dtc: Add some documentation for the dts formta
David Gibson
david at gibson.dropbear.id.au
Tue Mar 11 10:47:14 EST 2008
This patch adds a dts-format.txt in the Documentation directory, with
an introduction to the dtc source format. Note that this
documentation is also going into the upcoming ePAPR specification.
Signed-off-by: David Gibson <david at gibson.dropbear.id.au>
---
Documentation/dts-format.txt | 110 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 110 insertions(+)
I wrote this documentation based on an earlier draft from Stuart
Yoder. Stuart, can you please reply with a Signed-off-by line?
Index: dtc/Documentation/dts-format.txt
===================================================================
--- /dev/null 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
+++ dtc/Documentation/dts-format.txt 2008-03-11 10:42:17.000000000 +1100
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+Device Tree Source Format (version 1)
+=====================================
+
+The Device Tree Source (DTS) format is a textual representation of a
+device tree in a form that can be processed by dtc into a binary
+device tree in the form expected by the kernel. The description below
+is not a formal syntax definition of DTS, but describes the basic
+constructs used to represent device trees.
+
+Node and property definitions
+-----------------------------
+
+Device tree nodes are defined with a node name and unit address with
+braces marking the start and end of the node definition. They may be
+preceded by a label.
+
+ [label:] node-name[@unit-address] {
+ [properties definitions]
+ [child nodes]
+ }
+
+Nodes may contain property definitions and/or child node
+definitions. If both are present, properties must come before child
+nodes.
+
+Property definitions are name value pairs in the form:
+ [label:] property-name = value;
+except for properties with empty (zero length) value which have the
+form:
+ [label:] property-name;
+
+Property values may be defined as an array of 32-bit integer cells, as
+NUL-terminated strings, as bytestrings or a combination of these.
+
+* Arrays of cells are represented by angle brackets surrounding a
+ space separated list of C-style integers
+
+ e.g. interrupts = <17 0xc>;
+
+* A 64-bit value is represented with two 32-bit cells.
+
+ e.g. clock-frequency = <0x00000001 0x00000000>;
+
+* A NUL-terminated string value is represented using double quotes
+ (the property value is considered to include the terminating NUL
+ character).
+
+ e.g. compatible = "simple-bus";
+
+* A bytestring is enclosed in square brackets [] with each byte
+ represented by two hexadecimal digits. Spaces between each byte are
+ optional.
+
+ e.g. local-mac-address = [00 00 12 34 56 78]; or equivalently
+ local-mac-address = [000012345678];
+
+* Values may have several comma-separated components, which are
+ concatenated together.
+ e.g. compatible = "ns16550", "ns8250";
+ example = <0xf00f0000 19>, "a strange property format";
+
+* In a cell array a reference to another node will be expanded to that
+ node's phandle. References may by '&' followed by a node's label:
+ e.g. interrupt-parent = < &mpic >;
+ or they may be '&' followed by a node's full path in braces:
+ e.g. interrupt-parent = < &{/soc/interrupt-controller at 40000} >;
+
+* Outside a cell array, a reference to another node will be expanded
+ to that node's full path.
+ e.g. ethernet0 = &EMAC0;
+
+* Labels may also appear before or after any component of a property
+ value, or between cells of a cell array, or between bytes of a
+ bytestring.
+ e.g. reg = reglabel: <0 sizelabel: 0x1000000>;
+ e.g. prop = [ab cd ef byte4: 00 ff fe];
+ e.g. str = start: "string value" end: ;
+
+
+File layout
+-----------
+
+Version 1 DTS files have the overall layout:
+ /dts-v1/;
+
+ [memory reservations]
+
+ / {
+ [property definitions]
+ [child nodes]
+ };
+
+* The "/dts-v1/;" must be present to identify the file as a version 1
+ DTS (dts files without this tag will be treated by dtc as being in
+ the obsolete "version 0", which uses a different format for integers
+ amongst other small but incompatible changes).
+
+* Memory reservations define an entry for the device tree blob's
+ memory reservation table. They have the form:
+ e.g. /memreserve/ <address> <length>;
+ Where <address> and <length> are 64-bit C-style integers.
+
+* The / { ... }; section defines the root node of the device tree.
+
+* C style (/* ... */) and C++ style (// ...) comments are supported.
+
+
+
+ -- David Gibson <david at gibson.dropbear.id.au>
+ -- Yoder Stuart <stuart.yoder at freescale.com>
--
David Gibson | I'll have my music baroque, and my code
david AT gibson.dropbear.id.au | minimalist, thank you. NOT _the_ _other_
| _way_ _around_!
http://www.ozlabs.org/~dgibson
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