[U-Boot] Extract data file from U-Boot image

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Hi Guilherme,

On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 12:31:46 -0300, Guilherme Maciel Ferreira
<guilherme.maciel.ferreira at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi list,
> 
> I guess I'm not the first one who ever needed to retrieve data files
> from multifile images, those create by mkimage tool. However, I could
> just find scripts to do that (specially an old thread answered by
> Wolfgang about dd).
> 
> I made a patch to allow mkimage to extract files from images, which
> just works for multi-file image. But, the fact that nobody has ever
> done this means that this feature is not desired in the tool?
> 
> IMHO, it is very convenient to have a C code to do that, specially for
> embedded systems where scripting is noticeably slower than binary
> code. Besides it requires 'dd' to extract and another tool to parse
> file's offsets inside the image.
> 
> Comments?

My comment would be that, while U-Boot images /run/ on embedded
systems, people do not necessarily /work on/ these images /from within/
said systems; indeed, work on such images, and more generally,
development around U-Boot, is performed on development systems, not
on target systems.

Besides, in many cases, the image was actually built from files
available -- even from files themselves built just before putting them
together within the image.

Apart from very specific cases (tweaking the initrd in an existing
image comes to mind), I don't see the point in taking images apart when
you can simply build them the way you want.

Amicalement,
-- 
Albert.