tsb: the policy floor, measured and kept

A fourth tier answering one question: what does the full TinySafeBoot
feature set cost in C++ under pureboot's rules — no assembly, no
register variables, every pureboot lesson applied. 638 bytes, protocol
suite green: 198 below the idiomatic tier, 126 above the 512 B section,
and above the tiers that pay with the banned mechanisms (526 global
registers, 510 with two asm routines). The gap decomposes into the rent
policy-clean C++ pays for state held across calls — push/pop and
argument threading a global-register protocol avoids — and both
control-flow merges tried measured larger than the split cases they
replaced, while the data merge (one send loop over both memories) paid.
The tiers stay; this one keeps the floor an artifact instead of a claim.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-27 18:57:13 +02:00
parent a54075e526
commit af0dd15a77
2 changed files with 311 additions and 0 deletions

View File

@@ -97,6 +97,10 @@ endfunction()
# tsb_pure — pure idiomatic libavr, one function per command, TU-local
# (internal linkage), streaming (no SRAM page buffer): 836 B in
# the 1 KB section.
# tsb_policy — the policy floor: pureboot's rules (no asm, no register
# variables) with every pureboot lesson applied. 638 B in the
# 1 KB section — the measured evidence that the 512 B fit is a
# property of the mechanisms philosophy #5 bans.
#
# add_tsb_variant(<name> <boot-section-bytes>)
function(add_tsb_variant name bytes)
@@ -124,8 +128,13 @@ endfunction()
# chips build pureboot alone.
if(LIBAVR_MCU STREQUAL "atmega328p")
add_tsb_variant(tsb_asm 512)
add_tsb_variant(tsb_policy 1024)
add_tsb_variant(tsb_pure 1024)
add_tsb_variant(tsb_tricks 1024)
# The policy tier's floor is measured with the loop flags pureboot's size
# work found (a loader's loop bodies all contain calls); the other tiers
# keep the flag set their recorded floors were measured with — none.
target_compile_options(tsb_policy PRIVATE -fno-move-loop-invariants -fno-tree-ter)
endif()
# pureboot — the pure-constraint port (see pureboot/README.md): one source,

302
tsb/tsb_policy.cpp Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,302 @@
// TinySafeBoot on libavr — the policy floor: pureboot's rules, measured.
//
// The full TinySafeBoot feature set — watchdog bail, one-wire half-duplex,
// config-page activation timeout, password gate, emergency erase, and
// config/flash/EEPROM read-write — under philosophy #5 exactly as pureboot
// obeys it: no assembly, no register variables; code, attributes, and flags
// only. Every lesson pureboot's development produced is applied — the
// library's half-duplex serial and startup entry, lean bring-up from reset
// state, one merged send loop over both memories, oracle-shaped loop bounds,
// locals threaded through noinline primitives, pureboot's codegen flags —
// and the result is 638 bytes: 198 below the idiomatic tier, and 126 above
// the 512 B boot section the tricks/asm tiers reach with the banned
// mechanisms (526/510). This tier exists to keep that number an artifact
// rather than a claim: the gap to 512 is the rent of policy-clean C++ —
// helpers that hold a cursor across rx()/tx() pay push/pop and argument
// threading where a global-register protocol pays nothing, and both
// control-flow merges tried (a parametrized paged session, a merged store
// loop) measured larger than the split cases they replaced. TSB's wire fixes
// the per-command loop shapes on the device, so pureboot 5's one-transfer-
// loop collapse has no purchase here.
//
// The wire protocol is strict request/response, which is what makes the
// shared line safe: the device drives it only between a received command and
// its reply, and releases it (the library's half-duplex choreography)
// whenever it waits.
#include <libavr/libavr.hpp>
using namespace avr::literals;
namespace spm = avr::spm;
namespace ee = avr::eeprom;
using dev = avr::device<{.clock = 16_MHz}>;
// One-wire: RX and TX share the line, exactly as the native-UART TSB expects.
using serial_t = dev::uart0<{.baud = 115200_Bd, .max_baud_error = 3_pct, .half_duplex = true}>;
inline constexpr serial_t serial{};
namespace tsb {
namespace {
// The loader is purely polled — it never enables interrupts — so every SPM and
// EEPROM lock folds to nothing under this posture.
constexpr auto off = avr::irq::guard_policy::unused;
// The handshake bytes, identical across every TSB host.
constexpr std::uint8_t confirm = '!';
constexpr std::uint8_t request = '?';
constexpr std::uint8_t knock = '@';
// Boot geometry for the 1 KB boot section (BOOTSZ=10); the page size and the
// flash/EEPROM extents are the chip database's to know. app_end is the config
// page (TSB's LASTPAGE), one page below the boot section.
constexpr std::uint16_t page = spm::page_bytes;
constexpr std::uint16_t boot_bytes = 1024;
constexpr std::uint16_t app_end = spm::flash_bytes - boot_bytes - page;
constexpr std::uint16_t eeprom_end = avr::hw::db.mem.eeprom_size - 1;
// Lockout-proof floor for the activation window (the oracle's F_CPU/1MHz).
constexpr std::uint8_t act_min = 16;
// Post-activation window: the host gets seconds, not milliseconds, mid-session.
constexpr std::uint8_t comm_window = 200;
// Firmware version stamp: YY*512 + MM*32 + DD, the encoding the host decodes.
constexpr std::uint16_t build_date = 26 * 512 + 7 * 32 + 27;
// The 16-byte device-info block, streamed out on activation.
// clang-format off
[[gnu::progmem]] constexpr std::uint8_t info[16] = {
'T', 'S', 'B',
build_date & 0xFF, build_date >> 8,
0xF3, // status: native-UART fixed-baud lineage
avr::hw::db.signature[0], avr::hw::db.signature[1], avr::hw::db.signature[2],
page / 2, // page size in words
(app_end / 2) & 0xFF, (app_end / 2) >> 8, // app-flash boundary, words
eeprom_end & 0xFF, eeprom_end >> 8,
0xAA, 0xAA, // ATmega processor-type marker (bytes 14 == 15)
};
// clang-format on
// The receive window, pre-floored where it is set. In .noinit: there is no
// crt to clear a .bss image, and run() stores it before the first receive.
[[gnu::section(".noinit")]] std::uint8_t window;
const std::uint8_t *flash_ptr(std::uint16_t addr)
{
return reinterpret_cast<const std::uint8_t *>(addr);
}
// Bounded byte receive: poll under nested countdowns, 0 on silence. The 0
// then falls through every compare — not a knock, not a confirm, not a
// command — so a silent host unwinds the loader to the application from
// anywhere, and a mid-session cable pull cannot wedge it. The line release on
// a direction change is the serial backend's.
[[gnu::noinline]] std::uint8_t rx()
{
std::uint16_t outer = static_cast<std::uint16_t>(window) << 8;
do {
std::uint8_t fine = 0;
do {
if (auto byte = serial.read())
return *byte;
} while (--fine);
} while (--outer);
return 0;
}
// One-wire transmit: the backend takes the line with a turn-around guard and
// holds it until the whole frame is out.
[[gnu::noinline]] void tx(std::uint8_t byte)
{
serial.write(byte);
}
// '?', then hand back the host's reply for the callers' one-byte compare.
[[gnu::noinline]] std::uint8_t rcnf()
{
tx(request);
return rx();
}
// The one send loop: the info block, the config page, application flash and
// EEPROM pages all stream through here.
[[gnu::noinline]] void send_block(bool eep, std::uint16_t at, std::uint8_t count)
{
do {
tx(eep ? ee::read(at) : avr::flash_load(flash_ptr(at)));
++at;
} while (--count);
}
// One EEPROM byte in — shared by the emergency wipe and the 'E' stream.
[[gnu::noinline]] void eeput(std::uint16_t at, std::uint8_t value)
{
ee::write<off>(at, value);
}
// Wait out a running SPM op, then re-open the RWW section — after every page
// op and before handing over, as the oracle does.
[[gnu::noinline]] void settle()
{
spm::wait();
spm::rww_enable<off>();
}
// One host page straight into the erased flash page at `at` — through the SPM
// word buffer (low byte then high), no SRAM staging — then committed. `at`
// names a page base, so the cursor's low byte reaching the boundary ends the
// walk.
[[gnu::noinline]] void store_flash_page(std::uint16_t at)
{
do {
std::uint8_t low = rx();
std::uint8_t high = rx();
spm::fill<off>(at, std::bit_cast<std::uint16_t>(std::array{low, high}));
at += 2;
} while (static_cast<std::uint8_t>(at) & (page - 1));
spm::write_page<off>(at - page);
settle();
}
extern "C" [[noreturn]] void tsb_app(); // the application's reset vector: --defsym=tsb_app=0
[[noreturn]] void appjump()
{
settle();
tsb_app();
}
// Step one page down and erase it — the erase shared by the whole-app walk,
// the config rewrite and the emergency wipe; hands the stepped address back.
[[gnu::noinline]] std::uint16_t erase_below(std::uint16_t at)
{
at -= page;
spm::erase_page<off>(at);
settle();
return at;
}
// Erase the whole application, top-down like the oracle: the loop bound is a
// compare with zero, and the returned 0 is the address every caller wants
// next.
[[gnu::noinline]] std::uint16_t erase_application()
{
std::uint16_t at = app_end;
do {
at = erase_below(at);
} while (at != 0);
return at;
}
[[noreturn]] void run()
{
// A watchdog reset hands straight back to the application, as the
// reference loader does, rather than re-entering the bootloader.
if (avr::hw::mcusr::wdrf.test())
appjump();
// Lean bring-up from reset state: UCSR0C already reads 8N1, UBRR0H reads
// 0, and the half-duplex write()/read() raise TXEN0/RXEN0 on first use —
// only the divisor low byte and U2X0 need a store. The solver still does
// the datasheet work; the asserts pin the reset-state assumptions.
{
constexpr auto sol = avr::uart::detail::solve_baud(dev::clock, 115200_Bd);
static_assert(sol.u2x && sol.ubrr < 256, "lean bring-up writes UBRR0L only, with U2X0");
avr::hw::reg<"UBRR0">::write(static_cast<std::uint8_t>(sol.ubrr));
avr::hw::ucsr0a::write(avr::hw::ucsr0a::u2x0(1));
}
// Activation: 3×'@', each inside the config page's timeout window
// (floored so a corrupt page cannot lock the loader out); anything else —
// including silence — hands over.
window = avr::flash_load(flash_ptr(app_end + 2)) | act_min;
for (std::uint8_t k = 3; k; --k)
if (rx() != knock)
appjump();
window = comm_window;
// Password gate (config page from app_end+3, 0xff-terminated; a blank
// page is no password). A wrong byte blanks the comparison and drains the
// line forever, so a wrong password can never fall through; a 0 requests
// emergency erase behind two confirms. On pass the info block goes out;
// the emergency path skips it and drops into the command loop.
std::uint16_t at = app_end + 3;
std::uint8_t mask = 0xff;
for (;;) {
std::uint8_t expected = avr::flash_load(flash_ptr(at)) & mask;
++at;
if (expected == 0xff) {
send_block(false, reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t>(&info[0]), sizeof info);
break;
}
std::uint8_t got = rx();
if (got == 0) {
if (mask == 0)
continue;
if (rcnf() != confirm || rcnf() != confirm)
appjump();
std::uint16_t a = erase_application();
do {
eeput(a, 0xff);
} while (++a <= eeprom_end);
erase_below(app_end + page);
break;
}
if (got != expected)
mask = 0;
}
for (;;) {
tx(confirm); // Mainloop ready
const std::uint8_t command = rx();
switch (command) {
case 'f': // read application flash, one page per host '!'
for (std::uint16_t a = 0; a < app_end; a += page) {
if (rx() != confirm)
break;
send_block(false, a, page);
}
break;
case 'e': // read EEPROM, one page per host '!', until the host stops
for (std::uint16_t a = 0;; a += page) {
if (rx() != confirm)
break;
send_block(true, a, page);
}
break;
case 'F': { // erase the application, then take pages behind '?'
std::uint16_t a = erase_application();
for (; rcnf() == confirm; a += page)
store_flash_page(a);
break;
}
case 'E': // take EEPROM pages behind '?', each write host-paced
for (std::uint16_t a = 0; rcnf() == confirm;) {
std::uint8_t count = page;
do {
eeput(a, rx());
++a;
} while (--count);
}
break;
case 'c': // read the config page
read_config:
send_block(false, app_end, page);
break;
case 'C': // replace the config page, then echo it back to verify
if (rcnf() != confirm)
break;
store_flash_page(erase_below(app_end + page));
goto read_config;
default: // 'q' or any other byte runs the application
appjump();
}
}
}
} // namespace
} // namespace tsb
// Reset lands at the boot section base (BOOTRST): the entry stub in .vectors
// is laid first and does the one line of crt a crt-less image needs.
template struct avr::startup::entry<tsb::run>;