mirror of
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs.git
synced 2026-03-21 22:53:37 +00:00
284 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
284 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
TODO list for libguestfs
|
|
======================================================================
|
|
|
|
This list contains random ideas and musings on features we could add
|
|
to libguestfs in future.
|
|
|
|
- RWMJ
|
|
|
|
Python bindings
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
Ideas for the Python bindings:
|
|
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00114.html
|
|
|
|
FUSE API
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
The API needs more test coverage, particularly lesser-used system
|
|
calls.
|
|
|
|
The big unresolved issue is UID/GID mapping between guest filesystem
|
|
IDs and the host. It's not easy to automate this because you need
|
|
extra details about the guest itself in order to get to its
|
|
UID->username map (eg. /etc/passwd from the guest).
|
|
|
|
BufferIn
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
BufferIn should turn into <char *, int> and simple strings in other
|
|
languages that can handle 8 bit clean strings.
|
|
|
|
Limit on transfers would still be 2MB for these types.
|
|
- then implement write-file properly
|
|
|
|
febootstrap / debootstrap inside appliance
|
|
------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
This was originally proposed as a way to install new operating systems
|
|
in the appliance. However no one has come up with a workable
|
|
solution.
|
|
|
|
Haskell bindings
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe).
|
|
|
|
Complete bind tests
|
|
-------------------
|
|
|
|
Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases.
|
|
|
|
virt-inspector - make libvirt XML
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector
|
|
data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so:
|
|
|
|
virt-inspector --libvirt guest.img
|
|
|
|
Note that recent versions of libvirt/virt-install allow guests to be
|
|
imported, so this is not so useful any more.
|
|
|
|
"Standalone/local mode"
|
|
-----------------------
|
|
|
|
Instead of running guestfsd (the daemon) inside qemu, there should be
|
|
an option to just run guestfsd directly.
|
|
|
|
The architecture in this mode would look like:
|
|
|
|
+------------------+
|
|
| main program |
|
|
|------------------|
|
|
| libguestfs |
|
|
+--------^---------+
|
|
| | reply
|
|
cmd | |
|
|
+----v-------------+
|
|
| guestfsd |
|
|
+------------------+
|
|
|
|
Notes:
|
|
|
|
(1) This only makes sense if we are running as root.
|
|
|
|
(2) There is no console / kernel messages in this configuration, but
|
|
we might consider capturing stderr from the daemon.
|
|
|
|
(3) guestfs_config and guestfs_add_drive become no-ops.
|
|
|
|
Obviously in this configuration, commands are run directly on the
|
|
local machine's disks. You could just run the commands themselves
|
|
directly, but libguestfs provides a convenient API and language
|
|
bindings. Also deals with tricky stuff like parsing the output of the
|
|
LVM commands. Also we get to leverage other code such as
|
|
virt-inspector.
|
|
|
|
This is mainly useful from live CDs, ie. virt-p2v.
|
|
|
|
Should we bother having the daemon at all and just link the guestfsd
|
|
code directly into libguestfs?
|
|
|
|
PPC problems
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
[This section should be filed as bugs, but no one seems to care for
|
|
PPC hosts and the hardware is rapidly becoming obsolete]
|
|
|
|
ppc (32 bit) works with qemu from git, however there is no serial console
|
|
|
|
ppc64 requires extra parameters:
|
|
-M mac99 -cpu ppc64
|
|
however it still fails:
|
|
invalid/unsupported opcode: 01 - 01 - 1a (06301e83) 00000000018c2738 1
|
|
invalid bits: 00400000 for opcode: 0b - 19 - 15 (2d746572) 0000000000009230
|
|
|
|
no serial console in ppc or ppc64 because no one can tell us what
|
|
console=ttyXX option to use
|
|
|
|
Supermin appliance to febootstrap
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Supermin appliance functionality should be moved into febootstrap.
|
|
|
|
Ideas for extra commands
|
|
------------------------
|
|
|
|
General glibc / core programs:
|
|
chgrp
|
|
dd (?)
|
|
more mk*temp calls
|
|
|
|
ext2 properties:
|
|
chattr
|
|
lsattr
|
|
badblocks
|
|
blkid
|
|
debugfs
|
|
dumpe2fs
|
|
e2image
|
|
e2undo
|
|
filefrag
|
|
findfs
|
|
logsave
|
|
mklost+found
|
|
|
|
SELinux:
|
|
chcat
|
|
restorecon
|
|
ch???
|
|
|
|
Oddball:
|
|
pivot_root
|
|
fts(3) / ftw(3)
|
|
|
|
Other initrd-* commands
|
|
-----------------------
|
|
|
|
Such as:
|
|
|
|
initrd-extract
|
|
initrd-replace
|
|
|
|
Simple editing of configuration files
|
|
-------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Some easy non-Augeas methods to edit configuration files.
|
|
I'm thinking:
|
|
|
|
replace /etc/file key value
|
|
|
|
which would look in /etc/file for any instances of
|
|
|
|
key=...
|
|
key ...
|
|
key:...
|
|
|
|
and replace them with
|
|
|
|
key=value
|
|
key value
|
|
key:value
|
|
|
|
That would solve about 50% of reconfiguration needs, and for the
|
|
rest you'd use Augeas, 'download'+'upload' or 'edit'.
|
|
|
|
RWMJ: I had a go at implementing this, but it's quite error-prone to
|
|
do this sort of editing inside the C-based daemon code. It's far
|
|
better to do it with Augeas, or else to use an external language like
|
|
Perl.
|
|
|
|
Quick Perl scripts
|
|
------------------
|
|
|
|
Currently we can't do Perl "one-liners". ie. The current syntax for
|
|
any short Perl one-liner would be:
|
|
|
|
perl -MSys::Guestfs -e '$g = Sys::Guestfs->new(); $g->add_drive ("foo"); $g->launch; $g->mount ("/dev/sda1", "/"); ....'
|
|
|
|
You can see we're well beyond a single line just getting to the point
|
|
of adding drives and mounting.
|
|
|
|
First suggestion:
|
|
|
|
$h = create ($filename, \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\");
|
|
|
|
$h = create ([$file1, $file2], \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\");
|
|
|
|
To mount read-only, add C<ro =E<gt> 1> like this:
|
|
|
|
$h = create ($filename, \"/dev/sda1\" => \"/\", ro => 1);
|
|
|
|
which is equivalent to the following sequence of calls:
|
|
|
|
$h = Sys::Guestfs->new ();
|
|
$h->set_autosync (1);
|
|
$h->add_drive_ro ($filename);
|
|
$h->launch ();
|
|
$h->mount_ro (\"/dev/sda1\", \"/\");
|
|
|
|
Command-line form would be:
|
|
|
|
perl -MSys::Guestfs=:all -e '$_=create("guest.img", "/dev/sda1" => "/"); $_->cat ("/etc/fstab");'
|
|
|
|
That's not brief enough for one-liners, so we could have an extra
|
|
autogenerated module which creates a Sys::Guestfs handle singleton
|
|
(the handle is an implicit global variable as in guestfish), eg:
|
|
|
|
perl -MSys::Guestfs::One -e 'inspect("guest.img"); cat ("/etc/fstab");'
|
|
|
|
How would editing files work?
|
|
|
|
ntfsclone
|
|
---------
|
|
|
|
Useful imaging tool:
|
|
http://man.linux-ntfs.org/ntfsclone.8.html
|
|
|
|
Standard images
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
Equip guestfish with some standard images that it can load
|
|
quickly, eg:
|
|
|
|
load ext2
|
|
|
|
Maybe it's better to create these on the fly?
|
|
|
|
virt-rescue pty
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
See:
|
|
http://search.cpan.org/~rgiersig/IO-Tty-1.08/Pty.pm
|
|
http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=582185
|
|
|
|
Note that pty requires cooperation inside the C code too (there are
|
|
two sides to a pty, and one has to be handled after the fork).
|
|
|
|
virt-rescue TERM
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
Pass TERM from the library, through the kernel command line, to the
|
|
init script.
|
|
|
|
Windows-based daemon/appliance
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
See discussion on list:
|
|
https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-November/msg00165.html
|
|
|
|
virt-grow, virt-shrink
|
|
----------------------
|
|
|
|
Grow and shrink existing guests. The main problem comes with
|
|
MBR-style partitions where you have to actually copy data around the
|
|
disk (unless you only want to change the final partition).
|
|
|
|
qemu locking
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
Add -drive file=...,lock=exclusive and -drive file=...,lock=shared
|
|
|
|
Change libguestfs and libvirt to do the right thing, so that multiple
|
|
instances of qemu cannot stomp on each other. |