On Mon, 2025-12-22 at 14:55 +0100, Michal Prívozník wrote: > On 12/18/25 18:06, Stephen Finucane wrote: > > We automatically generate an alias for virtually all devices if a user > > hasn't provided one [1]. Indicate this. > > > > Note that I have not listed all devices that support auto-generated > > aliases since that list would be liable to get stale rather quickly. > > > > [1] > > https://github.com/libvirt/libvirt/blob/v11.10.0/src/qemu/qemu_alias.c#L692-L786 > > > > Signed-off-by: Stephen Finucane <[email protected]> > > --- > > docs/formatdomain.rst | 5 ++++- > > 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) > > > > diff --git a/docs/formatdomain.rst b/docs/formatdomain.rst > > index 1467fc7e10..5cb387dc82 100644 > > --- a/docs/formatdomain.rst > > +++ b/docs/formatdomain.rst > > @@ -2593,7 +2593,7 @@ guest domain. All devices occur as children of the > > main ``devices`` element. > > > > To help users identifying devices they care about, every device can have > > direct > > child ``alias`` element which then has ``name`` attribute where users can > > store > > -identifier for the device. The identifier has to have "ua-" prefix and > > must be > > +identifier for the device. The identifier has to have ``ua-`` prefix and > > must be > > unique within the domain. Additionally, the identifier must consist only > > of the > > following characters: ``[a-zA-Z0-9_-]``. :since:`Since 3.9.0` > > > > @@ -2609,6 +2609,9 @@ following characters: ``[a-zA-Z0-9_-]``. > > :since:`Since 3.9.0` > > ... > > </devices> > > > > +If a user-specified alias is not provided, one will be automatically > > generated > > +for most devices, based on attributes of the device such as its type. > > Not every driver does this. There are plenty of drivers (e.g. libxl, > lxc, vbox, esx) that don't have the concept of generated aliases. They > may support user aliases though (currently, CH, QEMU and libxl drivers > do that).
Oh, that's a good point. I hadn't considered that. Have you any preference for how to word this? Perhaps I could format this as a note admonition like below? ``` .. note:: If a user-specified alias is not provided, select drivers will automatically generate one for most devices based on attributes of the device such as its type. These drivers include `QEMU`__, `Cloud Hypervisor`__, and libxml. __ https://libvirt.org/drvqemu.html __ https://libvirt.org/drvch.html ``` Cheers, Stephen > > Maybe you need to reword this? > > Michal
