[Qemu-devel] QEMU feature idea: simple macros/scripting

["John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@pobox.com>]

I have a suggestion for a feature for QEMU:

Macros/Scripting. For the most part, on my machines Windows is a very
manual labor intensive peripheral. I haven't moved to an open source
accounting package yet, so I use Quickbooks. I use it to keep track of
invoices and consulting hours. But every time I print an invoice between
evolution and the virtual machine, copy name/address information between
the two systems and print an invoice to file, ftp that file back over to
Linux, convert it to pdf, and mail to my customer.

I think if Windows under QEMU were scriptable, that I could take several
steps out of my workflow (I imagine there are other ways I could
automate it as well).

So I think the FTP server addition for exchanging files, in concert with
some way to actually record/playback typing at the keyboard and clicking
the mouse would allow me to use Windows as a peripheral.

Similarly for Windows only hardware (no Linux driver), one could utilize
such a Mother of All Kludges.

This would also be a real boon to testers since they could easily script
out clicks and keypresses (so long as they can figure out a way to
record "evidence" of a successful test... file showing up on disk, or
maybe you allow screen captures at key points to be added to the script
and viewed by a person to determine if the test was successful).

You would probably want a way to stretch and shrink the amount of time
it takes to run different parts of the script, since just playing back
often won't work, but sometimes it does.

I don't think VmWare does anything like this, so I believe it would be
unique to QEMU.


Probably too early to add this high level feature, stability and speed
first as always, but something to cogitate on for the future.


-- John.