[Qemu-devel] Re: [PATCH 1/2] Rework -boot option

[Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@web.de>]

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Anthony Liguori wrote:
> Jan Kiszka wrote:
>> This patch changes the boot command line option to the canonical format
>>
>>  -boot [order=drives][,interactive=on|off]
>>
>> where 'drives' is using the same format as the old -boot. The new format
>> is required in order to add the 'interactive' option and use the
>> existing infrastructure to parse it.
>>
>> The state of 'interactive' is transfered to the firmware via the new
>> configuration value FW_CFG_BOOT_INTERACTIVE.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@siemens.com>
>>   
> 
> This breaks compatibility with existing management tools.  Can't we do:
> 
> -boot [order=]drives[,interactive=on|off]
> 
> Certainly, -drive introduces a precedence for this type of format.

Everything is possible, but comes with a price:
 - more complex code
 - more ugly and inconsistent user interface

Is there no precedence for breaking the command line interface in order
to clean things up?

An alternative could be to keep -boot as is, at least for the next few
major releases, and introduce a new option with the proposed format. Not
much simpler, but a bit. And comes with the chance to drop the legacy at
some point. Any naming suggestions welcome!

Jan


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