Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] qemu-img: Deprecate use of -b without -F

On 3/10/20 4:47 AM, Kashyap Chamarthy wrote:

> <digression> > > Ah, didn't realize the inconsistency of 'convert' lacking the '-F' > shorthand ... which reminds me, there are at least _three_ ways that I > know of, to specify backing file format with 'create': > > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o 'backing_file=./base.raw,backing_fmt=raw' ./overlay1.qcow2 > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b ./base.raw -o backing_fmt=raw overlay1.qcow2 > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b ./base.raw -F raw ./overlay1.qcow2 > > I'm wondering about the consistency of having all the above three > supported for other operations too. Now I at least know 'convert' lacks > the "-F". The -o forms (backing_file= and backing_fmt=) always work. Various commands then have additional shorthand: -b/-F for create, -B for convert. You're right that we aren't very consistent, but I'm reluctant to change the inconsistencies in this patch

(at one point in the past, we tried to get rid of the shorthand and force all users to go through -o, but that broke too many clients that were depending on the undocumented shorthand, so we documented the existing shorthand instead).