UBI: Unsorted Block Images

UBI (Latin: "where?") manages multiple logical volumes on a single
flash device, specifically supporting NAND flash devices. UBI provides
a flexible partitioning concept which still allows for wear-levelling
across the whole flash device.

In a sense, UBI may be compared to the Logical Volume Manager
(LVM). Whereas LVM maps logical sector numbers to physical HDD sector
numbers, UBI maps logical eraseblocks to physical eraseblocks.

More information may be found at
http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/ubi.html

Partitioning/Re-partitioning

  An UBI volume occupies a certain number of erase blocks. This is
  limited by a configured maximum volume size, which could also be
  viewed as the partition size. Each individual UBI volume's size can
  be changed independently of the other UBI volumes, provided that the
  sum of all volume sizes doesn't exceed a certain limit.

  UBI supports dynamic volumes and static volumes. Static volumes are
  read-only and their contents are protected by CRC check sums.

Bad eraseblocks handling

  UBI transparently handles bad eraseblocks. When a physical
  eraseblock becomes bad, it is substituted by a good physical
  eraseblock, and the user does not even notice this.

Scrubbing

  On a NAND flash bit flips can occur on any write operation,
  sometimes also on read. If bit flips persist on the device, at first
  they can still be corrected by ECC, but once they accumulate,
  correction will become impossible. Thus it is best to actively scrub
  the affected eraseblock, by first copying it to a free eraseblock
  and then erasing the original. The UBI layer performs this type of
  scrubbing under the covers, transparently to the UBI volume users.

Erase Counts

  UBI maintains an erase count header per eraseblock. This frees
  higher-level layers (like file systems) from doing this and allows
  for centralized erase count management instead. The erase counts are
  used by the wear-levelling algorithm in the UBI layer. The algorithm
  itself is exchangeable.

Booting from NAND

  For booting directly from NAND flash the hardware must at least be
  capable of fetching and executing a small portion of the NAND
  flash. Some NAND flash controllers have this kind of support. They
  usually limit the window to a few kilobytes in erase block 0. This
  "initial program loader" (IPL) must then contain sufficient logic to
  load and execute the next boot phase.

  Due to bad eraseblocks, which may be randomly scattered over the
  flash device, it is problematic to store the "secondary program
  loader" (SPL) statically. Also, due to bit-flips it may become
  corrupted over time. UBI allows to solve this problem gracefully by
  storing the SPL in a small static UBI volume.

UBI volumes vs. static partitions

  UBI volumes are still very similar to static MTD partitions:

    * both consist of eraseblocks (logical eraseblocks in case of UBI
      volumes, and physical eraseblocks in case of static partitions;
    * both support three basic operations - read, write, erase.

  But UBI volumes have the following advantages over traditional
  static MTD partitions:

    * there are no eraseblock wear-leveling constraints in case of UBI
      volumes, so the user should not care about this;
    * there are no bit-flips and bad eraseblocks in case of UBI volumes.

  So, UBI volumes may be considered as flash devices with relaxed
  restrictions.

Where can it be found?

  Documentation, kernel code and applications can be found in the MTD
  gits.

What are the applications for?

  The applications help to create binary flash images for two purposes: pfi
  files (partial flash images) for in-system update of UBI volumes, and plain
  binary images, with or without OOB data in case of NAND, for a manufacturing
  step. Furthermore some tools are/and will be created that allow flash content
  analysis after a system has crashed..

Who did UBI?

  The original ideas, where UBI is based on, were developed by Andreas
  Arnez, Frank Haverkamp and Thomas Gleixner. Josh W. Boyer and some others
  were involved too. The implementation of the kernel layer was done by Artem
  B. Bityutskiy. The user-space applications and tools were written by Oliver
  Lohmann with contributions from Frank Haverkamp, Andreas Arnez, and Artem.
  Joern Engel contributed a patch which modifies JFFS2 so that it can be run on
  a UBI volume. Thomas Gleixner did modifications to the NAND layer. Alexander
  Schmidt made some testing work as well as core functionality improvements.

Signed-off-by: Artem B. Bityutskiy <dedekind@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Frank Haverkamp <haver@vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 202 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/mtd/ubi.h b/include/linux/mtd/ubi.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3d967b6b120a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/mtd/ubi.h
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) International Business Machines Corp., 2006
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See
+ * the GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+ * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+ *
+ * Author: Artem Bityutskiy (Битюцкий Артём)
+ */
+
+#ifndef __LINUX_UBI_H__
+#define __LINUX_UBI_H__
+
+#include <asm/ioctl.h>
+#include <linux/types.h>
+#include <mtd/ubi-user.h>
+
+/*
+ * UBI data type hint constants.
+ *
+ * UBI_LONGTERM: long-term data
+ * UBI_SHORTTERM: short-term data
+ * UBI_UNKNOWN: data persistence is unknown
+ *
+ * These constants are used when data is written to UBI volumes in order to
+ * help the UBI wear-leveling unit to find more appropriate physical
+ * eraseblocks.
+ */
+enum {
+        UBI_LONGTERM = 1,
+        UBI_SHORTTERM,
+        UBI_UNKNOWN
+};
+
+/*
+ * enum ubi_open_mode - UBI volume open mode constants.
+ *
+ * UBI_READONLY: read-only mode
+ * UBI_READWRITE: read-write mode
+ * UBI_EXCLUSIVE: exclusive mode
+ */
+enum {
+        UBI_READONLY = 1,
+        UBI_READWRITE,
+        UBI_EXCLUSIVE
+};
+
+/**
+ * struct ubi_volume_info - UBI volume description data structure.
+ * @vol_id: volume ID
+ * @ubi_num: UBI device number this volume belongs to
+ * @size: how many physical eraseblocks are reserved for this volume
+ * @used_bytes: how many bytes of data this volume contains
+ * @used_ebs: how many physical eraseblocks of this volume actually contain any
+ * data
+ * @vol_type: volume type (%UBI_DYNAMIC_VOLUME or %UBI_STATIC_VOLUME)
+ * @corrupted: non-zero if the volume is corrupted (static volumes only)
+ * @upd_marker: non-zero if the volume has update marker set
+ * @alignment: volume alignment
+ * @usable_leb_size: how many bytes are available in logical eraseblocks of
+ * this volume
+ * @name_len: volume name length
+ * @name: volume name
+ * @cdev: UBI volume character device major and minor numbers
+ *
+ * The @corrupted flag is only relevant to static volumes and is always zero
+ * for dynamic ones. This is because UBI does not care about dynamic volume
+ * data protection and only cares about protecting static volume data.
+ *
+ * The @upd_marker flag is set if the volume update operation was interrupted.
+ * Before touching the volume data during the update operation, UBI first sets
+ * the update marker flag for this volume. If the volume update operation was
+ * further interrupted, the update marker indicates this. If the update marker
+ * is set, the contents of the volume is certainly damaged and a new volume
+ * update operation has to be started.
+ *
+ * To put it differently, @corrupted and @upd_marker fields have different
+ * semantics:
+ *     o the @corrupted flag means that this static volume is corrupted for some
+ *       reasons, but not because an interrupted volume update
+ *     o the @upd_marker field means that the volume is damaged because of an
+ *       interrupted update operation.
+ *
+ * I.e., the @corrupted flag is never set if the @upd_marker flag is set.
+ *
+ * The @used_bytes and @used_ebs fields are only really needed for static
+ * volumes and contain the number of bytes stored in this static volume and how
+ * many eraseblock this data occupies. In case of dynamic volumes, the
+ * @used_bytes field is equivalent to @size*@usable_leb_size, and the @used_ebs
+ * field is equivalent to @size.
+ *
+ * In general, logical eraseblock size is a property of the UBI device, not
+ * of the UBI volume. Indeed, the logical eraseblock size depends on the
+ * physical eraseblock size and on how much bytes UBI headers consume. But
+ * because of the volume alignment (@alignment), the usable size of logical
+ * eraseblocks if a volume may be less. The following equation is true:
+ *      @usable_leb_size = LEB size - (LEB size mod @alignment),
+ * where LEB size is the logical eraseblock size defined by the UBI device.
+ *
+ * The alignment is multiple to the minimal flash input/output unit size or %1
+ * if all the available space is used.
+ *
+ * To put this differently, alignment may be considered is a way to change
+ * volume logical eraseblock sizes.
+ */
+struct ubi_volume_info {
+        int ubi_num;
+        int vol_id;
+        int size;
+        long long used_bytes;
+        int used_ebs;
+        int vol_type;
+        int corrupted;
+        int upd_marker;
+        int alignment;
+        int usable_leb_size;
+        int name_len;
+        const char *name;
+        dev_t cdev;
+};
+
+/**
+ * struct ubi_device_info - UBI device description data structure.
+ * @ubi_num: ubi device number
+ * @leb_size: logical eraseblock size on this UBI device
+ * @min_io_size: minimal I/O unit size
+ * @ro_mode: if this device is in read-only mode
+ * @cdev: UBI character device major and minor numbers
+ *
+ * Note, @leb_size is the logical eraseblock size offered by the UBI device.
+ * Volumes of this UBI device may have smaller logical eraseblock size if their
+ * alignment is not equivalent to %1.
+ */
+struct ubi_device_info {
+        int ubi_num;
+        int leb_size;
+        int min_io_size;
+        int ro_mode;
+        dev_t cdev;
+};
+
+/* UBI descriptor given to users when they open UBI volumes */
+struct ubi_volume_desc;
+
+int ubi_get_device_info(int ubi_num, struct ubi_device_info *di);
+void ubi_get_volume_info(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc,
+                         struct ubi_volume_info *vi);
+struct ubi_volume_desc *ubi_open_volume(int ubi_num, int vol_id, int mode);
+struct ubi_volume_desc *ubi_open_volume_nm(int ubi_num, const char *name,
+                                           int mode);
+void ubi_close_volume(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc);
+int ubi_leb_read(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum, char *buf, int offset,
+                 int len, int check);
+int ubi_leb_write(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum, const void *buf,
+                  int offset, int len, int dtype);
+int ubi_leb_change(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum, const void *buf,
+                   int len, int dtype);
+int ubi_leb_erase(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum);
+int ubi_leb_unmap(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum);
+int ubi_is_mapped(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum);
+
+/*
+ * This function is the same as the 'ubi_leb_read()' function, but it does not
+ * provide the checking capability.
+ */
+static inline int ubi_read(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum, char *buf,
+                           int offset, int len)
+{
+        return ubi_leb_read(desc, lnum, buf, offset, len, 0);
+}
+
+/*
+ * This function is the same as the 'ubi_leb_write()' functions, but it does
+ * not have the data type argument.
+ */
+static inline int ubi_write(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum,
+                            const void *buf, int offset, int len)
+{
+        return ubi_leb_write(desc, lnum, buf, offset, len, UBI_UNKNOWN);
+}
+
+/*
+ * This function is the same as the 'ubi_leb_change()' functions, but it does
+ * not have the data type argument.
+ */
+static inline int ubi_change(struct ubi_volume_desc *desc, int lnum,
+                                    const void *buf, int len)
+{
+        return ubi_leb_change(desc, lnum, buf, len, UBI_UNKNOWN);
+}
+
+#endif /* !__LINUX_UBI_H__ */