Re: [PATCH] kvm tools: adds a PCI device that exports a host shared segment as a PCI BAR in the guest

[Avi Kivity <avi@redhat.com>]

On 08/25/2011 02:15 PM, Pekka Enberg wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 1:59 PM, Stefan Hajnoczi<stefanha@gmail.com>  wrote:
> >  Introducing yet another non-standard and non-Linux interface doesn't
> >  help though.  If there is no significant improvement over ivshmem then
> >  it makes sense to let ivshmem gain critical mass and more users
> >  instead of fragmenting the space.
>
> Look, I'm not going to require QEMU compatibility from tools/kvm
> contributors. If you guys really feel that strongly about the
> interface, then either
>
>    - Get Rusty's "virtio spec pixie pee" for ivshmem

It's not a virtio device (doesn't do dma).  It does have a spec in 
qemu.git/docs/specs.

>    - Get the Linux driver merged to linux-next

ivshmem uses uio, so it doesn't need an in-kernel driver, IIRC.  Map 
your BAR from sysfs and go.

>    - Help out David and Sasha to change interface
>
> But don't ask me to block clean code from inclusion to tools/kvm
> because it doesn't have a QEMU-capable interface.

A lot of thought has gone into the design and implementation of 
ivshmem.  But don't let that stop you from merging clean code.

-- 
I have a truly marvellous patch that fixes the bug which this
signature is too narrow to contain.