Re: [edk2-devel] [PATCH 1/1] OvmfPkg/SmbiosPlatformDxe: use PcdFirmwareVersionString

["Ard Biesheuvel" <ardb@kernel.org>]

On Wed, 12 Oct 2022 at 10:52, Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Oct 11, 2022 at 09:34:17AM -0600, Rebecca Cran wrote:
> > On 10/11/22 01:59, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> > >
> > > Next question is how to set them.  I think it makes sense to have some
> > > sensible defaults, but still allow to override them.  MdeModulePkg
> > > defines them to empty strings (except vendor).  Should we set them to
> > > the most recent stable tag instead, i.e. something like this?
> > >
> > > -  gEfiMdeModulePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdFirmwareVersionString|L""|VOID*|0x00010052
> > > +  gEfiMdeModulePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdFirmwareVersionString|L"edk2-stable202208"|VOID*|0x00010052
> > >
> > > -  gEfiMdeModulePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdFirmwareReleaseDateString|L""|VOID*|0x00010053
> > > +  gEfiMdeModulePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdFirmwareReleaseDateString|L"26/08/2022"|VOID*|0x00010053
> > >
> > > When doing that:  Can this be overridden on the command line?  Trying to
> > > do so using 'build --pcd PcdFirmwareVersionString=Test' didn't work for
> > > me, the string wasn't translated to unicode ...
> > >
> > > I've noticed ArmVirtPkg/ArmVirtXen.dsc has this line ...
> > >
> > >    gEfiMdeModulePkgTokenSpaceGuid.PcdFirmwareVersionString|L"$(FIRMWARE_VER)"
> > >
> > > ... which allows to override using 'build -D FIRMWARE_VER=Test'.
> > > Unicode encoding works that way, but it would also override the
> > > MdeModulePkg default (if we add one).
> >
> > The method I've used in the past is to override strings on the command line,
> > just like ArmVirtXen.dsc does, and I like that approach.
>
> After digging around in the source code and experimenting a bit
> I figured how to do it without the FIRMWARE_VER indirection:
>
>         build --pcd="PcdFirmwareVersionString=L'${version}\\0'"
>
> > I like the idea of defaulting to the stable tag, though we could perhaps
> > shorten it to "202208" instead?
>
> I'd prefer to keep it identical to the stable tag name.
> Makes it easier to figure where this comes from.
>
> > I'm fairly sure the release date should be
> > in MM/DD/YYYY format for e.g. SMBIOS compatibility (sigh)
>
> Hmm.  At least we tag stable releases close to the end of the month
> (after 12th), so it should be clear what is DD and what is MM ...
>

Is there a conclusion here?