X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=661c13789cc37a4952cdf17d1f2ac0d9a8a95ab6;hp=131f4d8671c6b4361c35707e19a16cb83cd7218e;hb=73c587ff0f2f8f76af39b16dafb0949be7bf0883;hpb=19a1382fc9317ab88cdbf1dde76a8015868af51d diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 131f4d8..661c137 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,60 +1,67 @@ +TODO list for libguestfs +====================================================================== + +This list contains random ideas and musings on features we could add +to libguestfs in future. + + - RWMJ + +Python bindings +--------------- + Ideas for the Python bindings: https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00114.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +FUSE API +-------- -We badly need to actually implement the FTP server mentioned in the -documentation. +The API needs more test coverage, particularly lesser-used system +calls. -Or: Implement a FUSE-based filesystem. See the FUSE mountlo -project which does something similar, albeit only to single -filesystems: +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). -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 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. @@ -93,9 +100,11 @@ 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 @@ -108,29 +117,17 @@ PPC problems: 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 (?) - 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 @@ -155,10 +152,146 @@ Extra commands / functionality: pivot_root fts(3) / ftw(3) - guestfish only: - 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 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). + +virt-rescue TERM +---------------- + +Pass TERM from the library, through the kernel command line, to the +init script. + +Windows-based daemon/appliance +------------------------------ + +See discussion on list: +https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-November/msg00165.html + +virt-grow, virt-shrink +---------------------- + +Grow and shrink existing guests. The main problem comes with +MBR-style partitions where you have to actually copy data around the +disk (unless you only want to change the final partition). + +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. -Allow swap space from the guest to be used. Is it a good idea? +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. \ No newline at end of file