X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=e90d408d45b933884dcfef009e4dc73b26fd15a5;hp=8b3b13e25da0777124fc61e31c39126614dc4a49;hb=e832959a4d5645cb0168bd7b810d5cfcd6767168;hpb=a29a2e99ce120415941894da45087a360e6c65d3 diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 8b3b13e..e90d408 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,42 +1,342 @@ -/tmp/libguestfs temporary directory is not cleaned up. +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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +FUSE API +-------- -Use a real scanner in guestfish. Suggest: +The API needs more test coverage, particularly lesser-used system +calls. - "..." strings - '...' - [...] matching [ and ] +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). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +febootstrap / debootstrap inside appliance +------------------------------------------ -(From Ján ONDREJ (SAL)) +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. -We should provide a way to stream partitions in and out. +Haskell bindings +---------------- -Thus: +Complete the Haskell bindings (see discussion on haskell-cafe). -dd-out /dev/sda1 > [some file] +Complete bind tests +------------------- -dd-in /dev/sda1 < [some file] +Complete the bind tests - must test the return values and error cases. -Along with this, we need to be able to call the resize2fs program to -resize the filesystem in case it is larger or smaller than the target -partition. +virt-inspector - make libvirt XML +--------------------------------- -Another useful feature would be to allow rsync to/from a stream for -whole filesystems and subdirectories. +It should be possible to generate libvirt XML from virt-inspector +data, at least partially. This would be just another output type so: -The current protocol is message-oriented and doesn't support -streaming. But it's simple enough that we could add this. + 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. -(From Ján ONDREJ (SAL)) +"Standalone/local mode" +----------------------- -guestfish edit +Instead of running guestfsd (the daemon) inside qemu, there should be +an option to just run guestfsd directly. + +The architecture in this mode would look like: + + +------------------+ + | main program | + |------------------| + | libguestfs | + +--------^---------+ + | | reply + cmd | | + +----v-------------+ + | guestfsd | + +------------------+ + +Notes: + +(1) This only makes sense if we are running as root. + +(2) There is no console / kernel messages in this configuration, but +we might consider capturing stderr from the daemon. + +(3) guestfs_config and guestfs_add_drive become no-ops. + +Obviously in this configuration, commands are run directly on the +local machine's disks. You could just run the commands themselves +directly, but libguestfs provides a convenient API and language +bindings. Also deals with tricky stuff like parsing the output of the +LVM commands. Also we get to leverage other code such as +virt-inspector. + +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? + +Supermin appliance to febootstrap +--------------------------------- + +Supermin appliance functionality should be moved into febootstrap. + +Ideas for extra commands +------------------------ + + General glibc / core programs: + chgrp + more mk*temp calls + + ext2 properties: + chattr + lsattr + badblocks + blkid + debugfs + dumpe2fs + e2image + e2undo + filefrag + findfs + logsave + mklost+found + ext2undelete + + SELinux: + chcat + restorecon + ch??? + + Oddball: + pivot_root + fts(3) / ftw(3) + +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 + +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). + +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? + +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/ + +-N option should be generated +----------------------------- + +'-N' option should be generated code, and should generate +documentation in guestfish(1) manpage. + +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. + +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. +> add mydisk +Tip: You need to type 'run' before you can see into the disk image. +> run +Tip: Use 'list-filesystems' to see what filesystems are available. +> list-filesystems +/dev/vda1 +Tip: Use 'mount fs /' to mount a filesystem. +> mount /dev/vda1 / +Tip: Use 'll /' to view the filesystem or ... +> ll / + +New guestfish commands +---------------------- + +'list-filesystems' => list mountable filesystems + +Could we make guestfish interactive if commands are used without params? +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +> sparse +[[Prints man page]] +Image name? disk.img +Size of image? 10M + +Common problems +--------------- + +How can we solve these common user problems? + +- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2010-June/374931.html + In guestfish, specified -m non-existent filesystem. We could suggest + a list of filesystems, or suggest they run the virt-list-filesystems + command.