the
452 containing section. Some entries require that they end on an alignment
453 boundary, regardless of where they start. This does not move the start
454 of the entry, so the contents of the entry will still start at the
455 beginning. But there may be padding at the end. While this does not
456 affect the contents of the entry within binman itself (the padding is
457 performed only when its parent section is assembled), the end result
458 is that the entry ends with the padding bytes, so may grow.
459 If 'align-end' is not provided, no alignment is performed.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700460
461filename:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300462 For 'blob' types this provides the filename containing the binary to
463 put into the entry. If binman knows about the entry type (like
464 u-boot-bin), then there is no need to specify this.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700465
466type:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300467 Sets the type of an entry. This defaults to the entry name, but it is
468 possible to use any name, and then add (for example) 'type = "u-boot"'
469 to specify the type.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700470
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600471offset-unset:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300472 Indicates that the offset of this entry should not be set by placing
473 it immediately after the entry before. Instead, is set by another
474 entry which knows where this entry should go. When this boolean
475 property is present, binman will give an error if another entry does
476 not set the offset (with the GetOffsets() method).
Simon Glass258fb0e2018-06-01 09:38:17 -0600477
Simon Glassdbf6be92018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600478image-pos:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300479 This cannot be set on entry (or at least it is ignored if it is), but
480 with the -u option, binman will set it to the absolute image position
481 for each entry. This makes it easy to find out exactly where the entry
482 ended up in the image, regardless of parent sections, etc.
Simon Glassdbf6be92018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600483
Simon Glassba64a0b2018-09-14 04:57:29 -0600484expand-size:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300485 Expand the size of this entry to fit available space. This space is only
486 limited by the size of the image/section and the position of the next
487 entry.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700488
Simon Glass8287ee82019-07-08 14:25:30 -0600489compress:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300490 Sets the compression algortihm to use (for blobs only). See the entry
491 documentation for details.
Simon Glass8287ee82019-07-08 14:25:30 -0600492
Simon Glassb2381432020-09-06 10:39:09 -0600493missing-msg:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300494 Sets the tag of the message to show if this entry is missing. This is
495 used for external blobs. When they are missing it is helpful to show
496 information about what needs to be fixed. See missing-blob-help for the
497 message for each tag.
Simon Glassb2381432020-09-06 10:39:09 -0600498
Simon Glass3d433382021-03-21 18:24:30 +1300499no-expanded:
500 By default binman substitutes entries with expanded versions if available,
501 so that a `u-boot` entry type turns into `u-boot-expanded`, for example. The
502 `--no-expanded` command-line option disables this globally. The
503 `no-expanded` property disables this just for a single entry. Put the
504 `no-expanded` boolean property in the node to select this behaviour.
505
Simon Glass9c888cc2018-09-14 04:57:30 -0600506The attributes supported for images and sections are described below. Several
507are similar to those for entries.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700508
509size:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300510 Sets the image size in bytes, for example 'size = <0x100000>' for a
511 1MB image.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700512
Simon Glass9481c802019-04-25 21:58:39 -0600513offset:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300514 This is similar to 'offset' in entries, setting the offset of a section
515 within the image or section containing it. The first byte of the section
516 is normally at offset 0. If 'offset' is not provided, binman sets it to
517 the end of the previous region, or the start of the image's entry area
518 (normally 0) if there is no previous region.
Simon Glass9481c802019-04-25 21:58:39 -0600519
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700520align-size:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300521 This sets the alignment of the image size. For example, to ensure
522 that the image ends on a 512-byte boundary, use 'align-size = <512>'.
523 If 'align-size' is not provided, no alignment is performed.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700524
525pad-before:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300526 This sets the padding before the image entries. The first entry will
527 be positioned after the padding. This defaults to 0.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700528
529pad-after:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300530 This sets the padding after the image entries. The padding will be
531 placed after the last entry. This defaults to 0.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700532
533pad-byte:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300534 This specifies the pad byte to use when padding in the image. It
535 defaults to 0. To use 0xff, you would add 'pad-byte = <0xff>'.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700536
537filename:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300538 This specifies the image filename. It defaults to 'image.bin'.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700539
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600540sort-by-offset:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300541 This causes binman to reorder the entries as needed to make sure they
542 are in increasing positional order. This can be used when your entry
543 order may not match the positional order. A common situation is where
544 the 'offset' properties are set by CONFIG options, so their ordering is
545 not known a priori.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700546
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300547 This is a boolean property so needs no value. To enable it, add a
548 line 'sort-by-offset;' to your description.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700549
550multiple-images:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300551 Normally only a single image is generated. To create more than one
552 image, put this property in the binman node. For example, this will
553 create image1.bin containing u-boot.bin, and image2.bin containing
554 both spl/u-boot-spl.bin and u-boot.bin::
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700555
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300556 binman {
557 multiple-images;
558 image1 {
559 u-boot {
560 };
561 };
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700562
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300563 image2 {
564 spl {
565 };
566 u-boot {
567 };
568 };
569 };
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700570
571end-at-4gb:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300572 For x86 machines the ROM offsets start just before 4GB and extend
573 up so that the image finished at the 4GB boundary. This boolean
574 option can be enabled to support this. The image size must be
575 provided so that binman knows when the image should start. For an
576 8MB ROM, the offset of the first entry would be 0xfff80000 with
577 this option, instead of 0 without this option.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700578
Jagdish Gediya94b57db2018-09-03 21:35:07 +0530579skip-at-start:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300580 This property specifies the entry offset of the first entry.
Jagdish Gediya94b57db2018-09-03 21:35:07 +0530581
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300582 For PowerPC mpc85xx based CPU, CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE is the entry
583 offset of the first entry. It can be 0xeff40000 or 0xfff40000 for
584 nor flash boot, 0x201000 for sd boot etc.
Jagdish Gediya94b57db2018-09-03 21:35:07 +0530585
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300586 'end-at-4gb' property is not applicable where CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE +
587 Image size != 4gb.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700588
Simon Glass5ff9fed2021-03-21 18:24:33 +1300589align-default:
590 Specifies the default alignment for entries in this section, if they do
591 not specify an alignment. Note that this only applies to top-level entries
592 in the section (direct subentries), not any subentries of those entries.
593 This means that each section must specify its own default alignment, if
594 required.
595
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700596Examples of the above options can be found in the tests. See the
597tools/binman/test directory.
598
Simon Glassdd57c132018-06-01 09:38:11 -0600599It is possible to have the same binary appear multiple times in the image,
600either by using a unit number suffix (u-boot@0, u-boot@1) or by using a
601different name for each and specifying the type with the 'type' attribute.
602
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700603
Michael Heimpold383d2562018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200604Sections and hierachical images
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600605-------------------------------
606
607Sometimes it is convenient to split an image into several pieces, each of which
608contains its own set of binaries. An example is a flash device where part of
609the image is read-only and part is read-write. We can set up sections for each
610of these, and place binaries in them independently. The image is still produced
611as a single output file.
612
613This feature provides a way of creating hierarchical images. For example here
Simon Glass7ae5f312018-06-01 09:38:19 -0600614is an example image with two copies of U-Boot. One is read-only (ro), intended
615to be written only in the factory. Another is read-write (rw), so that it can be
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600616upgraded in the field. The sizes are fixed so that the ro/rw boundary is known
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300617and can be programmed::
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600618
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300619 binman {
620 section@0 {
621 read-only;
622 name-prefix = "ro-";
623 size = <0x100000>;
624 u-boot {
625 };
626 };
627 section@1 {
628 name-prefix = "rw-";
629 size = <0x100000>;
630 u-boot {
631 };
632 };
633 };
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600634
635This image could be placed into a SPI flash chip, with the protection boundary
636set at 1MB.
637
638A few special properties are provided for sections:
639
640read-only:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300641 Indicates that this section is read-only. This has no impact on binman's
642 operation, but his property can be read at run time.
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600643
Simon Glassc8d48ef2018-06-01 09:38:21 -0600644name-prefix:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300645 This string is prepended to all the names of the binaries in the
646 section. In the example above, the 'u-boot' binaries which actually be
647 renamed to 'ro-u-boot' and 'rw-u-boot'. This can be useful to
648 distinguish binaries with otherwise identical names.
Simon Glassc8d48ef2018-06-01 09:38:21 -0600649
Simon Glass18546952018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600650
Simon Glass12bb1a92019-07-20 12:23:51 -0600651Image Properties
652----------------
653
654Image nodes act like sections but also have a few extra properties:
655
656filename:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300657 Output filename for the image. This defaults to image.bin (or in the
658 case of multiple images <nodename>.bin where <nodename> is the name of
659 the image node.
Simon Glass12bb1a92019-07-20 12:23:51 -0600660
661allow-repack:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300662 Create an image that can be repacked. With this option it is possible
663 to change anything in the image after it is created, including updating
664 the position and size of image components. By default this is not
665 permitted since it is not possibly to know whether this might violate a
666 constraint in the image description. For example, if a section has to
667 increase in size to hold a larger binary, that might cause the section
668 to fall out of its allow region (e.g. read-only portion of flash).
Simon Glass12bb1a92019-07-20 12:23:51 -0600669
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300670 Adding this property causes the original offset and size values in the
671 image description to be stored in the FDT and fdtmap.
Simon Glass12bb1a92019-07-20 12:23:51 -0600672
673
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300674Hashing Entries
675---------------
676
677It is possible to ask binman to hash the contents of an entry and write that
678value back to the device-tree node. For example::
679
680 binman {
681 u-boot {
682 hash {
683 algo = "sha256";
684 };
685 };
686 };
687
688Here, a new 'value' property will be written to the 'hash' node containing
689the hash of the 'u-boot' entry. Only SHA256 is supported at present. Whole
690sections can be hased if desired, by adding the 'hash' node to the section.
691
692The has value can be chcked at runtime by hashing the data actually read and
693comparing this has to the value in the device tree.
694
695
696Expanded entries
697----------------
698
699Binman automatically replaces 'u-boot' with an expanded version of that, i.e.
700'u-boot-expanded'. This means that when you write::
701
702 u-boot {
703 };
704
705you actually get::
706
707 u-boot {
708 type = "u-boot-expanded';
709 };
710
711which in turn expands to::
712
713 u-boot {
714 type = "section";
715
716 u-boot-nodtb {
717 };
718
719 u-boot-dtb {
720 };
721 };
722
723U-Boot's various phase binaries actually comprise two or three pieces.
724For example, u-boot.bin has the executable followed by a devicetree.
725
726With binman we want to be able to update that devicetree with full image
727information so that it is accessible to the executable. This is tricky
728if it is not clear where the devicetree starts.
729
730The above feature ensures that the devicetree is clearly separated from the
731U-Boot executable and can be updated separately by binman as needed. It can be
732disabled with the --no-expanded flag if required.
733
734The same applies for u-boot-spl and u-boot-spl. In those cases, the expansion
735includes the BSS padding, so for example::
736
737 spl {
738 type = "u-boot-spl"
739 };
740
741you actually get::
742
743 spl {
744 type = "u-boot-expanded';
745 };
746
747which in turn expands to::
748
749 spl {
750 type = "section";
751
752 u-boot-spl-nodtb {
753 };
754
755 u-boot-spl-bss-pad {
756 };
757
758 u-boot-spl-dtb {
759 };
760 };
761
762Of course we should not expand SPL if it has no devicetree. Also if the BSS
763padding is not needed (because BSS is in RAM as with CONFIG_SPL_SEPARATE_BSS),
764the 'u-boot-spl-bss-pad' subnode should not be created. The use of the expaned
765entry type is controlled by the UseExpanded() method. In the SPL case it checks
766the 'spl-dtb' entry arg, which is 'y' or '1' if SPL has a devicetree.
767
768For the BSS case, a 'spl-bss-pad' entry arg controls whether it is present. All
769entry args are provided by the U-Boot Makefile.
770
771
772Compression
773-----------
774
775Binman support compression for 'blob' entries (those of type 'blob' and
776derivatives). To enable this for an entry, add a 'compress' property::
777
778 blob {
779 filename = "datafile";
780 compress = "lz4";
781 };
782
783The entry will then contain the compressed data, using the 'lz4' compression
784algorithm. Currently this is the only one that is supported. The uncompressed
785size is written to the node in an 'uncomp-size' property, if -u is used.
786
787Compression is also supported for sections. In that case the entire section is
788compressed in one block, including all its contents. This means that accessing
789an entry from the section required decompressing the entire section. Also, the
790size of a section indicates the space that it consumes in its parent section
791(and typically the image). With compression, the section may contain more data,
792and the uncomp-size property indicates that, as above. The contents of the
793section is compressed first, before any padding is added. This ensures that the
794padding itself is not compressed, which would be a waste of time.
795
796
797Automatic .dtsi inclusion
798-------------------------
799
800It is sometimes inconvenient to add a 'binman' node to the .dts file for each
801board. This can be done by using #include to bring in a common file. Another
802approach supported by the U-Boot build system is to automatically include
803a common header. You can then put the binman node (and anything else that is
804specific to U-Boot, such as u-boot,dm-pre-reloc properies) in that header
805file.
806
807Binman will search for the following files in arch/<arch>/dts::
808
809 <dts>-u-boot.dtsi where <dts> is the base name of the .dts file
810 <CONFIG_SYS_SOC>-u-boot.dtsi
811 <CONFIG_SYS_CPU>-u-boot.dtsi
812 <CONFIG_SYS_VENDOR>-u-boot.dtsi
813 u-boot.dtsi
814
815U-Boot will only use the first one that it finds. If you need to include a
816more general file you can do that from the more specific file using #include.
817If you are having trouble figuring out what is going on, you can uncomment
818the 'warning' line in scripts/Makefile.lib to see what it has found::
819
820 # Uncomment for debugging
821 # This shows all the files that were considered and the one that we chose.
822 # u_boot_dtsi_options_debug = $(u_boot_dtsi_options_raw)
823
824
Simon Glass5a5da7c2018-07-17 13:25:37 -0600825Entry Documentation
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +1300826===================
Simon Glass5a5da7c2018-07-17 13:25:37 -0600827
828For details on the various entry types supported by binman and how to use them,
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +1300829see entries.rst which is generated from the source code using:
Simon Glass5a5da7c2018-07-17 13:25:37 -0600830
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +1300831 binman entry-docs >tools/binman/entries.rst
832
833.. toctree::
834 :maxdepth: 2
835
836 entries
Simon Glass5a5da7c2018-07-17 13:25:37 -0600837
838
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300839Managing images
840===============
841
Simon Glass61f564d2019-07-08 14:25:48 -0600842Listing images
843--------------
844
845It is possible to list the entries in an existing firmware image created by
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300846binman, provided that there is an 'fdtmap' entry in the image. For example::
Simon Glass61f564d2019-07-08 14:25:48 -0600847
848 $ binman ls -i image.bin
849 Name Image-pos Size Entry-type Offset Uncomp-size
850 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
851 main-section c00 section 0
852 u-boot 0 4 u-boot 0
853 section 5fc section 4
854 cbfs 100 400 cbfs 0
855 u-boot 138 4 u-boot 38
856 u-boot-dtb 180 108 u-boot-dtb 80 3b5
857 u-boot-dtb 500 1ff u-boot-dtb 400 3b5
858 fdtmap 6fc 381 fdtmap 6fc
859 image-header bf8 8 image-header bf8
860
861This shows the hierarchy of the image, the position, size and type of each
862entry, the offset of each entry within its parent and the uncompressed size if
863the entry is compressed.
864
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300865It is also possible to list just some files in an image, e.g.::
Simon Glass61f564d2019-07-08 14:25:48 -0600866
867 $ binman ls -i image.bin section/cbfs
868 Name Image-pos Size Entry-type Offset Uncomp-size
869 --------------------------------------------------------------------
870 cbfs 100 400 cbfs 0
871 u-boot 138 4 u-boot 38
872 u-boot-dtb 180 108 u-boot-dtb 80 3b5
873
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300874or with wildcards::
Simon Glass61f564d2019-07-08 14:25:48 -0600875
876 $ binman ls -i image.bin "*cb*" "*head*"
877 Name Image-pos Size Entry-type Offset Uncomp-size
878 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
879 cbfs 100 400 cbfs 0
880 u-boot 138 4 u-boot 38
881 u-boot-dtb 180 108 u-boot-dtb 80 3b5
882 image-header bf8 8 image-header bf8
883
884
Simon Glass71ce0ba2019-07-08 14:25:52 -0600885Extracting files from images
886----------------------------
887
888You can extract files from an existing firmware image created by binman,
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300889provided that there is an 'fdtmap' entry in the image. For example::
Simon Glass71ce0ba2019-07-08 14:25:52 -0600890
891 $ binman extract -i image.bin section/cbfs/u-boot
892
893which will write the uncompressed contents of that entry to the file 'u-boot' in
894the current directory. You can also extract to a particular file, in this case
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300895u-boot.bin::
Simon Glass71ce0ba2019-07-08 14:25:52 -0600896
897 $ binman extract -i image.bin section/cbfs/u-boot -f u-boot.bin
898
899It is possible to extract all files into a destination directory, which will
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300900put files in subdirectories matching the entry hierarchy::
Simon Glass71ce0ba2019-07-08 14:25:52 -0600901
902 $ binman extract -i image.bin -O outdir
903
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300904or just a selection::
Simon Glass71ce0ba2019-07-08 14:25:52 -0600905
906 $ binman extract -i image.bin "*u-boot*" -O outdir
907
908
Simon Glass10f9d002019-07-20 12:23:50 -0600909Replacing files in an image
910---------------------------
911
912You can replace files in an existing firmware image created by binman, provided
913that there is an 'fdtmap' entry in the image. For example:
914
915 $ binman replace -i image.bin section/cbfs/u-boot
916
917which will write the contents of the file 'u-boot' from the current directory
Simon Glassa6cb9952019-07-20 12:24:15 -0600918to the that entry, compressing if necessary. If the entry size changes, you must
919add the 'allow-repack' property to the original image before generating it (see
920above), otherwise you will get an error.
921
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300922You can also use a particular file, in this case u-boot.bin::
Simon Glassa6cb9952019-07-20 12:24:15 -0600923
924 $ binman replace -i image.bin section/cbfs/u-boot -f u-boot.bin
925
926It is possible to replace all files from a source directory which uses the same
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300927hierarchy as the entries::
Simon Glassa6cb9952019-07-20 12:24:15 -0600928
929 $ binman replace -i image.bin -I indir
930
931Files that are missing will generate a warning.
932
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +1300933You can also replace just a selection of entries::
Simon Glassa6cb9952019-07-20 12:24:15 -0600934
935 $ binman replace -i image.bin "*u-boot*" -I indir
Simon Glass10f9d002019-07-20 12:23:50 -0600936
937
Simon Glasseea264e2019-07-08 14:25:49 -0600938Logging
939-------
940
941Binman normally operates silently unless there is an error, in which case it
942just displays the error. The -D/--debug option can be used to create a full
Simon Glassef108042021-02-06 09:57:28 -0700943backtrace when errors occur. You can use BINMAN_DEBUG=1 when building to select
944this.
Simon Glasseea264e2019-07-08 14:25:49 -0600945
946Internally binman logs some output while it is running. This can be displayed
947by increasing the -v/--verbosity from the default of 1:
948
949 0: silent
950 1: warnings only
951 2: notices (important messages)
952 3: info about major operations
953 4: detailed information about each operation
954 5: debug (all output)
955
Simon Glassef108042021-02-06 09:57:28 -0700956You can use BINMAN_VERBOSE=5 (for example) when building to select this.
Simon Glasseea264e2019-07-08 14:25:49 -0600957
Simon Glasse0ff8552016-11-25 20:15:53 -0700958
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +1300959Technical details
960=================
Simon Glasse0ff8552016-11-25 20:15:53 -0700961
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700962Order of image creation
963-----------------------
964
965Image creation proceeds in the following order, for each entry in the image.
966
Simon Glass078ab1a2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06009671. AddMissingProperties() - binman can add calculated values to the device
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600968tree as part of its processing, for example the offset and size of each
Simon Glass078ab1a2018-07-06 10:27:41 -0600969entry. This method adds any properties associated with this, expanding the
970device tree as needed. These properties can have placeholder values which are
971set later by SetCalculatedProperties(). By that stage the size of sections
972cannot be changed (since it would cause the images to need to be repacked),
973but the correct values can be inserted.
974
9752. ProcessFdt() - process the device tree information as required by the
Simon Glassecab8972018-07-06 10:27:40 -0600976particular entry. This may involve adding or deleting properties. If the
977processing is complete, this method should return True. If the processing
978cannot complete because it needs the ProcessFdt() method of another entry to
979run first, this method should return False, in which case it will be called
980again later.
981
Simon Glass078ab1a2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06009823. GetEntryContents() - the contents of each entry are obtained, normally by
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700983reading from a file. This calls the Entry.ObtainContents() to read the
984contents. The default version of Entry.ObtainContents() calls
985Entry.GetDefaultFilename() and then reads that file. So a common mechanism
986to select a file to read is to override that function in the subclass. The
987functions must return True when they have read the contents. Binman will
988retry calling the functions a few times if False is returned, allowing
989dependencies between the contents of different entries.
990
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -06009914. GetEntryOffsets() - calls Entry.GetOffsets() for each entry. This can
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700992return a dict containing entries that need updating. The key should be the
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600993entry name and the value is a tuple (offset, size). This allows an entry to
994provide the offset and size for other entries. The default implementation
995of GetEntryOffsets() returns {}.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700996
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -06009975. PackEntries() - calls Entry.Pack() which figures out the offset and
998size of an entry. The 'current' image offset is passed in, and the function
999returns the offset immediately after the entry being packed. The default
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001000implementation of Pack() is usually sufficient.
1001
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -06001002Note: for sections, this also checks that the entries do not overlap, nor extend
1003outside the section. If the section does not have a defined size, the size is
1004set large enough to hold all the entries.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001005
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -060010066. SetImagePos() - sets the image position of every entry. This is the absolute
Simon Glass4ab88b62019-07-20 12:23:52 -06001007position 'image-pos', as opposed to 'offset' which is relative to the containing
1008section. This must be done after all offsets are known, which is why it is quite
1009late in the ordering.
1010
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -060010117. SetCalculatedProperties() - update any calculated properties in the device
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -06001012tree. This sets the correct 'offset' and 'size' vaues, for example.
Simon Glass078ab1a2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06001013
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -060010148. ProcessEntryContents() - this calls Entry.ProcessContents() on each entry.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001015The default implementatoin does nothing. This can be overriden to adjust the
1016contents of an entry in some way. For example, it would be possible to create
1017an entry containing a hash of the contents of some other entries. At this
Simon Glassc52c9e72019-07-08 14:25:37 -06001018stage the offset and size of entries should not be adjusted unless absolutely
1019necessary, since it requires a repack (going back to PackEntries()).
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001020
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -060010219. ResetForPack() - if the ProcessEntryContents() step failed, in that an entry
Simon Glass4ab88b62019-07-20 12:23:52 -06001022has changed its size, then there is no alternative but to go back to step 5 and
1023try again, repacking the entries with the updated size. ResetForPack() removes
1024the fixed offset/size values added by binman, so that the packing can start from
1025scratch.
1026
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -0600102710. WriteSymbols() - write the value of symbols into the U-Boot SPL binary.
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -06001028See 'Access to binman entry offsets at run time' below for a description of
Simon Glass0a4357c2018-07-06 10:27:39 -06001029what happens in this stage.
Simon Glass39c15022017-11-13 18:55:05 -07001030
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -0600103111. BuildImage() - builds the image and writes it to a file
Simon Glass4ab88b62019-07-20 12:23:52 -06001032
Simon Glass0b657692020-10-26 17:40:22 -0600103312. WriteMap() - writes a text file containing a map of the image. This is the
Simon Glass4ab88b62019-07-20 12:23:52 -06001034final step.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001035
1036
Simon Glassc7d80352019-07-08 13:18:28 -06001037External tools
1038--------------
1039
1040Binman can make use of external command-line tools to handle processing of
1041entry contents or to generate entry contents. These tools are executed using
1042the 'tools' module's Run() method. The tools generally must exist on the PATH,
1043but the --toolpath option can be used to specify additional search paths to
1044use. This option can be specified multiple times to add more than one path.
1045
Alper Nebi Yasak4ec40a72020-09-06 14:46:07 +03001046For some compile tools binman will use the versions specified by commonly-used
1047environment variables like CC and HOSTCC for the C compiler, based on whether
1048the tool's output will be used for the target or for the host machine. If those
1049aren't given, it will also try to derive target-specific versions from the
1050CROSS_COMPILE environment variable during a cross-compilation.
1051
Simon Glassc7d80352019-07-08 13:18:28 -06001052
Simon Glass6d427c62016-11-25 20:15:59 -07001053Code coverage
1054-------------
1055
1056Binman is a critical tool and is designed to be very testable. Entry
Simon Glass53cd5d92019-07-08 14:25:29 -06001057implementations target 100% test coverage. Run 'binman test -T' to check this.
Simon Glass6d427c62016-11-25 20:15:59 -07001058
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001059To enable Python test coverage on Debian-type distributions (e.g. Ubuntu)::
Simon Glass6d427c62016-11-25 20:15:59 -07001060
Simon Glass45f449b2019-07-08 13:18:26 -06001061 $ sudo apt-get install python-coverage python3-coverage python-pytest
Simon Glass6d427c62016-11-25 20:15:59 -07001062
1063
Simon Glass55660d02019-05-17 22:00:52 -06001064Concurrent tests
1065----------------
1066
1067Binman tries to run tests concurrently. This means that the tests make use of
1068all available CPUs to run.
1069
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001070 To enable this::
Simon Glass55660d02019-05-17 22:00:52 -06001071
1072 $ sudo apt-get install python-subunit python3-subunit
1073
1074Use '-P 1' to disable this. It is automatically disabled when code coverage is
1075being used (-T) since they are incompatible.
1076
1077
Simon Glassd5164a72019-07-08 13:18:49 -06001078Debugging tests
1079---------------
1080
1081Sometimes when debugging tests it is useful to keep the input and output
1082directories so they can be examined later. Use -X or --test-preserve-dirs for
1083this.
1084
1085
Alper Nebi Yasak4ec40a72020-09-06 14:46:07 +03001086Running tests on non-x86 architectures
1087--------------------------------------
1088
1089Binman's tests have been written under the assumption that they'll be run on a
1090x86-like host and there hasn't been an attempt to make them portable yet.
1091However, it's possible to run the tests by cross-compiling to x86.
1092
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001093To install an x86 cross-compiler on Debian-type distributions (e.g. Ubuntu)::
Alper Nebi Yasak4ec40a72020-09-06 14:46:07 +03001094
1095 $ sudo apt-get install gcc-x86-64-linux-gnu
1096
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001097Then, you can run the tests under cross-compilation::
Alper Nebi Yasak4ec40a72020-09-06 14:46:07 +03001098
1099 $ CROSS_COMPILE=x86_64-linux-gnu- binman test -T
1100
1101You can also use gcc-i686-linux-gnu similar to the above.
1102
1103
Simon Glass072026e2021-03-18 20:25:14 +13001104Writing new entries and debugging
1105---------------------------------
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001106
1107The behaviour of entries is defined by the Entry class. All other entries are
1108a subclass of this. An important subclass is Entry_blob which takes binary
1109data from a file and places it in the entry. In fact most entry types are
1110subclasses of Entry_blob.
1111
1112Each entry type is a separate file in the tools/binman/etype directory. Each
1113file contains a class called Entry_<type> where <type> is the entry type.
1114New entry types can be supported by adding new files in that directory.
1115These will automatically be detected by binman when needed.
1116
1117Entry properties are documented in entry.py. The entry subclasses are free
1118to change the values of properties to support special behaviour. For example,
1119when Entry_blob loads a file, it sets content_size to the size of the file.
1120Entry classes can adjust other entries. For example, an entry that knows
Simon Glass3ab95982018-08-01 15:22:37 -06001121where other entries should be positioned can set up those entries' offsets
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001122so they don't need to be set in the binman decription. It can also adjust
1123entry contents.
1124
1125Most of the time such essoteric behaviour is not needed, but it can be
1126essential for complex images.
1127
Simon Glass3ed0de32017-12-24 12:12:07 -07001128If you need to specify a particular device-tree compiler to use, you can define
1129the DTC environment variable. This can be useful when the system dtc is too
1130old.
1131
Simon Glassa3c00552018-11-06 15:21:31 -07001132To enable a full backtrace and other debugging features in binman, pass
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001133BINMAN_DEBUG=1 to your build::
Simon Glassa3c00552018-11-06 15:21:31 -07001134
Bin Mengc443f562019-10-02 19:07:29 -07001135 make qemu-x86_defconfig
Simon Glassa3c00552018-11-06 15:21:31 -07001136 make BINMAN_DEBUG=1
1137
Simon Glass1f338e02019-09-25 08:11:11 -06001138To enable verbose logging from binman, base BINMAN_VERBOSE to your build, which
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001139adds a -v<level> option to the call to binman::
Simon Glass1f338e02019-09-25 08:11:11 -06001140
Bin Mengc443f562019-10-02 19:07:29 -07001141 make qemu-x86_defconfig
Simon Glass1f338e02019-09-25 08:11:11 -06001142 make BINMAN_VERBOSE=5
1143
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001144
Simon Glassc69d19c2021-07-06 10:36:37 -06001145Building sections in parallel
1146-----------------------------
1147
1148By default binman uses multiprocessing to speed up compilation of large images.
1149This works at a section level, with one thread for each entry in the section.
1150This can speed things up if the entries are large and use compression.
1151
1152This feature can be disabled with the '-T' flag, which defaults to a suitable
1153value for your machine. This depends on the Python version, e.g on v3.8 it uses
115412 threads on an 8-core machine. See ConcurrentFutures_ for more details.
1155
1156The special value -T0 selects single-threaded mode, useful for debugging during
1157development, since dealing with exceptions and problems in threads is more
1158difficult. This avoids any use of ThreadPoolExecutor.
1159
1160
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001161History / Credits
1162-----------------
1163
1164Binman takes a lot of inspiration from a Chrome OS tool called
1165'cros_bundle_firmware', which I wrote some years ago. That tool was based on
1166a reasonably simple and sound design but has expanded greatly over the
1167years. In particular its handling of x86 images is convoluted.
1168
Simon Glass7ae5f312018-06-01 09:38:19 -06001169Quite a few lessons have been learned which are hopefully applied here.
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001170
1171
1172Design notes
1173------------
1174
1175On the face of it, a tool to create firmware images should be fairly simple:
1176just find all the input binaries and place them at the right place in the
1177image. The difficulty comes from the wide variety of input types (simple
1178flat binaries containing code, packaged data with various headers), packing
1179requirments (alignment, spacing, device boundaries) and other required
1180features such as hierarchical images.
1181
1182The design challenge is to make it easy to create simple images, while
1183allowing the more complex cases to be supported. For example, for most
1184images we don't much care exactly where each binary ends up, so we should
1185not have to specify that unnecessarily.
1186
1187New entry types should aim to provide simple usage where possible. If new
1188core features are needed, they can be added in the Entry base class.
1189
1190
1191To do
1192-----
1193
1194Some ideas:
Simon Glass61adb2d2021-03-18 20:25:13 +13001195
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001196- Use of-platdata to make the information available to code that is unable
Simon Glassfcae6682021-03-18 20:25:17 +13001197 to use device tree (such as a very small SPL image). For now, limited info is
1198 available via linker symbols
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001199- Allow easy building of images by specifying just the board name
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001200- Support building an image for a board (-b) more completely, with a
1201 configurable build directory
Simon Glass513c53e2019-07-20 12:24:02 -06001202- Detect invalid properties in nodes
1203- Sort the fdtmap by offset
Simon Glass397a7702021-01-06 21:35:12 -07001204- Output temporary files to a different directory
Simon Glassbf7fd502016-11-25 20:15:51 -07001205
1206--
1207Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
12087/7/2016
Simon Glassc69d19c2021-07-06 10:36:37 -06001209
1210.. _ConcurrentFutures: https://docs.python.org/3/library/concurrent.futures.html#concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor