[U-Boot] [PATCH v2 1/1] efi_loader: optional data in load options are binary

[Graf, Alexander <graf@amazon.com>]

On 07.05.19 09:30, Takahiro Akashi wrote:
> On Tue, May 07, 2019 at 09:12:56AM +0200, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>> On 5/7/19 8:16 AM, Takahiro Akashi wrote:
>>> On Tue, May 07, 2019 at 08:04:26AM +0200, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>>>> On 5/7/19 7:16 AM, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>>>>> On 5/7/19 3:53 AM, Takahiro Akashi wrote:
>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 08:11:15AM +0200, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>>>>>>> The field boot OptionalData in structure _EFI_LOAD_OPTIONS is for binary
>>>>>>> data.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> When we use `efidebug boot add` we should convert the 5th argument from
>>>>>>> UTF-8 to UTF-16 before putting it into the BootXXXX variable.
>>>>>> While optional_data holds u8 string in calling
>>>>>> efi_serialize_load_option(),
>>>>>> it holds u16 string in leaving from efi_deserialize_load_option().
>>>>>> We should handle it in a consistent way if you want to keep optional_data
>>>>>> as "const u8."
>>>> When communicating with Linux optional data may contain a u16 string.
>>>> But I cannot see were our coding is inconsistent.
>>> I don't get your point.
>>> Do you want to allow 'u8 *' variable to hold u16 string?#
>> Yes, optional data may contain anything, in the case of Linux the
>> command line parameters as an u16 string.
>>
>> Other operating systems may use the field in other ways, e.g. store an
>> ASCII string.
> The problem is that with your patch optional_data is *always* converted
> to utf-16 as far as we use efidebug.
> My efidebug is not for linux only.


So what does the UEFI Shell do for command argument passing? Does it 
always pass in a utf16 string? If so, why?


Alex