[libvirt] [PATCH] Add <distro> to domain XML

[John Levon]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2009 at 11:53:37AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:

> > Support recording the distro type and variant of a domain.
> 
> I don't really consider distro type & variant as represented by
> virt-install to be very satisfactory. It was intended to represent
> the capabilities of the OS being installed, but it is too 
> inflexible to cope with changing capabilities over time. 

It seems I'm being hoisted by virt-install's petard.

> Tracking it in the XML also doesn't take account of the fact that
> it is only indicating the capabilities of the install media, and
> has no knowledge of the fact that the guest OS does upgrades on
> the fly.

The intention is for this to become a dynamic reflection of what's
actually in the guest, where possible.

> So I really don't want to formally encode a flawed concept like
> distro type & variant in the XML.  

Please propose exactly what you want and I'll go do it.

Being XML it is of course perfectly able to extend itself for more
information. So you could add your <family> or <compat> tag or whatever
without any problems.

> None of this  exists in upstream XenD. As a general rule unless it is  in
> upstream XenD, then we shouldn't include it in libvirt. That said, I

Oh come on. Hacks for RHEL5 are OK, but anyone else has changes in their
system and it's not? Whatever happened to libvirt not being lowest
common denominator?

john