-Ideas for the Python bindings:
-https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00114.html
+TODO list for libguestfs
+======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+This list contains random ideas and musings on features we could add
+to libguestfs in future.
-We badly need to actually implement the FTP server mentioned in the
-documentation.
+ - RWMJ
-Or: Implement a FUSE-based filesystem. See the FUSE mountlo
-project which does something similar, albeit only to single
-filesystems:
+FUSE API
+--------
-http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=121684&package_id=150116
+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 and BufferOut 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
- - and implement read-file
+Haskell bindings
+----------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe).
-Implement febootstrap command.
+PHP bindings
+------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Add bindtests to PHP 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?
+
+Ideas for extra commands
+------------------------
+
+ General glibc / core programs:
+ chgrp
+ more mk*temp calls
+
+ ext2 properties:
+ chattr
+ lsattr
+ badblocks
+ blkid
+ debugfs
+ dumpe2fs
+ e2image
+ e2undo
+ filefrag
+ findfs
+ logsave
+ mklost+found
+ ext2undelete
+
+ 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 ();
+ $h->add_drive_ro ($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
+
+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).
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+See also contribs/visualize-alignment/
+
+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/
+
+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 /
+
+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).
-For virt-inspector:
+Visualization
+-------------
- - Needs a "query mode", like "are (Xen|KVM) PV drivers installed?"
- "does this guest need a Xen hypervisor?"
+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.
- - Are PV network drivers enabled (see /etc/modprobe.conf)
+Add-domain command
+------------------
- - Make a libvirt XML config
+guestfs_add_domain (g, "libvirt-dom");
- - Test over available OSes
+However this would need to not depend on libvirt, eg. loading it
+on demand.
git.annexia.org / libguestfs.git / blobdiff