Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC][PATCH] Rename qemu into qemu-system-i386 and install a compat symlink

[Anthony Liguori]

Aurelien Jarno wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 08:21:09PM +0200, Stefan Weil wrote:
>   
> > Aurelien Jarno schrieb:
> >     
> > > On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 07:22:20PM +0200, Andreas Färber wrote:
> > >   
> > >       
> > > > Am 18.04.2009 um 18:01 schrieb Aurelien Jarno:
> > > >
> > > >     
> > > >         
> > > > > For historical reasons, qemu system on i386 is called qemu instead of
> > > > > qemu-system-i386. This seems to confuse users.
> > > > >
> > > > > This patch installs it as qemu-system-i386, and create a compatibility
> > > > > symlink qemu -> qemu-system-i386 as some tools may call it that way.
> > > > > We can change or remove this symlink after a few releases when all the
> > > > > tools have migrated to this new name.
> > > > >
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Aurelien Jarno <address@hidden>
> > > > >       
> > > > >           
> > > > In general a good idea imo, but don't just assume you can create  
> > > > symlinks on a given file system. Git uses hardlinks and copying as  
> > > > fallbacks iirc.
> > > >     
> > > >         
> > > For hardlinks that's clear. For symlinks, what (file)systems are you
> > > thinking of?
> > >       
> > NTFS?
> >     
>
> Can someone tries what ln does on such a system? We may do a copy
> instead in that case.
>   

Windows has a concept of shortcuts (.lnk files).  Cygwin's ln creates a 
shortcut to simulate a symbolic link.  MSYS implements 'ln -s' by doing 
a file copy.  I don't think it works for directories.

I'm not personally opposed to just getting rid of 'qemu' for the 0.11 
release.  Sure, there will be some management tools that look for 'qemu' 
instead of 'qemu-system-i386' but I doubt they'll change things until 
the symlink goes away.

We can issue a big fat ANNOUNCE to the mailing list that for 0.11 the 
executable name will change.  Since it won't be for a few months, that 
should give people time to adjust.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori