As discussed during "[PATCH v4 00/29] vhost-user for input & GPU" review, let's define a common set of backend conventions to help with management layer implementation, and interoperability. Cc: libvir-list(a)redhat.com Cc: Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel(a)redhat.com&gt; Cc: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange(a)redhat.com&gt; Cc: Changpeng Liu <changpeng.liu(a)intel.com&gt; Cc: Dr. David Alan Gilbert <dgilbert(a)redhat.com&gt; Cc: Felipe Franciosi <felipe(a)nutanix.com&gt; Cc: Gonglei <arei.gonglei(a)huawei.com&gt; Cc: Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin(a)redhat.com&gt; Cc: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst(a)redhat.com&gt; Cc: Victor Kaplansky <victork(a)redhat.com&gt; Signed-off-by: Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau(a)redhat.com&gt; --- docs/interop/vhost-user.txt | 106 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/interop/vhost-user.txt b/docs/interop/vhost-user.txt index ba5e37d714..691ce173ed 100644 --- a/docs/interop/vhost-user.txt +++ b/docs/interop/vhost-user.txt @@ -17,8 +17,13 @@ The protocol defines 2 sides of the communication, master and slave. Master is the application that shares its virtqueues, in our case QEMU. Slave is the consumer of the virtqueues. -In the current implementation QEMU is the Master, and the Slave is intended to -be a software Ethernet switch running in user space, such as Snabbswitch. +In the current implementation QEMU is the Master, and the Slave is the +external process consuming the virtio queues, for example a software +Ethernet switch running in user space, such as Snabbswitch, or a block +device backend processing read & write to a virtual disk. In order to +facilitate interoperability between various backend implementations, +it is recommended to follow the "Backend program conventions" +described in this document. Master and slave can be either a client (i.e. connecting) or server (listening) in the socket communication. @@ -859,3 +864,100 @@ resilient for selective requests. For the message types that already solicit a reply from the client, the presence of VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK or need_reply bit being set brings no behavioural change. (See the 'Communication' section for details.) + +Backend program conventions +--------------------------- + +vhost-user backends provide various services and they may need to be +configured manually depending on the use case. However, it is a good +idea to follow the conventions listed here when possible. Users, QEMU +or libvirt, can then rely on some common behaviour to avoid +heterogenous configuration and management of the backend program and +facilitate interoperability. + +In order to be discoverable, default vhost-user backends should be +located under "/usr/libexec", and be named "vhost-user-$device" where +"$device" is the device name in lower-case following the name listed +in the Linux virtio_ids.h header (ex: the VIRTIO_ID_RPROC_SERIAL +backend would be named "vhost-user-rproc-serial"). + +Mechanisms to list, and to select among alternatives implementations +or modify the default backend are not described at this point (a +distribution may use update-alternatives, for example, to list and to +pick a different default backend). + +The backend program must end (as quickly and cleanly as possible) when +the SIGTERM signal is received. Eventually, it may be SIGKILL by the +management layer after a few seconds. + +The following command line options have an expected behaviour. They +are mandatory, unless explicitly said differently: + +* --socket-path=PATH + +This option specify the location of the vhost-user Unix domain socket. +It is incompatible with --fd. + +* --fd=FDNUM + +When this argument is given, the backend program is started with the +vhost-user socket as file descriptor FDNUM. It is incompatible with +--socket-path. + +* --print-capabilities + +Output to stdout a line-seperated list of backend capabilities, and +then exit successfully. Other options and arguments should be ignored, +and the backend program should not perform its normal function. + +At the time of writing, there are no common capabilities. Some +device-specific capabilities are listed in the respective sections. By +convention, device-specific capabilities are prefixed by their device +name. + +* --pidfile=PATH + +Write the process id (PID) to the given file PATH. This is mostly +useful if the backend daemonize/fork itself. + +vhost-user-input program conventions +------------------------------------ + +Capabilities: + +input-evdev-path + + The --evdev-path command line option is supported. + +input-no-grab + + The --no-grab command line option is supported. + +* --evdev-path=PATH (optional) + +Specify the linux input device. + +* --no-grab (optional) + +Do no request exclusive access to the input device. + +vhost-user-gpu program conventions +---------------------------------- + +Capabilities: + +gpu-render-node + + The --render-node command line option is supported. + +gpu-virgl + + The --virgl command line option is supported. + +* --render-node=PATH (optional) + +Specify the GPU DRM render node. + +* --virgl (optional) + +Enable virgl rendering support. -- 2.19.0.rc1