Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] /sys/hypervisor/uuid

[Jeremy Katz <katzj@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2006-05-19 at 01:57 -0500, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> Markus Armbruster wrote:
> > New /sys/hypervisor/uuid, containing this domain's UUID.
> >
> > Stripping off /vm/ from the value of vm to get the UUID isn't exactly
> > nice.  The alternative is to add a XENVER_get_uuid code to
> > HYPERVISOR_xen_version(), but I'm not sure that's worth it.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I really don't think we should be mirroring things in sysfs that are 
> available in userspace.  What benefit is there of having two interfaces 
> to the same information?

1) Ability to be used by non-privileged user
2) Relying on libxenstore being in domU is a less than ideal state
3) The kernel already has to change if the layout in xenstore changes,
userspace shouldn't have to know or care
4) The exporting of a node in procfs for accessing xenstore is crack
that will never make it upstream :)

> If the argument is that we don't want to rely on libxenstore in a domU, 
> then we should be exposing all of XenStore in sysfs.

Arguably, we should[1].  But even then, I think it would be nice to have
the UUID exported in a fashion that's guaranteed to be consistent over
time.

> The uuid parameter is a construction of Xend.  Xend is *not* a part of 
> the supported guest interface.  By exposing the uuid in the kernel 
> interface, you're tying an unsupported interface to what really should 
> be a supported interface.

The method of where the UUID is and how it's constructed is in Xend, but
a UUID is going to always have to exist.  Even physical systems have
them.  And with good reason.

> Plus, there's already a patch floating on LKML for a /sys/hypervisor.  
> We shouldn't start adding attributes to this namespace as it could 
> potentially conflict with the existing patch.
> 
> In the very least, we ought to stick this stuff in /sys/hypervisor/xen.

That, or propose it upstream in a fashion such that each hypervisor can
have it populated in its own way.  But, yeah, /sys/hypervisor/xen is
likely to be the easier way to go there.

Jeremy

[1] Well, or another magic debugfs -- xenstoredebugfs anyone? :)


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