X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=291d220ae03fc57cdb05816e1193effec76334ef;hp=b3860b1f0beda66c93e42cfd40b617d33b445aad;hb=22eb7fc966bafebedfde437c9b9c9fb903a8bc35;hpb=ca5239918ce6de45a694610a11678cadc20cf2fb diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index b3860b1..291d220 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,60 +1,84 @@ -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 and simple strings in other +languages that can handle 8 bit clean strings. -BufferIn and BufferOut should turn into 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 bind tests +------------------- -Complete the bindings tests - must test the return values and -error cases. +Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +virt-inspector - make libvirt XML +--------------------------------- -For virt-inspector: +It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector +data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so: - - Make a libvirt XML config + virt-inspector --libvirt guest.img - - Test over available OSes - - - Add 'reged' / NT registry support. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Use virtio_blk by default. It's faster and more natural. -Unfortunately it seems like this will rename all devices - see next -item. - -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. @@ -93,9 +117,11 @@ 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 +------------ -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 @@ -108,14 +134,144 @@ PPC problems: 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 + grep (do it locally using pipe?) + dd (?) + ln / ln -s + readlink + utime / utimes / futimes / futimens / l.. + more mk*temp calls + some sort of alloc/fallocate/posix_fallocate call to create empty space + realpath + trunc[ate??] + + 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) + +Swap space +---------- + +Allow swap space from the guest to be used. Is it a good idea? + +Query guest architecture +------------------------ + +Need a way to query a binary or library file for its architecture. +Using objdump or readelf? +What about non-ELF files (eg. Windows, BSD). + +To do this properly requires some serious logic, eg. to cover Linux +and Windows we'd need objdump and i686-pc-mingw32-objdump, and more to +cover a.out, COFF and 64 bit Windows. Therefore this cannot be done +inside the daemon, and should be done by a separate, external program +similar to virt-inspector. + +Probably we should go all the way and have virt-inspector able to +determine kernel and userspace architectures of guests. + +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->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 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 (); + $h->mount_ro (\"/dev/sda1\", \"/\"); -Supermin appliance should be moved into febootstrap. +Command-line form would be: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + perl -MSys::Guestfs=:all -e '$_=create("guest.img", "/dev/sda1" => "/"); $_->cat ("/etc/fstab");' -guestfish -i (runs inspector) +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");' -guestfish -f +How would editing files work?