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

["Rebecca Cran" <quic_rcran@quicinc.com>]

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.
I like the idea of defaulting to the stable tag, though we could perhaps 
shorten it to "202208" instead? I'm fairly sure the release date should 
be in MM/DD/YYYY format for e.g. SMBIOS compatibility (sigh) - though 
I've just realized that for SMBIOS we ignore that PCD and just use 
__DATE__ and __TIME__.

-- 
Rebecca Cran