From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH for-4.5 v6 05/16] tools: Add vmware_port
	support
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 17:34:45 +0100
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To: Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com>, Don Slutz <dslutz@verizon.com>
Cc: Tim Deegan <tim@xen.org>, Kevin Tian <kevin.tian@intel.com>, Keir Fraser <keir@xen.org>, Jun Nakajima <jun.nakajima@intel.com>, Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@eu.citrix.com>, George Dunlap <George.Dunlap@eu.citrix.com>, Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@eu.citrix.com>, Eddie Dong <eddie.dong@intel.com>, xen-devel@lists.xen.org, Aravind Gopalakrishnan <Aravind.Gopalakrishnan@amd.com>, Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>, Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@oracle.com>, Suravee Suthikulpanit <suravee.suthikulpanit@amd.com>
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On 22/09/14 14:41, Ian Campbell wrote:
> On Sat, 2014-09-20 at 14:07 -0400, Don Slutz wrote:
>> This new libxl_domain_create_info field is used to set
>> XEN_DOMCTL_CDF_vmware_port for the xc_domain_create() routine.
> Does this really need to be a CDF, rather than a domctl/hvm param?

I have made the argument that many things which are currently HVM Params
should be CDF, as they absolutely should be set and immutable for the
entire lifetime of the domain.

>>From recollection, we have had several XSAs in the past which are
directly attributable to the toolstack or guest being able to play with
an (insufficiently locked down) HVM param after boot.

Using a CDF avoids potential issues along these lines.

>
> The latter would allow moving to buildinfo.u.hvm, which would be nicer
> from the libxl PoV, I think.
>

Whatever the decision regarding CDF/hvmparam/other is, getting it right
in the hypervisor is a much higher priority than being nice in libxl.

It is unfortunate that libxl exposes the internal implementation details
of createinfo vs buildinfo in its API.  With hindsight, it was a poor
design decision.

~Andrew