[PATCH 15/16] Documentation: user: devboot: add section on forwarding build dirs

Ahmad Fatoum
2026-03-12T15:03:31Z

In case the kernel is built on a remote build server, it can be useful
for devboot to fetch directly from there with the TFTP server running in
the local LAN. Add some documentation about that.

Signed-off-by: Ahmad Fatoum <a.fatoum@pengutronix.de>
---
Documentation/user/devboot.rst | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 53 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/user/devboot.rst b/Documentation/user/devboot.rst
index ad1b4c909ab0..4425f0ebe91a 100644
--- a/Documentation/user/devboot.rst
+++ b/Documentation/user/devboot.rst
@@ -202,3 +202,56 @@ script is loaded. Make them persistent with:

``global.hostname`` is typically derived from the device tree, but can be
overridden.
+
+Forwarding a remote build directory over the internet
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+If the build server is not reachable from the Device-Under-Test, one
+possibility is to forward the build artifacts to a local TFTP server
+via SSHFS::
+
+ sshfs -o follow_symlinks,allow_other buildserver:/tftpboot /tftpboot
+
+The local development host can then export /tftpboot via TFTP.
+
+If the TFTP server is not running on the local development host, the
+``dpipe`` utility can be used to connect a local SFTP server process to
+an SSH session that runs ``sshfs`` in slave mode on the remote machine:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+ dpipe /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server = ssh a3f@tftpserver.in-my.lan sshfs -o slave,follow_symlinks,allow_other -o idmap=user -o gid=1001 :/tftpboot /tftpboot
+
+This works as follows:
+
+- ``dpipe`` connects the standard input/output of both sides of ``=``.
+- The left side runs the local SFTP server, giving the remote end access
+ to the local filesystem.
+- The right side runs ``sshfs`` on the TFTP server host in ``slave``
+ mode, reading SFTP protocol directly from stdin instead of spawning its
+ own SSH connection.
+- ``follow_symlinks`` resolves symlinks on the build host, so the TFTP
+ server sees regular files even if the build tree uses symlinks.
+- ``allow_other`` permits the TFTP daemon (which typically runs as a
+ different user) to read the mounted files.
+- ``idmap=user`` maps the remote user's UID to the local user, avoiding
+ permission issues.
+- ``gid=1001`` sets the group ID for all files (adjust to match the
+ group that the TFTP daemon runs as on the server, e.g. ``tftp`` or
+ ``nogroup``).
+- The colon prefix in ``:/tftpboot`` refers to the root of the *local*
+ (build host) filesystem as exported by the SFTP server.
+
+The result is that ``/tftpboot`` on the remote TFTP server mirrors the
+``/tftpboot`` directory on the build host. Build output can be
+symlinked there and the board will fetch it directly over TFTP.
+
+To undo the mount, terminate the ``dpipe`` process and run
+``fusermount -u /tftpboot`` on the TFTP server.
+
+.. note::
+
+ On Debian/Ubuntu, ``dpipe`` can be installed via ``apt install vde2``
+ ``sshfs`` and ``fuse`` must be installed on the TFTP server.
+ ``/etc/fuse.conf`` on the server must have ``user_allow_other``
+ enabled for ``allow_other`` to work.
--
2.47.3