Re: [patch 6/6] PS3: Add os-area database routines

Ranulf Doswell wrote:

On 08/10/2007, *Geoff Levand* <geoffrey.levand@am.sony.com
<mailto:geoffrey.levand@am.sony.com>> wrote:

    > How do we go about claiming one of these OS_AREA_DB_OWNER_ keys? I'd
    > very much like to use this functionality in my python-ps3 games
    library.

    It sounds like you should be storing your info in the file system like
    all other applications do.


I'd agree that for large amounts of application specific data, the
filesystem is the correct approach.

However, in this case the only data required is a single identifier used
to identify one PS3 from another, and in fact this single 64-bit token
can be shared amongst many other applications that require the same
function - certainly I intend to expose it in a common way in my games
library's API for all users of the library.

In my particular case, my bootable CD image does not have any other use
for a filesystem on disk beyond the initrd image on the CD-ROM; this is
important because some PS3s may be formatted as 100% GameOS. All that is
needed is to write the standard kboot image to flash so that it is able
to bootstrap the CD image.

As the PS3 has flash available and you are adding a mechanism for
storing very small bits of data in the flash, it seems silly not to use
it and attempt instead to write my own incompatible database format to
store this in the flash memory. Your database also has the added
protection of not being overwritten when the loader is re-flashed, as it
is protected by the kernel.

If you agree in principle that one of these identifiers can be allocated
to this purpose, I'm happy to write and submit a patch that exposes the
get/set system ID functionality to userland, whilst internally using
your database. This could also allow for some of the bits to be used as
check bits to ensure data validity.

This feature is not intended for general application use.  If the user
wants to store data, then they should setup the system with a writable
filesystem.

-Geoff