Add --copy= as alias to --server=

[novaboot.git] / README.pod

=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

novaboot - Boots a locally compiled operating system on a remote
target or in qemu

=head1 SYNOPSIS

B<novaboot> --help

B<novaboot> [option]... [--] script...

B<./script> [option]...

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Novaboot makes booting of a locally compiled operating system (OS)
(e.g. NOVA or Linux) on remote targets as simple as running a program
locally. It automates things like copying OS images to a TFTP server,
generation of bootloader configuration files, resetting of target
hardware or redirection of target's serial line to stdin/out. Novaboot
is highly configurable and makes it easy to boot a single image on
different targets or different images on a single target.

Novaboot operation is controlled by configuration files, command line
options and by a so-called novaboot script, which can be thought as a
generalization of bootloader configuration files (see L</"NOVABOOT
SCRIPT SYNTAX">). The typical way of using novaboot is to make the
novaboot script executable and set its first line to I<#!/usr/bin/env
novaboot>. Then, booting a particular OS configuration becomes the
same as executing a local program – the novaboot script.

Novaboot uses configuration files to, among other things, define
command line options needed for different targets. Users typically use
only the B<-t>/B<--target> command line option to select the target.
Internally, this option expands to the pre-configured options.
Novaboot searches configuration files at multiple places, which allows
having per-system, per-user or per-project configurations.
Configuration file syntax is described in section L</"CONFIGURATION
FILES">.

Novaboot newcomers may be confused by a large number of configuration
options. Understanding all these options is not always needed,
depending on the used setup. The L<figure from the doc directory
|https://github.com/wentasah/novaboot/blob/master/doc/typical-setups.svg>
shows different setups that vary in how much effort is needed
to configure novaboot for them. The setups are:

=over 3

=item A: Laptop and target device only

This requires to configure everything on the laptop side, including a
serial line connection (L</--serial>, L</--remote-cmd>, ...), power
on/off/reset commands (L</--reset-cmd>, ...), TFTP server
(L</--copy>, L</--prefix>...), device IP addresses, etc.

=item B: Laptop, target device and external TFTP server

Like the previous setup, but the TFTP (and maybe DHCP) configuration
is handled by a server. Novaboot users need to understand where to
copy their files to the TFTP server (L</--copy>) and which IP
addresses their target will get, but do not need to configure the
servers themselves.

=item C: Novaboot server running novaboot-shell

With this setup, the configuration is done on the server. Users only
need to know the SSH account (L</--ssh>) used to communicate between
novaboot and novaboot server. The server is implemented as a
restricted shell (L<novaboot-shell(1)>) on the server. No need to give
full shell access to novaboot users on the server.

=back

=head2 Simple examples of using C<novaboot>:

To boot Linux (files F<bzImage> and F<rootfs.cpio> in current
directory), create F<mylinux> file with this content:

    #!/usr/bin/env novaboot
    load bzImage console=ttyS0,115200
    load rootfs.cpio

=over 3

=item 1.

Booting an OS in Qemu can be accomplished by giving the B<--qemu> option.
Thus running

 novaboot --qemu mylinux

(or C<./mylinux --qemu> as described above) will run Qemu and make it
boot the configuration specified in the F<mylinux> script. How is qemu
started can be configured in various ways (see below).

=item 2.

Create a bootloader configuration file (currently supported
bootloaders are GRUB, GRUB2, ISOLINUX, Pulsar, and U-Boot) and copy it
with all other files needed for booting to a remote TFTP server. Then
use a TCP/IP-controlled relay/serial-to-TCP converter to reset the
target and receive its serial output.

 ./mylinux --grub2 --copy=192.168.1.1:/tftp --iprelay=192.168.1.2

Alternatively, you can put these switches to the configuration file
and run:

 ./mylinux --target mytarget

=item 3.

Specifying all the options needed by novaboot to successfully control
the target, either on command line or in configuration files, can be
difficult for users. Novaboot supports configuring the target
centrally via L<novaboot-shell(1)> on a server. With such a
configuration, users only need to use the B<--ssh> option to specify
where to boot their OS:

 ./mylinux --ssh myboard@example.com

Typically, the server is the computer connected to and controlling the
target board and running the TFTP server.

=item 4.

Run DHCP and TFTP server on developer's machine to boot the target
from it.

 ./mylinux --dhcp-tftp

This usage is useful when no network infrastructure is in place, and
the target is connected directly to developer's box.

=item 5.

Create bootable ISO image.

 novaboot --iso -- script1 script2

The created ISO image will have ISOLINUX bootloader installed on it,
and the boot menu will allow selecting between I<script1> and
I<script2> configurations.

=back

=head1 OPTIONS AND PHASES

Novaboot performs its work in several phases. Command line options
described bellow influence the execution of each phase or allow their
skipping. The list of phases (in the execution order) is as follows.

=over

=item 1. L<Configuration reading|/Configuration reading phase>

=item 2. L<Command line processing|/Command line processing phase>

=item 3. L<Script preprocessing|/Script preprocessing phase>

=item 4. L<File generation|/File generation phase>

=item 5. L<Target connection|/Target connection check>

=item 6. L<File deployment|/File deployment phase>

=item 7. L<Target power-on and reset|/Target power-on and reset phase>

=item 8. L<Interaction with the bootloader|/Interaction with the bootloader on the target>

=item 9. L<Target interaction|/Target interaction phase>

=back

Each phase is described in the following sections together with the
command line options that control it.

=head2 Configuration reading phase

After starting, novaboot reads zero or more configuration files. We
describe their content in section L</"CONFIGURATION FILES">. By default, the
configuration is read from multiple locations. First from the system
configuration directory (F</etc/novaboot.d/>), second from the user
configuration file (F<~/.config/novaboot>) and third from F<.novaboot>
files along the path to the current directory. Alternatively, a single
configuration file specified with the B<-c> switch or with the
C<NOVABOOT_CONFIG> environment variable is read. The latter read files
override settings from the former ones.

The system configuration directory is determined by the content of
NOVABOOT_CONFIG_DIR environment variable and defaults to
F</etc/novaboot.d>. Files in this directory with names consisting
solely of English letters, numbers, dashes '-' and underscores '_'
(note that dot '.' is not included) are read in alphabetical order.

Then, the user configuration file is read from
F<$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/novaboot>. If C<$XDG_CONFIG_HOME> environment
variable is not set F<~/.config/novaboot> is read instead.

Finally, novaboot searches for files named F<.novaboot> starting from the
directory of the novaboot script (or working directory, see bellow)
and continuing upwards up to the root directory. The found
configuration files are then read in the opposite order (i.e. from the
root directory downwards). This ordering allows having, for example, a project
specific configuration in F<~/project/.novaboot>.

Note the difference between F<~/.config/novaboot> and F<~/.novaboot>.
The former one is always read, whereas the latter only when novaboot
script or working directory is under the C<$HOME> directory.

In certain cases, the location of the novaboot script cannot be
determined in this early phase. This situation happens either when the script is
read from the standard input or when novaboot is invoked explicitly as
in the example L</"4."> above. In this case, the current working
directory is used as a starting point for configuration file search
instead of the novaboot script directory.

=over 8

=item -c, --config=I<filename>

Use the specified configuration file instead of the default one(s).

=back

=head2 Command line processing phase

=over 8

=item --dump-config

Dump the current configuration to stdout end exit. Useful as an
initial template for a configuration file.

=item -h, --help

Print short (B<-h>) or long (B<--help>) help.

=item -t, --target=I<target>

This option serves as a user configurable shortcut for other novaboot
options. The effect of this option is the same as specifying the
options stored in the C<%targets> configuration variable under key
I<target>. See also L</"CONFIGURATION FILES">.

When this option is not given, novaboot tries to determine the target
to use from either B<NOVABOOT_TARGET> environment variable or
B<$default_target> configuration file variable.

=item --ssh=I<user@hostname>

Configures novaboot to control the target via C<novaboot-shell>
running remotely via SSH.

Using this option is the same as specifying B<--remote-cmd>,
B<--remote-expect>, B<--copy> B<--rsync-flags>, B<--prefix> and
B<--reset-cmd> manually in a way compatible with C<novaboot-shell>.
The server can be configured to provide other, safe bootloader-related
options, to the client. When this happens, novaboot prints them to
stdout.

Currently, this in an initial experimental implementation. We plan to
change/extend this feature soon!

=back

=head2 Script preprocessing phase

This phase allows modifying the parsed novaboot script before it is
used in the later phases.

=over 8

=item -a, --append=I<parameters>

Append a string to the first C<load> line in the novaboot script. This option
can be used to append parameters to the kernel's or root task's
command line. This option can appear multiple times.

=item -b, --bender

Use L<Bender|https://github.com/TUD-OS/morbo/blob/master/standalone/bender.c>
chainloader. Bender scans the PCI bus for PCI serial ports and stores
the information about them in the BIOS data area for use by the
kernel.

=item --chainloader=I<chainloader>

Specifies a chainloader that is loaded before the kernel and other
files specified in the novaboot script. E.g. 'bin/boot/bender
promisc'.

=item --dump

Print the modules to boot and their parameters, after this phase
finishes. Then exit. This is useful for seeing the effect of other
options in this section.

=item -k, --kernel=F<file>

Replace the first word on the first C<load> line in the novaboot
script with F<file>.

=item --scriptmod=I<Perl expression>

When novaboot reads the script, I<Perl expression> is executed for every
line (in $_ variable). For example, C<novaboot
--scriptmod=s/sigma0/omega6/g> replaces every occurrence of I<sigma0>
in the script with I<omega6>.

When this option is present, it overrides I<$script_modifier> variable
from the configuration file, which has the same effect. If this option
is given multiple times all expressions are evaluated in the command
line order.

=back

=head2 File generation phase

In this phase, files needed for booting are generated in a so-called
I<build directory> (see L</--build-dir>). In most cases configuration
for a bootloader is generated automatically by novaboot. It is also
possible to generate other files using I<heredoc> or I<"<"> syntax in
novaboot scripts. Finally, novaboot can generate binaries in this phases by
running C<scons> or C<make>.

=over 8

=item --build-dir=I<directory>

Overrides the default build directory location.

The default build directory location is determined as follows: If the
configuration file defines the C<$builddir> variable, its value is
used. Otherwise, it is the directory that contains the first processed
novaboot script.

See also L</BUILDDIR> variable.

=item -g, --grub[=I<filename>]

Generates grub bootloader menu file. If the I<filename> is not
specified, F<menu.lst> is used. The I<filename> is relative to the
build directory (see B<--build-dir>).

=item --grub-preamble=I<prefix>

Specifies the I<preamble> that is at the beginning of the generated
GRUB or GRUB2 config files. This is useful for specifying GRUB's
timeout.

=item --prefix=I<prefix>

Specifies I<prefix> (e.g. F</srv/tftp>) that is put in front of every
filename in generated bootloader configuration files (or in U-Boot
commands).

If the I<prefix> contains string $NAME, it will be replaced with the
name of the novaboot script (see also B<--name>).

If the I<prefix> contains string $BUILDDIR, it will be replaced with
the build directory (see also B<--build-dir>).

=item --grub-prefix

Alias for B<--prefix>.

=item --grub2[=I<filename>]

Generate GRUB2 menu entry in I<filename>. If I<filename> is not
specified F<grub.cfg> is used. The content of the menu entry can be
customized with B<--grub-preamble>, B<--grub2-prolog> or
B<--grub_prefix> options.

To use the generated menu entry on your development
machine that uses GRUB2, append the following snippet to
F</etc/grub.d/40_custom> file and regenerate your grub configuration,
i.e. run update-grub on Debian/Ubuntu.

  if [ -f /path/to/nul/build/grub.cfg ]; then
    source /path/to/nul/build/grub.cfg
  fi

=item --grub2-prolog=I<prolog>

Specifies the text that novaboot puts at the beginning of the GRUB2 menu entry.

=item -m, --make[=make command]

Runs C<make> to build files that are not generated by novaboot itself.

=item --name=I<string>

Use the name I<string> instead of the name of the novaboot script.
This name is used for things like a title of grub menu or for the
server directory where the boot files are copied to.

=item --no-file-gen

Do not run external commands to generate files (i.e. "<" syntax and
C<run> keyword). This switch does not influence the generation of files
specified with "<<WORD" syntax.

=item -p, --pulsar[=mac]

Generates pulsar bootloader configuration file named F<config-I<mac>>
The I<mac> string is typically a MAC address and defaults to
I<novaboot>.

=item --scons[=scons command]

Runs C<scons> to build files that are not generated by novaboot
itself.

=item --strip-rom

Strip I<rom://> prefix from command lines and generated config files.
The I<rom://> prefix is used by NUL. For NRE, it has to be stripped.

=item --gen-only

Exit novaboot after file generation phase.

=back

=head2 Target connection check

In this phase novaboot connects to target's serial port (if it has
one). If another novaboot user/instance occupies the target, novaboot
exits here with an error message.

=over 8

=item --amt=I<"[user[:password]@]host[:port]>

Use Intel AMT technology to control the target machine. WS management
is used to powercycle it and Serial-Over-Lan (SOL) for input/output.
The hostname or (IP address) is given by the I<host> parameter. If the
I<password> is not specified, environment variable AMT_PASSWORD is
used. The I<port> specifies a TCP port for SOL. If not specified, the
default is 16992. The default I<user> is admin.

=item --iprelay=I<addr[:port]>

Use TCP/IP relay and serial port to access the target's serial port
and powercycle it. The I<addr> parameter specifies the IP address of
the relay. If I<port> is not specified, it defaults to 23.

Note: This option is supposed to work with HWG-ER02a IP relays.

=item --iprelay-cmd=I<command>

Similar to B<--iprelay> but uses I<command> to talk to the iprelay
rather than direct network connection.

=item -s, --serial[=device]

Target's serial line is connected to host's serial line (device). The
default value for device is F</dev/ttyUSB0>.

The value of this option is exported in NB_NOVABOOT environment
variable to all subprocesses run by C<novaboot>.

=item --stty=I<settings>

Specifies settings passed to C<stty> invoked on the serial line
specified with B<--serial> option. If this option is not given,
C<stty> is called with C<raw -crtscts -onlcr 115200> settings.

=item --remote-cmd=I<cmd>

Command that mediates connection to the target's serial line. For
example C<ssh server 'cu -l /dev/ttyS0'>.

=item --remote-expect=I<string>

Wait for reception of I<string> after establishing the remote serial
line connection. Novaboot assumes that after establishing the serial
line connection, the user running novaboot has exclusive access to the
target. If establishing of the serial line connection happens
asynchronously (e.g. running a command remotely via SSH), we need this
option to wait until the exclusive access is confirmed by the remote
side.

Depending on target configuration, this option can solve two practical
problems: 1) Overwriting of files deployed by another user currently
using the target. 2) Resetting the target board before serial line
connection is established and thus missing bootloader interaction.

Example of usage with the L<sterm
tool|https://rtime.felk.cvut.cz/gitweb/sojka/sterm.git>:

  --remote-cmd='ssh -tt example.com sterm -v /dev/ttyUSB0' --remote-expect='sterm: Connected'

=item --remote-expect-silent=I<string>

The same as B<--remote-expect> except that the remote output is not
echoed to stdout while waiting for the I<string>. Everything after the
matched string is printed to stdout, so you may want to include line
end characters in the I<string> as well.

=item --remote-expect-timeout=I<seconds>

Timeout in seconds for B<--remote-expect> or
B<--remote-expect-seconds>. When negative, waits forever. The default
is -1 seconds.

=back

=head2 File deployment phase

In some setups, it is necessary to copy the files needed for booting
to a particular location, e.g. to a TFTP boot server or to the
F</boot> partition.

=over 8

=item -d, --dhcp-tftp

Turns your workstation into a DHCP and TFTP server so that the OS can
be booted via PXE BIOS (or similar mechanism) on the test machine
directly connected by a plain Ethernet cable to your workstation.

The DHCP and TFTP servers require root privileges and C<novaboot>
uses C<sudo> command to obtain those. You can put the following to
I</etc/sudoers> to allow running the necessary commands without asking
for a password.

 Cmnd_Alias NOVABOOT = /bin/ip a add 10.23.23.1/24 dev eth0, /bin/ip l set dev eth0 up, /usr/sbin/dhcpd -d -cf dhcpd.conf -lf dhcpd.leases -pf dhcpd.pid, /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --secure -v -v -v --pidfile tftpd.pid *, /usr/bin/touch dhcpd.leases, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=dhcpd.pid, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=tftpd.pid
 your_login ALL=NOPASSWD: NOVABOOT

=item --tftp

Starts a TFTP server on your workstation. This is similar to
B<--dhcp-tftp> except that DHCP server is not started.

The TFTP server requires root privileges and C<novaboot> uses C<sudo>
command to obtain those. You can put the following to I</etc/sudoers>
to allow running the necessary commands without asking for a password.

 Cmnd_Alias NOVABOOT =  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --secure -v -v -v --pidfile tftpd.pid *, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=tftpd.pid
 your_login ALL=NOPASSWD: NOVABOOT

=item --tftp-port=I<port>

Port to run the TFTP server on. Implies B<--tftp>.

=item --netif=I<network interface>

Network interface used to deploy files to the target. This option
influences the configuration of the DHCP server started by
B<--dhcp-tftp> and the value that B<$NB_MYIP> get replaced with during
U-Boot conversation. The default value is C<$netif> variable from
configuration files, which defaults to I<eth0>.

=item --iso[=filename]

Generates the ISO image that boots NOVA system via GRUB. If no filename
is given, the image is stored under I<NAME>.iso, where I<NAME> is the name
of the novaboot script (see also B<--name>).

=item --server[=[[user@]server:]path]

Alias of B<--copy> (kept for backward compatibility).

=item --copy[=[[user@]server:]path]

Copy all files needed for booting to another location. The files will
be copied (by B<rsync> tool) to the directory I<path>. If the I<path>
contains string $NAME, it will be replaced with the name of the
novaboot script (see also B<--name>).

=item --rsync-flags=I<flags>

Specifies I<flags> to append to F<rsync> command line when
copying files as a result of I<--copy> option.

=item --concat

If B<--copy> is used and its value ends with $NAME, then after
copying the files, a new bootloader configuration file (e.g. menu.lst)
is created at I<path-wo-name>, i.e. the path specified by B<--copy>
with $NAME part removed. The content of the file is created by
concatenating all files of the same name from all subdirectories of
I<path-wo-name> found on the "server".

=item --ider

Use Intel AMT technology for IDE redirection. This allows the target
machine to boot from novaboot created ISO image. Implies B<--iso>.

The experimental C<amtider> utility needed by this option can be
obtained from https://github.com/wentasah/amtterm.

=back

=head2 Target power-on and reset phase

At this point, the target is reset (or switched on/off). There are
several ways how this can be accomplished. Resetting a physical target
can currently be accomplished by the following options: B<--amt>,
B<--iprelay>, B<--reset-cmd> and B<--reset-send>.

=over 8

=item --on, --off

Switch on/off the target machine and exit. The script (if any) is
completely ignored. Currently, it works only with the following
options: B<--iprelay>, B<--amt>, B<--ssh>.

=item -Q, --qemu[=I<qemu-binary>]

Boot the configuration in qemu. Optionally, the name of qemu binary
can be specified as a parameter.

=item --qemu-append=I<flags>

Append I<flags> to the default qemu flags (QEMU_FLAGS variable or
C<-cpu coreduo -smp 2>).

=item -q, --qemu-flags=I<flags>

Replace the default qemu flags (QEMU_FLAGS variable or C<-cpu coreduo
-smp 2>) with I<flags> specified here.

=item --reset-cmd=I<cmd>

Runs command I<cmd> to reset the target.

=item --reset-send=I<string>

Reset the target by sending the given I<string> to the remote serial
line. "\n" sequences are replaced with the newline character.

=item --no-reset, --reset

Disable/enable resetting of the target.

=back

=head2 Interaction with the bootloader on the target

=over 8

=item --uboot[=I<prompt>]

Interact with U-Boot bootloader to boot the thing described in the
novaboot script. I<prompt> specifies the U-Boot's prompt (default is
"=> ", other common prompts are "U-Boot> " or "U-Boot# ").

=item --no-uboot

Disable U-Boot interaction previously enabled with B<--uboot>.

=item --uboot-stop-key=I<key>

Character, which is sent as a response to U-Boot's "Hit any key to
stop autoboot" message. The default value is newline, but some devices
(e.g. TP-Link TD-W8970) require a specific key to be pressed.

=item --uboot-init

Command(s) to send the U-Boot bootloader before loading the images and
booting them. This option can be given multiple times. After sending
commands from each option novaboot waits for U-Boot I<prompt>.

If the command contains string I<$NB_MYIP> then this string is
replaced by IPv4 address of eth0 interface (see also B<--netif>).
Similarly, I<$NB_PREFIX> is replaced with prefix given by B<--prefix>.

See also C<uboot> keyword in L</"NOVABOOT SCRIPT SYNTAX">).

=item --uboot-addr I<name>=I<address>

Load address of U-Boot's C<tftpboot> command for loading I<name>,
where name is one of I<kernel>, I<ramdisk> or I<fdt> (flattened device
tree).

The default addresses are ${I<name>_addr_r}, i.e. U-Boot environment
variables used by convention for this purpose.

=item --uboot-cmd=I<command>

Specifies U-Boot command used to execute the OS. If the command
contains strings C<$kernel_addr>, C<$ramdisk_addr>, C<$fdt_addr>,
these are replaced with the addresses configured with B<--uboot-addr>.

The default value is

    bootm $kernel_addr $ramdisk_addr $fdt_addr

or the C<UBOOT_CMD> variable if defined in the novaboot script.

=back

=head2 Target interaction phase

In this phase, target's serial output is redirected to stdout and if
stdin is a TTY, it is redirected to the target's serial input allowing
interactive work with the target.

=over 8

=item --exiton=I<string>

When the I<string> is sent by the target, novaboot exits. This option can
be specified multiple times, in which case novaboot exits whenever
either of the specified strings is sent.

If the I<string> is C<-re>, then the next B<--exiton>'s I<string> is
treated as a regular expression. For example:

    --exiton -re --exiton 'error:.*failed'

=item --exiton-re=I<regex>

The same as --exiton -re --exiton I<regex>.

=item --exiton-timeout=I<seconds>

By default B<--exiton> waits for the string match forever. When this
option is specified, "exiton" timeouts after the specified number of
seconds and novaboot returns non-zero exit code.

=item -i, --interactive

Setup things for the interactive use of the target. Your terminal will
be switched to raw mode. In raw mode, your local terminal does not
process input in any way (no echoing of entered characters, no
interpretation of special characters). This, among others, means that
Ctrl-C is passed to the target and does not interrupt novaboot. To
exit from novaboot interactive mode type "~~.".

=item --no-interaction, --interaction

Skip resp. force target interaction phase. When skipped, novaboot exits
immediately after the boot is initiated.

=item --expect=I<string>

When the I<string> is received from the target, send the string specified
with the subsequent B<--send*> option to the target.

=item --expect-re=I<regex>

When target's output matches regular expression I<regex>, send the
string specified with the subsequent B<--send*> option to the target.

=item --expect-raw=I<perl-code>

Provides direct control over Perl's Expect module.

=item --send=I<string>

Send I<string> to the target after the previously specified
B<--expect*> was matched in the target's output. The I<string> may
contain escape sequences such as "\n".

Note that I<string> is actually interpreted by Perl, so it can contain
much more that escape sequences. This behavior may change in the
future.

Example: C<--expect='login: ' --send='root\n'>

=item --sendcont=I<string>

Similar to B<--send> but continue expecting more input.

Example: C<--expect='Continue?' --sendcont='yes\n'>

=item --final-eol, --no-final-eol

By default, B<novaboot> always prints an end-of-line character at the
end of its execution in order to ensure that the output of programs
started after novaboot appears at the beginning of the line. When this
is not desired B<--no-final-eol> option can be used to override this
behavior.

=back

=head1 NOVABOOT SCRIPT SYNTAX

The syntax tries to mimic POSIX shell syntax. The syntax is defined
by the following rules.

Lines starting with "#" and empty lines are ignored.

Lines that end with "\" are concatenated with the following line after
removal of the final "\" and leading whitespace of the following line.

Lines of the form I<VARIABLE=...> (i.e. matching '^[A-Z_]+=' regular
expression) assign values to internal variables. See L</VARIABLES>
section.

Otherwise, the first word on the line defines the meaning of the line.
The following keywords are supported:

=over 4

=item C<load>

These lines represent modules to boot. The
word after C<load> is a file name (relative to the build directory
(see B<--build-dir>) of the module to load and the remaining words are
passed to it as the command line parameters.

When booting Linux, the first C<load> line usually refers to the
kernel image and its command line parameters (unless you use some
special pre-loader). Other C<load> lines may refer to an initramfs
image and/or a device tree blob. Their order is not important, as the
device tree is recognized as the file name ending with C<.dtb>.

When the C<load> line ends with "<<WORD" then the subsequent lines
until the line containing solely WORD are copied literally to the file
named on that line. This is similar to the heredoc feature of UNIX
shells.

When the C<load> line ends with "< CMD" then command CMD is executed
with F</bin/sh> and its standard output is stored in the file named on
that line. The SRCDIR variable in CMD's environment is set to the
absolute path of the directory containing the interpreted novaboot
script.

=item C<copy>

These lines are similar to C<load> lines. The
file mentioned there is copied to the same place as in the case of C<load>
(e.g. tftp server), but the file is not used in the bootloader
configuration. Such a file can be used by the target for other
purposes than booting, e.g. at OS runtime or for firmware update.

=item C<chld>

Chainload another bootloader. Instead of loading multiboot modules
identified with C<load> keyword, run another bootloader. This is
currently supported only by pulsar and can be used to load e.g. Grub
as in the example below:

 chld boot/grub/i386-pc/core.0


=item C<run>

Lines starting with C<run> keyword contain shell commands that are run
during file generation phase. This is the same as the "< CMD" syntax
for C<load> keyboard except that the command's output is not
redirected to a file. The ordering of commands is the same as they
appear in the novaboot script.

=item C<uboot>

These lines represent U-Boot commands that are sent to the target if
B<--uboot> option is given. Having a U-Boot line in the novaboot
script is the same as giving B<--uboot-init> option to novaboot. The
following syntax variants are supported:


  uboot[:<timeout>] <string> [> <file>]
  uboot[:<timeout>] < <shell> [> <file>]

C<string> is the literal U-Boot command.

The C<uboot> keyword can be suffixed with timeout specification. The
syntax is C<uboot:Ns>, where C<N> is the whole number of seconds. If
the U-Boot command prompt does not appear before the timeout, novaboot
fails. The default timeout is 10 seconds.

In the second variant with the C<<> character the shell code is
executed and its standard output is sent to U-Boot. Example:

  uboot < printf "mmc write \$loadaddr 1 %x" $(($(/usr/bin/stat -c%s rootfs.ext4) / 512))

When C<E<gt> file> part is present, the output of the U-Boot command
is written into the given file.

=back

Example (Linux):

  #!/usr/bin/env novaboot
  load bzImage console=ttyS0,115200
  run  make -C buildroot
  load rootfs.cpio < gen_cpio buildroot/images/rootfs.cpio "myapp->/etc/init.d/S99myapp"

Example (NOVA User Land - NUL):

  #!/usr/bin/env novaboot
  WVDESC=Example program
  load bin/apps/sigma0.nul S0_DEFAULT script_start:1,1 \
                           verbose hostkeyb:0,0x60,1,12,2
  load bin/apps/hello.nul
  load hello.nulconfig <<EOF
  sigma0::mem:16 name::/s0/log name::/s0/timer name::/s0/fs/rom ||
  rom://bin/apps/hello.nul
  EOF

This example will load three modules: F<sigma0.nul>, F<hello.nul> and
F<hello.nulconfig>. sigma0 receives some command line parameters and
F<hello.nulconfig> file is generated on the fly from the lines between
C<<<EOF> and C<EOF>.

Example (Zynq system update via U-Boot):

  #!/usr/bin/env novaboot

  uboot dhcp

  # Write kernel to FAT filesystem on the 1st SD card partition
  run mkimage -f uboot-image.its image.ub
  copy image.ub
  uboot:60s tftpboot ${loadaddr} $NB_PREFIX/image.ub
  uboot fatwrite mmc 0:1 ${loadaddr} image.ub $filesize
  uboot set bootargs console=ttyPS0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2

  # Write root FS image to the 2nd SD card partition
  copy rootfs/images/rootfs.ext4
  uboot:60s tftpboot ${loadaddr} $NB_PREFIX/rootfs/images/rootfs.ext4
  uboot mmc part > mmc-part.txt
  uboot < printf "mmc write \$loadaddr %x %x" $(awk '{ if ($1 == "2") { print $2 }}' mmc-part.txt) $(($(/usr/bin/stat -L --printf=%s rootfs/images/rootfs.ext4) / 512))

  UBOOT_CMD=boot


=head2 VARIABLES

The following variables are interpreted in the novaboot script:

=over 8

=item BUILDDIR

Novaboot chdir()s to this directory before file generation phase. The
directory name specified here is relative to the build directory
specified by other means (see L</--build-dir>).

=item EXITON

Assigning this variable has the same effect as specifying L</--exiton>
option.

=item INTERACTION

Setting this variable to zero is the same as giving
L</--no-interaction>, specifying to one corresponds to
L</--interaction>.

=item HYPERVISOR_PARAMS

Parameters passed to the hypervisor. The default value is "serial", unless
overridden in the configuration file.

=item KERNEL

The kernel to use instead of the hypervisor specified in the
configuration file with the C<$hypervisor> variable. The value should
contain the name of the kernel image as well as its command line
parameters. If this variable is defined and non-empty, the variable
HYPERVISOR_PARAMS is not used.

=item NO_BOOT

If this variable is 1, the system is not booted. This is currently
only implemented for U-Boot bootloader where it is useful for
interacting with the bootloader without booting the system - e.g. for
flashing.

=item QEMU

Use a specific qemu binary (can be overridden with B<-Q>) and flags
when booting this script under qemu. If QEMU_FLAGS variable is also
specified flags specified in QEMU variable are replaced by those in
QEMU_FLAGS.

=item QEMU_FLAGS

Use specific qemu flags (can be overridden with B<-q>).

=item UBOOT_CMD

See L</--uboot-cmd>.

=item WVDESC

Description of the WvTest-compliant program.

=item WVTEST_TIMEOUT

The timeout in seconds for WvTest harness. If no complete line appears
in the test output within the time specified here, the test fails. It
is necessary to specify this for long running tests that produce no
intermediate output.

=back

=head1 CONFIGURATION FILES

Novaboot can read its configuration from one or more files. By
default, novaboot looks for files in F</etc/novaboot.d>, file
F<~/.config/novaboot> and files named F<.novaboot> as described in
L</Configuration reading phase>. Alternatively, configuration file
location can be specified with the B<-c> switch or with the
NOVABOOT_CONFIG environment variable. The configuration file has Perl
syntax (i.e. it is better to put C<1;> as the last line) and should set
values of certain Perl variables. The current configuration can be
dumped with the B<--dump-config> switch. Some configuration variables
can be overridden by environment variables (see below) or by command
line switches.

Supported configuration variables include:

=over 8

=item $builddir

Build directory location relative to the location of the configuration
file.

=item $default_target

Default target (see below) to use when no target is explicitly
specified with the B<--target> command line option or
B<NOVABOOT_TARGET> environment variable.

=item $netif

Default value for the B<--netif> option. If not specified, it defaults
to I<eth0>.

=item %targets

Hash of target definitions to be used with the B<--target> option. The
key is the identifier of the target, the value is the string with
command line options. For instance, if the configuration file contains:

 $targets{'mybox'} = '--copy=boot:/tftproot --serial=/dev/ttyUSB0 --grub',

then the following two commands are equivalent:

 ./myos --copy=boot:/tftproot --serial=/dev/ttyUSB0 --grub
 ./myos -t mybox

=back

=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

Some options can be specified not only via config file or command line
but also through environment variables. Environment variables override
the values from the configuration file and command line parameters
override the environment variables.

=over 8

=item NOVABOOT_CONFIG

Name of the novaboot configuration file to use instead of the default
one(s).

=item NOVABOOT_CONFIG_DIR

Name of the novaboot configuration directory. When not specified
F</etc/novaboot.d> is used.

=item NOVABOOT_TARGET

Name of the novaboot target to use. This overrides the value of
B<$default_target> from the configuration file and can be overridden
with the B<--target> command line option.

=item NOVABOOT_BENDER

Defining this variable has the same effect as using B<--bender>
option.

=back

=head1 AUTHORS

Michal Sojka <sojka@os.inf.tu-dresden.de>

Latest novaboot version can be found at
L<https://github.com/wentasah/novaboot>.