From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail172-dub-R.bigfish.com (mail-dub.bigfish.com [213.199.154.10]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "*.bigfish.com", Issuer "*.bigfish.com" (not verified)) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0618CDDF86 for ; Tue, 9 Oct 2007 09:36:48 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <470ABEF8.4030508@am.sony.com> Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:36:24 -0700 From: Geoff Levand MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ranulf Doswell Subject: Re: [patch 6/6] PS3: Add os-area database routines References: <20071006213542.311447584@am.sony.com> <20071006213542.954029915@am.sony.com> <18a15270710080648x3b5f1135meea3d7b048a1a543@mail.gmail.com> <470A6E4E.5090009@am.sony.com> <18a15270710081559m3236126r85f797718300756f@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <18a15270710081559m3236126r85f797718300756f@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org List-Id: Linux on PowerPC Developers Mail List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Ranulf Doswell wrote: > On 08/10/2007, *Geoff Levand* > wrote: > > > How do we go about claiming one of these OS_AREA_DB_OWNER_ keys? I'd > > very much like to use this functionality in my python-ps3 games > library. > > It sounds like you should be storing your info in the file system like > all other applications do. > > > I'd agree that for large amounts of application specific data, the > filesystem is the correct approach. > > However, in this case the only data required is a single identifier used > to identify one PS3 from another, and in fact this single 64-bit token > can be shared amongst many other applications that require the same > function - certainly I intend to expose it in a common way in my games > library's API for all users of the library. > > In my particular case, my bootable CD image does not have any other use > for a filesystem on disk beyond the initrd image on the CD-ROM; this is > important because some PS3s may be formatted as 100% GameOS. All that is > needed is to write the standard kboot image to flash so that it is able > to bootstrap the CD image. > > As the PS3 has flash available and you are adding a mechanism for > storing very small bits of data in the flash, it seems silly not to use > it and attempt instead to write my own incompatible database format to > store this in the flash memory. Your database also has the added > protection of not being overwritten when the loader is re-flashed, as it > is protected by the kernel. > > If you agree in principle that one of these identifiers can be allocated > to this purpose, I'm happy to write and submit a patch that exposes the > get/set system ID functionality to userland, whilst internally using > your database. This could also allow for some of the bits to be used as > check bits to ensure data validity. This feature is not intended for general application use. If the user wants to store data, then they should setup the system with a writable filesystem. -Geoff