[PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats

[PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats

[Ian Jackson]

The new support matrix output puts a [*] after each entry in the
support matrix in many cases where the linked-to text is simply a
longer description of the feature.

Remedy this by distinguishing text which expands on a feature
description from text which qualifies its support status.

There are 3 patches to processing machinery, followed by two patches
to SUPPORT.md - one to make the distinction, throughout, and one to
document it.

The patches to SUPPORT.md would ideally go to 4.10 too.

     1/5 docs/parse-support-md: internals: Introduce docref_a
     2/5 docs/parse-support-md: internals: Rename HasText to
     3/5 SUPPORT.md, support matrix: Treat commentary before
     4/5 SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info
     5/5 SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

Ian.

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[PATCH 1/5] docs/parse-support-md: internals: Introduce docref_a

[Ian Jackson]

No functional change.

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
---
 docs/parse-support-md | 10 ++++++++--
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/parse-support-md b/docs/parse-support-md
index decda33..5bf8405 100755
--- a/docs/parse-support-md
+++ b/docs/parse-support-md
@@ -318,6 +318,12 @@ sub o { print @_ or die $!; }
 
 our @pending_headings;
 
+sub docref_a ($$) {
+    my ($i, $realsect) = @_;
+    return sprintf '<a href="%s#%s">',
+        $version_urls[$i], $realsect->{Anchor};
+}
+
 sub write_output_row ($) {
     my ($sectnode) = @_;
 #    print STDERR 'WOR ', Dumper($d, $sectnode);
@@ -364,8 +370,8 @@ sub write_output_row ($) {
                 && $sectnode->{RealSect}{Anchor}) {
                 my $rows = $sectnode->{RealSect}{Rows};
                 $nextcell = sprintf '<td rowspan=%d>', $rows;
-                $nextcell .= sprintf '<a href="%s#%s">[*]</a>',
-                    $version_urls[$i], $sectnode->{RealSect}{Anchor};
+                $nextcell .= docref_a $i, $sectnode->{RealSect};
+                $nextcell .= '[*]</a>';
                 $nextcell .= '</td>';
                 $colspan = '';
             }
-- 
2.1.4


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[PATCH 2/5] docs/parse-support-md: internals: Rename HasText to HasCaveat

[Ian Jackson]

No functional change.

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
---
 docs/parse-support-md | 10 +++++-----
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/parse-support-md b/docs/parse-support-md
index 5bf8405..6953930 100755
--- a/docs/parse-support-md
+++ b/docs/parse-support-md
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ our $toplevel_sectlist = new_sectlist();
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{Children} = a further $sectlist
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{Key} = KEY
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect} = containing real section in @insections, so
-# $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{HasText}[VI] = trueish iff there was a Para
+# $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{HasCaveat}[VI] = trueish iff other in a Para
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{Anchor} = value for < id="" > in the pandoc html
 # A $sectnode represents a single section from the original markdown
 # document.  Its subsections are in Children.
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ our @insections;
 # $insections[]{Headline} = markdown content
 # these next are only defined for real sections, not Status elements
 # $insections[]{Anchor} = string
-# $insections[]{HasText} = array, $sectlist->{HasText} will refer to this
+# $insections[]{HasCaveat} = array, $sectlist->{HasCaveat} will refer to this
 
 our $had_unknown;
 # adding new variable ?  it must be reset in r_toplevel
@@ -77,14 +77,14 @@ sub ri_Header {
          Key => $id,
          Anchor => $id,
          Headline => $hl,
-         HasText => [],
+         HasCaveat => [],
         };
 #print STDERR Dumper(\@insections);
 }
 
 sub ri_Para {
     if (@insections) {
-        $insections[$#insections]{HasText}[$version_index] = 1;
+        $insections[$#insections]{HasCaveat}[$version_index] = 1;
     }
 };
 
@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ sub write_output_row ($) {
         my $nextcell = '';
         if (!defined $colspan) { # first row of this RealSect
             $colspan= ' colspan="2"';
-            if ($sectnode->{RealSect}{HasText}[$i] && $st
+            if ($sectnode->{RealSect}{HasCaveat}[$i] && $st
                 && $sectnode->{RealSect}{Anchor}) {
                 my $rows = $sectnode->{RealSect}{Rows};
                 $nextcell = sprintf '<td rowspan=%d>', $rows;
-- 
2.1.4


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[PATCH 3/5] SUPPORT.md, support matrix: Treat commentary before status as description

[Ian Jackson]

Running text in feature sections in the markdown document currently
might be (i) a caveat, qualifying or clarifying the support statement
(ii) a plain description of the feature.

Caveats can be version-specific and deserve the [*] annotation in the
relevant feature matrix cell.  They must link to SUPPORT.html for the
specific version.

Descriptions are not version specific.  In that case the [*]
annotation is visusal noise.  Rather, it is better to make a hyperlink
out of the text which is being expanded on.  The hyperlink can point
to any appropriate version.

There is a question about how to notate this distinction in
SUPPORT.md.  After IRL discussion with George and Lars I propose that
we should put text which helps describe a feature (ie, which expands
on a section heading) after the heading but before the Status
indications; whereas, caveats and supplementary information about
the actual status, should follow the Status block.

This patch implements this distinction in the support matrix
generator.  Only paragraphs containing _only_ italic content count as
descriptive; anything else is treated as a caveat.

In the code:

 * Add a new entry to RealSect, HasDescription

 * When parsing, track whether we are before or after the first Status
   block in a new variable $has_feature.

 * In ri_Para, set HasDescription set to the input document index
   when we encounter text before the first feature.

 * When writing a `heading' (ie, the table cell for a feature name)
   look for HasDescription and make an appropriate hyperlink.

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
---
 docs/parse-support-md | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/parse-support-md b/docs/parse-support-md
index 6953930..653d216 100755
--- a/docs/parse-support-md
+++ b/docs/parse-support-md
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ our $toplevel_sectlist = new_sectlist();
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{Key} = KEY
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect} = containing real section in @insections, so
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{HasCaveat}[VI] = trueish iff other in a Para
+# $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{HasDescription} = VI for some Emph in Para
 # $sectlist->{KEY}{RealSect}{Anchor} = value for < id="" > in the pandoc html
 # A $sectnode represents a single section from the original markdown
 # document.  Its subsections are in Children.
@@ -58,8 +59,10 @@ our @insections;
 # these next are only defined for real sections, not Status elements
 # $insections[]{Anchor} = string
 # $insections[]{HasCaveat} = array, $sectlist->{HasCaveat} will refer to this
+# $insections[]{HasDescription} VI, likewise
 
 our $had_unknown;
+our $had_feature;
 # adding new variable ?  it must be reset in r_toplevel
 
 #---------- parsing ----------
@@ -78,13 +81,20 @@ sub ri_Header {
          Anchor => $id,
          Headline => $hl,
          HasCaveat => [],
+         HasDescription => undef,
         };
 #print STDERR Dumper(\@insections);
+    $had_feature = 0;
 }
 
 sub ri_Para {
-    if (@insections) {
-        $insections[$#insections]{HasCaveat}[$version_index] = 1;
+    return unless @insections;
+    my $insection = $insections[$#insections];
+
+    if ($had_feature) {
+        $insection->{HasCaveat}[$version_index] = 1;
+    } else {
+        $insection->{HasDescription} //= $version_index;
     }
 };
 
@@ -92,6 +102,8 @@ sub parse_feature_entry ($) {
     my ($value) = @_;
     die unless @insections;
 
+    $had_feature = 1;
+
     my $sectnode;
     my $realsect;
     foreach my $s (@insections) {
@@ -183,6 +195,7 @@ sub r_toplevel ($) {
 
     @insections = ();
     $had_unknown = undef;
+    $had_feature = undef;
 
     foreach my $e (@$i) {
         next unless ref $e eq 'ARRAY';
@@ -346,7 +359,14 @@ sub write_output_row ($) {
         $span->('col', $maxdepth - $heading->{Depth} + 1)
             if !%{ $heading->{Children} };
         o(' align="left">');
+        my $end_a = '';
+        my $desc_i = $heading->{RealSect}{HasDescription};
+        if (defined $desc_i) {
+            o(docref_a $desc_i, $heading->{RealSect});
+            $end_a= '</a>';
+        }
         o($heading->{Headline});
+        o($end_a);
         o('</th>');
     }
     if (%{ $sectnode->{Children} }) {
-- 
2.1.4


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[PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info

[Ian Jackson]

This turns all the things which were treated as caveats, but which
don't need to be footnoted in the matrix, into descriptions.

For the benefit of the support matrix generator, this patch (or a
version of it) should be backported to 4.10.

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
---
 SUPPORT.md | 213 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------
 1 file changed, 111 insertions(+), 102 deletions(-)

diff --git a/SUPPORT.md b/SUPPORT.md
index 264b23f..5ae84cf 100644
--- a/SUPPORT.md
+++ b/SUPPORT.md
@@ -58,32 +58,29 @@ for the definitions of the support status levels etc.
 
 ### ARM/GICv3 ITS
 
-    Status: Experimental
-
 Extension to the GICv3 interrupt controller to support MSI.
 
+    Status: Experimental
+
 ## Guest Type
 
 ### x86/PV
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 Traditional Xen PV guest
 
 No hardware requirements
 
-### x86/HVM
+    Status: Supported
 
-    Status, domU: Supported
+### x86/HVM
 
 Fully virtualised guest using hardware virtualisation extensions
 
 Requires hardware virtualisation support (Intel VMX / AMD SVM)
 
-### x86/PVH
-
     Status, domU: Supported
-    Status, dom0: Experimental
+
+### x86/PVH
 
 PVH is a next-generation paravirtualized mode
 designed to take advantage of hardware virtualization support when possible.
@@ -93,12 +90,15 @@ Requires hardware virtualisation support (Intel VMX / AMD SVM).
 
 Dom0 support requires an IOMMU (Intel VT-d / AMD IOMMU).
 
-### ARM
+    Status, domU: Supported
+    Status, dom0: Experimental
 
-    Status: Supported
+### ARM
 
 ARM only has one guest type at the moment
 
+    Status: Supported
+
 ## Toolstack
 
 ### xl
@@ -107,12 +107,12 @@ ARM only has one guest type at the moment
 
 ### Direct-boot kernel image format
 
+Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
+
     Supported, x86: bzImage, ELF
     Supported, ARM32: zImage
     Supported, ARM64: Image
 
-Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
-
 ### Dom0 init support for xl
 
     Status, SysV: Supported
@@ -121,10 +121,10 @@ Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
 
 ### JSON output support for xl
 
-    Status: Experimental
-
 Output of information in machine-parseable JSON format
 
+    Status: Experimental
+
 ### Open vSwitch integration for xl
 
     Status, Linux: Supported
@@ -157,17 +157,18 @@ Output of information in machine-parseable JSON format
 
 ### Hypervisor 'debug keys'
 
-    Status: Supported, not security supported
-
 These are functions triggered either from the host serial console,
 or via the xl 'debug-keys' command,
 which cause Xen to dump various hypervisor state to the console.
 
+    Status: Supported, not security supported
+
 ### Hypervisor synchronous console output (sync_console)
 
+Xen command-line flag to force synchronous console output.
+
     Status: Supported, not security supported
 
-Xen command-line flag to force synchronous console output.
 Useful for debugging, but not suitable for production environments
 due to incurred overhead.
 
@@ -179,56 +180,54 @@ Debugger to debug ELF guests
 
 ### Soft-reset for PV guests
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 Soft-reset allows a new kernel to start 'from scratch' with a fresh VM state,
 but with all the memory from the previous state of the VM intact.
 This is primarily designed to allow "crash kernels",
 which can do core dumps of memory to help with debugging in the event of a crash.
 
-### xentrace
+    Status: Supported
 
-    Status, x86: Supported
+### xentrace
 
 Tool to capture Xen trace buffer data
 
-### gcov
+    Status, x86: Supported
 
-    Status: Supported, Not security supported
+### gcov
 
 Export hypervisor coverage data suitable for analysis by gcov or lcov.
 
+    Status: Supported, Not security supported
+
 ## Memory Management
 
 ### Dynamic memory control
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 Allows a guest to add or remove memory after boot-time.
 This is typically done by a guest kernel agent known as a "balloon driver".
 
-### Populate-on-demand memory
+    Status: Supported
 
-    Status, x86 HVM: Supported
+### Populate-on-demand memory
 
 This is a mechanism that allows normal operating systems with only a balloon driver
 to boot with memory < maxmem.
 
-### Memory Sharing
+    Status, x86 HVM: Supported
 
-    Status, x86 HVM: Expermental
+### Memory Sharing
 
 Allow sharing of identical pages between guests
 
-### Memory Paging
+    Status, x86 HVM: Expermental
 
-    Status, x86 HVM: Experimenal
+### Memory Paging
 
 Allow pages belonging to guests to be paged to disk
 
-### Transcendent Memory
+    Status, x86 HVM: Experimenal
 
-    Status: Experimental
+### Transcendent Memory
 
 Transcendent Memory (tmem) allows the creation of hypervisor memory pools
 which guests can use to store memory
@@ -236,96 +235,100 @@ rather than caching in its own memory or swapping to disk.
 Having these in the hypervisor
 can allow more efficient aggregate use of memory across VMs.
 
-### Alternative p2m
+    Status: Experimental
 
-    Status, x86 HVM: Tech Preview
-    Status, ARM: Tech Preview
+### Alternative p2m
 
 Allows external monitoring of hypervisor memory
 by maintaining multiple physical to machine (p2m) memory mappings.
 
+    Status, x86 HVM: Tech Preview
+    Status, ARM: Tech Preview
+
 ## Resource Management
 
 ### CPU Pools
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 Groups physical cpus into distinct groups called "cpupools",
 with each pool having the capability
 of using different schedulers and scheduling properties.
 
-### Credit Scheduler
-
     Status: Supported
 
+### Credit Scheduler
+
 A weighted proportional fair share virtual CPU scheduler.
 This is the default scheduler.
 
-### Credit2 Scheduler
-
     Status: Supported
 
+### Credit2 Scheduler
+
 A general purpose scheduler for Xen,
 designed with particular focus on fairness, responsiveness, and scalability
 
-### RTDS based Scheduler
+    Status: Supported
 
-    Status: Experimental
+### RTDS based Scheduler
 
 A soft real-time CPU scheduler
 built to provide guaranteed CPU capacity to guest VMs on SMP hosts
 
+    Status: Experimental
+
 ### ARINC653 Scheduler
 
+A periodically repeating fixed timeslice scheduler.
+
     Status: Supported
 
-A periodically repeating fixed timeslice scheduler.
 Currently only single-vcpu domains are supported.
 
 ### Null Scheduler
 
-    Status: Experimental
-
 A very simple, very static scheduling policy
 that always schedules the same vCPU(s) on the same pCPU(s).
 It is designed for maximum determinism and minimum overhead
 on embedded platforms.
 
-### NUMA scheduler affinity
+    Status: Experimental
 
-    Status, x86: Supported
+### NUMA scheduler affinity
 
 Enables NUMA aware scheduling in Xen
 
+    Status, x86: Supported
+
 ## Scalability
 
 ### Super page support
 
-    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
-    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
-    Status, ARM: Supported
-
 NB that this refers to the ability of guests
 to have higher-level page table entries point directly to memory,
 improving TLB performance.
 On ARM, and on x86 in HAP mode,
 the guest has whatever support is enabled by the hardware.
+
+This feature is independent
+of the ARM "page granularity" feature (see below).
+
+    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
+    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
+    Status, ARM: Supported
+
 On x86 in shadow mode, only 2MiB (L2) superpages are available;
 furthermore, they do not have the performance characteristics
 of hardware superpages.
 
-Also note is feature independent
-of the ARM "page granularity" feature (see below).
-
 ### x86/PVHVM
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 This is a useful label for a set of hypervisor features
 which add paravirtualized functionality to HVM guests
 for improved performance and scalability.
 This includes exposing event channels to HVM guests.
 
+    Status: Supported
+
 ## High Availability and Fault Tolerance
 
 ### Remus Fault Tolerance
@@ -338,38 +341,38 @@ This includes exposing event channels to HVM guests.
 
 ### x86/vMCE
 
-    Status: Supported
-
 Forward Machine Check Exceptions to appropriate guests
 
+    Status: Supported
+
 ## Virtual driver support, guest side
 
 ### Blkfront
 
+Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV block protocol
+
     Status, Linux: Supported
     Status, FreeBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, NetBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, OpenBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, Windows: Supported
 
-Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV block protocol
-
 ### Netfront
 
+Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV networking protocol
+
     Status, Linux: Supported
     Status, FreeBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, NetBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, OpenBSD: Supported, Security support external
     Status, Windows: Supported
 
-Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV networking protocol
-
 ### PV Framebuffer (frontend)
 
-    Status, Linux (xen-fbfront): Supported
-
 Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV Framebuffer protocol
 
+    Status, Linux (xen-fbfront): Supported
+
 ### PV Console (frontend)
 
     Status, Linux (hvc_xen): Supported
@@ -381,11 +384,11 @@ Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV console protocol
 
 ### PV keyboard (frontend)
 
-    Status, Linux (xen-kbdfront): Supported
-
 Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV keyboard protocol.
 Note that the "keyboard protocol" includes mouse / pointer support as well.
 
+    Status, Linux (xen-kbdfront): Supported
+
 ### PV USB (frontend)
 
     Status, Linux: Supported
@@ -399,22 +402,22 @@ there is currently no xl support.
 
 ### PV TPM (frontend)
 
-    Status, Linux (xen-tpmfront): Tech Preview
-
 Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV TPM protocol
 
-### PV 9pfs frontend
+    Status, Linux (xen-tpmfront): Tech Preview
 
-    Status, Linux: Tech Preview
+### PV 9pfs frontend
 
 Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen 9pfs protocol
 
-### PVCalls (frontend)
-
     Status, Linux: Tech Preview
 
+### PVCalls (frontend)
+
 Guest-side driver capable of making pv system calls
 
+    Status, Linux: Tech Preview
+
 ## Virtual device support, host side
 
 For host-side virtual device support,
@@ -423,6 +426,8 @@ unless otherwise noted.
 
 ### Blkback
 
+Host-side implementations of the Xen PV block protocol.
+
     Status, Linux (xen-blkback): Supported
     Status, QEMU (xen_disk), raw format: Supported
     Status, QEMU (xen_disk), qcow format: Supported
@@ -433,42 +438,41 @@ unless otherwise noted.
     Status, Blktap2, raw format: Deprecated
     Status, Blktap2, vhd format: Deprecated
 
-Host-side implementations of the Xen PV block protocol.
 Backends only support raw format unless otherwise specified.
 
 ### Netback
 
+Host-side implementations of Xen PV network protocol
+
     Status, Linux (xen-netback): Supported
     Status, FreeBSD (netback): Supported, Security support external
     Status, NetBSD (xennetback): Supported, Security support external
 
-Host-side implementations of Xen PV network protocol
-
 ### PV Framebuffer (backend)
 
-    Status, QEMU: Supported
-
 Host-side implementation of the Xen PV framebuffer protocol
 
-### PV Console (xenconsoled)
+    Status, QEMU: Supported
 
-    Status: Supported
+### PV Console (xenconsoled)
 
 Host-side implementation of the Xen PV console protocol
 
-### PV keyboard (backend)
+    Status: Supported
 
-    Status, QEMU: Supported
+### PV keyboard (backend)
 
 Host-side implementation of the Xen PV keyboard protocol.
 Note that the "keyboard protocol" includes mouse / pointer support as well.
 
-### PV USB (backend)
-
     Status, QEMU: Supported
 
+### PV USB (backend)
+
 Host-side implementation of the Xen PV USB protocol
 
+    Status, QEMU: Supported
+
 ### PV SCSI protocol (backend)
 
     Status, Linux: Experimental
@@ -499,11 +503,11 @@ but has no xl support.
 
 ### Driver Domains
 
-    Status: Supported, with caveats
-
 "Driver domains" means allowing non-Domain 0 domains
 with access to physical devices to act as back-ends.
 
+    Status: Supported, with caveats
+
 See the appropriate "Device Passthrough" section
 for more information about security support.
 
@@ -553,13 +557,13 @@ with dom0, driver domains, stub domains, domUs, and so on.
 
 ### x86/Nested PV
 
-    Status, x86 Xen HVM: Tech Preview
-
 This means running a Xen hypervisor inside an HVM domain on a Xen system,
 with support for PV L2 guests only
 (i.e., hardware virtualization extensions not provided
 to the guest).
 
+    Status, x86 Xen HVM: Tech Preview
+
 This works, but has performance limitations
 because the L1 dom0 can only access emulated L1 devices.
 
@@ -568,19 +572,19 @@ but nobody has reported on performance.
 
 ### x86/Nested HVM
 
-    Status, x86 HVM: Experimental
-
 This means providing hardware virtulization support to guest VMs
 allowing, for instance, a nested Xen to support both PV and HVM guests.
 It also implies support for other hypervisors,
 such as KVM, Hyper-V, Bromium, and so on as guests.
 
-### vPMU
+    Status, x86 HVM: Experimental
 
-    Status, x86: Supported, Not security supported
+### vPMU
 
 Virtual Performance Management Unit for HVM guests
 
+    Status, x86: Supported, Not security supported
+
 Disabled by default (enable with hypervisor command line option).
 This feature is not security supported: see http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-163.html
 
@@ -604,14 +608,14 @@ when used to remove drivers and backends from domain 0
 
 ### x86/Multiple IOREQ servers
 
-	Status: Experimental
-
 An IOREQ server provides emulated devices to HVM and PVH guests.
 QEMU is normally the only IOREQ server,
 but Xen has support for multiple IOREQ servers.
 This allows for custom or proprietary device emulators
 to be used in addition to QEMU.
 
+	Status: Experimental
+
 ### ARM/Non-PCI device passthrough
 
     Status: Supported, not security supported
@@ -635,7 +639,11 @@ No support for QEMU backends in a 16K or 64K domain.
 
 ## Virtual Hardware, QEMU
 
-These are devices available in HVM mode using a qemu devicemodel (the default).
+This section describes supported devices available in HVM mode using a
+qemu devicemodel (the default).
+
+    Status: Support scope restricted 
+
 Note that other devices are available but not security supported.
 
 ### x86/Emulated platform devices (QEMU):
@@ -685,9 +693,10 @@ See the section **Blkback** for image formats supported by QEMU.
 
 ### x86/HVM iPXE
 
+Booting a guest via PXE.
+
     Status: Supported, with caveats
 
-Booting a guest via PXE.
 PXE inherently places full trust of the guest in the network,
 and so should only be used
 when the guest network is under the same administrative control
@@ -695,17 +704,17 @@ as the guest itself.
 
 ### x86/HVM BIOS
 
+Booting a guest via guest BIOS firmware
+
     Status, SeaBIOS (qemu-xen): Supported
     Status, ROMBIOS (qemu-xen-traditional): Supported
 
-Booting a guest via guest BIOS firmware
-
 ### x86/HVM OVMF
 
-    Status, qemu-xen: Supported
-
 OVMF firmware implements the UEFI boot protocol.
 
+    Status, qemu-xen: Supported
+
 # Format and definitions
 
 This file contains prose, and machine-readable fragments.
-- 
2.1.4


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Re: [PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info

[Lars Kurth]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 20298 bytes --]



On 12/04/2018, 19:27, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@eu.citrix.com> wrote:

    This turns all the things which were treated as caveats, but which
    don't need to be footnoted in the matrix, into descriptions.
    
    For the benefit of the support matrix generator, this patch (or a
    version of it) should be backported to 4.10.
    
    Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>

Ian: I manually checked that the table for 4.11 matches SUPPORT.md and this patch and against the output at https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html

There were a couple of minor text changes for grammar reasons, which I noticed and highlighted.

I also checked the code motions. There are some things which need to be pointed out, but they should not prevent this series from being checked in.

However, a couple were missed
* ### PV Console (frontend) => missed moving the note (which is a definition)

There is a rendering issue also

Reviewed-by: Lars Kurth <lars.kurth@citrix.com>

I also spotted a few other inconsistencies, which we probably should fix, but these need backporting
* ARM: 16K and 64K page granularity in guests
* ARM: Guest Device Tree support
* ARM: Guest ACPI support
In all the other section headers we use x86/ or ARM/
    ---
     SUPPORT.md | 213 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------
     1 file changed, 111 insertions(+), 102 deletions(-)
    
    diff --git a/SUPPORT.md b/SUPPORT.md
    index 264b23f..5ae84cf 100644
    --- a/SUPPORT.md
    +++ b/SUPPORT.md
    @@ -58,32 +58,29 @@ for the definitions of the support status levels etc.

[snip]
     
     ## Guest Type
     
     ### x86/PV
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     Traditional Xen PV guest
     
     No hardware requirements
     
    -### x86/HVM
    +    Status: Supported
     
    -    Status, domU: Supported

    +### x86/HVM
     
     Fully virtualised guest using hardware virtualisation extensions
     
     Requires hardware virtualisation support (Intel VMX / AMD SVM)
     
    -### x86/PVH
    -
         Status, domU: Supported
    -    Status, dom0: Experimental
    +
    +### x86/PVH
     
     PVH is a next-generation paravirtualized mode
     designed to take advantage of hardware virtualization support when possible.

Looks correct from a mere refactoring perspective, but generates some odd behaviour in https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html

The underlying reason is that we had some headline re-names between 4.10 and 4.11. e.g.
ARM guest => ARM

And some support statement changes, e.g. in x86/HVM guest
Status: Supported => Status, domU: Supported

We probably need to go through some of these in 4.10 and fix them
But for 4.11 this is correct

I attached a little screenshot to explain

The implication is that we need to minimize unnecessary changes to 
a) headings
b) clarifications to status before the colon
or backport them to older versions of SUPPORT.md. Otherwise the generated table will become confusing

    @@ -93,12 +90,15 @@ Requires hardware virtualisation support (Intel VMX / AMD SVM).
     
     Dom0 support requires an IOMMU (Intel VT-d / AMD IOMMU).
     
    -### ARM
    +    Status, domU: Supported
    +    Status, dom0: Experimental
     
    -    Status: Supported
    +### ARM
     
     ARM only has one guest type at the moment
     
    +    Status: Supported
    +
     ## Toolstack
     
     ### xl
    @@ -107,12 +107,12 @@ ARM only has one guest type at the moment
     
     ### Direct-boot kernel image format
     
    +Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
    +
         Supported, x86: bzImage, ELF
         Supported, ARM32: zImage
         Supported, ARM64: Image
     
    -Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
    -

Note: the format here is wrong in both 4.10 and 4.11, this should be something like

         Status, zImage (ARM32): Supported

Lars will submit a separate patch

     ### Dom0 init support for xl
     
         Status, SysV: Supported
    @@ -121,10 +121,10 @@ Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
     
     ### JSON output support for xl
     
    -    Status: Experimental
    -
     Output of information in machine-parseable JSON format
     
    +    Status: Experimental
    +
     ### Open vSwitch integration for xl
     
         Status, Linux: Supported
    @@ -157,17 +157,18 @@ Output of information in machine-parseable JSON format
     
     ### Hypervisor 'debug keys'
     
    -    Status: Supported, not security supported
    -
     These are functions triggered either from the host serial console,
     or via the xl 'debug-keys' command,
     which cause Xen to dump various hypervisor state to the console.
     
    +    Status: Supported, not security supported
    +
     ### Hypervisor synchronous console output (sync_console)
     
    +Xen command-line flag to force synchronous console output.
    +
         Status: Supported, not security supported
     
    -Xen command-line flag to force synchronous console output.
     Useful for debugging, but not suitable for production environments
     due to incurred overhead.
     
    @@ -179,56 +180,54 @@ Debugger to debug ELF guests
     
     ### Soft-reset for PV guests
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     Soft-reset allows a new kernel to start 'from scratch' with a fresh VM state,
     but with all the memory from the previous state of the VM intact.
     This is primarily designed to allow "crash kernels",
     which can do core dumps of memory to help with debugging in the event of a crash.
     
    -### xentrace
    +    Status: Supported
     
    -    Status, x86: Supported
    +### xentrace
     
     Tool to capture Xen trace buffer data
     
    -### gcov
    +    Status, x86: Supported
     
    -    Status: Supported, Not security supported
    +### gcov
     
     Export hypervisor coverage data suitable for analysis by gcov or lcov.
     
    +    Status: Supported, Not security supported
    +
     ## Memory Management
     
     ### Dynamic memory control
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     Allows a guest to add or remove memory after boot-time.
     This is typically done by a guest kernel agent known as a "balloon driver".
     
    -### Populate-on-demand memory
    +    Status: Supported
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM: Supported
    +### Populate-on-demand memory
     
     This is a mechanism that allows normal operating systems with only a balloon driver
     to boot with memory < maxmem.
     
    -### Memory Sharing
    +    Status, x86 HVM: Supported
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM: Expermental
    +### Memory Sharing
     
     Allow sharing of identical pages between guests
     
    -### Memory Paging
    +    Status, x86 HVM: Expermental
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM: Experimenal
    +### Memory Paging
     
     Allow pages belonging to guests to be paged to disk
     
    -### Transcendent Memory
    +    Status, x86 HVM: Experimenal
     
    -    Status: Experimental
    +### Transcendent Memory
     
     Transcendent Memory (tmem) allows the creation of hypervisor memory pools
     which guests can use to store memory
    @@ -236,96 +235,100 @@ rather than caching in its own memory or swapping to disk.
     Having these in the hypervisor
     can allow more efficient aggregate use of memory across VMs.
     
    -### Alternative p2m
    +    Status: Experimental
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM: Tech Preview
    -    Status, ARM: Tech Preview
    +### Alternative p2m
     
     Allows external monitoring of hypervisor memory
     by maintaining multiple physical to machine (p2m) memory mappings.
     
    +    Status, x86 HVM: Tech Preview
    +    Status, ARM: Tech Preview
    +
     ## Resource Management
     
     ### CPU Pools
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     Groups physical cpus into distinct groups called "cpupools",
     with each pool having the capability
     of using different schedulers and scheduling properties.
     
    -### Credit Scheduler
    -
         Status: Supported
     
    +### Credit Scheduler
    +
     A weighted proportional fair share virtual CPU scheduler.
     This is the default scheduler.
     
    -### Credit2 Scheduler
    -
         Status: Supported
     
    +### Credit2 Scheduler
    +
     A general purpose scheduler for Xen,
     designed with particular focus on fairness, responsiveness, and scalability
     
    -### RTDS based Scheduler
    +    Status: Supported
     
    -    Status: Experimental
    +### RTDS based Scheduler
     
     A soft real-time CPU scheduler
     built to provide guaranteed CPU capacity to guest VMs on SMP hosts
     
    +    Status: Experimental
    +
     ### ARINC653 Scheduler
     
    +A periodically repeating fixed timeslice scheduler.
    +
         Status: Supported
     
    -A periodically repeating fixed timeslice scheduler.
     Currently only single-vcpu domains are supported.
     
     ### Null Scheduler
     
    -    Status: Experimental
    -
     A very simple, very static scheduling policy
     that always schedules the same vCPU(s) on the same pCPU(s).
     It is designed for maximum determinism and minimum overhead
     on embedded platforms.
     
    -### NUMA scheduler affinity
    +    Status: Experimental
     
    -    Status, x86: Supported
    +### NUMA scheduler affinity
     
     Enables NUMA aware scheduling in Xen
     
    +    Status, x86: Supported
    +
     ## Scalability
     
     ### Super page support
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
    -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
    -    Status, ARM: Supported
    -
     NB that this refers to the ability of guests

The beginning of this sentence should probably be changed to
"This feature refers to the ability of guests ..."

     to have higher-level page table entries point directly to memory,
     improving TLB performance.

     On ARM, and on x86 in HAP mode,
     the guest has whatever support is enabled by the hardware.
    +
    +This feature is independent
    +of the ARM "page granularity" feature (see below).
    +
    +    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
    +    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
    +    Status, ARM: Supported
    +
     On x86 in shadow mode, only 2MiB (L2) superpages are available;
     furthermore, they do not have the performance characteristics
     of hardware superpages.
     
    -Also note is feature independent
    -of the ARM "page granularity" feature (see below).
    -
     ### x86/PVHVM
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     This is a useful label for a set of hypervisor features
     which add paravirtualized functionality to HVM guests
     for improved performance and scalability.
     This includes exposing event channels to HVM guests.
     
    +    Status: Supported
    +
     ## High Availability and Fault Tolerance
     
     ### Remus Fault Tolerance
    @@ -338,38 +341,38 @@ This includes exposing event channels to HVM guests.
     
     ### x86/vMCE
     
    -    Status: Supported
    -
     Forward Machine Check Exceptions to appropriate guests
     
    +    Status: Supported
    +
     ## Virtual driver support, guest side
     
     ### Blkfront
     
    +Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV block protocol
    +
         Status, Linux: Supported
         Status, FreeBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, NetBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, OpenBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, Windows: Supported
     
    -Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV block protocol
    -
     ### Netfront
     
    +Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV networking protocol
    +
         Status, Linux: Supported
         Status, FreeBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, NetBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, OpenBSD: Supported, Security support external
         Status, Windows: Supported
     
    -Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV networking protocol
    -
     ### PV Framebuffer (frontend)
     
    -    Status, Linux (xen-fbfront): Supported
    -
     Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV Framebuffer protocol
     
    +    Status, Linux (xen-fbfront): Supported
    +
     ### PV Console (frontend)
     
         Status, Linux (hvc_xen): Supported
    @@ -381,11 +384,11 @@ Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV console protocol
     
     ### PV keyboard (frontend)
     
    -    Status, Linux (xen-kbdfront): Supported
    -
     Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV keyboard protocol.
     Note that the "keyboard protocol" includes mouse / pointer support as well.
     
    +    Status, Linux (xen-kbdfront): Supported
    +
     ### PV USB (frontend)
     
         Status, Linux: Supported
    @@ -399,22 +402,22 @@ there is currently no xl support.
     
     ### PV TPM (frontend)
     
    -    Status, Linux (xen-tpmfront): Tech Preview
    -
     Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen PV TPM protocol
     
    -### PV 9pfs frontend
    +    Status, Linux (xen-tpmfront): Tech Preview
     
    -    Status, Linux: Tech Preview
    +### PV 9pfs frontend
     
     Guest-side driver capable of speaking the Xen 9pfs protocol
     
    -### PVCalls (frontend)
    -
         Status, Linux: Tech Preview
     
    +### PVCalls (frontend)
    +
     Guest-side driver capable of making pv system calls
     
    +    Status, Linux: Tech Preview
    +
     ## Virtual device support, host side
     
     For host-side virtual device support,
    @@ -423,6 +426,8 @@ unless otherwise noted.
     
     ### Blkback
     
    +Host-side implementations of the Xen PV block protocol.
    +
         Status, Linux (xen-blkback): Supported
         Status, QEMU (xen_disk), raw format: Supported
         Status, QEMU (xen_disk), qcow format: Supported
    @@ -433,42 +438,41 @@ unless otherwise noted.
         Status, Blktap2, raw format: Deprecated
         Status, Blktap2, vhd format: Deprecated
     
    -Host-side implementations of the Xen PV block protocol.
     Backends only support raw format unless otherwise specified.
     
     ### Netback
     
    +Host-side implementations of Xen PV network protocol
    +
         Status, Linux (xen-netback): Supported
         Status, FreeBSD (netback): Supported, Security support external
         Status, NetBSD (xennetback): Supported, Security support external
     
    -Host-side implementations of Xen PV network protocol
    -
     ### PV Framebuffer (backend)
     
    -    Status, QEMU: Supported
    -
     Host-side implementation of the Xen PV framebuffer protocol
     
    -### PV Console (xenconsoled)
    +    Status, QEMU: Supported
     
    -    Status: Supported
    +### PV Console (xenconsoled)
     
     Host-side implementation of the Xen PV console protocol
     
    -### PV keyboard (backend)
    +    Status: Supported
     
    -    Status, QEMU: Supported
    +### PV keyboard (backend)
     
     Host-side implementation of the Xen PV keyboard protocol.
     Note that the "keyboard protocol" includes mouse / pointer support as well.
     
    -### PV USB (backend)
    -
         Status, QEMU: Supported
     
    +### PV USB (backend)
    +
     Host-side implementation of the Xen PV USB protocol
     
    +    Status, QEMU: Supported
    +
     ### PV SCSI protocol (backend)
     
         Status, Linux: Experimental
    @@ -499,11 +503,11 @@ but has no xl support.
     
     ### Driver Domains
     
    -    Status: Supported, with caveats
    -
     "Driver domains" means allowing non-Domain 0 domains
     with access to physical devices to act as back-ends.
     
    +    Status: Supported, with caveats
    +
     See the appropriate "Device Passthrough" section
     for more information about security support.
     
    @@ -553,13 +557,13 @@ with dom0, driver domains, stub domains, domUs, and so on.
     
     ### x86/Nested PV
     
    -    Status, x86 Xen HVM: Tech Preview
    -
     This means running a Xen hypervisor inside an HVM domain on a Xen system,
     with support for PV L2 guests only
     (i.e., hardware virtualization extensions not provided
     to the guest).
     
    +    Status, x86 Xen HVM: Tech Preview
    +
     This works, but has performance limitations
     because the L1 dom0 can only access emulated L1 devices.
     
    @@ -568,19 +572,19 @@ but nobody has reported on performance.
     
     ### x86/Nested HVM
     
    -    Status, x86 HVM: Experimental
    -
     This means providing hardware virtulization support to guest VMs
     allowing, for instance, a nested Xen to support both PV and HVM guests.
     It also implies support for other hypervisors,
     such as KVM, Hyper-V, Bromium, and so on as guests.
     
    -### vPMU
    +    Status, x86 HVM: Experimental
     
    -    Status, x86: Supported, Not security supported
    +### vPMU
     
     Virtual Performance Management Unit for HVM guests
     
    +    Status, x86: Supported, Not security supported
    +
     Disabled by default (enable with hypervisor command line option).
     This feature is not security supported: see http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-163.html
     
    @@ -604,14 +608,14 @@ when used to remove drivers and backends from domain 0
     
     ### x86/Multiple IOREQ servers
     
    -	Status: Experimental
    -
     An IOREQ server provides emulated devices to HVM and PVH guests.
     QEMU is normally the only IOREQ server,
     but Xen has support for multiple IOREQ servers.
     This allows for custom or proprietary device emulators
     to be used in addition to QEMU.
     
    +	Status: Experimental
    +
     ### ARM/Non-PCI device passthrough
     
         Status: Supported, not security supported
    @@ -635,7 +639,11 @@ No support for QEMU backends in a 16K or 64K domain.
     
     ## Virtual Hardware, QEMU
     
    -These are devices available in HVM mode using a qemu devicemodel (the default).
    +This section describes supported devices available in HVM mode using a
    +qemu devicemodel (the default).
    +
    +    Status: Support scope restricted 
    +
     Note that other devices are available but not security supported.

This is causing a rendering issue: the footnote is not generated in the right place. It is added to " stgvga". Presumably a corner case in the table generation tool
     
     ### x86/Emulated platform devices (QEMU):
    @@ -685,9 +693,10 @@ See the section **Blkback** for image formats supported by QEMU.
     
     ### x86/HVM iPXE
     
    +Booting a guest via PXE.
    +
         Status: Supported, with caveats
     
    -Booting a guest via PXE.
     PXE inherently places full trust of the guest in the network,
     and so should only be used
     when the guest network is under the same administrative control
    @@ -695,17 +704,17 @@ as the guest itself.
     
     ### x86/HVM BIOS
     
    +Booting a guest via guest BIOS firmware
    +
         Status, SeaBIOS (qemu-xen): Supported
         Status, ROMBIOS (qemu-xen-traditional): Supported
     
    -Booting a guest via guest BIOS firmware
    -
     ### x86/HVM OVMF
     
    -    Status, qemu-xen: Supported
    -
     OVMF firmware implements the UEFI boot protocol.
     
    +    Status, qemu-xen: Supported
    +
     # Format and definitions
     
     This file contains prose, and machine-readable fragments.
    -- 
    2.1.4

    
    


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Re: [PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info

[Ian Jackson]

Lars Kurth writes ("Re: [PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info"):
> There were a couple of minor text changes for grammar reasons, which I noticed and highlighted.

Thanks.

> I also checked the code motions. There are some things which need to be pointed out, but they should not prevent this series from being checked in.
> 
> However, a couple were missed
> * ### PV Console (frontend) => missed moving the note (which is a definition)

That's one, not a couple.  I have fixed it.

> I also spotted a few other inconsistencies, which we probably should fix, but these need backporting
> * ARM: 16K and 64K page granularity in guests
> * ARM: Guest Device Tree support
> * ARM: Guest ACPI support
> In all the other section headers we use x86/ or ARM/

I think "x86:" and "ARM:" are more natural so I would prefer that
bikeshed purple rather than blue.  I think the "/" came from the
example of the guest types, which are indeed in some sense "x86/HVM"
rather than "x86: HVM".

I think we should treat that as a separate issue from this series.

>     -### x86/PVH
>     -
>          Status, domU: Supported
>     -    Status, dom0: Experimental
>     +
>     +### x86/PVH
>      
>      PVH is a next-generation paravirtualized mode
>      designed to take advantage of hardware virtualization support when possible.
> 
> Looks correct from a mere refactoring perspective, but generates some odd behaviour in https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html
> 
> The underlying reason is that we had some headline re-names between 4.10 and 4.11. e.g.
> ARM guest => ARM
> 
> And some support statement changes, e.g. in x86/HVM guest
> Status: Supported => Status, domU: Supported

The rendering is indeed not ideal.  Our options are:

 (a) Live with it and document it.

 (b) Make it our practice to go always back and backport a name
     change for a feature to all versions.  I'm not sure this is worth
     the effort.

 (c) Invent some new equivalency metadata to put into SUPPORT.md or
     even into some other file in-tree.  Urgh, I don't want to do
     that.

I chose (a). You will see a paragraph about this at the top of the
html page:

  Sometimes the same feature, or a similar feature, is named
  differently in the documentation for different releases.  In such
  cases the table will show it as two separate features, with a
  discontinuity in support, even though support may have been
  continuous.

> We probably need to go through some of these in 4.10 and fix them
> But for 4.11 this is correct

I think the 4.10 documentation is not wrong, just differently
expressed.

> The implication is that we need to minimize unnecessary changes to 
> a) headings
> b) clarifications to status before the colon
> or backport them to older versions of SUPPORT.md. Otherwise the generated table will become confusing

See above.  If you want to backport the heading changes, I'll ack your
patches :-).

>      ### Direct-boot kernel image format
>      
>     +Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
>     +
>          Supported, x86: bzImage, ELF
>          Supported, ARM32: zImage
>          Supported, ARM64: Image
>      
>     -Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
>     -
> 
> Note: the format here is wrong in both 4.10 and 4.11, this should be something like
> 
>          Status, zImage (ARM32): Supported
> 
> Lars will submit a separate patch

This is not a blocker because I added parsing code for this format.
If you fix it, we can drop that, too, once the change is backported.

>      ## Scalability
>      
>      ### Super page support
>      
>     -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
>     -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
>     -    Status, ARM: Supported
>     -
>      NB that this refers to the ability of guests
> 
> The beginning of this sentence should probably be changed to
> "This feature refers to the ability of guests ..."

Or even just "The ability of guests ..." since we don't normally lead
each thing with "this is".  I think this is not very important.  If
you want to improve it I will ack your patch.

>      ## Virtual Hardware, QEMU
>      
>     -These are devices available in HVM mode using a qemu devicemodel (the default).
>     +This section describes supported devices available in HVM mode using a
>     +qemu devicemodel (the default).
>     +
>     +    Status: Support scope restricted 
>     +
>      Note that other devices are available but not security supported.
> 
> This is causing a rendering issue: the footnote is not generated in the right place. It is added to " stgvga". Presumably a corner case in the table generation tool

Yes.  It is generating semantically invalid html which renders very
oddly, too.  I will fix it.

Thanks,
Ian.

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Re: [PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info

[Lars Kurth]

On 17/04/2018, 14:22, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@citrix.com> wrote:

    Lars Kurth writes ("Re: [PATCH 4/5] SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info"):
    > There were a couple of minor text changes for grammar reasons, which I noticed and highlighted.
    
    Thanks.
    
    > I also checked the code motions. There are some things which need to be pointed out, but they should not prevent this series from being checked in.
    > 
    > However, a couple were missed
    > * ### PV Console (frontend) => missed moving the note (which is a definition)
    
    That's one, not a couple.  I have fixed it.
    
    > I also spotted a few other inconsistencies, which we probably should fix, but these need backporting
    > * ARM: 16K and 64K page granularity in guests
    > * ARM: Guest Device Tree support
    > * ARM: Guest ACPI support
    > In all the other section headers we use x86/ or ARM/
    
    I think "x86:" and "ARM:" are more natural so I would prefer that
    bikeshed purple rather than blue.  I think the "/" came from the
    example of the guest types, which are indeed in some sense "x86/HVM"
    rather than "x86: HVM".
    
    I think we should treat that as a separate issue from this series.

Agreed
    
    >     -### x86/PVH
    >     -
    >          Status, domU: Supported
    >     -    Status, dom0: Experimental
    >     +
    >     +### x86/PVH
    >      
    >      PVH is a next-generation paravirtualized mode
    >      designed to take advantage of hardware virtualization support when possible.
    > 
    > Looks correct from a mere refactoring perspective, but generates some odd behaviour in https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html
    > 
    > The underlying reason is that we had some headline re-names between 4.10 and 4.11. e.g.
    > ARM guest => ARM
    > 
    > And some support statement changes, e.g. in x86/HVM guest
    > Status: Supported => Status, domU: Supported
    
    The rendering is indeed not ideal.  Our options are:
    
     (a) Live with it and document it.
    
     (b) Make it our practice to go always back and backport a name
         change for a feature to all versions.  I'm not sure this is worth
         the effort.
    
     (c) Invent some new equivalency metadata to put into SUPPORT.md or
         even into some other file in-tree.  Urgh, I don't want to do
         that.
    
    I chose (a). You will see a paragraph about this at the top of the
    html page:
    
      Sometimes the same feature, or a similar feature, is named
      differently in the documentation for different releases.  In such
      cases the table will show it as two separate features, with a
      discontinuity in support, even though support may have been
      continuous.

I can live with this approach
    
    > We probably need to go through some of these in 4.10 and fix them
    > But for 4.11 this is correct
    
    I think the 4.10 documentation is not wrong, just differently
    expressed.
    
    > The implication is that we need to minimize unnecessary changes to 
    > a) headings
    > b) clarifications to status before the colon
    > or backport them to older versions of SUPPORT.md. Otherwise the generated table will become confusing
    
    See above.  If you want to backport the heading changes, I'll ack your
    patches :-).

Happy to pick this up
    
    >      ### Direct-boot kernel image format
    >      
    >     +Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
    >     +
    >          Supported, x86: bzImage, ELF
    >          Supported, ARM32: zImage
    >          Supported, ARM64: Image
    >      
    >     -Format which the toolstack accepts for direct-boot kernels
    >     -
    > 
    > Note: the format here is wrong in both 4.10 and 4.11, this should be something like
    > 
    >          Status, zImage (ARM32): Supported
    > 
    > Lars will submit a separate patch
    
    This is not a blocker because I added parsing code for this format.
    If you fix it, we can drop that, too, once the change is backported.
    
    >      ## Scalability
    >      
    >      ### Super page support
    >      
    >     -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
    >     -    Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
    >     -    Status, ARM: Supported
    >     -
    >      NB that this refers to the ability of guests
    > 
    > The beginning of this sentence should probably be changed to
    > "This feature refers to the ability of guests ..."
    
    Or even just "The ability of guests ..." since we don't normally lead
    each thing with "this is".  I think this is not very important.  If
    you want to improve it I will ack your patch.

Sure, I can roll this up with the other changes on my list
    
    >      ## Virtual Hardware, QEMU
    >      
    >     -These are devices available in HVM mode using a qemu devicemodel (the default).
    >     +This section describes supported devices available in HVM mode using a
    >     +qemu devicemodel (the default).
    >     +
    >     +    Status: Support scope restricted 
    >     +
    >      Note that other devices are available but not security supported.
    > 
    > This is causing a rendering issue: the footnote is not generated in the right place. It is added to " stgvga". Presumably a corner case in the table generation tool
    
    Yes.  It is generating semantically invalid html which renders very
    oddly, too.  I will fix it.
    
Thanks
Lars    

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[PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

[Ian Jackson]

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
---
 SUPPORT.md | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/SUPPORT.md b/SUPPORT.md
index 5ae84cf..098262b 100644
--- a/SUPPORT.md
+++ b/SUPPORT.md
@@ -725,6 +725,11 @@ The file is in markdown format.
 The machine-readable fragments are markdown literals
 containing RFC-822-like (deb822-like) data.
 
+In each case, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as
+provided in the section heading, precede the Status indications.
+Any paragraphs which follow the Status indication are caveats or
+qualifications of the information provided in Status fields.
+
 ## Keys found in the Feature Support subsections
 
 ### Status
-- 
2.1.4


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Re: [PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

[Lars Kurth]

On 12/04/2018, 19:26, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@eu.citrix.com> wrote:

    Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>
    ---
     SUPPORT.md | 5 +++++
     1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
    
    diff --git a/SUPPORT.md b/SUPPORT.md
    index 5ae84cf..098262b 100644
    --- a/SUPPORT.md
    +++ b/SUPPORT.md
    @@ -725,6 +725,11 @@ The file is in markdown format.
     The machine-readable fragments are markdown literals
     containing RFC-822-like (deb822-like) data.
     
    +In each case, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as
    +provided in the section heading, precede the Status indications.

The following is a little clearer
s/, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as provided in the section heading,/, descriptions which describe the feature in the section heading in more detail,/

    +Any paragraphs which follow the Status indication are caveats or
    +qualifications of the information provided in Status fields.
    +
     ## Keys found in the Feature Support subsections
     
     ### Status

Acked-by: Lars Kurth <lars.kurth@citrix.com>    

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Re: [PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

[Ian Jackson]

Lars Kurth writes ("Re: [PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule"):
...
>     +In each case, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as
>     +provided in the section heading, precede the Status indications.
> 
> The following is a little clearer
> s/, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as provided in the section heading,/, descriptions which describe the feature in the section heading in more detail,/

I used the wording I did because the word "description" is very
elastic, and might well be thought to include things that we intend as
caveats.

Ian.

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Re: [PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

[Lars Kurth]

On 13/04/2018, 11:31, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@citrix.com> wrote:

    Lars Kurth writes ("Re: [PATCH 5/5] SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule"):
    ...
    >     +In each case, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as
    >     +provided in the section heading, precede the Status indications.
    > 
    > The following is a little clearer
    > s/, descriptions which expand on the name of a feature as provided in the section heading,/, descriptions which describe the feature in the section heading in more detail,/
    
    I used the wording I did because the word "description" is very
    elastic, and might well be thought to include things that we intend as
    caveats.
    
I don't mind either way. Just something which sounded odd. 

Lars


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Re: [PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats

[Ian Jackson]

Ian Jackson writes ("[PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats"):
> The new support matrix output puts a [*] after each entry in the
> support matrix in many cases where the linked-to text is simply a
> longer description of the feature.

Example output:
  https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html

Ian.

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Re: [PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats

[Lars Kurth]

On 12/04/2018, 19:29, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@citrix.com> wrote:

    Ian Jackson writes ("[PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats"):
    > The new support matrix output puts a [*] after each entry in the
    > support matrix in many cases where the linked-to text is simply a
    > longer description of the feature.
    
    Example output:
      https://xenbits.xen.org/people/iwj/2018/support-matrix-example-B-v1/t.html

Looks good to me
Lars
 

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Re: [PATCH 0/5] SUPPORT.md: Distinguish descriptions from caveats

[Juergen Gross]

On 12/04/18 20:26, Ian Jackson wrote:
> The new support matrix output puts a [*] after each entry in the
> support matrix in many cases where the linked-to text is simply a
> longer description of the feature.
> 
> Remedy this by distinguishing text which expands on a feature
> description from text which qualifies its support status.
> 
> There are 3 patches to processing machinery, followed by two patches
> to SUPPORT.md - one to make the distinction, throughout, and one to
> document it.
> 
> The patches to SUPPORT.md would ideally go to 4.10 too.
> 
>      1/5 docs/parse-support-md: internals: Introduce docref_a
>      2/5 docs/parse-support-md: internals: Rename HasText to
>      3/5 SUPPORT.md, support matrix: Treat commentary before
>      4/5 SUPPORT.md: Move descriptions up before Status info
>      5/5 SUPPORT.md: Document the new text ordering rule

For the complete series:

Release-acked-by: Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com>


Juergen

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