In-tree Python tools (patman, buildman, binman, etc.)

[Tom Rini]

On Mon, May 04, 2026 at 06:16:58AM -0600, Simon Glass wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> As you know, I maintain several tools which are part of the U-Boot tree.
> 
> Tom has previously suggested that it would be better to move patman
> out of the U-Boot tree, e.g. to its own Github project. It is a
> general tool which can be used with Linux and other
> mailing-list/patchwork-based projects. I have never been keen on
> taking on the extra effort required, but I've recently added more
> features and am wondering whether now might be a good time to do this.
> 
> Buildman is quite obviously designed specifically for U-Boot. I have
> made some improvements recently (a large code refactor and distributed
> builds). I would like to push those changes to mainline. Do people
> think it should be in a separate tree somewhere?
> 
> Binman was written with U-Boot in mind but supports other projects
> (such as Zephyr). It is generic enough that it could be separated. The
> impact would be harder code review.
> 
> We also have smaller things like qconfig (which I have substantially
> rewritten to make it fast) and dtoc, which is very tailored to U-Boot.
> 
> What do people think? Of all of these, patman would be the easiest to
> move, with the least impact on existing workflows.

Given that as a project we've been encouraging people to switch to using
"b4" as it's now widely used and covers many of the problems patman was
designed to solve, I think that's an easy one to say that you should
move to your own personal hosting somewhere and it be untied from the
project. The rest of the tools are something we as a community can
figure out how to address once some of our general infrastructure issues
are unblocked and moving forward.

-- 
Tom
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