[OpenWrt-Devel] RFC: add metadata to buildroot

[Paul Spooren]

Hi all,

from my point of view the current OpenWrt device documentation lacks
some unity, meaning the table of hardware is partly incomplete or
inconsistent. Also documentations are often rewritten with different
precision and "tongue".

To unify things I created a *PoC*[0], mostly based on the official
LineageOS Wiki[1], as they have a similar situation regarding devices.

The idea is to define templates describing common information and fill
them with device metadata.

The *PoC* above is based on the following metadata here[2]. Most parts
of the metadata are scraped from the current ToH[3], however some small
pieces are added and later rendered in something useful:

    tftp_image: ArcherC5v1_tp_recovery.bin
    tftp_ip: 192.168.0.66

Result in a small text to explain how to use the TFTP recovery.

    switch_ports:
      0: ETH1
      1: WAN
      2: LAN1
      3: LAN2
      4: LAN3
      5: LAN4
      6: ETH0

Creates a table with the switch port messing.

Same could be done with the flash layout, LEDs, etc.

All these information are (hopefully) available to the developer adding
a new device, therefore easy to supply such a `yaml` metadata file as
well. Often these information are (re-formulated) in commit messages
anyway[4]. Meaning, somewhere in the buildroot could be a store of
`yaml` files, which could even be reused for building itself.

A second repository like openwrt-device.git[5] could be added to render
the wiki pages and organize the templates.

I'd be happy to hear your opinions.

Best,
Paul

PS: I'm afraid I don't know the mail address of tmomas...

[0]:
https://aparcar.github.io/openwrt-devices/devices/tp-link_archer_c5_ac1200_v1/
[1]: http://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
[2]:
https://github.com/aparcar/openwrt-devices/blob/master/_data/devices/tp-link_archer_c5_ac1200_v1.yml
[3]: https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/tp-link/tp-link_archer_c5_ac1200_v1
[4]:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=43e8c37cb4da64a12a3cb88a84b19db7f2fc640c
[5]: https://github.com/aparcar/openwrt-devices



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