Re: [PATCH 2/3] xend: Add multiple cpumasks support

[Ryan Harper <ryanh@us.ibm.com>]

* Keir Fraser <Keir.Fraser@cl.cam.ac.uk> [2006-08-14 12:37]:
> On 14/8/06 5:57 pm, "Ryan Harper" <ryanh@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> > This patch modifies xend to accept and parse multiple cpumask strings
> > from the cpus parameter.  The cpus string stays the same, but it now
> > can parse either a python list of strings:
> > 
> > [ '2-5, '2-5', '2-5' ]
> > 
> > A regular string with ", " as the separator:
> > 
> > "2-5, 2-5, 2-5, 2-5"
> > 
> > or a mixture of both:
> > 
> > [ 2-5, '2-5', 2-5, '2-5' ]
> 
> This isn't really a mixture of both, is it? It looks syntactically incorrect
> (e.g., first 2-5 is unquoted so not a string).

create.py ends up passing the whole thing as a string even if you mark
it up as a list with strings embedded which is why I can mix it.  If you
like, we can drop support for dealing with the [ ... ] form and just use
cpus = ""

> 
> I'm not sure about the use of ', ' as a delimiter. It would be less
> confusing to strictly require the use of the list form. I would imagine it's
> then clearest used as:
> Cpus = []
> Cpus[0] = '2-5'
> Cpus[1] = '3-4'
> ...

I'd prefer to not have to use any language arrays.  I'm not sure how
this will map to the xml-based config files that Ewan was talking about,
but I suppose he will have to come up with something since we have
things like the disk parameter which is in python list format.

> 
> Trying to read long lists of cpu constraints with spaces in will make people
> go cross-eyed!

I agree.  The point was that I'm attempting to parse as much as I can
make sense of,  not to indicate how we should tell the user to convey this
information.  I also like being able to retain the cpu=, cpus=, previous
syntax while extending it to support multiple cpumasks.  

I think the following (which I added in the example files)
is good enough without having to resort to arrays/dictionaries.

cpus = "2-5, 2-5, 2-5, 2-5"

I'm open to other field delimiters if that is a point of contention.

-- 
Ryan Harper
Software Engineer; Linux Technology Center
IBM Corp., Austin, Tx
(512) 838-9253   T/L: 678-9253
ryanh@us.ibm.com