From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GcC56-0007TG-SO for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:31:56 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GcC56-0007Sr-7w for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:31:56 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GcC56-0007So-2Z for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:31:56 -0400 Received: from [65.74.133.4] (helo=mail.codesourcery.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1GcC55-0002cm-T7 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:31:56 -0400 From: Paul Brook Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 03:31:44 +0100 References: <200610240136.41311.paul@codesourcery.com> <1893885600.20061024043855@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <1893885600.20061024043855@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200610240331.46702.paul@codesourcery.com> Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Paul Sokolovsky Cc: qemu-devel@nongnu.org > >> >> > I've been considering a machine config file for a while, but > >> >> > haven't come up with a coherent way of representing everything yet. > >> > >> I'm glad this discussion was brought up on the list. And I'd like > >> to also bring back another related issue - what about providing > >> "plugin" system for device (chip) implementation, in addition to > >> flexible-format machine config allowing to construct "virtual boards" > >> out of them? > > > > IMHO we already have a fairly good device model, and it's not hard to add > > new devices. > > Maybe. But where are new chips in qemu? You mean like m68k I just committed, and sh4 that got added not so long ago? Or the LSI SCSI emulation? Or the PCnet and rtl8139 NIC emulation? > Why there're still only 2 ARM boards? It's actually 3 (another with 2 minor variants of those boards), and there are at least 3 other (incomplete) ports have been posted on the list but not merged. > How do I "stick" wi-fi card in one of them? Huh? Same way you add any other device. Call the init function and get it to register its resources. > So the concern > is not just if it's easy to add new devices or not, but if there're means > to actually support appearance and growth of device library. Plugin system > would be a "decree" that there's a stable API to define devices and > welcome for 3rd-party developers to develop them. > > And well, patching source is not really that easy a way to "add new > devices". I don't believe that. Adding 2 lines to a Makefile is probably easier than building an independent plugin. Paul