Merge pull request #1315 from nicholasbishop/bishop-migration-doc

Add doc on freestanding function migration

Author: phip1611

docs/funcs_migration.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# API migration: Deprecating SystemTable/BootServices/RuntimeServices
+
+Starting in uefi-0.31.0, a significant API change has been introduced. We are
+transitioning away from modeling UEFI tables with structs, and instead providing
+an API based on freestanding functions. These functions make use of a global
+system table pointer that is set automatically by the `entry` macro.
+
+A short example:
+
+```rust
+// Old API:
+use uefi::table::boot::{BootServices, HandleBuffer};
+fn find_loaded_image_handles(bt: &BootServices) -> Result<HandleBuffer> {
+    bt.locate_handle_buffer(SearchType::from_proto::<LoadedImage>())
+}
+
+// New API:
+use uefi::boot::{self, HandleBuffer};
+fn find_loaded_image_handles() -> Result<HandleBuffer> {
+    boot::locate_handle_buffer(SearchType::from_proto::<LoadedImage>())
+}
+```
+
+The new functions generally have almost the same signature as the methods they
+are replacing, so in most cases migration should be as simple as updating
+imports and calling the freestanding function instead of a method on
+`SystemTable`, `BootServices`, or `RuntimeServices`.
+
+As of uefi-0.31.0, a few places in the API still require a reference to
+`BootServices`. You can retrieve one by calling
+`uefi::table::system_table_boot().boot_services()`.
+
+In uefi-0.31.0, the old API has been deprecated, but can still be used. It will
+be fully removed in a later release.
+
+If you run into any issues with this migration, please feel free to chat with us
+on [Zulip] or file an [issue].
+
+## Reason for the change
+
+See [issue #893][RFC] for the discussion that lead to this change.
+
+### Safety of `exit_boot_services`
+
+One of the main motivations for the old API was to make transitioning from boot
+services to runtime services a safe operation. Calling `exit_boot_services`
+would consume `SystemTable<Boot>` and return a `SystemTable<Runtime>`, ensuring
+that it was no longer possible to call boot services methods.
+
+That was the theory, but in practice it didn't always work. Many real-world
+programs had to call `SystemTable::unsafe_clone` in order to get another handle
+to the system table, and that immediately reintroduced the possibility of
+unintentionally accessing boot services after calling `exit_boot_services`.
+
+In addition, there are a great many kinds of resources that should not be
+accessed after calling `exit_boot_services`, so even if the `SystemTable<Boot>`
+was gone, it's very hard to _statically_ ensure that all references to
+boot-services resources are dropped.
+
+Realistically the `exit_boot_services` operation is just too complex to model as
+part of Rust's safety guarantees. So in the end, we decided it is better to make
+`exit_boot_services` an `unsafe` operation. We do make use of runtime checks
+when possible to help catch mistakes (for example, calling a `boot` function
+after exiting boot services will panic).
+
+### API complexity
+
+Some parts of the API need to free a pool allocation on drop, or do some other
+type of resource cleanup. [`DevicePathToText`] is one example. The user has to
+pass in a reference to `BootServices`, and that means the object containing the
+allocation needs to hang on to that reference, so it needs a lifetime
+parameter. That may "infect" other parts of the API, requiring adding references
+and lifetimes to calling functions and to types containing the returned
+value. By using a global table pointer instead, this complexity is hidden and
+the API becomes simpler.
+
+[`DevicePathToText`]: https://docs.rs/uefi/latest/uefi/proto/device_path/text/struct.DevicePathToText.html
+[RFC]: https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/issues/893
+[Zulip]: https://rust-osdev.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/426438-uefi-rs
+[issue]: https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/issues/new

uefi/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # uefi - [Unreleased]
 
+See [Deprecating SystemTable/BootServices/RuntimeServices][funcmigrate] for
+details of a significant change to the API in this release.
+
 ## Added
 - `uefi::system` is a new module that provides freestanding functions for
   accessing fields of the global system table.
@@ -39,6 +42,7 @@
   > use uefi::table::boot::BootServices;
   ```
 
+[funcmigrate]: ../docs/funcs_migration.md
 
 # uefi - 0.30.0 (2024-08-02)