Re: [PATCH 02/13] dtc: Add a list for the top-level fragments of a dts file

[David Gibson <david@gibson.dropbear.id.au>]

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On Tue, Nov 03, 2026 at 06:56:20PM +0100, Herve Codina wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Nov 2026 20:49:48 +1100
> David Gibson <david@gibson.dropbear.id.au> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, Nov 01, 2026 at 09:36:56AM -0700, Simon Glass wrote:
> > > A dts file is made up of top-level fragments: the root node, later
> > > definitions of a node by label or path, and /delete-node/ or
> > > /omit-if-no-ref/ with a reference. We would like to deal with each
> > > fragment on its own before it is merged, for example to apply deletes
> > > consistently or to run some checks on each one, but that requires
> > > keeping the fragments apart. At present the parser merges each one into
> > > the tree as soon as it is parsed.  
> > 
> > Btw, I'm extremely open to a better name than "fragment" if one occurs
> > to you.  I believe I originally thought of these as "overlays" but
> > that's confusing since runtime overlays were invented.
> 
> "A dts file is made up of top-level fragments: the root node, later
> definitions of a node by label or path"
> 
> A node reference by a label or a path is not a definition of node, it is
> a reference to a node.
> 
> Once those references are merged (if possible), we only have a root node
> and orphan nodes (nodes without a parent node). Indeed, those orphan nodes
> reference a node out of the current devicetree (dts or dtb).

Yes..

> Orphan nodes are just references that cannot be merged in the current
> devicetree.
> 
> Instead of "fragment", "unresolved" ?
> 
> &label {
>    prop;
> };
> 
> Is an unresolved node while &label is not resolved to an existing node.
> 
> We try to merge those unresolved nodes (label resolution + merge) and any
> unresolved nodes that are not merged (label not resolved) are orphan nodes.
> 
> The exact same occurs when we use paths instead of label. The only difference
> is that a path can always be resolved. Having an unresolved path is an error.
> 
> With that in mind, having a look at orphan nodes in the addon series [0] (patch 44
> and following ones) could give some ideas.
> 
> Does it make sense ?

That's all true, but I don't see what you're suggesting.  Here I'm
looking for a name for the syntactic top-level construct, whether or
not it's resolvable within this file or not.

-- 
David Gibson (he or they)	| I'll have my music baroque, and my code
david AT gibson.dropbear.id.au	| minimalist, thank you, not the other way
				| around.
http://www.ozlabs.org/~dgibson

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