On Sun, 2026-06-07 at 10:12 +0200, Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues wrote: > Hi, > > Quoting Benjamin Drung (2026-06-05 21:48:57) > > Package: mmdebstrap > > Version: 1.5.7-3 > > Severity: wishlist > > X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected] > > > > Dear Maintainer, > > > > It would be nice if mmdebstrap-autopkgtest-build-qemu could create qcow2 > > images in addition to raw images, e.g. by calling > > > > qemu-img convert "$raw_image" -O qcow2 "$IMAGE" > > mmdebstrap-autopkgtest-virt-qemu got added because back then, debvm was not > yet > able to create images which are directly bootable by qemu as is required for > the qemu backend of autopkgtest. Some history about that is here: > > https://salsa.debian.org/helmutg/debvm/-/work_items/11 > https://salsa.debian.org/helmutg/debvm/-/work_items/16 > > But since last year, debvm now also ships the debefivm utilities which are > able > to create images bootable by qemu without debefivm-run. For details, consult > the man page of debefivm-create, in the EXAMPLES section: > > https://manpages.debian.org/debefivm-create
I wasn't aware of debefivm-create. Thanks for the pointer. > To reduce duplicated code, I'd like to either: > > * change mmdebstrap-autopkgtest-build-qemu such that it becomes a wrapper for > debefivm-create (adding debvm to Suggests) or > * remove mmdebstrap-autopkgtest-build-qemu because it's doing something which > debefivm-create is able to do but worse > > I'm wondering whether people still use/need mmdebstrap-autopkgtest-virt-qemu > or > whether they could switch to debefivm-create for their use-case. mdebstrap-autopkgtest-build-qemu wrapping debefivm-create wrapping mmdebstrap is to much layering IMO. I would suggest dropping mdebstrap- autopkgtest-build-qemu. Having to specify so many arguments for debefivm-create is a complexity that I like to see abstracted away. I propose two solutions: * Have an option to debefivm-create that expands to the values needed for autopkgtest. * or let debefivm-create support config files that contain debefivm- create parameters. Then debvm could ship a config for autopkgtest. -- Benjamin Drung Debian & Ubuntu Developer
