[libvirt] [RFC] Defining firmware (OVMF, et al) metadata format & file

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2018 at 08:52:45AM +0100, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>   Hi,
> 
> > > [*] Open question: Who, between QEMU and libvirt, should define the said
> > > firmware metadata format and file?
> > 
> > IMHO QEMU should be defining the format, because the file will contain
> > info about certain QEMU features associated with the firmware (eg smm).
> > Also there are potentially other non-libvirt mgmt apps that spawn QEMU
> > which would like this info (eg libguestfs), so having libvirt define the
> > format is inappropriate.
> > 
> > I'd suggest we just need something in docs/specs/firmware-metadata.rst
> > for QEMU source tree.
> > 
> > Potentially QEMU could even use the metadata files itself for finding
> > the default firmeware images, instead of compiling this info into its
> > binaries. I wouldn't suggest we need todo that right away, but bear it
> > in mind as a potential use case.
> 
> With qemu using this itself in mind it probably makes sense to specify
> this as qapi schema.  That'll simplify parsing and using these files in
> qemu, and possibly simplifies things on the libvirt side too.

I was thinking of an 'ini' style format, similar to that used by systemd
unit files, but a JSON format file is a nicer fit with QEMU & Libvirt if
we describe it with qapi.

Regards,
Daniel
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