[PATCH] kbuild: Ensure .dtbo targets are applied to a base .dtb

From: Rob Herring (Arm)

Date: Fri Nov 14 2025 - 17:28:42 EST


It is a requirement that DT overlays in the kernel are applied at build
time to a base DTB in order to validate they can be applied and to
validate them against the DT schemas. DT overlays on their own may be
incomplete and can't be validated.

Add a kbuild check so this doesn't have to be checked and fixed
periodically.

Signed-off-by: Rob Herring (Arm) <robh@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
scripts/Makefile.dtbs | 7 +++++++
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.dtbs b/scripts/Makefile.dtbs
index 2d321b813600..15473edc2589 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.dtbs
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.dtbs
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@ real-dtb-y := $(call real-search, $(dtb-y), .dtb, -dtbs)
# Base DTB that overlay is applied onto
base-dtb-y := $(filter %.dtb, $(call real-search, $(multi-dtb-y), .dtb, -dtbs))

+# Ensure that any .dtbo is applied to at least one base .dtb. Otherwise, it
+# does not get validated.
+applied-dtbo := $(filter %.dtbo, \
+ $(call real-search, $(call multi-search, $(dtb-y) $(dtb-), .dtb, -dtbs), .dtb, -dtbs))
+unapplied-dtbo := $(filter-out $(applied-dtbo),$(filter %.dtbo, $(dtb-y)))
+$(if $(unapplied-dtbo), $(warning .dtbo is not applied to any base: $(unapplied-dtbo)))
+
dtb-y := $(addprefix $(obj)/, $(dtb-y))
multi-dtb-y := $(addprefix $(obj)/, $(multi-dtb-y))
real-dtb-y := $(addprefix $(obj)/, $(real-dtb-y))
--
2.51.0