[PATCH 1/2] docs: filesystems: add info about efivars content

From: Flavio Suligoi
Date: Tue May 05 2020 - 06:17:40 EST


When an EFI variable is reading from:

/sys/firmware/efi/efivars

(for example using "hexdump"), the first 4 bytes of the
output are not the real EFI variable data, but the variable
attributes (in little-endian format).

Signed-off-by: Flavio Suligoi <f.suligoi@xxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/filesystems/efivarfs.rst | 17 +++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/efivarfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/efivarfs.rst
index 90ac656..6380336 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/efivarfs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/efivarfs.rst
@@ -24,3 +24,20 @@ files that are not well-known standardized variables are created
as immutable files. This doesn't prevent removal - "chattr -i" will work -
but it does prevent this kind of failure from being accomplished
accidentally.
+
+.. warning ::
+ When a content of an UEFI variable in ``/sys/firmware/efi/efivars`` is
+ displayed, for example using ``hexdump``, pay attention that the first
+ 4 bytes of the output represent the UEFI variable attributes,
+ in little-endian format.
+
+ Practically the output of each ``efivar`` is composed of:
+
+ +-----------------------------------+
+ |4_bytes_of_attributes + efivar_data|
+ +-----------------------------------+
+
+*See also:*
+
+- ``Documentation/admin-guide/acpi/ssdt-overlays.rst``
+- ``Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-firmware-efi-vars``
--
2.7.4