-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
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Implement febootstrap command.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Haskell bindings
+----------------
Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Complete the bindings tests - must test the return values and
-error cases.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-For virt-inspector:
+PHP bindings
+------------
- - Make a libvirt XML config
+Add bindtests to PHP bindings.
- - Test over available OSes
+Complete bind tests
+-------------------
- - Add 'reged' / NT registry support.
+Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+virt-inspector - make libvirt XML
+---------------------------------
-Use virtio_blk by default. It's faster and more natural.
-Unfortunately it seems like this will rename all devices - see next
-item.
+It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector
+data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so:
-Note: virtio_blk *IS* supported by all our minimum platforms,
-ie. CentOS 5.3, Fedora 11, Debian.
+ 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.
Should we bother having the daemon at all and just link the guestfsd
code directly into libguestfs?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-PPC problems:
-
- 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 should be moved into febootstrap.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Extra commands / functionality:
+Ideas for extra commands
+------------------------
General glibc / core programs:
- wc
- head, tail
chgrp
- grep (do it locally using pipe?)
- dd (?)
- du
- ln / ln -s
- mknod
- readlink
- utime / utimes / futimes / futimens / l..
- mkfifo
more mk*temp calls
- readdir / readdir-and-stat
- some sort of alloc/fallocate/posix_fallocate call to create empty space
- realpath
- trunc[ate??]
ext2 properties:
chattr
findfs
logsave
mklost+found
+ ext2undelete
SELinux:
chcat
pivot_root
fts(3) / ftw(3)
- guestfish only:
- more/less (like cat, but pipes it through $PAGER)
- cmd | pipe
- cat file | pipe-cmd should have a generic form? like
- 'file | less' or 'file | sort'?
+Other initrd-* commands
+-----------------------
+
+Such as:
+
+initrd-extract
+initrd-replace
+
+Simple editing of configuration files
+-------------------------------------
+
+Some easy non-Augeas methods to edit configuration files.
+I'm thinking:
+
+ replace /etc/file key value
+
+which would look in /etc/file for any instances of
+
+ key=...
+ key ...
+ key:...
+
+and replace them with
+
+ key=value
+ key value
+ key:value
+
+That would solve about 50% of reconfiguration needs, and for the
+rest you'd use Augeas, 'download'+'upload' or 'edit'.
+
+RWMJ: I had a go at implementing this, but it's quite error-prone to
+do this sort of editing inside the C-based daemon code. It's far
+better to do it with Augeas, or else to use an external language like
+Perl.
+
+Quick Perl scripts
+------------------
+
+Currently we can't do Perl "one-liners". ie. The current syntax for
+any short Perl one-liner would be:
+
+ perl -MSys::Guestfs -e '$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).
+
+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.
+
+Add-domain command
+------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+guestfs_add_domain (g, "libvirt-dom");
-Allow swap space from the guest to be used. Is it a good idea?
+However this would need to not depend on libvirt, eg. loading it
+on demand.
git.annexia.org / libguestfs.git / blobdiff