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252 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
252 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
TODO list for libguestfs
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======================================================================
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This list contains random ideas and musings on features we could add
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to libguestfs in future.
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- RWMJ
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Python bindings
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---------------
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Ideas for the Python bindings:
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https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00114.html
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FTP server or FUSE?
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-------------------
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Originally we had intended to implement an NFS server inside the
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appliance, which would allow the guest filesystems to be mounted on
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the host, and large changes to be made. We eventually rejected the
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idea of using NFS, partly because it requires root to mount
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filesystems in the host, and partly because of problems handling UID
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mappings between host and guest filesystem.
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Then we look at implementing an FTP server instead. FTP clients are
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widely available for many languages, don't require root, and don't
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have any UID mapping problems. However there is the problem of
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getting the TCP connection into the guest, and that FTP requires a
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secondary data connection either in or out of the guest (the NFS
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situation is even more dire).
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Thirdly we looked at implementing a FUSE-based filesystem. This is
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plausible - it could be implemented just by adding the additional FUSE
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operations to the standard guestfs(3) API, and then implementing a
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simple FUSE daemon. (The FUSE website has some very helpful
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documentation and examples). I [RWMJ] am not particularly convinced
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that a FUSE-based filesystem would really be useful to anyone, but am
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prepared to accept patches if someone does all the work.
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See also the mountlo project:
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http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=121684&package_id=150116
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BufferIn
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--------
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BufferIn should turn into <char *, int> and simple strings in other
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languages that can handle 8 bit clean strings.
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Limit on transfers would still be 2MB for these types.
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- then implement write-file properly
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febootstrap / debootstrap inside appliance
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------------------------------------------
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This was originally proposed as a way to install new operating systems
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in the appliance. However no one has come up with a workable
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solution.
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Haskell bindings
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----------------
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Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe).
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Complete bind tests
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-------------------
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Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases.
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virt-inspector - make libvirt XML
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---------------------------------
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It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector
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data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so:
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virt-inspector --libvirt guest.img
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Note that recent versions of libvirt/virt-install allow guests to be
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imported, so this is not so useful any more.
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"Standalone/local mode"
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-----------------------
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Instead of running guestfsd (the daemon) inside qemu, there should be
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an option to just run guestfsd directly.
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The architecture in this mode would look like:
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+------------------+
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| main program |
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|------------------|
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| libguestfs |
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+--------^---------+
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| | reply
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cmd | |
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+----v-------------+
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| guestfsd |
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+------------------+
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Notes:
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(1) This only makes sense if we are running as root.
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(2) There is no console / kernel messages in this configuration, but
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we might consider capturing stderr from the daemon.
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(3) guestfs_config and guestfs_add_drive become no-ops.
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Obviously in this configuration, commands are run directly on the
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local machine's disks. You could just run the commands themselves
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directly, but libguestfs provides a convenient API and language
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bindings. Also deals with tricky stuff like parsing the output of the
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LVM commands. Also we get to leverage other code such as
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virt-inspector.
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This is mainly useful from live CDs, ie. virt-p2v.
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Should we bother having the daemon at all and just link the guestfsd
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code directly into libguestfs?
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PPC problems
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------------
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[This section should be filed as bugs, but no one seems to care for
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PPC hosts and the hardware is rapidly becoming obsolete]
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ppc (32 bit) works with qemu from git, however there is no serial console
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ppc64 requires extra parameters:
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-M mac99 -cpu ppc64
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however it still fails:
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invalid/unsupported opcode: 01 - 01 - 1a (06301e83) 00000000018c2738 1
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invalid bits: 00400000 for opcode: 0b - 19 - 15 (2d746572) 0000000000009230
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no serial console in ppc or ppc64 because no one can tell us what
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console=ttyXX option to use
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Supermin appliance to febootstrap
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---------------------------------
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Supermin appliance functionality should be moved into febootstrap.
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Ideas for extra commands
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------------------------
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General glibc / core programs:
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chgrp
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dd (?)
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utime / utimes / futimes / futimens / l..
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more mk*temp calls
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trunc[ate??]
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ext2 properties:
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chattr
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lsattr
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badblocks
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blkid
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debugfs
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dumpe2fs
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e2image
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e2undo
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filefrag
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findfs
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logsave
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mklost+found
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SELinux:
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chcat
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restorecon
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ch???
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Oddball:
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pivot_root
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fts(3) / ftw(3)
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Other initrd-* commands
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-----------------------
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Such as:
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initrd-extract
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initrd-replace
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Simple editing of configuration files
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-------------------------------------
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Some easy non-Augeas methods to edit configuration files.
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I'm thinking:
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replace /etc/file key value
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which would look in /etc/file for any instances of
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key=...
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key ...
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key:...
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and replace them with
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key=value
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key value
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key:value
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That would solve about 50% of reconfiguration needs, and for the
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rest you'd use Augeas, 'download'+'upload' or 'edit'.
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RWMJ: I had a go at implementing this, but it's quite error-prone to
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do this sort of editing inside the C-based daemon code. It's far
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better to do it with Augeas, or else to use an external language like
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Perl.
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Quick Perl scripts
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------------------
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Currently we can't do Perl "one-liners". ie. The current syntax for
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any short Perl one-liner would be:
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perl -MSys::Guestfs -e '$g = Sys::Guestfs->new(); $g->add_drive ("foo"); $g->launch; $g->wait_ready; $g->mount ("/dev/sda1", "/"); ....'
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You can see we're well beyond a single line just getting to the point
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of adding drives and mounting.
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First suggestion:
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$h = create ($filename, \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\");
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$h = create ([$file1, $file2], \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\");
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To mount read-only, add C<ro =E<gt> 1> like this:
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$h = create ($filename, \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\", ro => 1);
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which is equivalent to the following sequence of calls:
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$h = Sys::Guestfs->new ();
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$h->set_autosync (1);
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$h->add_drive_ro ($filename);
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$h->launch ();
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$h->wait_ready ();
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$h->mount_ro (\"/dev/sda1\", \"/\");
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Command-line form would be:
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perl -MSys::Guestfs=:all -e '$_=create("guest.img", "/dev/sda1" => "/"); $_->cat ("/etc/fstab");'
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That's not brief enough for one-liners, so we could have an extra
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autogenerated module which creates a Sys::Guestfs handle singleton
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(the handle is an implicit global variable as in guestfish), eg:
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perl -MSys::Guestfs::One -e 'inspect("guest.img"); cat ("/etc/fstab");'
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How would editing files work?
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