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Re: [Qemu-devel] RFC: Proposal to add QEMU "Guest Environment Variables"


From: Gabriel L. Somlo
Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] RFC: Proposal to add QEMU "Guest Environment Variables"
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 11:06:47 -0500
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12)

On Wed, Feb 04, 2015 at 04:00:05PM +0000, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 02:09:22PM -0500, Gabriel L. Somlo wrote:
> >     qemu-system-x86_64 -guest-env="VAR1=value1;VAR2=value 2" -hda 
> > image.qcow2
> 
> libguestfs does this already by passing a few environment variables on
> the kernel command line.  This requires a Linux guest kernel and that
> you're using the -kernel and -append options.

Right, lots of the VMs I'm concerned about are Windows, of various
vintages.

> For a more general purpose approach, I'd suggest something with
> virtio-serial.

That requires that either the host or guest actively reach out and
push or pull something to/from the other, respectively, as a separate
step from simply starting the guest.

> What problem is this actually trying to solve?

Feature-parity with vmware's guestinfo variables (see
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Scripting_API_23.pdf, pp.36)

Think "environment variables" from host to guest, without requiring
one to connect to anything and mount/download/push or otherwise
transfer stuff before the guest can know what it's supposed to do.

Thanks much,
--Gabriel



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