<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Mike,<div class=""> </div><div class="">That reminds me that my patch to fix this for Xcode is still in limbo. </div><div class=""> </div><div class="">Thanks,</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">Andrew Fish <div> <blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 26, 2021, at 9:44 AM, Kinney, Michael D <<a href="mailto:michael.d.kinney@intel.com" class="">michael.d.kinney@intel.com</a>> wrote:</div> <div class=""><meta charset="UTF-8" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Marvin,<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">The main reason most components in the EDK II repos continue to use the variables is <br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">because there are incomplete tools to generate PE/COFF resource sections for all<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">the OS/compiler combinations that EDK II supports.<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">The preference would be to use PE/COFF resource sections and we would have converted<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">all components to that style long ago if the tools existed to be aligned with the<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">UEFI Specification instead of an EDK II specific implementation feature.<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Also, it is not a good idea to only look at the open source EDK II repos to<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">understand how a feature is used. There are many downstream consumers of the<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">EDK II repos.<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">The UEFI Driver Writer's Guide *only* documents the PE/COFF resource section<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">method.<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="https://tianocore-docs.github.io/edk2-UefiDriverWritersGuide/draft/7_driver_entry_point/74_adding_hii_packages_feature.html#74-adding-hii-packages-feature" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">https://tianocore-docs.github.io/edk2-UefiDriverWritersGuide/draft/7_driver_entry_point/74_adding_hii_packages_feature.html#74-adding-hii-packages-feature</a><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Best regards,<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Mike<br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><blockquote type="cite" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class="">-----Original Message----- From: Marvin Häuser <<a href="mailto:mhaeuser@posteo.de" class="">mhaeuser@posteo.de</a>> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 9:07 AM To: <a href="mailto:tim.lewis@insyde.com" class="">tim.lewis@insyde.com</a>; <a href="mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io" class="">devel@edk2.groups.io</a>; Kinney, Michael D <<a href="mailto:michael.d.kinney@intel.com" class="">michael.d.kinney@intel.com</a>> Cc: 'Andrew Fish' <<a href="mailto:afish@apple.com" class="">afish@apple.com</a>>; <a href="mailto:leif@nuviainc.com" class="">leif@nuviainc.com</a>; Ni, Ray <<a href="mailto:ray.ni@intel.com" class="">ray.ni@intel.com</a>>; Gao, Zhichao <<a href="mailto:zhichao.gao@intel.com" class="">zhichao.gao@intel.com</a>>; Wang, Jian J <<a href="mailto:jian.j.wang@intel.com" class="">jian.j.wang@intel.com</a>>; Wu, Hao A <<a href="mailto:hao.a.wu@intel.com" class="">hao.a.wu@intel.com</a>>; Bi, Dandan <<a href="mailto:dandan.bi@intel.com" class="">dandan.bi@intel.com</a>>; Dong, Eric <<a href="mailto:eric.dong@intel.com" class="">eric.dong@intel.com</a>>; 'Bret Barkelew' <<a href="mailto:Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com" class="">Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com</a>>; 'Vitaly Cheptsov' <<a href="mailto:vit9696@protonmail.com" class="">vit9696@protonmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [edk2-devel] [RFC] Expose HII package list via C variables Hey Tim, Interesting, do you happen to have some tool or code that performs such edits at hand to take a look at? Seems like most modules already use variables and thus cannot be modified in such a way even right now? That's the kind of information I am looking for, thanks a lot! Best regards, Marvin On 26/08/2021 18:01, <a href="mailto:tim.lewis@insyde.com" class="">tim.lewis@insyde.com</a> wrote: <blockquote type="cite" class="">Hi Marvin -- I would like to add some historical perspective on this. One of the design requirements back when HII was first </blockquote>introduced into the UEFI specification after Intel's initial contribution was that of binary editability. In order to be able to reliably find, extract and then re-insert the HII data into the binary, it needed to be discoverable and not affect the offsets of the code and data in the binary. <blockquote type="cite" class=""> While it was possible to put some sort of signature in the read-only data sections of the binary and leave padding for </blockquote>possible future edits, it was felt that using a PE/COFF section similar to the resource sections was better. Resource sections are commonly in use for PE/COFF files (in Windows) and the similar idea existed in the then-extant Mac binary format (resource fork?). <blockquote type="cite" class=""> Thanks, Tim Lewis CTO, Insyde Software <a href="http://www.insyde.com" class="">www.insyde.com</a> -----Original Message----- From: devel@edk2.groups.io <devel@edk2.groups.io> On Behalf Of Michael D Kinney Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 7:37 AM To: devel@edk2.groups.io; mhaeuser@posteo.de; Kinney, Michael D <michael.d.kinney@intel.com> Cc: Andrew Fish <afish@apple.com>; leif@nuviainc.com; Ni, Ray <ray.ni@intel.com>; Gao, Zhichao <zhichao.gao@intel.com>; </blockquote>Wang, Jian J <<a href="mailto:jian.j.wang@intel.com" class="">jian.j.wang@intel.com</a>>; Wu, Hao A <<a href="mailto:hao.a.wu@intel.com" class="">hao.a.wu@intel.com</a>>; Bi, Dandan <<a href="mailto:dandan.bi@intel.com" class="">dandan.bi@intel.com</a>>; Dong, Eric <<a href="mailto:eric.dong@intel.com" class="">eric.dong@intel.com</a>>; Bret Barkelew <<a href="mailto:Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com" class="">Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com</a>>; Vitaly Cheptsov <<a href="mailto:vit9696@protonmail.com" class="">vit9696@protonmail.com</a>> <blockquote type="cite" class="">Subject: Re: [edk2-devel] [RFC] Expose HII package list via C variables Marvin, One constraint in this discussion is that the HII content in a PE/COFF resource section is defined in the UEFI </blockquote>Specification, Which means UEFI Apps and UEFI Drivers from media and option ROMs that are not part of the system FW image are allowed to use this feature, This means the system FW PE/COFF loader must support loading HII content from this PE/COFF resource section to be UEFI conformant. So we cannot remove this feature from the PE/COFF loader without changes to the UEFI Specification. Even if changes to the UEFI Specification we made, we would have to continue to support this feature for backward compatibility with existing UEFI Apps/Drivers that may be using this feature. <blockquote type="cite" class=""> Thanks, Mike <blockquote type="cite" class="">-----Original Message----- From: <a href="mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io" class="">devel@edk2.groups.io</a> <<a href="mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io" class="">devel@edk2.groups.io</a>> On Behalf Of Marvin Häuser Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 1:51 AM To: <a href="mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io" class="">devel@edk2.groups.io</a>; Kinney, Michael D <<a href="mailto:michael.d.kinney@intel.com" class="">michael.d.kinney@intel.com</a>> Cc: <a href="mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io" class="">devel@edk2.groups.io</a>; Andrew Fish <<a href="mailto:afish@apple.com" class="">afish@apple.com</a>>; <a href="mailto:leif@nuviainc.com" class="">leif@nuviainc.com</a>; Ni, Ray <<a href="mailto:ray.ni@intel.com" class="">ray.ni@intel.com</a>>; Gao, Zhichao <<a href="mailto:zhichao.gao@intel.com" class="">zhichao.gao@intel.com</a>>; Wang, Jian J <<a href="mailto:jian.j.wang@intel.com" class="">jian.j.wang@intel.com</a>>; Wu, Hao A <<a href="mailto:hao.a.wu@intel.com" class="">hao.a.wu@intel.com</a>>; Bi, Dandan <<a href="mailto:dandan.bi@intel.com" class="">dandan.bi@intel.com</a>>; Dong, Eric <<a href="mailto:eric.dong@intel.com" class="">eric.dong@intel.com</a>>; Bret Barkelew <<a href="mailto:Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com" class="">Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com</a>>; Vitaly Cheptsov <<a href="mailto:vit9696@protonmail.com" class="">vit9696@protonmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [edk2-devel] [RFC] Expose HII package list via C variables Hey Mike, Thanks for your reply! Well, this switch is not well-documented. Looking now at both the generation code and the emitted code, it does not generate a package list like my code does, but separate data variables (strings and images) that cannot easily be passed to HiiDatabase as-is. However apparently there are drivers that use this functionality successfully by composing the package list at runtime [1]. Looking with this information now at the pattern of using HII C variables (which I did not know existed before) vs the PE/COFF HII section, most that use latter are Shell applications, which I guess means the section has actually been introduced to resolve D.? There are exceptions such as LogoDxe [2], which use the PE/COFF section while D. is not a problem, hence I got confused, sorry. I think these modules should be updated in any case. Do you agree? So, for modules that use C variables already, my patch would save some runtime generation code and dynamic memory allocation for the HII package list. This was not my goal (as I said, I didn't realise HII C variables already were a thing in the first place), but the changes are small enough that it might be worth considering anyway, in my opinion. If a HII package list is generated for both Shell and non-Shell apps, this also means code paths can be unified. For example, there could be a library class with constructor and destructor to add/remove packages from the HII database for all modules that use such, Shell or not. For BaseTools it means that there is no real need for separate Python and C paths as ideally they just generate the exact same data. Now to D., the only usage for this seems to be that Shell can locate the help text in the executable without executing it, yet it is fully loaded anyway [3]. To be honest, I find it hard to justify loading an executable (PE/COFF loading, memory permission application, the full process) to retrieve a help text and then unloading it again, especially with the HII code being on a core dispatcher level. 1. to 7. still hold true in my opinion. Was there any discussion I could read through why Shell apps cannot simply support a "--help" or "-?" command and output the string themselves? Pushing the burden to the Shell apps does preserve the "drawback" that a full loading is required (which honestly does not matter for a debugging application like Shell), however it does relieve the burden of PE/COFF HII parsing from the core dispatcher (which matters a lot in my opinion to keep the core simple). It would simply be a normal Shell app execution as any other however. If someone wants to avoid the PE/COFF burden altogether, they can still provide a .man file. As for my points 6. and 7., maybe I should provide some context. Due to many issues with TE files, platforms started abandoning them and returned to PE/COFF Images. I think a big reason for this is that TE is not really a sound and complete format, but a stripped version of PE/COFF with none of the necessary fixups applied. I'm currently sketching a possible alternative [4], and I would really like to not having to specify a HII section type, while still preserving compatibility with all of the UEFI Image types and use-cases [4]. Thanks again! Best regards, Marvin [1] <a href="https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/blob/7b4a99be8a39c12d3a7fc4b8db9f0ea" class="">https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/blob/7b4a99be8a39c12d3a7fc4b8db9f0ea</a> b4ac688d5/MdeModulePkg/Application/BootManagerMenuAp p/BootManagerMenu.c#L929-L934 [2] https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/blob/7b4a99be8a39c12d3a7fc4b8db9f0ea b4ac688d5/MdeModulePkg/Logo/LogoDxe.inf#L23 [3] </blockquote></blockquote><a href="https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/blob/7b4a99be8a39c12d3a7fc4b8db9f0eab4ac688d5/ShellPkg/Application/Shell/ShellManParser" class="">https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/blob/7b4a99be8a39c12d3a7fc4b8db9f0eab4ac688d5/ShellPkg/Application/Shell/ShellManParser</a>. <blockquote type="cite" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">c#L646-L671 [4] <a href="https://github.com/mhaeuser/edk2/blob/ue_poc/MdePkg/Include/IndustrySt" class="">https://github.com/mhaeuser/edk2/blob/ue_poc/MdePkg/Include/IndustrySt</a> andard/UeImage.h 26.08.2021 00:34:12 Michael D Kinney <michael.d.kinney@intel.com>: <blockquote type="cite" class="">Hi Marvin, I think this feature is already there and supported. HII can either be in a global variable or in a PE/COFF resource section. The default is a global variable because HII was implemented before the PE/COFF resource section feature was added to the UEFI Specification. There is an INF [Defines] section statement to enable the PE/COFF section. See UefiHiiResource in the following link. https://tianocore-docs.github.io/edk2-InfSpecification/draft/3_edk_i i_inf_file_format/34_[defines]_section.html#34- </blockquote>defines-section <blockquote type="cite" class="">How is your proposal different than this existing capability? Thanks, Mike <blockquote type="cite" class="">-----Original Message----- From: devel@edk2.groups.io <devel@edk2.groups.io> On Behalf Of Marvin Häuser Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2021 2:21 PM To: devel@edk2.groups.io Cc: Andrew Fish <afish@apple.com>; leif@nuviainc.com; Kinney, Michael D <michael.d.kinney@intel.com>; Ni, Ray <ray.ni@intel.com>; Gao, Zhichao <zhichao.gao@intel.com>; Wang, Jian J <jian.j.wang@intel.com>; Wu, Hao A <hao.a.wu@intel.com>; Bi, Dandan <dandan.bi@intel.com>; Dong, Eric <eric.dong@intel.com>; Bret Barkelew <Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com>; Vitaly Cheptsov <vit9696@protonmail.com> Subject: [edk2-devel] [RFC] Expose HII package list via C variables Good day everyone, Currently, the HII package list is stored in a PE/COFF resource section [1]. I propose to store it in a C variable (byte array with a pointer to it and its size exposed) instead. DxeCore would have a guard to toggle the deprecated support for the automatic protocol installation. This has the following advantages: 1. Fixes BZ (incl. future toolchains): https://bugzilla.tianocore.org/show_bug.cgi?id=557 2. Universal method across all toolchains and output file formats 3. Saves error-prone parsing work 4. Saves protocol install/locate work, the data is available right away 5. The omission of a dedicated section can save space 6. Terse file formats can support this and remain terse :) 7. Removes a dependency on the PE/COFF format specifically A *very rough* PoC diff can be found here: https://github.com/mhaeuser/edk2/compare/master...wip_hii_cvar If the feedback is positive, I will clean it up of course. OVMF boots with everything working fine. I'd explicitly like feedback on the following: A. Is this an acceptable solution to BZ 557 (Andrew?)? B. Is this an acceptable solution for the "HII workflow" (MdeModule maintainers?)? C. Is it acceptable to make support UEFI-side support for the old mechanism optional (Stewards?)? D. Can an acceptable alternative be found for the removed ShellPkg code (Shell maintainers?)? As you can see the BaseTools part also is rough, but that is more a question of "how" rather than "whether", so I'll postpone asking about it. Thanks for your time and feedback! Best regards, Marvin [1] "Once the image is loaded, LoadImage() installs EFI_HII_PACKAGE_LIST_PROTOCOL on the handle if the image contains a custom PE/COFF resource with the type 'HII'." - UEFI 2.9, 7.4, "EFI_BOOT_SERVICES.LoadImage()" </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote></blockquote></div></blockquote></div> </div></body></html> <div width="1" style="color:white;clear:both">_._,_._,_</div> <hr> Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. <a target="_blank" href="https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/79864">View/Reply Online (#79864)</a> | | <a target="_blank" href="https://groups.io/mt/85147044/1813853">Mute This Topic</a> | <a href="https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/post">New Topic</a> <a href="https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/editsub/1813853">Your Subscription</a> | <a href="mailto:devel+owner@edk2.groups.io">Contact Group Owner</a> | <a href="https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/unsub">Unsubscribe</a> [edk2-devel-archive@redhat.com] <div width="1" style="color:white;clear:both">_._,_._,_</div>