From nobody Mon Feb 9 19:54:02 2026 Delivered-To: importer@patchew.org Authentication-Results: mx.zohomail.com; spf=pass (zohomail.com: domain of gnu.org designates 209.51.188.17 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org Return-Path: Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [209.51.188.17]) by mx.zohomail.com with SMTPS id 1684314926708506.3307719915779; Wed, 17 May 2023 02:15:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pzDBL-00006R-8K; Wed, 17 May 2023 05:10:51 -0400 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pzDBI-0008U4-Rw; Wed, 17 May 2023 05:10:48 -0400 Received: from isrv.corpit.ru ([86.62.121.231]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pzDBF-0006La-Ou; Wed, 17 May 2023 05:10:48 -0400 Received: from tsrv.corpit.ru (tsrv.tls.msk.ru [192.168.177.2]) by isrv.corpit.ru (Postfix) with ESMTP id 98CE2682A; Wed, 17 May 2023 12:10:43 +0300 (MSK) Received: from tls.msk.ru (mjt.wg.tls.msk.ru [192.168.177.130]) by tsrv.corpit.ru (Postfix) with SMTP id 034005EF6; Wed, 17 May 2023 12:10:43 +0300 (MSK) Received: (nullmailer pid 3626678 invoked by uid 1000); Wed, 17 May 2023 09:10:42 -0000 From: Michael Tokarev To: qemu-stable@nongnu.org Cc: qemu-devel@nongnu.org, =?UTF-8?q?Alex=20Benn=C3=A9e?= , Thomas Huth , Markus Armbruster , Kevin Wolf Subject: [PATCH v7.2.3 04/30] qemu-options: finesse the recommendations around -blockdev Date: Wed, 17 May 2023 12:10:16 +0300 Message-Id: <20230517091042.3626593-4-mjt@msgid.tls.msk.ru> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.39.2 In-Reply-To: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Received-SPF: pass (zohomail.com: domain of gnu.org designates 209.51.188.17 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.51.188.17; envelope-from=qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org; helo=lists.gnu.org; Received-SPF: pass client-ip=86.62.121.231; envelope-from=mjt@tls.msk.ru; helo=isrv.corpit.ru X-Spam_score_int: -68 X-Spam_score: -6.9 X-Spam_bar: ------ X-Spam_report: (-6.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI=-5, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE=-0.01 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org Sender: qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org X-ZM-MESSAGEID: 1684314927536100001 From: Alex Benn=C3=A9e We are a bit premature in recommending -blockdev/-device as the best way to configure block devices. It seems there are times the more human friendly -drive still makes sense especially when -snapshot is involved. Improve the language to hopefully make things clearer. Suggested-by: Michael Tokarev Signed-off-by: Alex Benn=C3=A9e Reviewed-by: Thomas Huth Cc: Markus Armbruster Cc: Kevin Wolf (cherry picked from commit c1654c3e37c31fb638597efedcd07d071837b78b) Signed-off-by: Michael Tokarev --- qemu-options.hx | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx index 7f99d15b23..e52289479b 100644 --- a/qemu-options.hx +++ b/qemu-options.hx @@ -1140,10 +1140,22 @@ have gone through several iterations as the feature= set and complexity of the block layer have grown. Many online guides to QEMU often reference older and deprecated options, which can lead to confusion. =20 -The recommended modern way to describe disks is to use a combination of +The most explicit way to describe disks is to use a combination of ``-device`` to specify the hardware device and ``-blockdev`` to describe the backend. The device defines what the guest sees and the -backend describes how QEMU handles the data. +backend describes how QEMU handles the data. It is the only guaranteed +stable interface for describing block devices and as such is +recommended for management tools and scripting. + +The ``-drive`` option combines the device and backend into a single +command line option which is a more human friendly. There is however no +interface stability guarantee although some older board models still +need updating to work with the modern blockdev forms. + +Older options like ``-hda`` are essentially macros which expand into +``-drive`` options for various drive interfaces. The original forms +bake in a lot of assumptions from the days when QEMU was emulating a +legacy PC, they are not recommended for modern configurations. =20 ERST =20 @@ -1636,6 +1648,14 @@ SRST the raw disk image you use is not written back. You can however force the write back by pressing C-a s (see the :ref:`disk images` chapter in the System Emulation Users Guide). + + .. warning:: + snapshot is incompatible with ``-blockdev`` (instead use qemu-img + to manually create snapshot images to attach to your blockdev). + If you have mixed ``-blockdev`` and ``-drive`` declarations you + can use the 'snapshot' property on your drive declarations + instead of this global option. + ERST =20 DEF("fsdev", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_fsdev, --=20 2.39.2