[U-Boot-Users] RFC: flattened device tree command

[Ben Warren]

Hi Jerry,

On Wed, 2006-11-29 at 09:01 -0500, Jerry Van Baren wrote:

> 2) I see more commands than just dumping the tree, allowing the user to 
> manipulate the tree as well.  My current thoughts are to make a new 
> command "fdt" (flattened device tree - the Open Firmware genesis appears 
> to be depricated) with subcommands like the existing "mii" command.
> 
> fdt read <node> - does what my "oftdump" command does
> fdt write <node> <value> - allow patching the fdt
>    * Writing could get pretty complex with creating nodes
>    * Initial implementation would be simply to change existing values
> 

A naive question, to be sure:  Do you really forsee wanting to change
the device tree from the U-boot prompt?  I can see value in dumping the
contents and having an API that board-level boot code can use to modify
the tree.  Maybe for initial board debugging it would be useful to try
things out quickly, but modifying the quite-readable .dts files and
recompiling doesn't take long either.

Again, I don't mean to be critical - I'm just curious where you envision
this being used.

regards,
Ben