Fastboot commands in source code not found in fastboot binary

Question

I am working with a new device which has a "secure" bootloader and no 'OEM' command integration. Upon looking at the source code for (official) fastboot, I stumbled upon several commands that simply are not included in the fastboot binary ('fastboot flashing [option]') which essentially correspond to the 'OEM' commands, not only that, but within the fastboot protocol (fastboot_protocol.txt), there is a command specific to "secure" bootloaders ("verify:%08x") which isn't even in the source code...

Is this normal? Would I have to recompile fastboot myself to be able to get access to these commands?

Answer 1

I actually recompiled it myself and the commands do work. Sadly still no security feature so I can't actually do anything on the device without it asking for verification...

Answer 2

The 'flashing' commands you noticed were only recently added to AOSP. They were first distributed with the release of the Android M Preview (v23 of the Platform Tools package).

Unless the bootloader on a given device supports them, these commands will not work. Since the commands themselves are so recent, the only bootloaders that should support them would have come with the Android M Preview factory images released for the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player.

For now, these commands should be considered beta, or even alpha, since they may change in the future. After the official release of Android M (whatever its final nickname may be), most devices updated to that level or above should also gain support.