[U-Boot-Users] Using 'ver' env var

[Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>]

In message <5CBE65F7D9232C47861CB09B0954861C66A93C@MAIL.infinitychannel.local> you wrote:
> 
> > What makes you think so? saveenv does not do any filtering to exclude
> > any variable, so of course it gets saved, too.
> 
> It does, but only if you explicitly call 'saveenv'...  It does not store
> on it's own.

Of course. U-Boot usually does only what you tell it.

> > To print the U-Boot version without need to reset the board.
> 
> But you can print it using 'version', too...  And unless you explictly
> save it,
> the 'ver' env var does nothing more for you than the 'version' command,

You  can  use  the  variable  in  commands,  like  for   implementing
version-dependent things, or test it, or ...

> Can't be accessed anywhere other then from the u-boot command prompt...

It is a normal environment variable like any other. It  can  be  used
whenever  and  whererver  other variables can get used. This includes
saving to flash and reading the flash from Linux.

> If you don't explicitly 'saveenv' there is no 'ver' variable to read
> from linux...
> And it can't be good for the flash to force u-boot to save on every
> boot.

It's not needed to save this on every boot. It's perfectly sufficient
to save it once after you've installed and booted a  new  version  of
U-Boot.

> So if I update (from linux for example) 'ver' doesn't get updated unless
> u-boot is
> doing a saveenv on every boot...

Not on every boot. It's sufficient to perform this on the first boot.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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