Re: [kvm-unit-tests PATCH 0/4] configure changes and rename --target-efi

[Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2022, Alexandru Elisei wrote:
> I renamed --target-efi to --efi-payload in the last patch because I felt it
> looked rather confusing to do ./configure --target=qemu --target-efi when
> configuring the tests. If the rename is not acceptable, I can think of a
> few other options:

I find --target-efi to be odd irrespective of this new conflict.  A simple --efi
seems like it would be sufficient.

> 1. Rename --target to --vmm. That was actually the original name for the
> option, but I changed it because I thought --target was more generic and
> that --target=efi would be the way going forward to compile kvm-unit-tests
> to run as an EFI payload. I realize now that separating the VMM from
> compiling kvm-unit-tests to run as an EFI payload is better, as there can
> be multiple VMMs that can run UEFI in a VM. Not many people use kvmtool as
> a test runner, so I think the impact on users should be minimal.

Again irrespective of --target-efi, I think --target for the VMM is a potentially
confusing name.  Target Triplet[*] and --target have specific meaning for the
compiler, usurping that for something similar but slightly different is odd.

But why is the VMM specified at ./configure time?  Why can't it be an option to
run_tests.sh?  E.g. --target-efi in configure makes sense because it currently
requires different compilation options, but even that I hope we can someday change
so that x86-64 always builds EFI-friendly tests.  I really don't want to get to a
point where tests themselves have to be recompiled to run under different VMMs.

[*] https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.69/html_node/Specifying-Target-Triplets.html
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