====================
  APEX Boot Loader
 README_environment
====================

There is support for an environment in APEX.  The environment stores
key/value pairs as part of the configuration of the boot loader in
non-volatile storage.  The only configuration option that can never be
stored in the environment is the location of the environment itself.

Aliases
-------

APEX also supports aliases which are key/value pairs, but there are
several important differences.  Aliases are not stored in non-volatile
memory.  Aliases resolve before environment variables, thus overriding
the environment.  Aliases have no default value.  When unset, aliases
are empty whereas undefined environment variables will have the
default that is compiled into APEX.  Finally, aliases may be assigned
to any key.  The environment can only store keys that are compiled
into APEX.


The Environment Region
----------------------

The region containing the environment is defined at compile time.  It
is usually in NOR flash, but can be in any non-volatile storage
medium.  If APEX cannot open the environment region, it will not allow
run-time changes to the compiled in defaults.

Typically, this region is assigned so that it doesn't occupy the same
erase block as other valuable data.  For example, on a system where
NOR flash has 128KiB erase blocks, the environment could occupy the
upper 16KiB of the same block as APEX.  Trouble arises if this region
fills erased values since erasing the region will erase the boot
loader as well.

The region can be stored in a small EEPROM.  Even 256 bytes may be
enough to be useful.  The memory format was designed to be compact
enough to fit into this sort of medium.

The size of the region does not need to be large.  Setting it to 16KiB
is probably sufficient for any common usage considering that most
entries will be less than 40 characters.  As entries are erased and
replaced, the environment will fill with erased entried which can take
some time to scan if the medium is very slow.


Environment Memory Format
-------------------------

The environment format has evolved such that it is self-contained for
both reading and writing, and is reasonably compact.

   +-------+-------+-------+------+
   | MAGIC | Entry | ...   | 0xff |
   +-------+-------+-------+------+

The MAGIC number is two bytes, stored in the MSB or network order, 'A'
followed by 'e'.  The same environment data may be read from either
little or big endian CPU.  The environment is terminated with a single
0xff byte.

Entries are key/value pairs of two forms.

   +------+-----+-------+
   | Flag | Key | Value |
   +------+-----+-------+

In this form, the Key and Value are each NULL terminated ASCII
strings.  The Flag field is a single byte where the high bit is 1 for
an active entry, and 0 for a deleted entry.  The low seven bits are an
id which is identifies the key.  Valid ids are zero through 0x7e since
0x7f would mark the end of the environment if it were an active entry.

   +------+-------+
   | Flag | Value |
   +------+-------+

This is the second form that does not include the Key string.  It only
exists when an environment variable is written more than once to the
environment.  The first time a given Key is stored, an unused id is
allocated for it.  The second time it is stored, that id is reused and
the Key field is omitted.

The ids are unique within a given environment instance, and are
allocated as entries are written.  For example, if the user performs
these commands on an empty environment:

     apex> setenv cmdline console=ttyS0
     apex> setenv bootaddr 0x8000
     apex> setenv cmdline console=ttyS0,115200

the environment will contain three entries, cmdline with a flag of 0x0
(deleted id=0), bootaddr with a flag of 0x81 (active id=1), and
cmdline with a flag of 0x80 (active id=0).


Writing an Environment from User Space
--------------------------------------

There is a user-mode application in the usr/ directory called
apex-env.  It works in concert with the CONFIG_ENV_LINK option to
allow safe and reliable modifications to the APEX environment once the
system is booted.  There further discussion of the environment format
in the usr/link.cc file.

More on the Environment in Flash
--------------------------------

It would be easiest to re-write the whole environment without
including deleted entries.  apex-env doesn't do this because it is
careful to properly manage the data structures.  

IDs must be allocated consecutively as new variables are added the the
flash environment.  If the flash environment contains three Keys they
must have ids 0, 1 and 2.  A new key must have the id of 3.  Deleting
values doesn't affect this ordering.  Unsetting a variable and then
setting it again will reuse the id used the first time it was set.
Only when the whole environment is erased can the id's be recycled.

The magic number must be written to the first two bytes of the
environment region.  The first bytes address must contain 'A' and the
second mus contain 'e' regardless of the endian-ness of the CPU.

If you write an entry with a Key that is not recognized by APEX, it
will be harmlessly ignored.  This may be helpful if you want to
construct an environment with all possible Keys that could be used by
APEX, or if you need to upgrade APEX without modifying the
environment.

APEX interprets environment Keys without regard for case.  Thus,
'cmdline' will be recognized as the same Key as 'cmdLine' and
'CMDLINE'.  The APEX command line only stores Key names as they are
defined in the code, so that when the user executes

  apex> setenv CMDLINE console=ttyS0

APEX stores 'cmdline'.
