X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=56b429a98bc8215607e39b910ec80051f23f8e5f;hp=72e8cd4c2199421026357776dd124cb67aaa9d49;hb=c3a68961859a617f7c574c528d0f8ac1fdbb53e1;hpb=f850e1f065fb04df7cc87a921ab3c658741cc393 diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 72e8cd4..56b429a 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,60 +1,61 @@ -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 +-------- + +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 the bindings tests - must test the return values and -error cases. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +Complete bind tests +------------------- -For virt-inspector: +Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases. - - Make a libvirt XML config +virt-inspector - make libvirt XML +--------------------------------- - - Test over available OSes +It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector +data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so: - - Add 'reged' / NT registry support. + virt-inspector --libvirt guest.img ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - -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. @@ -93,41 +94,17 @@ 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: +Supermin appliance to febootstrap +--------------------------------- - ppc (32 bit) works with qemu from git, however there is no serial console +Supermin appliance functionality should be moved into febootstrap. - 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: chgrp - grep (do it locally using pipe?) - dd (?) - ln / ln -s - readlink - utime / utimes / futimes / futimens / l.. 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 @@ -152,28 +129,145 @@ Extra commands / functionality: pivot_root fts(3) / ftw(3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +Other initrd-* commands +----------------------- -Allow swap space from the guest to be used. Is it a good idea? +Such as: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +initrd-extract +initrd-replace -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). +Simple editing of configuration files +------------------------------------- -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. +Some easy non-Augeas methods to edit configuration files. +I'm thinking: -Probably we should go all the way and have virt-inspector able to -determine kernel and userspace architectures of guests. + replace /etc/file key value ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +which would look in /etc/file for any instances of -Other initrd-* commands, such as: + key=... + key ... + key:... -initrd-extract -initrd-replace +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 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 (); + $h->mount_ro (\"/dev/sda1\", \"/\"); + +Command-line form would be: + + perl -MSys::Guestfs=:all -e '$_=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 + +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 +--------------- + +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. + +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).