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Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line
From: |
Christian Brunschen |
Subject: |
Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images |
Date: |
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 20:08:22 +0100 |
On 11 Aug 2007, at 19:06, Philip Boulain wrote:
Yikes. I like the intent, but the idea of a previously just-data
file format suddenly being able to imply "-hdb fat:rw:/home/" does
not strike me as a good one. :/
Hi all,
I'm nobody in particular in the world of qemu, and have certainly
never contributed to it, but I hope you won't mind if I mention some
thoughts.
It seems to me that overloading a simple data format to suddenly also
include metadata is indeed a decision fraught with potential for
unhappiness.
Much better would be to perhaps devise a container format that would
embed a qemu configuration as well as a number of disk image files.
Of course, to have such ini a single file is not necessarily very
easy. However, one need only look at NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Mac OS X to
see a solution: use a directory.
Basically, one way to bundle a machine configuration together yet
leave existing file formats unchanged is to define a standard
directory structure that can contain a qemu configuration file (a set
of command line options) as well as a number of related files (mainly
disk images, but could also me BIOS ROM or similar of course). It
doesn't need to be a complex structure: simply specify that a 'qemu
machine directory' contains a file named 'config.qemu' in a specific
format (with file references relative to the directory containing
config.qemu). qemu, if given as its sole command line option the name
of a directory, checks whether the directory contains a suitable
config.qemu, and reads & process the file as if it were command line
options (with the current directory.
Such a directory can be kept entirely platform independent, such that
the entire directory could be moved or copied from one host to
another. It would mean perhaps tar:ing or zip:ing it up, but
certainly on Mac OS X such directories have proven to be a successful
way of bundling things together (certainly helped by the widespread
use of disk image files, through which distributing directories
becomes entirely a non-problem).
Something like that _should_ offer most of the features that people
want - a simple way to encapsulate both configuration and data,
platform-independent, short and sweet to specify on the command line,
without making any changes to existing file formats (particularly
disk image ones).
Just a thought,
// Christian Brunschen
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, (continued)
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Avi Kivity, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Brian Wheeler, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, dmc, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Carlos A. M. dos Santos, 2007/08/10
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Brian Wheeler, 2007/08/09
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/09
Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, andrzej zaborowski, 2007/08/11
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Philip Boulain, 2007/08/11
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/11
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Philip Boulain, 2007/08/11
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/11
- Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Jorge Lucángeli Obes, 2007/08/13
- Re: [kvm-devel] [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/13
Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 4/4][RFC] Add logic to QEMU to read command line options from qcow2 images, Anthony Liguori, 2007/08/11