[U-Boot-Custodians] SPL / TPL

Bin Meng bmeng.cn at gmail.com
Wed Oct 9 08:42:19 UTC 2019


Hi Wolfgang,

On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 3:13 PM Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de> wrote:
>
> Dear Bin Meng,
>
> In message <CAEUhbmXWa1nTa4ddbubBi6sZ8a1LrLgeTSCt2O9c+oKhqpP2Ng at mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
> >
> > It looks to me that we never get in agreement as we have the document
> > README.TPL describes one boot flow and some other platforms implement
> > another way.
>
> I'm sorry, but such a statement simply makes no sense.  The SPL
> (2nd) will always preceede the TPL (3rd) in all systems.
>

What you described here is what Masahiro said when TPL was first
introduced to U-Boot:

"SPL is a short of Secondary Program Loader, and TPL was Tertiary
Program Loader."

This was indicated by README.TPL and the presentation that Kever mentioned.

> The actual content and functionality may be different, but this
> is a totally different topic, and should not be attached to the
> names.
>

I also thought TPL is 3rd program loader, but some platforms (as
pointed out in this email thread) use TPL as the 1st stage program
loader proceeding SPL, and in fact changed its meaning to Tiny Program
Loader.

Indeed people are not in agreement. That's why I sent this email
asking for some clarification :)

Apparently there are 2 distinct implementation about TPL in U-Boot
today. So what should we do next?

Regards,
Bin


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