From: Tom Rini Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2023 22:59:47 +0000 (-0400) Subject: Merge branch '2023-04-05-blkmap-composable-virtual-block-devices' X-Git-Url: http://git.dujemihanovic.xyz/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=2023.04-00652-g487e42f7bc5e;p=u-boot.git Merge branch '2023-04-05-blkmap-composable-virtual-block-devices' To quote the author: Block maps are a way of looking at various sources of data through the lens of a regular block device. It lets you treat devices that are not block devices, like RAM, as if they were. It also lets you export a slice of an existing block device, which does not have to correspond to a partition boundary, as a new block device. This is primarily useful because U-Boot's filesystem drivers only operate on block devices, so a block map lets you access filesystems wherever they might be located. The implementation is loosely modeled on Linux's "Device Mapper" subsystem, see the kernel documentation [1] for more information. The primary use-cases are to access filesystem images stored in RAM, and within FIT images stored on disk. See doc/usage/blkmap.rst for more details. The architecture is pluggable, so adding other types of mappings should be quite easy. [1]: https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.html --- 487e42f7bc5e685c9337890a38358581bb4f31bc