Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: Release plan for 0.12.0

[Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org>]

Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 09:17:15AM -0500, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> > Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> >> Looks like Or has abandoned it.  I have an updated version which works
> >> with new APIs, etc.  Let me post it and we'll go from there.
> >>
> >>   
> >>> I'm generally inclined to oppose the functionality as I don't think 
> >>> it  offers any advantages over the existing backends.
> >>>     
> >>
> >> I patch it in and use it all the time.  It's much easier to setup
> >> on a random machine than a bridged config.
> >>   
> >
> > Having two things that do the same thing is just going to lead to user  
> > confusion.
> 
> They do not do the same thing. With raw socket you can use windows
> update without a bridge in the host, with tap you can't.

On the other hand, with raw socket, guest Windows can't access files
on the host's Samba share can it?  So it's not that useful even for
Windows guests.

> > If the problem is tap is too hard to setup, we should try to  
> > simplify tap configuration.
> 
> The problem is bridge is too hard to setup.
> Simplifying that is a good idea, but outside the scope
> of the qemu project.

I venture it's important enough for qemu that it's worth working on
that.  Something that looks like the raw socket but behaves like an
automatically instantiated bridge attached to the bound interface
would be a useful interface.

I don't have much time, but I'll help anybody who wants to do that.

-- Jamie