Re: [kvm-devel] Re: Storing command line options in images

Thiemo Seufer
2007-08-13T19:39:27Z

Jorge Lucángeli Obes wrote:
[snip]
> When I read Avi's TODO, I basically thought about getting rid of the
> long command lines I had to store in scripts. I wanted to write that
> command line once, and then forgetting about it, until I needed to
> change it.

Instead of inventing great and wonderfully complicated schemes, the
most sensible way I can think of is to recycle a feature which is now
implemented in the GNU toolchain, and apparently stems from Windows:

qemu @qemu.cfg

where qemu.cfg is a file which contains the command line arguments.
(This is also low-maintenance, as it allows to re-use the existing
parser. No need for duplicated logic.)

> I wanted an image to be self-contained as much as possible.
> That's what I set to achieve.

Which tends to collect all the complexity in a single piece.
That seems to be the common problem of the option discussed here.

> All that said, I rethought Anthony's idea of storing plain text in the
> image and with proper tools, it can work out.

Requiring "proper tools" doesn't leave much of a point for plain text.

Thiemo