Re: [libvirt] [RFC] Defining firmware (OVMF, et al) metadata format & file

On Thu, Mar 08, 2018 at 08:52:45AM +0100, Gerd Hoffmann wrote: > Hi, > >>> [*] Open question: Who, between QEMU and libvirt, should define the said >>> firmware metadata format and file? >> >> IMHO QEMU should be defining the format, because the file will contain >> info about certain QEMU features associated with the firmware (eg smm). >> Also there are potentially other non-libvirt mgmt apps that spawn QEMU >> which would like this info (eg libguestfs), so having libvirt define the >> format is inappropriate. >> >> I'd suggest we just need something in docs/specs/firmware-metadata.rst >> for QEMU source tree. >> >> Potentially QEMU could even use the metadata files itself for finding >> the default firmeware images, instead of compiling this info into its >> binaries. I wouldn't suggest we need todo that right away, but bear it >> in mind as a potential use case. > > With qemu using this itself in mind it probably makes sense to specify > this as qapi schema. That'll simplify parsing and using these files in > qemu, and possibly simplifies things on the libvirt side too. I was thinking of an 'ini' style format, similar to that used by systemd unit files, but a JSON format file is a nicer fit with QEMU & Libvirt if we describe it with qapi.