Re: [Qemu-devel] Non-flat command line option argument syntax

[Markus Armbruster]

Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden> writes:

> On 04/02/2017 01:45, Markus Armbruster wrote:
>>>>      -drive driver=qcow2,
>>>>             file.driver=gluster,
>>>>                 .volume=testvol,
>>>>                 .path=/path/a.qcow2,
>>>>                 .debug=9,
>>>>             file.server.0.type=tcp,
>>>>                          .host=1.2.3.4,
>>>>                          .port=24007,
>>>>             file.server.1.type=unix,
>>>>                          .socket=/var/run/glusterd.socket
>>>>
>>>> Mind, I'm not at all sure this is a *good* idea.  I suspect it's more
>>>> magic than it's worth.
>>> As someone who likes dot syntax very much, I don't like it. If you
>>> structure it like this, it's OK, but then you can just write the full
>>> prefix (which gets the point across just as well because I can quickly
>>> tell from a glance that it's the same prefix).
>>>
>>> OTOH, when joined into a single line it doesn't change much in terms of
>>> legibility, in my opinion.
>> 
>> Thanks!
>
> Actually I think it does improve legibility.
>
> It doesn't improve writability though, as anecdotally proved by Markus's
> own mistake.
>
> I am a fan of the dot syntax too.  It seems to be the most incremental
> solution, and it's still as expressive as JSON.

Noted.

> _However_ we could also extend -readconfig to support JSON, i.e. instead of
>
>       [drive "abc"]
>               file = "foo"
>
> it could support
>
>       { 'drive': { 'file: 'foo' }, 'id': 'abc' }
>
> In other words [ would introduce key-value QemuOpts with dot syntax,
> while { would introduce JSON.

Yes, we should support config files in JSON syntax.  Not sure mixing INI
and JSON syntax in the same file is a good idea, though.