Re: [PATCH v5 4/7] qcow2: Deprecate use of qemu-img amend to change backing file

The use of 'qemu-img amend' to change qcow2 backing files is not tested very well. In particular, our implementation has a bug where if a new backing file is provided without a format, then the prior format is blindly reused, even if this results in data corruption, but this is not caught by iotests. There are also situations where amending other options needs access to the original backing file (for example, on a downgrade to a v2 image, knowing whether a v3 zero cluster must be allocated or may be left unallocated depends on knowing whether the backing file already reads as zero), but the command line does not have a nice way to tell us both the backing file to use for opening the image as well as the backing file to install after the operation is complete. Even if we do allow changing the backing file, it is redundant with the existing ability to change backing files via 'qemu-img rebase -u'. It is time to deprecate this support (leaving the existing behavior intact, even if it is buggy), and at a point in the future, require the use of only 'qemu-img rebase' for adjusting backing chain relations, saving 'qemu-img amend' for changes unrelated to the backing chain. Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <eblake(a)redhat.com&gt;