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+What: /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/
+Date: August 2015
+Contact: Gabriel Somlo <somlo@cmu.edu>
+Description:
+ Several different architectures supported by QEMU (x86, arm,
+ sun4*, ppc/mac) are provisioned with a firmware configuration
+ (fw_cfg) device, originally intended as a way for the host to
+ provide configuration data to the guest firmware. Starting
+ with QEMU v2.4, arbitrary fw_cfg file entries may be specified
+ by the user on the command line, which makes fw_cfg additionally
+ useful as an out-of-band, asynchronous mechanism for providing
+ configuration data to the guest userspace.
+
+ The authoritative guest-side hardware interface documentation
+ to the fw_cfg device can be found in "docs/specs/fw_cfg.txt"
+ in the QEMU source tree.
+
+ **SysFS fw_cfg Interface**
+
+ The fw_cfg sysfs interface described in this document is only
+ intended to display discoverable blobs (i.e., those registered
+ with the file directory), as there is no way to determine the
+ presence or size of "legacy" blobs (with selector keys between
+ 0x0002 and 0x0018) programmatically.
+
+ All fw_cfg information is shown under:
+
+ /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/
+
+ The only legacy blob displayed is the fw_cfg device revision:
+
+ /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/rev
+
+ **Discoverable fw_cfg blobs by selector key**
+
+ All discoverable blobs listed in the fw_cfg file directory are
+ displayed as entries named after their unique selector key
+ value, e.g.:
+
+ /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/by_key/32
+ /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/by_key/33
+ /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/by_key/34
+ ...
+
+ Each such fw_cfg sysfs entry has the following values exported
+ as attributes:
+
+ ==== ====================================================
+ name The 56-byte nul-terminated ASCII string used as the
+ blob's 'file name' in the fw_cfg directory.
+ size The length of the blob, as given in the fw_cfg
+ directory.
+ key The value of the blob's selector key as given in the
+ fw_cfg directory. This value is the same as used in
+ the parent directory name.
+ raw The raw bytes of the blob, obtained by selecting the
+ entry via the control register, and reading a number
+ of bytes equal to the blob size from the data
+ register.
+ ==== ====================================================
+
+ **Listing fw_cfg blobs by file name**
+
+ While the fw_cfg device does not impose any specific naming
+ convention on the blobs registered in the file directory,
+ QEMU developers have traditionally used path name semantics
+ to give each blob a descriptive name. For example::
+
+ "bootorder"
+ "genroms/kvmvapic.bin"
+ "etc/e820"
+ "etc/boot-fail-wait"
+ "etc/system-states"
+ "etc/table-loader"
+ "etc/acpi/rsdp"
+ "etc/acpi/tables"
+ "etc/smbios/smbios-tables"
+ "etc/smbios/smbios-anchor"
+ ...
+
+ In addition to the listing by unique selector key described
+ above, the fw_cfg sysfs driver also attempts to build a tree
+ of directories matching the path name components of fw_cfg
+ blob names, ending in symlinks to the by_key entry for each
+ "basename", as illustrated below (assume current directory is
+ /sys/firmware)::
+
+ qemu_fw_cfg/by_name/bootorder -> ../by_key/38
+ qemu_fw_cfg/by_name/etc/e820 -> ../../by_key/35
+ qemu_fw_cfg/by_name/etc/acpi/rsdp -> ../../../by_key/41
+ ...
+
+ Construction of the directory tree and symlinks is done on a
+ "best-effort" basis, as there is no guarantee that components
+ of fw_cfg blob names are always "well behaved". I.e., there is
+ the possibility that a symlink (basename) will conflict with
+ a dirname component of another fw_cfg blob, in which case the
+ creation of the offending /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/by_name
+ entry will be skipped.
+
+ The authoritative list of entries will continue to be found
+ under the /sys/firmware/qemu_fw_cfg/by_key directory.