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From:   Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
To:     Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc:     Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>,
        Padmanabha Srinivasaiah <treasure4paddy@gmail.com>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
        Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Subject: [PATCH v2 3/3] docs: bootconfig: Add how to embed the bootconfig into kernel
Date:   Mon, 14 Mar 2022 10:54:23 +0900
Message-Id: <164722286373.689258.9817790360544187508.stgit@devnote2>
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Add a description how to embed the bootconfig file into kernel.

Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
---
 Changes in v2:
  - Corrected the text accoding to Randy's suggestion.
  - Do not reccomend to use relative path for CONFIG_EMBED_BOOT_CONFIG_FILE.
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst |   30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
index a1860fc0ca88..1af1a172fdd4 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
@@ -158,9 +158,15 @@ Each key-value pair is shown in each line with following style::
 Boot Kernel With a Boot Config
 ==============================
 
-Since the boot configuration file is loaded with initrd, it will be added
-to the end of the initrd (initramfs) image file with padding, size,
-checksum and 12-byte magic word as below.
+There are two options to boot the kernel with bootconfig: attaching the
+bootconfig to the initrd image or embedding it in the kernel itself.
+
+Attaching a Boot Config to Initrd
+---------------------------------
+
+Since the boot configuration file is loaded with initrd by default,
+it will be added to the end of the initrd (initramfs) image file with
+padding, size, checksum and 12-byte magic word as below.
 
 [initrd][bootconfig][padding][size(le32)][checksum(le32)][#BOOTCONFIG\n]
 
@@ -196,6 +202,24 @@ To remove the config from the image, you can use -d option as below::
 Then add "bootconfig" on the normal kernel command line to tell the
 kernel to look for the bootconfig at the end of the initrd file.
 
+Embedding a Boot Config into Kernel
+-----------------------------------
+
+If you can not use initrd, you can also embed the bootconfig file in the
+kernel by Kconfig options. In this case, you need to recompile the kernel
+with the following configs::
+
+ COFNIG_EMBED_BOOT_CONFIG=y
+ CONFIG_EMBED_BOOT_CONFIG_FILE="/PATH/TO/BOOTCONFIG/FILE"
+
+``CONFIG_EMBED_BOOT_CONFIG_FILE`` requires a correct absolute path to
+the bootconfig file. The kernel will embed it as the default bootconfig.
+
+Just as when attaching the bootconfig to the initrd, you need ``bootconfig``
+option to the kernel command line to enable the embedded bootconfig.
+
+Note that even if you set this option, you can override the embedded
+bootconfig by another bootconfig which attached to the initrd.
 
 Kernel parameters via Boot Config
 =================================