[Qemu-devel] Re: [RFC][PATCH v5 07/21] virtagent: add va.getfile RPC

[Jes Sorensen]

On 12/09/10 22:04, Michael Roth wrote:
> On 12/09/2010 08:40 AM, Adam Litke wrote:
>> Actually, a host-controlled interface would be both simpler to implement
>> (on both ends) and would concentrate control in the host (which is what
>> we probably want anyway).
> 
> I also like the host-controlled mechanism. I think the difficulty is
> about the same either way though. Both would require an FD to be kept
> open, and some mechanism to read/seek in chunks and then send it back.

> I don't think this should replace the underlying RPC for viewfile
> however. I'd much rather it be an additional RPC, and we just put strict
> limits on the size of files viewfile/getfile can handle and make it
> clear that it is intended for quickly viewing text. I'll rename the
> getfile RPC to viewfile to make this a bit clearer as well.

I really think the viewfile stuff needs to go away, it is a rats trap
for things that can go wrong. It would really only be useful from the
human monitor, whereas any other application will be happy to implement
it at the higher level.

Having it in the human monitor you risk messing it up by viewing a
binary file and you end up having to kill you guest to fix it.

Putting artificial limits on it means someone will eventually try to
change those.

Lets keep this at the higher level, where it IMHO belongs.

Cheers,
Jes