On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 07:15:29AM -0500, Eric Blake wrote: > On 3/10/20 4:47 AM, Kashyap Chamarthy wrote: [...] > > <digression> > > > > Ah, didn't realize the inconsistency of 'convert' lacking the '-F' > > shorthand ... which reminds me, there are at least _three_ ways that I > > know of, to specify backing file format with 'create': > > > > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o 'backing_file=./base.raw,backing_fmt=raw' ./overlay1.qcow2 > > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b ./base.raw -o backing_fmt=raw overlay1.qcow2 > > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b ./base.raw -F raw ./overlay1.qcow2 > > > > I'm wondering about the consistency of having all the above three > > supported for other operations too. Now I at least know 'convert' lacks > > the "-F". > > The -o forms (backing_file= and backing_fmt=) always work. Various commands > then have additional shorthand: -b/-F for create, -B for convert. You're > right that we aren't very consistent, but I'm reluctant to change the > inconsistencies in this patch Oh, I wasn't implying to tackle the inconsistency as part of this patch, or series. Hence the 'digression' :-) Was just wondering out loud. > (at one point in the past, we tried to get rid > of the shorthand and force all users to go through -o, but that broke too > many clients that were depending on the undocumented shorthand, so we > documented the existing shorthand instead). Fair enough; let's not touch these things for now. -- /kashyap
