Subject: Re: [patch v2] PS3: Add os-area database routines

From: [email-masked] (Linas Vepstas)
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:15:47 -0500

On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 06:07:24PM -0700, Geoff Levand wrote:
> Subject: PS3: Add os-area database routines
> 
> Add support for a simple tagged database in the PS3 flash rom
> os-area.  The database allows the flash rom os-area to be shared
> between a bootloader and installed operating systems.   The
> application ps3-flash-util or the library libps3-utils from the
> ps3-utils package can be used for userspace database operations.

Perhaps I missed the discussion; but .. out of general curiosity,
what is the relation between this and the ppc_md.nvram_* system?
I note that pseries, powermac, chrp, celleb implement the nvram calls,
but cell and ps3 do not. So clearly, whatever this is, its not 
layered on top of nvram?

FWIW, I don't quite understand the nvram system; it seems to have
partitions; one part is an "os area", and a chuck of it is set 
up as a file system.

So I'm wondering -- wouldn't the DB os-area be "generically 
interesting" to other ppowerpc platforms? Maybe even other arches?
And why isn't this built on top of the nvram structure? ... etc?

--linas