We want to be able to detect whether a given qemu NBD server is
exposing the right export(s) and dirty bitmaps, at least for
regression testing. We could use 'nbd-client -l' from the upstream
NBD project to list exports, but it's annoying to rely on
out-of-tree binaries; furthermore, nbd-client doesn't necessarily
know about all of the qemu NBD extensions. Thus, it is time to add
a new mode to qemu-nbd that merely sniffs all possible information
from the server during handshake phase, then disconnects and dumps
the information.
This patch actually implements --list/-L, while reusing other
options such as --tls-creds for now designating how to connect
as the client (rather than their non-list usage of how to operate
as the server).
I debated about adding this functionality to something akin to
'qemu-img info' - but that tool does not readily lend itself
to connecting to an arbitrary NBD server without also tying to
a specific export (I may, however, still add ImageInfoSpecificNBD
for reporting the bitmaps available when connecting to a single
export). And, while it may feel a bit odd that normally
qemu-nbd is a server but 'qemu-nbd -L' is a client, we are not
really making the qemu-nbd binary that much larger, because
'qemu-nbd -c' has to operate as both server and client
simultaneously across two threads when feeding the kernel module
for /dev/nbdN access.
Sample output:
$ qemu-nbd -L
exports available: 1
export: ''
size: 65536
flags: 0x4ed ( flush fua trim zeroes df cache )
min block: 512
opt block: 4096
max block: 33554432
available meta contexts: 1
base:allocation
Note that the output only lists sizes if the server sent
NBD_FLAG_HAS_FLAGS, because a newstyle server does not give
the size otherwise. It has the side effect that for really
old servers that did not send any flags, the size is not
output even though it was available. However, I'm not too
concerned about that - oldstyle servers are (rightfully)
getting less common to encounter (qemu 3.0 was the last
version where we even serve it), and most existing servers
that still even offer oldstyle negotiation (such as nbdkit)
still send flags (since that was added to the NBD protocol
in 2007 to permit read-only connections).
Not done here, but maybe worth future experiments: capture
the meat of NBDExportInfo into a QAPI struct, and use the
generated QAPI pretty-printers instead of hand-rolling our
output loop. It would also permit us to add a JSON output
mode for machine parsing.
Signed-off-by: Eric Blake
---
v2: commit message improvements [Vladimir]
wording tweak to --help output [Vladimir]
update man page documentation
---
qemu-nbd.texi | 30 --
qemu-nbd.c| 155 +-
2 files changed, 166 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)
diff --git a/qemu-nbd.texi b/qemu-nbd.texi
index 0e24c2801ee..1e168c10850 100644
--- a/qemu-nbd.texi
+++ b/qemu-nbd.texi
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
@c man begin SYNOPSIS
@command{qemu-nbd} [OPTION]... @var{filename}
+@command{qemu-nbd} @option{-L} [OPTION]...
+
@command{qemu-nbd} @option{-d} @var{dev}
@c man end
@end example
@@ -10,8 +12,9 @@
Provide access to various QEMU NBD features. Most commonly used to
export a QEMU disk image using the NBD protocol as a server, but can
-also be used (on Linux) to manage kernel bindings of a /dev/nbdX
-block device to a QEMU server.
+also be used as a client to query properties of a remote server, or
+(on Linux) to manage kernel bindings of a /dev/nbdX block device to a
+QEMU server.
@c man end
@@ -28,13 +31,15 @@ See the @code{qemu(1)} manual page for full details of the
properties
supported. The common object types that it makes sense to define are the
@code{secret} object, which is used to supply passwords and/or encryption
keys, and the @code{tls-creds} object, which is used to supply TLS
-credentials for the qemu-nbd server.
+credentials for the qemu-nbd server or client.
@item -p, --port=@var{port}
-The TCP port to listen on (default @samp{10809}).
+The TCP port to listen on as a server, or connect to as a client
+(default @samp{10809}).
@item -o, --offset=@var{offset}
The offset into the image.
@item -b, --bind=@var{iface}
-The interface to bind to (default @samp{0.0.0.0}).
+The interface to bind to as a server, or connect to as a client
+(default @samp{0.0.0.0}).
@item -k, --socket=@var{path}
Use a unix socket with path @var{path}.
@item --image-opts
@@ -88,10 +93,14 @@ Set the NBD volume export name (default of a zero-length
string).
@item -D, --description=@var{description}
Set the NBD volume export description, as a human-readable
string.
+@item -L, --list
+Connect as a client and list all details about the exports exposed by
+a remote NBD server.
@item --tls-creds=ID
Enable mandatory TLS encryption for the server by setting the ID
of the TLS credentials object previously created with the --object
-option.
+option; or provide the credentials needed for connecting as a client
