Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: [kvm-devel] [PATCH] Add support for a configuration file

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 05:52:56PM +0300, Dor Laor wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 2008-05-14 at 17:41 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> > > That's very nearly YAML format[1], which is attractive because parsers
> > > are available in every major programming language, and it is still
> > > pretty human friendly.
> > >
> > > So my preference would be to go with the last option and make sure
> > > it really is YAML compliant so people can use standard tools for 
> > > generating and parsing the format.
> > >   
> > 
> > Using a standard format has the added benefit that things like quoting 
> > are taken care of.
> > 
> > Filenames with leading and trailing spaces, anyone?  Embedded control 
> > characters?
> > 
> 
> Please don't jump over me but I think it is worth mentioning OVF, at
> least for to know what's you opinions.

OVF is insanely overcomplicated. It is also addressing a different problem
space, that of virtual machine applinance interchange / distribution. And 
it is a disgusting format for users to deal with. 

> Open Virtualization Format -
> http://www.vmware.com/appliances/learn/ovf.html
> 
> It's xml based, supported by all major hypervisors, so qemu/kvm/xen
> users might eventually use a product that support OVF.
> Since its a new format it is open for changes and has lots of
> flexibility. As a start we don't have to be completely compatible with
> it.

It is a 'open' format defined in secret invitation only cabal by
a bunch of proprietry software vendors. No thanks.

Dan.
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