From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:44394) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fNN8T-0003x4-1G for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 28 May 2018 14:44:49 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fNN8S-0006Zb-6f for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 28 May 2018 14:44:49 -0400 References: <20180518180440-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20180524113251.GB4660@redhat.com> <20180528183058.GG2209@redhat.com> <20180528183833.GJ4580@localhost.localdomain> From: Max Reitz Message-ID: Date: Mon, 28 May 2018 20:44:40 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20180528183833.GJ4580@localhost.localdomain> Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="Jz3X3q8BjQb4RFtvnp1quaPALF8okhYEG" Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] storing machine data in qcow images? List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Kevin Wolf , "Richard W.M. Jones" Cc: "Michael S. Tsirkin" , ehabkost@redhat.com, stefanha@redhat.com, qemu-devel@nongnu.org, qemu-block@nongnu.org This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 4880 and 3156) --Jz3X3q8BjQb4RFtvnp1quaPALF8okhYEG From: Max Reitz To: Kevin Wolf , "Richard W.M. Jones" Cc: "Michael S. Tsirkin" , ehabkost@redhat.com, stefanha@redhat.com, qemu-devel@nongnu.org, qemu-block@nongnu.org Message-ID: Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] storing machine data in qcow images? References: <20180518180440-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20180524113251.GB4660@redhat.com> <20180528183058.GG2209@redhat.com> <20180528183833.GJ4580@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <20180528183833.GJ4580@localhost.localdomain> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2018-05-28 20:38, Kevin Wolf wrote: > Am 28.05.2018 um 20:30 hat Richard W.M. Jones geschrieben: >> On Mon, May 28, 2018 at 08:10:32PM +0200, Max Reitz wrote: >>> As someone who is just naive and doesn't see the big picture, I don't= >>> see what's wrong with using a tar file that contains the image and >>> additional data. >> >> FWIW an OVA file is exactly this: an uncompressed tar file containing >> disk image(s) and metadata. >=20 > If we combine VM configuration and the disk image this way, I would > still want to directly use that combined thing without having to extrac= t > its components first. >=20 > Just accessing the image file within a tar archive is possible and we > could write a block driver for that (I actually think we should do > this), but it restricts you because certain operations like resizing > aren't really possible in tar. Unfortunately, resizing is a really > common operation for non-raw image formats. >=20 > And if I think of a file format that can contain several different > things that can be individually resized etc., I end up with qcow2 in th= e > simple case or a full file system in the more complex case. Well, you end up with VMDK. Max --Jz3X3q8BjQb4RFtvnp1quaPALF8okhYEG Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEkb62CjDbPohX0Rgp9AfbAGHVz0AFAlsMThgACgkQ9AfbAGHV z0ANDwf/UXa8TcSBEQ1J9kPl6qhT2qiUPUB7AxyprshNE0w6Hg4m/rWIbf4WrTt6 RmQIAOv/B65JnETTVhvcqNszfcq7UJY2EwO0WOC8h8U6yV1sHWdyLuaZdMHotenz 5pAqkZzXmI3YN9WJZWTPwib7CMuEbYMcYY2bsl0YsdoMsEWh6Bqfqw7Xbu+jKsYH o2X5xUBD7I5j0korC+WZgKAdyIGOP4N3zia5q+UJDrAAOz4vVS5QxNvGwo4daMGj 7J7ZyS4iua7HNsZCS4ytivK7/5HnKb7C6RA9Vw8eQ/hNUm7fKgJTTKqolrIedOY4 URzFEOkUisDXiaiBvfuZImbxG0f8pw== =8jcJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Jz3X3q8BjQb4RFtvnp1quaPALF8okhYEG--