-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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ - RWMJ
-We badly need to actually implement the FTP server mentioned in the
-documentation.
+Python bindings
+---------------
-Or: Implement a FUSE-based filesystem. See the FUSE mountlo
-project which does something similar, albeit only to single
-filesystems:
+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
+--------
+
+BufferIn should turn into <char *, int> and simple strings in other
+languages that can handle 8 bit clean strings.
-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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+febootstrap / debootstrap inside appliance
+------------------------------------------
-Implement febootstrap command.
+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 the bindings tests - must test the return values and
-error cases.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-For virt-inspector:
-
- - Make a libvirt XML config
+Complete bind tests
+-------------------
- - Test over available OSes
+Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases.
- - Add 'reged' / NT registry support.
+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:
-Use virtio_blk by default. It's faster and more natural.
-Unfortunately it seems like this will rename all devices - see next
-item.
+ virt-inspector --libvirt guest.img
-Note: virtio_blk *IS* supported by all our minimum platforms,
-ie. CentOS 5.3, Fedora 11, Debian.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+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 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
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.
+Supermin appliance to febootstrap
+---------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Supermin appliance functionality should be moved into febootstrap.
-Extra commands / functionality:
+Ideas for extra commands
+------------------------
General glibc / core programs:
chgrp
grep (do it locally using pipe?)
dd (?)
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??]
pivot_root
fts(3) / ftw(3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Swap space
+----------
Allow swap space from the guest to be used. Is it a good idea?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Allow memsize to be configured (ie. guestfs_set_memsize etc)
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Query guest architecture
+------------------------
Need a way to query a binary or library file for its architecture.
Using objdump or readelf?
Probably we should go all the way and have virt-inspector able to
determine kernel and userspace architectures of guests.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+Other initrd-* commands
+-----------------------
-Other initrd-* commands, such as:
+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->wait_ready; $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->wait_ready ();
+ $h->mount_ro (\"/dev/sda1\", \"/\");
+
+Command-line form would be:
+
+ perl -MSys::Guestfs=:all -e '$_=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?
git.annexia.org / libguestfs.git / blobdiff