Re: [Qemu-devel] Modular qemu?

[Edgar E. Iglesias]

On Fri, Dec 05, 2008 at 08:32:45AM -0600, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> Joop Boonen wrote:
>> Hello All,
>>
>> I'm wondering if a modular qemu would be an option (loadable modules)?
>> Currently a lot different patched versions of qemu are around.
>> qemu as provided from the qemu project
>> qemu for openmoko wiki.openmoko.org
>> qemu for coreboot.org
>> and probably others.
>>
>> If it would be possible t load modules like the (linux)kernel it would be
>> possible to use one qemu version for all the projects.
>> I don't know if this is possible?
>>   
>
> This has been discussed before and I believe the overall consensus was that 
> plugins are not desirable.
>
> With respect to the various forks of QEMU, I believe the real problem is 
> that historically, people have had a tough time getting changes into QEMU.  
> This is not just a matter of getting patches accepted, but also getting the 
> appropriate guidance about how to refactor things to take into account all 
> of the various architecture combinations that QEMU supports and some of the 
> longer term efforts.
>
> I hope this situation is improving.  If people have feedback in how things 

In general I think the situation has improved alot. Personally I think
the work that in particular Anthony (others too) is doing with reviewing
and applying patches is just fantastic.

> could be improved, I think everyone is eager to here it.  Plugins are not 
> the solution though.

Personnaly I would welcome some kind of plugin interface for some parts of
QEMU but only if someone comes up wiht a an interface that does not hurt
performace. I'd definitely have a use to plugin callbacks for every memory
accesse in system-mode and I've noticed a reocurring request for hooks to
trap syscalls while user-mode emulating.

Best regards
Edgar