On 21/12/2010, at 10:15 PM, Anthony Davis wrote:

Hi Justin,

I can offer some free time :)

Awesome Anthony, very welcome. :) There's a pretty broad spectrum of things we need to get improved. :)

From stuff that doesn't take any real virtualisation knowledge:

+ The new Virsh Command Reference. Most pages just list the command name and the version of libvirt it came in, without even showing the arguments the command can be given. Like this: http://libvirt.org/sources/virshcmdref/html/sect-list.html It just needs someone(s) who can run the virsh "help" command for a command, and then write down the options the command has. We're using a really simple text format for this, so it's pretty easy. :) Stuff that requires knowledge of an operating system, but not necessarily deep Virtualisation knowledge: + The existing docs on the libvirt.org website have been (mostly) written by people using path names that apply to Fedora and RHEL. It would be good to identify these, and update these to include the correct paths for other Linux distributions too, such as Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Gentoo, and so on. Probably the first thing that needs to be done for this is just someone to scan through the pages on the website making a list of which ones have paths to be looked at. We can then figure out from there what it'll take, who needs to do what, etc. :) + Screenshots. Lots of the virt-manager pieces and processes could benefit from having good screenshots taken to show the process. Note, I haven't really thought this bit through to a deep level, so we probably need to discuss, make a list, and so on. :) Stuff that could really use a person that *does* have solid knowledge about some aspect of things, or a strong desire to learn it (then write it up). The two areas that jump out the most as needing attention here are: + Virtualisation storage concepts. There are some initial bits around "What is a storage pool? What is a storage volume? How do we use them?" in places, but nothing really nicely put together, targeted to general SysAdmin users. Some of this info does exist in the Fedora or RHEL virtualisation guides, but they're distro specific and this info should be available on the libvirt.org or virt-tools.org websites themselves. + Networking and virtualisation. All kinds of stuff here, from explaining how each of the virtual networking types work, through to explaining what the VirtIO network device is, and how to install the drivers for it in Windows. All of which is directly of use to heaps of people, and hasn't yet been written. Heh. ;) So, I guess the first and best question is "which of the above sounds like you?" :) Regards and best wishes, Justin Clift

On 22/12/2010, at 3:23 AM, Scott Baker wrote:

On 12/21/2010 03:15 AM, Anthony Davis wrote:

...

Hi Justin,

I can offer some free time:)

I'd be willing to contribute to a wiki if we had the docs in a wiki.

Yeah I know what you mean. Wiki's are *so* much easier to work with and revise, compared to having to code in html then submit diffs as patches. At the moment, the "main" libvirt docs are written in html and included with each release tarball. It makes sure everyone who downloads the tarball has a copy, but it doesn't make them easy to edit. :/ Some of the things that need documenting though, are definitely able to be written up into a wiki first to get them into shape. We could then move the things that are "finished" in the wiki to the main tarball (after converting to html). I personally do similar to this anyway for lots of things, as I find getting info onto a wiki first allows me to refine, refine, refine, until I'm happy with it. Then it can go anywhere. This is the first tentative Docs Team To Do list page (on the wiki even), just whipped up using the contents of a reply to Anthony: http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/DocsToDo Stuff that I reckon would be suitable for writing on the wiki generally fall into the second and third categories there, of things that need either some OS level knowledge (for investigating non Fedora-RHEL paths), or for writing up concepts around Storage, Networking, or similar. You up for it? :) Regards and best wishes, Justin Clift

On 22/12/2010, at 2:31 AM, Albert Hopkins wrote:

I am interested, but not sure if/how I can contribute.

All good. Showing that you're interested is the right first step. :) There are quite a few really important things that need to be improved with the libvirt documentation, so it more comes down to "do any of them appeal to you?". :) There was an initial kind of overview/list in the reply to Anthony earlier this hour, and I'm copying that to the wiki right now so we can flesh it out. :) Do you reckon you could assist in getting the options written up for some of the virsh commands in the Virsh Command Reference? I think that's applicable to most libvirt users, and is one of the most under-documented things we need to get fixed. :) Regards and best wishes, Justin Clift