Re: 9p file system for xen

[Linda <lindaj@jma3.com>]

Hi Wei,

On 11/16/2015 8:16 AM, Wei Liu wrote:
> Hi Linda
>
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 10:23:22AM -0700, Linda wrote:
>> Hello,
>>       I worked this summer as an intern under Julien Grall and Wei Liu.  My
>> project was to develop a prototype/proof of concept xen front/back end for
>> the 9p file system.  I mostly hacked the virtio 9p system.
>>      This project was not complete, at the end of the summer.  Julien said
>> that you all wanted to include this in the next release of xen in January,
>> and offered to take it over.  I told Julien I wanted to continue working on
>> it, which I have been doing, very much in the background.
>>      I came upon a bug in my code recently that made me aware that I am not
>> clear what the expectation for what I deliver should be: i.e., whether it's
>> still a prototype, or whether this should be production software.
>>      Right now, I do not modify the toolstack (I never learned how), but
>> rather start and pause my guest, and then modify xenstore, manually.   I can
>> fix my bug in the same manner, but this will limit the usefulness of what I
>> deliver.  To do more will hit up against the limitations of my time and
>> knowledge.
>>      So please let me know what you're expecting, especially wrt the user
>> interface, and when I would need to complete everything for this release.
>>
> If I interpret this correctly, you have a prototype that's working? Do
> you have your code somewhere?
No.  I hit a bug that I would fix differently, depending on my goal.
> I think we would still like to include it in next release if possible --
> that would require a properly implemented solution, not just a
> prototype.  Let's assess the current situation and then decide what to
The situation is, given my current knowledge and what my availability 
has been (it may improve), I can either:
     a.  Get a decent prototype working by the end of the year.  This 
would have certain values pre-written in xenstore, that I'm currently 
doing manually.  There are potentially some issues with mounting that I 
suspect need to be different for xen than they are for virtio - so 
either way, I need a clarification of how xen people want this to work.
     b.  Make sure what I've written is working, and pass it on to 
someone else to update the toolstack, and resolve the issues, described 
above.  In this scenario, I would need to know how much time that 
someone would need and just devote a week to getting this to them.

Either way, my next step is to sync up my qemu with the current qemu, 
and merge everything, and then my github will be correct, at which point 
you'll be able to access my most recent code.

Linda
> do next.
>
> Wei.
>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Linda Jacobson
>>
>>
>>
>>