[U-Boot] [PATCH 1/3] config: introduce a generic $bootcmd

Stephen Warren
2014-08-12T17:46:19Z

On 08/12/2014 11:29 AM, Jeroen Hofstee wrote:
> On 11-08-14 20:55, Stephen Warren wrote:
...
>> extlinux.conf is a text file format the defines a menu of bootable
>> OSs. It's a (de-facto I suppose) standard that's implemented by
>> extlinux (if indeed that is a piece of SW:-) and also U-Boot and
>> barebox and likely other bootloaders too.
>>
>> So, when U-Boot locates extlinux.conf on disk and processes it, it's
>> parsing a configuration file/menu, not chain-loading/executing another
>> bootloader.
>>
>
> I see, so shouldn't we document then who is in charge of its format
> at least, before we start making a U-boot/distro specific version of it?

The content of the file is documented at:

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/BootLoaderSpec/

... although extlinux.conf is a single file containing all the entries,
rather than a separate *.conf per OS. I'm not sure where that aspect of
the file is documented. Dennis, do you know where?

FWIW, the concept of a single file rather than many *.conf has been
embodied in U-Boot's pxe and sysboot commands for some time, and isn't
anything to do with this patch set.