[U-Boot] dtb vs. kernel command line arguments

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Simon,

In message <CAPnjgZ3APwSJZV7zPe+b8A58zu-dxHdRGLcyiWHCm6dqQyFH3g at mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
> 
> > please don't dual-purpose device trees as a mechanism of getting
> > arguments through the kernel into userspace - device trees strictly
> > describe the hardware.
> 
> That's certainly the primary purpose, but it is also true that the
> device tree is a convenient way to pass things to the kernel. It is in
> fact becoming the only way on ARM systems. We certainly use it to pass
> general information to the kernel, for example the command line.

I think Kim is right in pointing out that this was given the name
DEVICE tree for a reason - it's not being called "general purpose
information tree".

You may be right that it's a convenient way to pass information to the
kernel - ut note that the original question said: "The arguments are
needed by user space applications, not the kernel."  I think using the
kernel command line here ins more appropriate.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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