[PATCH v2 1/2] Documentation: document querying of barebox version

[Ahmad Fatoum <a.fatoum@pengutronix.de>]

We have a short reference to barebox-version fixup in the device tree section
of the manual. Expand on this by adding a proper documentation section.

Signed-off-by: Ahmad Fatoum <a.fatoum@pengutronix.de>
---
v1 -> v2:
  - s/integrator/integration/ (Enrico)
  - Fix ReST markup in list (Enrico)
  - Mention CONFIG_IMD_TARGET
---
 Documentation/user/user-manual.rst |  1 +
 Documentation/user/versioning.rst  | 59 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 60 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/user/versioning.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/user/user-manual.rst b/Documentation/user/user-manual.rst
index 83ba9e4c3505..b8272b2235e4 100644
--- a/Documentation/user/user-manual.rst
+++ b/Documentation/user/user-manual.rst
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ Contents:
    reset-reason
    system-reset
    state
+   versioning
    random
    optee
    debugging
diff --git a/Documentation/user/versioning.rst b/Documentation/user/versioning.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0c3001b97433
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/user/versioning.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+.. _versioning:
+
+barebox Artifact Versioning
+===========================
+
+In addition to the usual barebox release (e.g. ``v2025.03.0``), the
+version number can be extended to encode integration-specific version
+information:
+
+  * When built from git, ``scripts/setlocalversion`` will factor in
+    git revision information into the version string.
+  * The ``EXTRAVERSION = `` in the top-level ``Makefile`` can be used
+    to add a suffix to the version. This is useful if patches are applied
+    on top of the tarball release.
+  * The build host can set the ``BUILDSYSTEM_VERSION`` environment variable
+    prior to executing ``make`` to encode a board support package version.
+    This is useful to encode information about built-in environment
+    and firmware.
+
+Query from barebox
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+When ``CONFIG_BANNER`` is enabled, the version information will be printed
+to the console. From the shell, there is the
+:ref:`version command <command_version>` for interactive use and the
+``global.version`` and ``global.buildsystem.version`` :ref:`magicvars`
+for use in scripts.
+
+Query from OS
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The barebox version (formatted as ``barebox-$version``) can be queried
+after boot by different means:
+
+ * If the OS is booted with device tree, barebox will fixup a
+   ``/chosen/barebox-version`` property into the kernel device tree with
+   the version string. Under Linux, this can be accessed at:
+
+   * ``/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/chosen/barebox-version``
+   * ``/proc/device-tree/base/chosen/barebox-version``
+
+ * If the system is booted through barebox as EFI application (payload),
+   a ``LoaderInfo`` EFI variable with the systemd vendor GUID will
+   be set to the version string. Under Linux, the string is shown in
+   ``bootctl`` output
+
+Query without booting
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+If the barebox boot medium is known, ``bareboximd`` can be used
+to read the barebox :ref:`imd`, provided that barebox was
+compiled with ``CONFIG_IMD=y`` (and ``CONFIG_IMD_TARGET=y`` for
+the target tool)::
+
+  linux$ bareboximd /dev/mmc2.boot0 -t release
+  2025.03.0-20250403-1
+
+  barebox$ imd /dev/mmc2.boot0 -t release
+  2025.03.0-20250403-1
-- 
2.39.5