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Tom Rini10e47792018-05-06 17:58:06 -04001# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -07002# Copyright (c) 2016 Google, Inc
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -07003
4Introduction
5------------
6
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
12So far U-Boot has not provided a way to handle creating such images in a
13general way. Each SoC does what it needs to build an image, often packing or
14concatenating images in the U-Boot build system.
15
16Binman aims to provide a mechanism for building images, from simple
17SPL + U-Boot combinations, to more complex arrangements with many parts.
18
19
20What it does
21------------
22
23Binman reads your board's device tree and finds a node which describes the
24required image layout. It uses this to work out what to place where. The
25output file normally contains the device tree, so it is in principle possible
26to read an image and extract its constituent parts.
27
28
29Features
30--------
31
32So far binman is pretty simple. It supports binary blobs, such as 'u-boot',
33'spl' and 'fdt'. It supports empty entries (such as setting to 0xff). It can
34place entries at a fixed location in the image, or fit them together with
35suitable padding and alignment. It provides a way to process binaries before
36they are included, by adding a Python plug-in. The device tree is available
37to U-Boot at run-time so that the images can be interpreted.
38
Simon Glass43062bc2019-07-08 14:25:25 -060039Binman can update the device tree with the final location of everything when it
40is done. Entry positions can be provided to U-Boot SPL as run-time symbols,
41avoiding device-tree code overhead.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -070042
43Binman can also support incorporating filesystems in the image if required.
44For example x86 platforms may use CBFS in some cases.
45
46Binman is intended for use with U-Boot but is designed to be general enough
47to be useful in other image-packaging situations.
48
49
50Motivation
51----------
52
53Packaging of firmware is quite a different task from building the various
54parts. In many cases the various binaries which go into the image come from
55separate build systems. For example, ARM Trusted Firmware is used on ARMv8
56devices but is not built in the U-Boot tree. If a Linux kernel is included
57in the firmware image, it is built elsewhere.
58
59It is of course possible to add more and more build rules to the U-Boot
60build system to cover these cases. It can shell out to other Makefiles and
61build scripts. But it seems better to create a clear divide between building
62software and packaging it.
63
64At present this is handled by manual instructions, different for each board,
65on how to create images that will boot. By turning these instructions into a
66standard format, we can support making valid images for any board without
67manual effort, lots of READMEs, etc.
68
69Benefits:
70- Each binary can have its own build system and tool chain without creating
71any dependencies between them
72- Avoids the need for a single-shot build: individual parts can be updated
73and brought in as needed
74- Provides for a standard image description available in the build and at
75run-time
76- SoC-specific image-signing tools can be accomodated
77- Avoids cluttering the U-Boot build system with image-building code
78- The image description is automatically available at run-time in U-Boot,
79SPL. It can be made available to other software also
80- The image description is easily readable (it's a text file in device-tree
81format) and permits flexible packing of binaries
82
83
84Terminology
85-----------
86
87Binman uses the following terms:
88
89- image - an output file containing a firmware image
90- binary - an input binary that goes into the image
91
92
93Relationship to FIT
94-------------------
95
96FIT is U-Boot's official image format. It supports multiple binaries with
97load / execution addresses, compression. It also supports verification
98through hashing and RSA signatures.
99
100FIT was originally designed to support booting a Linux kernel (with an
101optional ramdisk) and device tree chosen from various options in the FIT.
102Now that U-Boot supports configuration via device tree, it is possible to
103load U-Boot from a FIT, with the device tree chosen by SPL.
104
105Binman considers FIT to be one of the binaries it can place in the image.
106
107Where possible it is best to put as much as possible in the FIT, with binman
108used to deal with cases not covered by FIT. Examples include initial
109execution (since FIT itself does not have an executable header) and dealing
110with device boundaries, such as the read-only/read-write separation in SPI
111flash.
112
113For U-Boot, binman should not be used to create ad-hoc images in place of
114FIT.
115
116
117Relationship to mkimage
118-----------------------
119
120The mkimage tool provides a means to create a FIT. Traditionally it has
121needed an image description file: a device tree, like binman, but in a
122different format. More recently it has started to support a '-f auto' mode
123which can generate that automatically.
124
125More relevant to binman, mkimage also permits creation of many SoC-specific
126image types. These can be listed by running 'mkimage -T list'. Examples
127include 'rksd', the Rockchip SD/MMC boot format. The mkimage tool is often
128called from the U-Boot build system for this reason.
129
130Binman considers the output files created by mkimage to be binary blobs
131which it can place in an image. Binman does not replace the mkimage tool or
Michael Heimpold55c822d2018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200132this purpose. It would be possible in some situations to create a new entry
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700133type for the images in mkimage, but this would not add functionality. It
Michael Heimpold55c822d2018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200134seems better to use the mkimage tool to generate binaries and avoid blurring
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700135the boundaries between building input files (mkimage) and packaging then
136into a final image (binman).
137
138
139Example use of binman in U-Boot
140-------------------------------
141
142Binman aims to replace some of the ad-hoc image creation in the U-Boot
143build system.
144
145Consider sunxi. It has the following steps:
146
1471. It uses a custom mksunxiboot tool to build an SPL image called
148sunxi-spl.bin. This should probably move into mkimage.
149
1502. It uses mkimage to package U-Boot into a legacy image file (so that it can
151hold the load and execution address) called u-boot.img.
152
1533. It builds a final output image called u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin which
154consists of sunxi-spl.bin, some padding and u-boot.img.
155
156Binman is intended to replace the last step. The U-Boot build system builds
157u-boot.bin and sunxi-spl.bin. Binman can then take over creation of
158sunxi-spl.bin (by calling mksunxiboot, or hopefully one day mkimage). In any
159case, it would then create the image from the component parts.
160
161This simplifies the U-Boot Makefile somewhat, since various pieces of logic
162can be replaced by a call to binman.
163
164
165Example use of binman for x86
166-----------------------------
167
168In most cases x86 images have a lot of binary blobs, 'black-box' code
169provided by Intel which must be run for the platform to work. Typically
170these blobs are not relocatable and must be placed at fixed areas in the
Michael Heimpold55c822d2018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200171firmware image.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700172
173Currently this is handled by ifdtool, which places microcode, FSP, MRC, VGA
174BIOS, reference code and Intel ME binaries into a u-boot.rom file.
175
176Binman is intended to replace all of this, with ifdtool left to handle only
177the configuration of the Intel-format descriptor.
178
179
180Running binman
181--------------
182
Simon Glass567b6822019-07-08 13:18:35 -0600183First install prerequisites, e.g.
184
Simon Glassdfd19012019-07-08 13:18:41 -0600185 sudo apt-get install python-pyelftools python3-pyelftools lzma-alone \
186 liblz4-tool
Simon Glass567b6822019-07-08 13:18:35 -0600187
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700188Type:
189
190 binman -b <board_name>
191
192to build an image for a board. The board name is the same name used when
193configuring U-Boot (e.g. for sandbox_defconfig the board name is 'sandbox').
194Binman assumes that the input files for the build are in ../b/<board_name>.
195
196Or you can specify this explicitly:
197
198 binman -I <build_path>
199
200where <build_path> is the build directory containing the output of the U-Boot
201build.
202
203(Future work will make this more configurable)
204
205In either case, binman picks up the device tree file (u-boot.dtb) and looks
206for its instructions in the 'binman' node.
207
208Binman has a few other options which you can see by running 'binman -h'.
209
210
Simon Glass4b94ac92017-11-12 21:52:06 -0700211Enabling binman for a board
212---------------------------
213
214At present binman is invoked from a rule in the main Makefile. Typically you
215will have a rule like:
216
217ifneq ($(CONFIG_ARCH_<something>),)
218u-boot-<your_suffix>.bin: <input_file_1> <input_file_2> checkbinman FORCE
219 $(call if_changed,binman)
220endif
221
222This assumes that u-boot-<your_suffix>.bin is a target, and is the final file
223that you need to produce. You can make it a target by adding it to ALL-y
224either in the main Makefile or in a config.mk file in your arch subdirectory.
225
226Once binman is executed it will pick up its instructions from a device-tree
227file, typically <soc>-u-boot.dtsi, where <soc> is your CONFIG_SYS_SOC value.
228You can use other, more specific CONFIG options - see 'Automatic .dtsi
229inclusion' below.
230
231
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700232Image description format
233------------------------
234
235The binman node is called 'binman'. An example image description is shown
236below:
237
238 binman {
239 filename = "u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin";
240 pad-byte = <0xff>;
241 blob {
242 filename = "spl/sunxi-spl.bin";
243 };
244 u-boot {
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600245 offset = <CONFIG_SPL_PAD_TO>;
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700246 };
247 };
248
249
250This requests binman to create an image file called u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
251consisting of a specially formatted SPL (spl/sunxi-spl.bin, built by the
252normal U-Boot Makefile), some 0xff padding, and a U-Boot legacy image. The
253padding comes from the fact that the second binary is placed at
254CONFIG_SPL_PAD_TO. If that line were omitted then the U-Boot binary would
255immediately follow the SPL binary.
256
257The binman node describes an image. The sub-nodes describe entries in the
258image. Each entry represents a region within the overall image. The name of
259the entry (blob, u-boot) tells binman what to put there. For 'blob' we must
260provide a filename. For 'u-boot', binman knows that this means 'u-boot.bin'.
261
262Entries are normally placed into the image sequentially, one after the other.
263The image size is the total size of all entries. As you can see, you can
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600264specify the start offset of an entry using the 'offset' property.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700265
266Note that due to a device tree requirement, all entries must have a unique
267name. If you want to put the same binary in the image multiple times, you can
268use any unique name, with the 'type' property providing the type.
269
270The attributes supported for entries are described below.
271
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600272offset:
273 This sets the offset of an entry within the image or section containing
274 it. The first byte of the image is normally at offset 0. If 'offset' is
275 not provided, binman sets it to the end of the previous region, or the
276 start of the image's entry area (normally 0) if there is no previous
277 region.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700278
279align:
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600280 This sets the alignment of the entry. The entry offset is adjusted
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700281 so that the entry starts on an aligned boundary within the image. For
282 example 'align = <16>' means that the entry will start on a 16-byte
283 boundary. Alignment shold be a power of 2. If 'align' is not
284 provided, no alignment is performed.
285
286size:
287 This sets the size of the entry. The contents will be padded out to
288 this size. If this is not provided, it will be set to the size of the
289 contents.
290
291pad-before:
292 Padding before the contents of the entry. Normally this is 0, meaning
293 that the contents start at the beginning of the entry. This can be
294 offset the entry contents a little. Defaults to 0.
295
296pad-after:
297 Padding after the contents of the entry. Normally this is 0, meaning
298 that the entry ends at the last byte of content (unless adjusted by
299 other properties). This allows room to be created in the image for
300 this entry to expand later. Defaults to 0.
301
302align-size:
303 This sets the alignment of the entry size. For example, to ensure
304 that the size of an entry is a multiple of 64 bytes, set this to 64.
305 If 'align-size' is not provided, no alignment is performed.
306
307align-end:
308 This sets the alignment of the end of an entry. Some entries require
309 that they end on an alignment boundary, regardless of where they
Simon Glass2edb84e2018-06-01 09:38:22 -0600310 start. This does not move the start of the entry, so the contents of
311 the entry will still start at the beginning. But there may be padding
312 at the end. If 'align-end' is not provided, no alignment is performed.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700313
314filename:
315 For 'blob' types this provides the filename containing the binary to
316 put into the entry. If binman knows about the entry type (like
317 u-boot-bin), then there is no need to specify this.
318
319type:
320 Sets the type of an entry. This defaults to the entry name, but it is
321 possible to use any name, and then add (for example) 'type = "u-boot"'
322 to specify the type.
323
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600324offset-unset:
325 Indicates that the offset of this entry should not be set by placing
Simon Glass4ba8d502018-06-01 09:38:17 -0600326 it immediately after the entry before. Instead, is set by another
327 entry which knows where this entry should go. When this boolean
328 property is present, binman will give an error if another entry does
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600329 not set the offset (with the GetOffsets() method).
Simon Glass4ba8d502018-06-01 09:38:17 -0600330
Simon Glass9dcc8612018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600331image-pos:
332 This cannot be set on entry (or at least it is ignored if it is), but
333 with the -u option, binman will set it to the absolute image position
334 for each entry. This makes it easy to find out exactly where the entry
335 ended up in the image, regardless of parent sections, etc.
336
Simon Glassfa79a812018-09-14 04:57:29 -0600337expand-size:
338 Expand the size of this entry to fit available space. This space is only
339 limited by the size of the image/section and the position of the next
340 entry.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700341
Simon Glass80045812018-09-14 04:57:30 -0600342The attributes supported for images and sections are described below. Several
343are similar to those for entries.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700344
345size:
346 Sets the image size in bytes, for example 'size = <0x100000>' for a
347 1MB image.
348
Simon Glasseb023b32019-04-25 21:58:39 -0600349offset:
350 This is similar to 'offset' in entries, setting the offset of a section
351 within the image or section containing it. The first byte of the section
352 is normally at offset 0. If 'offset' is not provided, binman sets it to
353 the end of the previous region, or the start of the image's entry area
354 (normally 0) if there is no previous region.
355
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700356align-size:
357 This sets the alignment of the image size. For example, to ensure
358 that the image ends on a 512-byte boundary, use 'align-size = <512>'.
359 If 'align-size' is not provided, no alignment is performed.
360
361pad-before:
362 This sets the padding before the image entries. The first entry will
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600363 be positioned after the padding. This defaults to 0.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700364
365pad-after:
366 This sets the padding after the image entries. The padding will be
367 placed after the last entry. This defaults to 0.
368
369pad-byte:
370 This specifies the pad byte to use when padding in the image. It
371 defaults to 0. To use 0xff, you would add 'pad-byte = <0xff>'.
372
373filename:
374 This specifies the image filename. It defaults to 'image.bin'.
375
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600376sort-by-offset:
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700377 This causes binman to reorder the entries as needed to make sure they
378 are in increasing positional order. This can be used when your entry
379 order may not match the positional order. A common situation is where
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600380 the 'offset' properties are set by CONFIG options, so their ordering is
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700381 not known a priori.
382
383 This is a boolean property so needs no value. To enable it, add a
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600384 line 'sort-by-offset;' to your description.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700385
386multiple-images:
387 Normally only a single image is generated. To create more than one
388 image, put this property in the binman node. For example, this will
389 create image1.bin containing u-boot.bin, and image2.bin containing
390 both spl/u-boot-spl.bin and u-boot.bin:
391
392 binman {
393 multiple-images;
394 image1 {
395 u-boot {
396 };
397 };
398
399 image2 {
400 spl {
401 };
402 u-boot {
403 };
404 };
405 };
406
407end-at-4gb:
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600408 For x86 machines the ROM offsets start just before 4GB and extend
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700409 up so that the image finished at the 4GB boundary. This boolean
410 option can be enabled to support this. The image size must be
411 provided so that binman knows when the image should start. For an
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600412 8MB ROM, the offset of the first entry would be 0xfff80000 with
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700413 this option, instead of 0 without this option.
414
Jagdish Gediya0fb978c2018-09-03 21:35:07 +0530415skip-at-start:
416 This property specifies the entry offset of the first entry.
417
418 For PowerPC mpc85xx based CPU, CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE is the entry
419 offset of the first entry. It can be 0xeff40000 or 0xfff40000 for
420 nor flash boot, 0x201000 for sd boot etc.
421
422 'end-at-4gb' property is not applicable where CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE +
423 Image size != 4gb.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700424
425Examples of the above options can be found in the tests. See the
426tools/binman/test directory.
427
Simon Glasse76a3e62018-06-01 09:38:11 -0600428It is possible to have the same binary appear multiple times in the image,
429either by using a unit number suffix (u-boot@0, u-boot@1) or by using a
430different name for each and specifying the type with the 'type' attribute.
431
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700432
Michael Heimpold55c822d2018-08-22 22:01:24 +0200433Sections and hierachical images
Simon Glassa91e1152018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600434-------------------------------
435
436Sometimes it is convenient to split an image into several pieces, each of which
437contains its own set of binaries. An example is a flash device where part of
438the image is read-only and part is read-write. We can set up sections for each
439of these, and place binaries in them independently. The image is still produced
440as a single output file.
441
442This feature provides a way of creating hierarchical images. For example here
Simon Glass1e324002018-06-01 09:38:19 -0600443is an example image with two copies of U-Boot. One is read-only (ro), intended
444to be written only in the factory. Another is read-write (rw), so that it can be
Simon Glassa91e1152018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600445upgraded in the field. The sizes are fixed so that the ro/rw boundary is known
446and can be programmed:
447
448 binman {
449 section@0 {
450 read-only;
Simon Glass3b78d532018-06-01 09:38:21 -0600451 name-prefix = "ro-";
Simon Glassa91e1152018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600452 size = <0x100000>;
453 u-boot {
454 };
455 };
456 section@1 {
Simon Glass3b78d532018-06-01 09:38:21 -0600457 name-prefix = "rw-";
Simon Glassa91e1152018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600458 size = <0x100000>;
459 u-boot {
460 };
461 };
462 };
463
464This image could be placed into a SPI flash chip, with the protection boundary
465set at 1MB.
466
467A few special properties are provided for sections:
468
469read-only:
470 Indicates that this section is read-only. This has no impact on binman's
471 operation, but his property can be read at run time.
472
Simon Glass3b78d532018-06-01 09:38:21 -0600473name-prefix:
474 This string is prepended to all the names of the binaries in the
475 section. In the example above, the 'u-boot' binaries which actually be
476 renamed to 'ro-u-boot' and 'rw-u-boot'. This can be useful to
477 distinguish binaries with otherwise identical names.
478
Simon Glassa91e1152018-06-01 09:38:16 -0600479
Simon Glass7a61c6b2018-07-17 13:25:37 -0600480Entry Documentation
481-------------------
482
483For details on the various entry types supported by binman and how to use them,
484see README.entries. This is generated from the source code using:
485
486 binman -E >tools/binman/README.entries
487
488
Simon Glassae7cf032018-09-14 04:57:31 -0600489Hashing Entries
490---------------
Simon Glass72232452016-11-25 20:15:53 -0700491
Simon Glassae7cf032018-09-14 04:57:31 -0600492It is possible to ask binman to hash the contents of an entry and write that
493value back to the device-tree node. For example:
Simon Glass72232452016-11-25 20:15:53 -0700494
Simon Glassae7cf032018-09-14 04:57:31 -0600495 binman {
496 u-boot {
497 hash {
498 algo = "sha256";
499 };
500 };
501 };
502
503Here, a new 'value' property will be written to the 'hash' node containing
504the hash of the 'u-boot' entry. Only SHA256 is supported at present. Whole
505sections can be hased if desired, by adding the 'hash' node to the section.
506
507The has value can be chcked at runtime by hashing the data actually read and
508comparing this has to the value in the device tree.
Simon Glass72232452016-11-25 20:15:53 -0700509
510
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700511Order of image creation
512-----------------------
513
514Image creation proceeds in the following order, for each entry in the image.
515
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06005161. AddMissingProperties() - binman can add calculated values to the device
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600517tree as part of its processing, for example the offset and size of each
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -0600518entry. This method adds any properties associated with this, expanding the
519device tree as needed. These properties can have placeholder values which are
520set later by SetCalculatedProperties(). By that stage the size of sections
521cannot be changed (since it would cause the images to need to be repacked),
522but the correct values can be inserted.
523
5242. ProcessFdt() - process the device tree information as required by the
Simon Glass92307732018-07-06 10:27:40 -0600525particular entry. This may involve adding or deleting properties. If the
526processing is complete, this method should return True. If the processing
527cannot complete because it needs the ProcessFdt() method of another entry to
528run first, this method should return False, in which case it will be called
529again later.
530
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06005313. GetEntryContents() - the contents of each entry are obtained, normally by
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700532reading from a file. This calls the Entry.ObtainContents() to read the
533contents. The default version of Entry.ObtainContents() calls
534Entry.GetDefaultFilename() and then reads that file. So a common mechanism
535to select a file to read is to override that function in the subclass. The
536functions must return True when they have read the contents. Binman will
537retry calling the functions a few times if False is returned, allowing
538dependencies between the contents of different entries.
539
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -06005404. GetEntryOffsets() - calls Entry.GetOffsets() for each entry. This can
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700541return a dict containing entries that need updating. The key should be the
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600542entry name and the value is a tuple (offset, size). This allows an entry to
543provide the offset and size for other entries. The default implementation
544of GetEntryOffsets() returns {}.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700545
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -06005465. PackEntries() - calls Entry.Pack() which figures out the offset and
547size of an entry. The 'current' image offset is passed in, and the function
548returns the offset immediately after the entry being packed. The default
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700549implementation of Pack() is usually sufficient.
550
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06005516. CheckSize() - checks that the contents of all the entries fits within
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700552the image size. If the image does not have a defined size, the size is set
553large enough to hold all the entries.
554
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06005557. CheckEntries() - checks that the entries do not overlap, nor extend
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700556outside the image.
557
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -06005588. SetCalculatedProperties() - update any calculated properties in the device
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600559tree. This sets the correct 'offset' and 'size' vaues, for example.
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -0600560
5619. ProcessEntryContents() - this calls Entry.ProcessContents() on each entry.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700562The default implementatoin does nothing. This can be overriden to adjust the
563contents of an entry in some way. For example, it would be possible to create
564an entry containing a hash of the contents of some other entries. At this
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600565stage the offset and size of entries should not be adjusted.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700566
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -060056710. WriteSymbols() - write the value of symbols into the U-Boot SPL binary.
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600568See 'Access to binman entry offsets at run time' below for a description of
Simon Glass29dae672018-07-06 10:27:39 -0600569what happens in this stage.
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700570
Simon Glasse22f8fa2018-07-06 10:27:41 -060057111. BuildImage() - builds the image and writes it to a file. This is the final
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700572step.
573
574
Simon Glass52debad2016-11-25 20:15:59 -0700575Automatic .dtsi inclusion
576-------------------------
577
578It is sometimes inconvenient to add a 'binman' node to the .dts file for each
579board. This can be done by using #include to bring in a common file. Another
580approach supported by the U-Boot build system is to automatically include
581a common header. You can then put the binman node (and anything else that is
582specific to U-Boot, such as u-boot,dm-pre-reloc properies) in that header
583file.
584
585Binman will search for the following files in arch/<arch>/dts:
586
587 <dts>-u-boot.dtsi where <dts> is the base name of the .dts file
588 <CONFIG_SYS_SOC>-u-boot.dtsi
589 <CONFIG_SYS_CPU>-u-boot.dtsi
590 <CONFIG_SYS_VENDOR>-u-boot.dtsi
591 u-boot.dtsi
592
593U-Boot will only use the first one that it finds. If you need to include a
594more general file you can do that from the more specific file using #include.
595If you are having trouble figuring out what is going on, you can uncomment
596the 'warning' line in scripts/Makefile.lib to see what it has found:
597
598 # Uncomment for debugging
Simon Glass2eee32b2017-11-12 21:52:05 -0700599 # This shows all the files that were considered and the one that we chose.
600 # u_boot_dtsi_options_debug = $(u_boot_dtsi_options_raw)
Simon Glass52debad2016-11-25 20:15:59 -0700601
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700602
Simon Glass9dcc8612018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600603Access to binman entry offsets at run time (symbols)
604----------------------------------------------------
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700605
606Binman assembles images and determines where each entry is placed in the image.
607This information may be useful to U-Boot at run time. For example, in SPL it
608is useful to be able to find the location of U-Boot so that it can be executed
609when SPL is finished.
610
611Binman allows you to declare symbols in the SPL image which are filled in
612with their correct values during the build. For example:
613
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600614 binman_sym_declare(ulong, u_boot_any, offset);
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700615
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600616declares a ulong value which will be assigned to the offset of any U-Boot
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700617image (u-boot.bin, u-boot.img, u-boot-nodtb.bin) that is present in the image.
618You can access this value with something like:
619
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600620 ulong u_boot_offset = binman_sym(ulong, u_boot_any, offset);
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700621
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600622Thus u_boot_offset will be set to the offset of U-Boot in memory, assuming that
Simon Glassbe83bc72017-11-13 18:55:05 -0700623the whole image has been loaded, or is available in flash. You can then jump to
624that address to start U-Boot.
625
626At present this feature is only supported in SPL. In principle it is possible
627to fill in such symbols in U-Boot proper, as well.
628
Simon Glass52debad2016-11-25 20:15:59 -0700629
Simon Glass9dcc8612018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600630Access to binman entry offsets at run time (fdt)
631------------------------------------------------
632
633Binman can update the U-Boot FDT to include the final position and size of
634each entry in the images it processes. The option to enable this is -u and it
635causes binman to make sure that the 'offset', 'image-pos' and 'size' properties
636are set correctly for every entry. Since it is not necessary to specify these in
637the image definition, binman calculates the final values and writes these to
638the device tree. These can be used by U-Boot at run-time to find the location
639of each entry.
640
Simon Glass0f621332019-07-08 14:25:27 -0600641Alternatively, an FDT map entry can be used to add a special FDT containing
642just the information about the image. This is preceded by a magic string so can
643be located anywhere in the image.
644
Simon Glass9dcc8612018-08-01 15:22:42 -0600645
Simon Glass7ba33592018-09-14 04:57:26 -0600646Compression
647-----------
648
649Binman support compression for 'blob' entries (those of type 'blob' and
650derivatives). To enable this for an entry, add a 'compression' property:
651
652 blob {
653 filename = "datafile";
654 compression = "lz4";
655 };
656
657The entry will then contain the compressed data, using the 'lz4' compression
658algorithm. Currently this is the only one that is supported.
659
660
661
Simon Glass30732662018-06-01 09:38:20 -0600662Map files
663---------
664
665The -m option causes binman to output a .map file for each image that it
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600666generates. This shows the offset and size of each entry. For example:
Simon Glass30732662018-06-01 09:38:20 -0600667
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600668 Offset Size Name
Simon Glass3a9a2b82018-07-17 13:25:28 -0600669 00000000 00000028 main-section
670 00000000 00000010 section@0
671 00000000 00000004 u-boot
672 00000010 00000010 section@1
673 00000000 00000004 u-boot
Simon Glass30732662018-06-01 09:38:20 -0600674
675This shows a hierarchical image with two sections, each with a single entry. The
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600676offsets of the sections are absolute hex byte offsets within the image. The
677offsets of the entries are relative to their respective sections. The size of
Simon Glass30732662018-06-01 09:38:20 -0600678each entry is also shown, in bytes (hex). The indentation shows the entries
679nested inside their sections.
680
681
Simon Glass91710b32018-07-17 13:25:32 -0600682Passing command-line arguments to entries
683-----------------------------------------
684
685Sometimes it is useful to pass binman the value of an entry property from the
686command line. For example some entries need access to files and it is not
687always convenient to put these filenames in the image definition (device tree).
688
689The-a option supports this:
690
691 -a<prop>=<value>
692
693where
694
695 <prop> is the property to set
696 <value> is the value to set it to
697
698Not all properties can be provided this way. Only some entries support it,
699typically for filenames.
700
701
Simon Glass6244fa42019-07-08 13:18:28 -0600702External tools
703--------------
704
705Binman can make use of external command-line tools to handle processing of
706entry contents or to generate entry contents. These tools are executed using
707the 'tools' module's Run() method. The tools generally must exist on the PATH,
708but the --toolpath option can be used to specify additional search paths to
709use. This option can be specified multiple times to add more than one path.
710
711
Simon Glass52debad2016-11-25 20:15:59 -0700712Code coverage
713-------------
714
715Binman is a critical tool and is designed to be very testable. Entry
716implementations target 100% test coverage. Run 'binman -T' to check this.
717
718To enable Python test coverage on Debian-type distributions (e.g. Ubuntu):
719
Simon Glassa16dd6e2019-07-08 13:18:26 -0600720 $ sudo apt-get install python-coverage python3-coverage python-pytest
Simon Glass52debad2016-11-25 20:15:59 -0700721
722
Simon Glass1aeb7512019-05-17 22:00:52 -0600723Concurrent tests
724----------------
725
726Binman tries to run tests concurrently. This means that the tests make use of
727all available CPUs to run.
728
729 To enable this:
730
731 $ sudo apt-get install python-subunit python3-subunit
732
733Use '-P 1' to disable this. It is automatically disabled when code coverage is
734being used (-T) since they are incompatible.
735
736
Simon Glass1c420c92019-07-08 13:18:49 -0600737Debugging tests
738---------------
739
740Sometimes when debugging tests it is useful to keep the input and output
741directories so they can be examined later. Use -X or --test-preserve-dirs for
742this.
743
744
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700745Advanced Features / Technical docs
746----------------------------------
747
748The behaviour of entries is defined by the Entry class. All other entries are
749a subclass of this. An important subclass is Entry_blob which takes binary
750data from a file and places it in the entry. In fact most entry types are
751subclasses of Entry_blob.
752
753Each entry type is a separate file in the tools/binman/etype directory. Each
754file contains a class called Entry_<type> where <type> is the entry type.
755New entry types can be supported by adding new files in that directory.
756These will automatically be detected by binman when needed.
757
758Entry properties are documented in entry.py. The entry subclasses are free
759to change the values of properties to support special behaviour. For example,
760when Entry_blob loads a file, it sets content_size to the size of the file.
761Entry classes can adjust other entries. For example, an entry that knows
Simon Glasse8561af2018-08-01 15:22:37 -0600762where other entries should be positioned can set up those entries' offsets
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700763so they don't need to be set in the binman decription. It can also adjust
764entry contents.
765
766Most of the time such essoteric behaviour is not needed, but it can be
767essential for complex images.
768
Simon Glassade2ef62017-12-24 12:12:07 -0700769If you need to specify a particular device-tree compiler to use, you can define
770the DTC environment variable. This can be useful when the system dtc is too
771old.
772
Simon Glasse64a0922018-11-06 15:21:31 -0700773To enable a full backtrace and other debugging features in binman, pass
774BINMAN_DEBUG=1 to your build:
775
776 make sandbox_defconfig
777 make BINMAN_DEBUG=1
778
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700779
780History / Credits
781-----------------
782
783Binman takes a lot of inspiration from a Chrome OS tool called
784'cros_bundle_firmware', which I wrote some years ago. That tool was based on
785a reasonably simple and sound design but has expanded greatly over the
786years. In particular its handling of x86 images is convoluted.
787
Simon Glass1e324002018-06-01 09:38:19 -0600788Quite a few lessons have been learned which are hopefully applied here.
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700789
790
791Design notes
792------------
793
794On the face of it, a tool to create firmware images should be fairly simple:
795just find all the input binaries and place them at the right place in the
796image. The difficulty comes from the wide variety of input types (simple
797flat binaries containing code, packaged data with various headers), packing
798requirments (alignment, spacing, device boundaries) and other required
799features such as hierarchical images.
800
801The design challenge is to make it easy to create simple images, while
802allowing the more complex cases to be supported. For example, for most
803images we don't much care exactly where each binary ends up, so we should
804not have to specify that unnecessarily.
805
806New entry types should aim to provide simple usage where possible. If new
807core features are needed, they can be added in the Entry base class.
808
809
810To do
811-----
812
813Some ideas:
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700814- Use of-platdata to make the information available to code that is unable
815 to use device tree (such as a very small SPL image)
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700816- Allow easy building of images by specifying just the board name
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700817- Add an option to decode an image into the constituent binaries
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700818- Support building an image for a board (-b) more completely, with a
819 configurable build directory
Simon Glassa9408f82019-07-08 14:25:24 -0600820- Support putting the FDT in an image with a suitable magic number
Simon Glassa9408f82019-07-08 14:25:24 -0600821- Support listing files in images
822- Support logging of binman's operations, with different levels of verbosity
823- Support updating binaries in an image (with no size change / repacking)
824- Support updating binaries in an image (with repacking)
825- Support adding FITs to an image
826- Support for ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF)
Simon Glass2574ef62016-11-25 20:15:51 -0700827
828--
829Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
8307/7/2016