[libvirt] [PATCH] virsh edit command

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 04:14:30AM -0400, Daniel Veillard wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 05:55:13PM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 05:50:30PM +0100, John Levon wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 05:46:34PM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> > > > Do you think a graphical libvirt XML format editor is a good solution?
> > > 
> > > This would help enormously. You could even start it from 'virsh edit' if
> > > $DISPLAY is set.
> > > 
> > > I've no idea about the general tools out there for generating UI from
> > > XML, but there has to be something.
> > 
> > DV??
> 
>   :-)
> 
> I can probably be found on record in a few place suggesting to not
> inflict XML directly to users as what you frequently get is a very
> annoyed person and a not-wellformed instance in the end. Adding vi
> as the editor I really hope no journalist will ever try that feature :-)
> 
> But this can be useful for those who know what they are doing.
> 
> Unfortunately, general purpose XML editors, are very complex, usually
> large beast, and not a good solution for a the problem. There exist
> some specific XML formats editors but they hide the syntax based on
> the semantic of the XML format (e.g. the glade UI editor) but are
> not suitable as a result.
> 
> I don't think there is a good option between editing as text using
> $EDITOR and a dedicated editing tool. Ideally this could be the 
> configuration dialog of virt-manager separated as a standalone 
> application for coherency and minimizing external dependancies. If
> not present fallback to $EDITOR, so IMHO having the edit command 
> now even if the graphical editor is not here is just a first step,
> I agree with this approach.

Yes, virt-manager is getting ever expanding capabilities WRT to editing
guest configuration settings, so I don't think we have a pressing need
for another graphical editor for this yet.  This virsh edit command is
basically a nice convenience for a set of actions that many admins are
already doing on a fairly regular basis, and its not a significantly
complex piece of code for us to maintain. 

Daniel
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