[libvirt-users] [virt-tools-list] Is virsh supposed to work on Windows?

[Marc-André Lureau]

----- Original Message -----
> Hi,
> >> I'm trying to use virsh and virt-viewer on Windows.  I'm running the
> >> latest binaries from http://spice-space.org/download.html, that is,
> >> virt-viewer-x64-0.5.7.msi on a Windows 7 64-bits computer.
> >>
> >> So far I got remote-viewer.exe to work, after some pain. But have no
> >> sucess using virt-viewer.exe and virsh.exe. Are they supposed to work,
> >> or am I loosing my time?
> > It will only work if someone interested enough submits patches.
> 
> This means it isn't supposed to work, or this means you don't know about
> anyone trying to use those binaries besides me? :-)

The libvirt part hasn't been widely used on windows. Developers just keep it compiling, afaik.

> I am willing to help all I can to test, but I'm not a Gnome developer. I
> have not coded a single line in C for more than 10 yeas. :-(

You are lucky! :) libvirt is not a gnome technology. If you have some developper experience, it might not be so hard to fix some of the issues (like the paths).

> >> Even then virsh can't connect:
> >>
> >> virsh # connect qemu://kvmhost/system
> >> error: Failed to connect to the hypervisor
> >> error: Unable to set close-on-exec flag: Success
> > Here, I wonder if we can't improve the situation;
> > src/util/virutil.c:virSetInherit() does nothing, and its wrapper
> > virSetCloseExec() should therefore always return 0, which makes it very
> > suspicious - the message in src/rpc/virnetsocket.c about close-on-exec
> > not working should never be reached.
> 
> If you (or someone else) sends me testing or debuging binaries, I'll be
> glad to test them. I'll even setup another virtualization host if some
> thinks a newer CentOS, RHEL or Fedora could help. But I won't be able to
> code myself.
> 
> I hope someone at Red Hat gives attention to this, because most admins
> of a RHEL / RHEV host runs Windows desktops. My home computer runs only
> Fedora, but at work (most customers, anyway) I have to use Windows. :-(

If it's just accessing remote display, you could stick to remote-viewer? Yes you need to know the port though.

> > What version of virsh is included in that msi?  Maybe it's just a case
> > of a stale build, for something that has been fixed upstream?
> C:>virsh -V
> Virsh command line tool of libvirt 0.10.2

See my previous reply. You can check the $prefix\deps.txt file for the build versions.

> 
> > But I personally have not tried to build or debug on mingw, to know if
> > this is the only issue, or if you are staring at a number of other
> > portability issues to resolve first.
> 
> Do you know who built the Windows port? I know someone is doing that,
> because the binaries are updates every few months. :-)

Daniel & me? It's useful, since you found bugs. I could eventually fix them, but libvirt on windows is probably not a priority...  I would start by filling bugs.

I can see the last fedora build is 1.1.1, perhaps you can grab the rpm dlls and copy them over your installation (but I am afraid that won't be that simple, if ABI changed or other external requirements)

> Again, I'm willing to help any way I can, but I can be only a tester,
> and a documentation writer. I won't be able to help as a developer. :-(

I would say hacking on libvirt windows is easy, as long as you have a windows (to run) & a fedora (to build). Some issues could even be debugged with wine (yes!)