Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: QEmu as a Device Software Optimization tool

[Paul Borman]

The platform I started with was ppc_prep :-)

So, is Python already part of qemu?  Personally, I would have a goal  
that the definition of a device would be simple enough that there  
would be no reason to have anything more complicated than a simple  
text file.  While I would not suggest that the BSD config file syntax  
should be used, I do think it is instructive.

It has a section for defining macros, really, the standard name/value  
pairs

	options         KTR                     # kernel wraparound trace  
buffer support
        options "KTR_SIZE=32768"        # trace buffer in bytes (def=8K)
        options "KTR_COMPILE='~0'"      # compile in all traces
        options "KTR_MASK=0"            # but turn none of them on

Clearly there would be cleaner ways to specify this for QEmu

        set memory_size 0x10000000

There is also a section that specifies the various devices.  Here is  
a snippet of a kernel for an embedded PPC board I used to work on:


        # main (on-board io) bus
        obio0   at root
        pci0  at obio0

        # COM ports
        # Flags are 0xF00000 for fifo flags F; see com(4).
        # Default is 0; 1, 2, 3, 4 set receive fifo trigger to 1, 4, 8, 14;
        # 9 ignores the FIFO on 16550/16550AF.
        com0    at obio? addr "0xff600300" irq 3
        com1    at obio? addr "0xff600400" irq 4

        # Crystal Semiconductor Ethernet
        ce0     at obio? addr "0x7fe00c00" irq 24

        # Disk On Chip 2000 driver
        dc0    at obio? iomem "0x800d0000" iosiz 0x2000

This particular syntax specifies several things:

1)  The devices in a generic way
2)  How devices are connected
3)  The order to search for the devices

Again, QEmu would need something slightly different, but at least  
this demonstrates how a similar problem has been previous solved.

There are also pseudo devices

        pseudo-device   loop
        pseudo-device   pty
        pseudo-device sl      1

QEmu might be able to treat pseudo and "physical" devices the same,  
or maybe keeping them independent would be good.

Using python, or some general purpose scripting language, to  
create .c files for inclusion in the compilation seems like it may  
have some merit, though I see these as different issues.  I wrote a  
PPC virtual machine to run on PPC hosts (i.e., more like vmware).   
When I found that I wanted a little more than a simple ascii file, I  
settled on pretty much the standard sh syntax.  I have written (and  
am willing to contribute) an embedded version of sh which only calls  
builtin functions.  I used it both for my monitor as well as my  
config syntax (config files were essentially read by the monitor)

                -Paul



> > Personally though I don't see much benefit to simple syntax config
> > files over C files, that are being used now.
>
> Really? Take a look at ppc_prep_init()...
>
> I would love to see machine definition done in python.
>
> --
> Hollis Blanchard
> IBM Linux Technology Center