[U-Boot] Environment storage format stability

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Thu Dec 15 17:21:13 CET 2016


Dear Kristian,

In message <7f7560f1-5b05-1f0c-8bf0-fd0458f9d3fe at mender.io> you wrote:
> I have a question about the format of the environment when stored on
> persistent storage: Is this format considered stable?

Yes, it is.  It has never been changed since it has been invented in
the first days of this project, when it was still sailing under the
name PPCboot, and there are no plans or discussions to change it,
either.

> The reason I'm asking is whether it is a reasonable assumption that
> upgraded user space tools (fw_setenv and fw_printenv) will agree on the
> format with an older boot loader. The user space tools may be upgraded
> as part of a rootfs update, but the boot loader typically will not.

As of now, you can still read the environment of a 16 year old PPCBoot
:-)

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      Managing Director: Wolfgang Denk
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Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
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