Patina

This repository hosts the Patina project - a Rust implementation of UEFI firmware.

The goal of this project is to serve as a replacement for core UEFI firmware components so they are written in Pure Rust as opposed to Rust wrappers around core implementation still written in C.

Background

There have been various instances of advocacy for building system level software in Rust.

This repository contains a Rust UEFI firmware implementation called Patina. We plan to enable an incremental migration of today’s firmware components largely written in C to Rust starting with the core. The primary objective for this effort is to improve the security and stability of system firmware by leveraging the memory safety offered by Rust while retaining similar boot performance.

Important Notes

This repository is still considered to be in a “beta” stage at this time. Platform testing and integration feedback is very welcome.

Before making pull requests at a minimum, run:

cargo make all

Performing a Release

Below is the information required to perform a release that publishes to the registry feed:

1. Review the current draft release on the github repo: Releases

2. If something is incorrect, update it in the draft release

3. If you need to manually change the version, make sure you update the associated git tag value in the draft release

4. Publish the release

5. Monitor the publish release workflow that is automatically triggered on the release being published: Publish Release Workflow

6. Once completed successfully, click on the “Notify Branch Creation Step” and click the provided link to create the PR to update all versions in all Cargo.toml files across the repository.

Documentation

We have “Getting Started” documentation located in this repository at docs/*. The latest documentation can be found at https://OpenDevicePartnership.github.io/patina/, however this documentation can also be self-hosted via (mdbook). Once you all dependencies installed as specified below, you can run mdbook serve docs to self host the getting started book.

You can also generate API documentation for the project using cargo make doc. This will eventually be hosted on docs.rs once we begin uploading to crates.io. You can have the documentation opened in your browser by running cargo make doc-open.

First-Time Tool Setup Instructions

Follow the steps outlined by Getting Started - Rust Programming Language (rust-lang.org) to install, update (if needed), and test cargo/rust. 1.

The [toolchain] section of the rust-toolchain.toml file contains the tools necessary to compile and can be installed through rustup.

rustup toolchain install

The [tools] section of the rust-toolchain.toml file contains tools to support commands such as cargo make coverage and must be installed manually. A local build does not need them all, but at a minimum, cargo-make and cargo-llvm-cov should be installed.

cargo install cargo-make
cargo install cargo-llvm-cov

Another optional tool that has proven useful for speeding up the build process is ‘cargo-binstall’, located on GitHub. See the readme.md file in that repository for installation and usage instructions.

Build

All of the Patina crates can be compiled in one of 3 supported targets; aarch64, x64, or native.

cargo make build-aarch64
- or -
cargo make build-x64
- or -
cargo make build

By default, the make compiles a developer build, but development or release can be indicated by using the “-p” flag

cargo make -p development build-aarch64
- or -
cargo make -p release build-aarch64

Test

• Run all unit tests in the workspace:

cargo make test

• Run tests in an individual package:

cargo make test -p patina

Build on-platform tests in the workspace:

cargo make patina-test

• Build on-platform tests in an individual package:

cargo make patina-test -p patina

Rust Version Updates

Rust is released on a regular six week cadence. The Rust project maintains a site with dates for upcoming releases. While there is no hard requirement to update the Rust version used by Patina in a given timeframe, it is recommended to do so at least once per quarter. Updates to the latest stable version should not happen immediately after the stable version release as Patina consumers may need time to update their internal toolchains to migrate to the latest stable version.

A pull request that updates the Rust version should always be created against the main branch. The pull request should include the OpenDevicePartnership/patina-contributors team as reviewers and remain open for at least three full business days to ensure that stakeholders have an opportunity to review and provide feedback.

Updating the Minimum Supported Rust Version

The Rust toolchain used in this repo is specified in rust-toolchain.toml. The minimum supported Rust version for the crates in the workspace is specified in the rust-version field of each crate’s Cargo.toml file. When updating the Rust toolchain version, the minimum supported Rust version should be evaluated to determine if it also needs to be updated.

A non-exhaustive list of reasons the minimum version might need to change includes:

1. An unstable feature has been stabilized and the corresponding #![feature(...)] has been removed
2. A feature introduced in the release is immediately being used in the repository

Note: If the minimum supported Rust version does need to change, please add a comment explaining wny. Note that formatting and linting changes to satisfy tools like rustfmt or clippy do not alone necessitate a minimum Rust version change.

A quick way to check if the minimum supported Rust version needs to change is to keep the changes made for the new release in your workspace and then revert the Rust toolchain to the previous version. If the project fails to build, then the minimum supported Rust version needs to be updated.

Coverage

The coverage command will generate test coverage data for all crates in the project. To target a single crate, the name can be added to the command line.

cargo make coverage
- or -
cargo make coverage dxe_core

Benchmarks

Various crates have benchmarks setup that can be executed using the cargo make bench command. Any arguments provided will be passed along to the bench command:

cargo make bench -p patina_sdk
cargo make bench -p patina_sdk --bench bench_component
cargo make bench -p patina_sdk --bench bench_component -- with_component

Benchmarks utilize the criterion benchmarking library, so if new benchmarks are to be added, they should follow that documentation. Benchmarks can be added to any crate to test performance by following the same layout as existing benchmarks, and adding the benchmark to the appropriate crate’s Cargo.toml file.

Notes

• This project uses a makefile that sets the “RUSTC_BOOTSTRAP=1” environment variable due to internal requirements which puts us in parity with the nightly features that exist on the toolchain targeted. The “nightly” toolchain may be used in place of this.

High-Level Patina Roadmap

Patina’s upcoming work falls into three main categories:

1. Stabilization - Bug fixes, performance improvements, and feature completion for existing functionality. This work is focused on ensuring that everything in Patina’s main branch is stable and ready for production use. This is the primary focus for the next several months.

2. Expansion - Expansion of Patina’s capabilities and this falls into two sub-categories:

3. Component Growth - Adding new components to Patina to replace equivalent C-based UEFI components. As new components are made available, it is expected that platforms adopting Patina will incrementally remove their C-based UEFI components as the equivalent Rust-based functionality is now available in their Patina build.

4. MM Core Support - Similar to the DXE Core support in Patina today, adding a Patina Standalone MM Core such that the Management Mode (MM) core environment is written in Rust and a larger portion of MM drivers can be ported to Patina MM components.

5. Ecosystem Integration - This is broken down into two sub-categories:

6. Firmware Ecosystem - Patina adopters working together to ensure Patina works in their platforms and use cases. This includes things like platform bring-up, integration with existing firmware components, and validation against various hardware configurations.

7. Rust Ecosystem - Engaging with the broader Rust community to ensure Patina aligns with Rust’s best practices and leverages the latest Rust features. This includes things like contributing to Rust libraries, participating in Rust forums, and collaborating with other Rust projects.

Status

1. Stabilization - In Progress

2. Expansion

3. Component Growth - In Progress

4. MM Core Support - Planned

5. Ecosystem Integration

6. Firmware Ecosystem - In Progress

7. Rust Ecosystem - In Progress

Patina welcomes and encourages community contributions to help accelerate progress in these focus areas. We also value your ideas and feedback on additional priorities that matter to the community.

Contributing

• Review Rust Documentation in the /docs directory.
• Run unit tests and ensure all pass.