[U-Boot-Users] RFC: hidden environment variables

[Timur Tabi <timur@freescale.com>]

Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> Why do you worry about the "interference from  the  user"  part?  The
> whole  idea  of  Free Software is thatit gives you all the freedom to
> use the hardware and the software the way *you* want to use  it,  and
> not  only  in  the restricted ways some manufacturer decided would be
> good for you.

That's a strawman argument.  We're not talking about free vs. proprietary, this is just a 
usability issue.  Obviously, the user can hack whatever he wants.  That doesn't mean that 
we shouldn't design features that make certain things easier to use.

This is really all about permanent storage without using setenv, but taking advantage of 
the environment infrastructure.  If some U-Boot module wants to store data in flash, then 
as a user I'm probably not interested in the layout of internal data structure.  I just 
want to piggy-back on the environment code without exposing two user interfaces to the user.

> Implement the command with all checkings yoiu want,  and  then  store
> the information as a normal environment variable. Why hide it?

To keep it simple from the user's perspective, and to avoid having to support setenv.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux Kernel Developer @ Freescale