netdev - Re: [Pv-drivers] [PATCH 0/6] VSOCK for Linux upstreaming

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Message-ID: <50A55F57.7080804@us.ibm.com>
Date:	Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:32:07 -0600
From:	Anthony Liguori <aliguori@...ibm.com>
To:	Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel@...hat.com>
CC:	Andy King <acking@...are.com>, pv-drivers@...are.com,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org,
	gregkh@...uxfoundation.org, David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	georgezhang@...are.com,
	Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>
Subject: Re: [Pv-drivers] [PATCH 0/6] VSOCK for Linux upstreaming

On 11/07/2012 12:58 AM, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> On 11/05/12 19:19, Andy King wrote:
>> Hi David,
>>
>>> The big and only question is whether anyone can actually use any of
>>> this stuff without your proprietary bits?
>>
>> Do you mean the VMCI calls?  The VMCI driver is in the process of being
>> upstreamed into the drivers/misc tree.  Greg (cc'd on these patches) is
>> actively reviewing that code and we are addressing feedback.
>>
>> Also, there was some interest from RedHat into using vSockets as a unified
>> interface, routed over a hypervisor-specific transport (virtio or
>> otherwise, although for now VMCI is the only one implemented).
>
> Can you outline how this can be done?  From a quick look over the code
> it seems like vsock has a hard dependency on vmci, is that correct?
>
> When making vsock a generic, reusable kernel service it should be the
> other way around:  vsock should provide the core implementation and an
> interface where hypervisor-specific transports (vmci, virtio, xenbus,
> ...) can register themself.

This was already done in a hypervisor neutral way using virtio:

http://lists.openwall.net/netdev/2008/12/14/8

The concept was Nacked and that led to the abomination of virtio-serial.  If an 
address family for virtualization is on the table, we should reconsider 
AF_VMCHANNEL.

I'd be thrilled to get rid of virtio-serial...

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

>
> cheers,
>    Gerd

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