Live Device Tree

Introduction

Traditionally U-Boot has used a ‘flat’ device tree. This means that it reads directly from the device tree binary structure. It is called a flat device tree because nodes are listed one after the other, with the hierarchy detected by tags in the format.

This document describes U-Boot’s support for a ‘live’ device tree, meaning that the tree is loaded into a hierarchical data structure within U-Boot.

Motivation

The flat device tree has several advantages:

  • it is the format produced by the device tree compiler, so no translation is needed
  • it is fairly compact (e.g. there is no need for pointers)
  • it is accessed by the libfdt library, which is well tested and stable

However the flat device tree does have some limitations. Adding new properties can involve copying large amounts of data around to make room. The overall tree has a fixed maximum size so sometimes the tree must be rebuilt in a new location to create more space. Even if not adding new properties or nodes, scanning the tree can be slow. For example, finding the parent of a node is a slow process. Reading from nodes involves a small amount parsing which takes a little time.

Driver model scans the entire device tree sequentially on start-up which avoids the worst of the flat tree’s limitations. But if the tree is to be modified at run-time, a live tree is much faster. Even if no modification is necessary, parsing the tree once and using a live tree from then on seems to save a little time.

Implementation

In U-Boot a live device tree (‘livetree’) is currently supported only after relocation. Therefore we need a mechanism to specify a device tree node regardless of whether it is in the flat tree or livetree.

The ‘ofnode’ type provides this. An ofnode can point to either a flat tree node (when the live tree node is not yet set up) or a livetree node. The caller of an ofnode function does not need to worry about these details.

The main users of the information in a device tree are drivers. These have a ‘struct udevice *’ which is attached to a device tree node. Therefore it makes sense to be able to read device tree properties using the ‘struct udevice *’, rather than having to obtain the ofnode first.

The ‘dev_read_…()’ interface provides this. It allows properties to be easily read from the device tree using only a device pointer. Under the hood it uses ofnode so it works with both flat and live device trees.

Enabling livetree

CONFIG_OF_LIVE enables livetree. When this option is enabled, the flat tree will be used in SPL and before relocation in U-Boot proper. Just before relocation a livetree is built, and this is used for U-Boot proper after relocation.

Most checks for livetree use CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(OF_LIVE). This means that for SPL, the CONFIG_SPL_OF_LIVE option is checked. At present this does not exist, since SPL does not support livetree.

Porting drivers

Many existing drivers use the fdtdec interface to read device tree properties. This only works with a flat device tree. The drivers should be converted to use the dev_read_() interface.

For example, the old code may be like this:

struct udevice *bus;
const void *blob = gd->fdt_blob;
int node = dev_of_offset(bus);

i2c_bus->regs = (struct i2c_ctlr *)devfdt_get_addr(dev);
plat->frequency = fdtdec_get_int(blob, node, "spi-max-frequency", 500000);

The new code is:

struct udevice *bus;

i2c_bus->regs = (struct i2c_ctlr *)dev_read_addr(dev);
plat->frequency = dev_read_u32_default(bus, "spi-max-frequency", 500000);

The dev_read_…() interface is more convenient and works with both the flat and live device trees. See include/dm/read.h for a list of functions.

Where properties must be read from sub-nodes or other nodes, you must fall back to using ofnode. For example, for old code like this:

const void *blob = gd->fdt_blob;
int subnode;

fdt_for_each_subnode(subnode, blob, dev_of_offset(dev)) {
    freq = fdtdec_get_int(blob, node, "spi-max-frequency", 500000);
    ...
}

you should use:

ofnode subnode;

ofnode_for_each_subnode(subnode, dev_ofnode(dev)) {
    freq = ofnode_read_u32(node, "spi-max-frequency", 500000);
    ...
}

Useful ofnode functions

The internal data structures of the livetree are defined in include/dm/of.h :

struct device_node:
 holds information about a device tree node
struct property:
 holds information about a property within a node

Nodes have pointers to their first property, their parent, their first child and their sibling. This allows nodes to be linked together in a hierarchical tree.

Properties have pointers to the next property. This allows all properties of a node to be linked together in a chain.

It should not be necessary to use these data structures in normal code. In particular, you should refrain from using functions which access the livetree directly, such as of_read_u32(). Use ofnode functions instead, to allow your code to work with a flat tree also.

Some conversion functions are used internally. Generally these are not needed for driver code. Note that they will not work if called in the wrong context. For example it is invalid to call ofnode_to_no() when a flat tree is being used. Similarly it is not possible to call ofnode_to_offset() on a livetree node.

ofnode_to_np():
converts ofnode to struct device_node *
ofnode_to_offset():
converts ofnode to offset
no_to_ofnode():
converts node pointer to ofnode
offset_to_ofnode():
converts offset to ofnode

Other useful functions:

of_live_active():
returns true if livetree is in use, false if flat tree
ofnode_valid():
return true if a given node is valid
ofnode_is_np():
returns true if a given node is a livetree node
ofnode_equal():
compares two ofnodes
ofnode_null():
returns a null ofnode (for which ofnode_valid() returns false)

Phandles

There is full phandle support for live tree. All functions make use of struct ofnode_phandle_args, which has an ofnode within it. This supports both livetree and flat tree transparently. See for example ofnode_parse_phandle_with_args().

Reading addresses

You should use dev_read_addr() and friends to read addresses from device-tree nodes.

fdtdec

The existing fdtdec interface will eventually be retired. Please try to avoid using it in new code.

Modifying the livetree

This is not currently supported. Once implemented it should provide a much more efficient implementation for modification of the device tree than using the flat tree.

Internal implementation

The dev_read_…() functions have two implementations. When CONFIG_DM_DEV_READ_INLINE is enabled, these functions simply call the ofnode functions directly. This is useful when livetree is not enabled. The ofnode functions call ofnode_is_np(node) which will always return false if livetree is disabled, just falling back to flat tree code.

This optimisation means that without livetree enabled, the dev_read_…() and ofnode interfaces do not noticeably add to code size.

The CONFIG_DM_DEV_READ_INLINE option defaults to enabled when livetree is disabled.

Most livetree code comes directly from Linux and is modified as little as possible. This is deliberate since this code is fairly stable and does what we want. Some features (such as get/put) are not supported. Internal macros take care of removing these features silently.

Within the of_access.c file there are pointers to the alias node, the chosen node and the stdout-path alias.

Errors

With a flat device tree, libfdt errors are returned (e.g. -FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND). For livetree normal ‘errno’ errors are returned (e.g. -ENOTFOUND). At present the ofnode and dev_read_…() functions return either one or other type of error. This is clearly not desirable. Once tests are added for all the functions this can be tidied up.

Adding new access functions

Adding a new function for device-tree access involves the following steps:

  • Add two dev_read() functions:
    • inline version in the read.h header file, which calls an ofnode function

    • standard version in the read.c file (or perhaps another file), which also calls an ofnode function

      The implementations of these functions can be the same. The purpose of the inline version is purely to reduce code size impact.

  • Add an ofnode function. This should call ofnode_is_np() to work out whether a livetree or flat tree is used. For the livetree it should call an of_…() function. For the flat tree it should call an fdt_…() function. The livetree version will be optimised out at compile time if livetree is not enabled.

  • Add an of_…() function for the livetree implementation. If a similar function is available in Linux, the implementation should be taken from there and modified as little as possible (generally not at all).

Future work

Live tree support was introduced in U-Boot 2017.07. There is still quite a bit of work to do to flesh this out:

  • tests for all access functions
  • support for livetree modification
  • addition of more access functions as needed
  • support for livetree in SPL and before relocation (if desired)