[PATCH v2 05/11] qemu-options: finesse the recommendations around -blockdev

Alex Bennée
2023-04-03T13:49:33Z

We are a bit premature in recommending -blockdev/-device as the best
way to configure block devices, especially in the common case.
Improve the language to hopefully make things clearer.

Suggested-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru>
Signed-off-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>
Reviewed-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20230330101141.30199-5-alex.bennee@linaro.org>
---
qemu-options.hx | 8 ++++++--
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 59bdf67a2c..9a69ed838e 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -1143,10 +1143,14 @@ have gone through several iterations as the feature set and complexity
of the block layer have grown. Many online guides to QEMU often
reference older and deprecated options, which can lead to confusion.

-The recommended modern way to describe disks is to use a combination of
+The most explicit way to describe disks is to use a combination of
``-device`` to specify the hardware device and ``-blockdev`` to
describe the backend. The device defines what the guest sees and the
-backend describes how QEMU handles the data.
+backend describes how QEMU handles the data. The ``-drive`` option
+combines the device and backend into a single command line options
+which is useful in the majority of cases. Older options like ``-hda``
+bake in a lot of assumptions from the days when QEMU was emulating a
+legacy PC, they are not recommended for modern configurations.

ERST

--
2.39.2