Re: [Qemu-devel] Deprecating the -net option

[Thomas Huth]

On 27.03.2017 14:56, Thomas Huth wrote:
> On 27.03.2017 14:01, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 10:06:09AM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
>>> On 24.03.2017 23:10, John Snow wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 03/08/2017 03:26 AM, Thomas Huth wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  Hi everybody,
>>>>>
>>>>> what will be the next version of QEMU after 2.9? Will we go for a 2.10
>>>>> (as I've seen it mentioned a couple of times on the mailing list
>>>>> already), or do we dare to switch to 3.0 instead?
>>>>>
>>>>> I personally dislike two-digit minor version numbers like 2.10 since the
>>>>> non-experienced users sometimes mix it up with 2.1 ... and there have
>>>>> been a couple of new cool features in the past releases that would
>>>>> justify a 3.0 now, too, I think.
>>>>>
>>>>> But anyway, the more important thing that keeps me concerned is: Someone
>>>>>  once told me that we should get rid of old parameters and interfaces
>>>>> (like HMP commands) primarily only when we're changing to a new major
>>>>> version number. As you all know, QEMU has a lot of legacy options, which
>>>>> are likely rather confusing than helpful for the new users nowadays,
>>>>> e.g. things like the "-net channel" option (which is fortunately even
>>>>> hardly documented), but maybe also even the whole vlan/hub concept in
>>>>> the net code, or legacy parameters like "-usbdevice". If we switch to
>>>>> version 3.0, could we agree to remove at least some of them?
>>>>>
>>>>>  Thomas
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As others have stated, we need a few releases to deprecate things first.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe we should develop a serious plan to develop some of our legacy
>>>> interfaces first.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe 2.10 can introduce a list of things we want to deprecate,
>>>> 2.11 can be the transition release,
>>>> and then 3.0 can cut the cord and free of us our terrible burden?
>>>>
>>>> I have a list of things I want to axe...
>>>
>>> I've started a Wiki page with such a list here:
>>>
>>> http://wiki.qemu-project.org/Features/LegacyRemoval
>>
>> It would be nice to get rid of the legacy -net option in 3.0.0.  I have
>> added it and included pointers to loose ends.  I think this is doable
>> but will require some time to achieve.
> 
> Not sure whether we really can get rid of the -net option completely,
> since AFAIK it is the only way to configure on-board NICs at the moment,
> and Paolo complains if he needs to type longer command lines
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2015-12/msg02448.html).
> 
> But maybe we could get rid of the VLANs here at least, e.g. by matching
> "-net nic" and a following "-net user|bridge|tap|..." with an internal
> netdev ID instead of creating a "VLAN" hub?
> 
> Or we could even turn the -net option into a full "convenience" option
> instead (similar to "-hda" and friends), so that you even do not have to
> specify "-net nic" anymore but create both, network source and sink with
> one "-net" statement, e.g.:
> 
>  qemu-system-xxx -net user,model=e1000,hostfwd=...
> 
> Just my 0.02 €

... and I forgot to mention: We should at least try to get rid of the
options first that only work with -net (or rather the VLAN concept),
like "-net dump", "-net channel", "-tftp", "-smb", "-bootp" and
"-redir", since these will hinder us from doing further reworks /
clean-ups in this area. I think I've mentioned them all on the Wiki page
now, if somebody is aware of another legacy option here that does not
work with "-netdev" yet (apart from -net nic itself), please let me know.

 Thomas

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