Re: [PATCH 1/2] dtc: Apply deletes in the section which has them

[Herve Codina <herve.codina@bootlin.com>]

Hi Simon,

On Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:35:19 -0600
Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org> wrote:

> The parser holds each /delete-property/ and /delete-node/ as a
> placeholder entry, flagged as deleted, among the node's properties or
> children. It only takes effect when merge_nodes() merges its section
> into an earlier one. In the first section of a dts it is ignored, so
> 'a; /delete-property/ a;' leaves 'a' in the tree. The same happens in
> any node which a later section adds, since merge_nodes() attaches a new
> child as it is. An ignored /delete-node/ also leaves its placeholder in
> the tree, which then shows up as '(null): Duplicate node name'
> 
> Apply each delete when its node is built, by dropping the earlier
> entries of the same name from that node. Nothing can refer to the node
> yet, so they can be unlinked rather than flagged as deleted. Keep the
> placeholder, so that merging the node into an earlier definition still
> deletes there too.
> 
> When a node joins the tree without being merged, as the first section,
> as a new child in merge_nodes() or as an overlay fragment, drop its
> placeholders, since there is nothing earlier for them to delete. This
> keeps placeholders and entries deleted within a section out of the tree,
> so that nothing which walks the tree has to skip them.
> 
> Duplicate entries within a section are still reported as errors, since
> nothing is merged.
> 
> Closes: https://github.com/dgibson/dtc/issues/37
> Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-5-5
> Signed-off-by: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
> ---
> 

LGTM.

Reviewed-by: Herve Codina <herve.codina@bootlin.com>

Best regards,
Hervé