- RWMJ
-Python bindings
----------------
-
-Ideas for the Python bindings:
-https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00114.html
-
-FTP server or FUSE?
--------------------
-
-Originally we had intended to implement an NFS server inside the
-appliance, which would allow the guest filesystems to be mounted on
-the host, and large changes to be made. We eventually rejected the
-idea of using NFS, partly because it requires root to mount
-filesystems in the host, and partly because of problems handling UID
-mappings between host and guest filesystem.
-
-Then we look at implementing an FTP server instead. FTP clients are
-widely available for many languages, don't require root, and don't
-have any UID mapping problems. However there is the problem of
-getting the TCP connection into the guest, and that FTP requires a
-secondary data connection either in or out of the guest (the NFS
-situation is even more dire).
-
-Thirdly we looked at implementing a FUSE-based filesystem. This is
-plausible - it could be implemented just by adding the additional FUSE
-operations to the standard guestfs(3) API, and then implementing a
-simple FUSE daemon. (The FUSE website has some very helpful
-documentation and examples). I [RWMJ] am not particularly convinced
-that a FUSE-based filesystem would really be useful to anyone, but am
-prepared to accept patches if someone does all the work.
-
-See also the mountlo project:
-http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=121684&package_id=150116
-
-BufferIn
+FUSE API
--------
-BufferIn should turn into <char *, int> and simple strings in other
-languages that can handle 8 bit clean strings.
+The API needs more test coverage, particularly lesser-used system
+calls.
-Limit on transfers would still be 2MB for these types.
- - then implement write-file properly
+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).
febootstrap / debootstrap inside appliance
------------------------------------------
Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe).
+PHP bindings
+------------
+
+Add bindtests to PHP bindings.
+
Complete bind tests
-------------------
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:
findfs
logsave
mklost+found
+ ext2undelete
SELinux:
chcat
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\", \"/\");
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
---------------
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
-----------------
+Windows-based daemon/appliance
+------------------------------
+
+See discussion on list:
+https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-November/msg00165.html
+
+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.
+
+virt-disk-explore
+-----------------
+
+For multi-level disk images such as live CDs:
+http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/unpack-the-russian-doll-of-a-f11-live-cd/
+
+It's possible with libguestfs to recursively look for anything that
+might be a filesystem, mount-{,loop} it and look in those, revealing
+anything in a disk image.
+
+However this won't work easily for VM disk images in the disk image.
+One would have to download those to the host and launch another
+libguestfs instance.
+
+List, mount filesystems by UUID and label
+-----------------------------------------
+
+[See related:
+http://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-August/msg00031.html]
+
+List filesystems by UUID or label.
+
+Mount filesystems by UUID or label. (I'm not really sure if we can do
+this at the moment but we ought to be able to do it, and perhaps make
+it easier by having a direct command).
+
+Map filesystems to disk blocks
+------------------------------
+
+Map files/filesystems/(any other object) to the actual disk
+blocks they occupy.
+
+And vice versa.
+
+Is it even possible?
+
+Integration with host intrusion systems
+---------------------------------------
+
+Perfect way to monitor VMs from outside the VM. Look for file
+hashes, log events, login/logout etc.
+
+http://www.ossec.net/
+http://la-samhna.de/samhain/
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/aide/
+http://osiris.shmoo.com/
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/tripwire/
+
+-N option should be generated
+-----------------------------
+
+'-N' option should generate documentation in guestfish(1) manpage.
+
+Fix 'file'
+----------
+
+https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2010-June/msg00053.html
+https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2010-June/msg00079.html
+
+Regression test on virt-inspector
+---------------------------------
+
+Occasionally we break virt-inspector through some change. We should
+add a regression test for it. However this is hard because we'd need
+to avoid having to carry huge images.
+
+Update: I managed to fit a real-but-minimal Fedora 13 image into 6.2 MB.
+See: http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/tip-pack-files-into-a-new-disk-image/#content
+
+Freeze/thaw filesystems
+-----------------------
+
+Access to these ioctls:
+http://git.kernel.org/linus/fcccf502540e3d7
+
+Tips for new users in guestfish
+-------------------------------
+
+$ guestfish
+Tip: You need to 'add disk.img' or 'alloc disk.img nn' to make a new image.
+Type 'notips' to disable tips permanently.
+><fs> add mydisk
+Tip: You need to type 'run' before you can see into the disk image.
+><fs> run
+Tip: Use 'list-filesystems' to see what filesystems are available.
+><fs> list-filesystems
+/dev/vda1
+Tip: Use 'mount fs /' to mount a filesystem.
+><fs> mount /dev/vda1 /
+Tip: Use 'll /' to view the filesystem or ...
+><fs> ll /
+
+New guestfish commands
+----------------------
+
+'list-filesystems' => list mountable filesystems
+
+We could implement this as a new API call, replacing a number of areas
+of the current code where this is done already (in virt-inspector and
+elsewhere). What we normally do to find out if a partition contains a
+mountable filesystem is to just blindly mount it, and see if that
+succeeds. However the kernel won't let us do this if the filesystem
+is already mounted somewhere, so a naive implementation of this in the
+daemon won't work. We would have to check if the partition was
+already mounted.
+
+Could we make guestfish interactive if commands are used without params?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+><fs> sparse
+[[Prints man page]]
+Image name? disk.img
+Size of image? 10M
+
+Common problems
+---------------
+
+How can we solve these common user problems?
+
+[space for common problems here]
+
+Better support for encrypted devices
+------------------------------------
+
+Currently LUKS support only works if the device contains volume
+groups. If it contains, eg., partitions, you cannot access them.
+We would like to add:
+
+ - An easier way to use this from guestfish.
+ - Direct access to the /dev/mapper device (eg. if it contains
+ anything apart from VGs).
+
+Display image as PS
+-------------------
+
+Display the structure of an image file as a PS.
+
+Greater use of blkid / libblkid
+-------------------------------
+
+guestfs_zero should use wipefs. See wipefs(8).
+
+There are various useful functions in libblkid for listing partitions,
+devices etc which we are essentially duplicating in the daemon. It
+would make more sense to just use libblkid for this.
+
+There are some places where we call out to the 'blkid' program. This
+might be replaced by direct use of the library (if this is easier).
+
+Remove repo from appliance name
+-------------------------------
+
+There's no need to have the appliance name contain the repository name
+(ie initramfs.x86_64.img instead of initramfs.fedora-13.x86_64.img).
+
+Visualization
+-------------
+
+Eric Sandeen pointed out the blktrace tool which is a better way of
+capturing traces than using patched qemu (see
+contrib/visualize-alignment). We would still use the same
+visualization tools in conjunction with blktrace traces.
+
+Virt-df UUID
+------------
+
+Virt-df and any other tools with --csv output should be able to print
+UUID of domain. This allows you to track the real domain across
+renames etc.
+
+Add-domain command
+------------------
+
+guestfs_add_domain (g, "libvirt-dom");
-Pass TERM from the library, through the kernel command line, to the
-init script.
+However this would need to not depend on libvirt, eg. loading it
+on demand.