[flashrom] [PATCH] flashrom.8: improve dummy programmer documentation (was: Man page fixes: dummy, satamv, it87)

[Stefan Tauner]

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:58:03 +0200
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net> wrote:

> Man page fixes:
> - Add dummy programmer flash chip emulation
> - Add satamv programmer
> - Merge it87spi programmer into internal section
> - Correct formatting of pci= parameter
> 

i have started working on a similar patch yesterday that has become
almost obsolete by yours (mine describes my -p dummy:content=pattern
too). maybe you find some phrases or ideas useful and want to
incorporate them. what i miss a bit in the programmers section in the
manpage is a general description of the programmers. a sentence at the
start of each of flashrom's programmers should be added to give a short
overview imho.

i will merge the content=pattern part of my patch below with the
corresponding implementation.

flashrom.8: improve dummy programmer documentation

describe emulate and content parameters

Signed-off-by: Stefan Tauner <stefan.tauner at student.tuwien.ac.at>
---
 flashrom.8 |   25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/flashrom.8 b/flashrom.8
index 941a424..ccf3670 100644
--- a/flashrom.8
+++ b/flashrom.8
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ Specify the programmer device. Currently supported are:
 .sp
 .BR "* internal" " (default, for in-system flashing in the mainboard)"
 .sp
-.BR "* dummy" " (just prints all operations and accesses)"
+.BR "* dummy" " (a virtual programmer that can be used for testing flashrom)"
 .sp
 .BR "* nic3com" " (for flash ROMs on 3COM network cards)"
 .sp
@@ -320,6 +320,29 @@ We will not help you if you force flashing on a laptop because this is a really
 dumb idea.
 .TP
 .BR "dummy " programmer
+The dummy programmer operates on a buffer in memory only. It provides a safe and
+fast way to test various aspects of flashrom and is mainly used in development
+and while debugging.
+.sp
+It is able to emulate some chips to a certain degree (e.g. timing variations
+are not considered). The syntax to tell flashrom the chip to emulate is:
+.sp
+.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:emulate=chipname"
+.sp
+where chipname can be
+.BR M25P10.RES ", " SST25VF040.REMS " or " SST25VF032B "."
+.sp
+Its buffer is initialized with random data by default. This behavior is
+configurable using the
+.sp
+.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:content=pattern"
+.sp
+syntax where pattern can be
+.BR "random" " (the default), " "ones" " (all 0xff; this was the behavior in \
+previous versions), " "zeros" " (all 0x00) or " "increment" " (First byte \
+0x00, second byte 0x01, ..., 255th byte 0xff, 256th byte 0x00, ...)."
+
+.sp
 An optional parameter specifies the bus types it
 should support. For that you have to use the
 .B "flashrom \-p dummy:bus=[type[+type[+type]]]"

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner