Add a document describing the usage of virtiofs.
---
docs/kbase.html.in | 3 +
docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst | 153 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 156 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
diff --git a/docs/kbase.html.in b/docs/kbase.html.in
index c156414c41..7d6caf3cb1 100644
--- a/docs/kbase.html.in
+++ b/docs/kbase.html.in
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@
<dt><a href="kbase/backing_chains.html">Backing chain management</a></dt>
<dd>Explanation of how disk backing chain specification impacts libvirt's
behaviour and basic troubleshooting steps of disk problems.</dd>
+
+ <dt><a href="kbase/virtiofs.html">Virtio-FS</a></dt>
+ <dd>Share a filesystem between the guest and the host</dd>
</dl>
</div>
diff --git a/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst b/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..83351e0a28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+============================
+Sharing files with Virtio-FS
+============================
+
+=== 8< delete before merging 8< ===
+NOTE: if you're looking at this note, this is just a proposal.
+See the up-to-date version on: https://libvirt.org/kbase/virtiofs.html
+=== 8< --------------------- 8< ===
+
+.. contents::
+
+=========
+Virtio-FS
+=========
+
+Virtio-FS is a delicious delicacy aiming to provide an easy-to-configure
+way of sharing filesystems between the host and the virtual machine.
+
+See https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/
+
+==========
+Host setup
+==========
+
+The host-side virtiofsd daemon, like other vhost-user backed devices,
+requres shared memory between the host and the guest. As of QEMU 4.2, this
+requires specifying a NUMA topology for the guest and explicitly specifying
+a memory backend. Multiple options are available:
+
+Either of the following:
+
+1. Use file-backed memory
+
+Configure the directory where the files backing the memory will be stored
+with the ``memory_backing_dir`` option in ``/etc/libvirt/qemu.conf``
+
+::
+
+ # This directory is used for memoryBacking source if configured as file.
+ # NOTE: big files will be stored here
+ memory_backing_dir = "/dev/shm/"
+
+2. Use hugepage-backed memory
+
+Make sure there are enough huge pages allocated for the requested guest memory.
+For exmaple, for one guest with 2 GiB of RAM backed by 2 MiB hugepages:
+
+::
+
+ # virsh allocpages 2M 1024
+
+===========
+Guest setup
+===========
+
+1. Specify the NUMA topology
+
+in the domain XML of the guest.
+For the simplest one-node topology for a guest with 2GiB of RAM and 8 vCPUs:
+
+::
+
+ <domain>
+ ...
+ <cpu ...>
+ <numa>
+ <cell id='0' cpus='0-7' memory='2' unit='GiB' memAccess='shared'/>
+ </numa>
+ </cpu>
+ ...
+ </domain>
+
+Note that the CPU element might already be specified and only one is allowed.
+
+2. Specify the memory backend
+
+Either of the following:
+
+2.1. File-backed memory
+
+::
+
+ <domain>
+ ...
+ <memoryBacking>
+ <access mode='shared'/>
+ </memoryBacking>
+ ...
+ </domain>
+
+This will create a file in the directory specified in ``qemu.conf``
+
+2.2. Hugepage-backed memory
+
+::
+
+ <domain>
+ ...
+ <memoryBacking>
+ <hugepages>
+ <page size='2' unit='M'/>
+ </hugepages>
+ <access mode='shared'/>
+ </memoryBacking>
+ ...
+ </domain>
+
+3. Add the ``vhost-user-fs`` QEMU device via the ``filesystem`` element
+
+::
+
+ <domain>
+ ...
+ <devices>
+ ...
+ <filesystem type='mount' accessmode='passthrough'>
+ <driver type='virtiofs'>
+ <binary>/usr/libexec/virtiofsd</binary>
+ </driver>
+ <source dir='/path'/>
+ <target dir='mount_tag'/>
+ </filesystem>
+ ...
+ </devices>
+ </domain>
+
+Note that despite its name, the ``target dir`` is actually a mount tag and does
+not have to correspond to the desired mount point in the guest.
+
+So far, ``passthrough`` is the only supported access mode and it requires
+running the ``virtiofsd`` daemon as root.
+
+4. Boot the guest and mount the filesystem
+
+::
+
+ guest# mount -t virtiofs mount_tag /mnt/mount/path
+
+Note: this requires virtiofs support in the guest kernel (Linux v5.4 or later)
+
+===================
+Optional parameters
+===================
+
+More optional elements can be specified
+
+::
+
+ <driver type='virtiofs' queue='1024' xattr='on'>
+ <binary>/usr/libexec/virtiofsd</binary>
+ <cache mode='always' size='1024' unit='GiB'/>
+ <lock posix_lock='on' flock='on'/>
+ </driver>
--
2.21.0
