ibm,firmware-versions node

The ibm,firmware-versions node contains information on the versions of various firmware components as they were during boot. It does not change if there are pending or runtime updates. It represents (to the best of boot firmware’s ability) what versions of firmware were during this boot.

Property	Required	Value
version	POWER9	See below
skiboot	N	component version number
occ	N	component version number
buildroot	N	component version number
capp-ucode	N	component version number
petitboot	N	component version number
open-power	N	component version number
hostboot-binaries	N	component version number
MACHINE-xml	N	MACHINE (e.g. habanero) machine XML version
hostboot	N	component version number
linux	N	component version number

version property

This property must exist on POWER9 and above systems. It may exist on POWER8 systems.

If this property exists, it must conform to this specification. It’s a single version number of the firmware image. In the event of a system supporting multiple firmware sides, this represents the default boot side. That is, the version that is applicable when determining if a machine requires a firmware update.

Examples (for three different platforms):

• IBM-sandwich-20170217

• open-power-habanero-v1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty

• open-power-SUPERMICRO-P8DTU-V2.00.GA2-20161028

To compare two versions (for the purpose of determining if the current installed firmware is in need of updating to the one being compared against) we need a defined set of rules on how to do this comparison.

Version numbers are not intended to be compared across platforms.

The version string may include a description at the start of it. This description can contain any set of characters but must not contain a ‘-’ followed by a digit. It also must not contain ‘-v’ or ‘-V’ followed by a digit.

Each part of the version string is separated by a ‘-’ character. Leading sections are ignored, until one starts with a digit (0-9) or a ‘v’ or ‘V’, followed by a digit. Where there is a leading ‘v’ or ‘V’, it is also stripped.

For the above three examples, we’d be left with:

• 20170217

• 1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty

• 2.00.GA2-20161028

Each section is now compared until a difference is found. All comparisons are done lexically. The lexical comparison sorts in this order: tilde (~), all letters, non-letters. The tilde is special and sorts before an end of part. This allows the common usage of designating pre-release builds by a tailing section beginning with a ‘~’.

For example: “1.0~20170217”, “1.0~rc4” and “1.0~beta1” all sort before “1.0”

Note that “1.0beta” sorts after “1.0”

The start of the version string contains an optional epoch. If not present, it is zero. This allows a reset of versioning schemes. All versions with an epoch of N+1 are greater than those with epoch N, no matter what the version strings would compare. For example “0:4.0” is less than “1:1.0”. Increasing the epoch should not be a regular occurance.

For the remainder of the version strings, each part (separated by ‘.’ or ‘-‘) is compared lexically. There are two exceptions: any part beginning with “-g” or “-p” followed by a hexadecimal string is compared as a string, and if they are different the versions are determined to be different. For example, the sections “-g78d89280c3f9” and “-g123456789abc” differ and for all comparisons (less than, greater than, equal) the result should be true.

For those who have been paying attention, this scheme should look very familiar to those who are familiar with RPM and Debian package versioning.

The below table shows comparisons between versions and what the result should be:

A	B	Result
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	Equal
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9	A > B
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1.14-45-g123456789abc	A < B, A > B, A != B
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1.14-46	A < B
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1.15	A < B
1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty	1:1.0	A < B
1.0	1.0~daily20170201	A > B
1.0.1	1.0~daily20170201	A > B
1.0	1.0.1	A < B
1.0	1.0beta	A < B

Examples

New style (required for POWER9 and above):

ibm,firmware-versions {
             version = "open-power-habanero-v1.14-45-g78d89280c3f9-dirty";
             skiboot = "5.4.0";
             occ = "d7efe30";
             linux = "4.4.32-openpower1";
};

Old-style:

ibm,firmware-versions {
        occ = "d7efe30-opdirty";
        skiboot = "5.4.0-opdirty";
        buildroot = "211bd05";
        capp-ucode = "1bb7503-opdirty";
        petitboot = "v1.3.1-opdirty-d695626";
        open-power = "habanero-f7b8f65-dirty";
        phandle = <0x1000012e>;
        hostboot-binaries = "56532f5-opdirty";
        habanero-xml = "6a78496-opdirty-526ff79";
        hostboot = "09cfacb-opdirty";
        linux = "4.4.32-openpower1-opdirty-85cf528";
};