improve documentation for fdt_path_offset()

The current documentation doesn't mention the possibility of passing a
non-absolute path and having that treated as an alias. Add that
information, along with an example (which will further be expanded in
a subsequent patch), and clarify when -FDT_ERR_BADPATH can be returned.

Signed-off-by: Rasmus Villemoes <rasmus.villemoes@prevas.dk>
Signed-off-by: David Gibson <david@gibson.dropbear.id.au>

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/libfdt/libfdt.h b/libfdt/libfdt.h
index 67fcafb..34c4d55 100644
--- a/libfdt/libfdt.h
+++ b/libfdt/libfdt.h
@@ -524,10 +524,35 @@ int fdt_path_offset_namelen(const void *fdt, const char *path, int namelen);
  * level matching the given component, differentiated only by unit
  * address).
  *
+ * If the path is not absolute (i.e. does not begin with '/'), the
+ * first component is treated as an alias.  That is, the property by
+ * that name is looked up in the /aliases node, and the value of that
+ * property used in place of that first component.
+ *
+ * For example, for this small fragment
+ *
+ * / {
+ *     aliases {
+ *         i2c2 = &foo; // RHS compiles to "/soc@0/i2c@30a40000/eeprom@52"
+ *     };
+ *     soc@0 {
+ *         foo: i2c@30a40000 {
+ *             bar: eeprom@52 {
+ *             };
+ *         };
+ *     };
+ * };
+ *
+ * these would be equivalent:
+ *
+ *   /soc@0/i2c@30a40000/eeprom@52
+ *   i2c2/eeprom@52
+ *
  * returns:
  *	structure block offset of the node with the requested path (>=0), on
  *		success
- *	-FDT_ERR_BADPATH, given path does not begin with '/' or is invalid
+ *	-FDT_ERR_BADPATH, given path does not begin with '/' and the first
+ *		component is not a valid alias
  *	-FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND, if the requested node does not exist
  *      -FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC,
  *	-FDT_ERR_BADVERSION,