On 8/20/20 12:01 PM, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 11:42:45AM -0600, Jim Fehlig wrote:
On 8/20/20 10:54 AM, Mark Mielke wrote:
On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 11:48 AM Christian Ehrhardt
<christian.ehrhardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:christian.ehrhardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 5:15 PM Mark Mielke <mark.mielke@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:mark.mielke@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 8:55 AM Christian Ehrhardt
<christian.ehrhardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:christian.ehrhardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
wrote:
>> This was meant for upgrades, but if libvirt would define a known path in
>> there like /var/run/qemu/last_packaging_change the packages could easily
>> touch it on any install/remove/update as Daniel suggested and libvirt could
>> check this path like it does with the date of the qemu binary already.
> Earlier in this thread - I think one or two of us had asked about the
timestamp on the directory that contains the modules.
> I'm wondering if a "last_packaging_change" provides any value over and
above the timestamp of the directory itself? Wouldn't the directory be best
- as it would work automatically for both distro packaging as well as custom
installs?
Sure, if
- "list of files in module dir"
- "stat dates of files in module dir"
would be checked by libvirt that would also be a no-op for packaging
and thereby land faster.
Why is the list of files and stat dates needed? Any change done by RPM
to add or remove a file from the directory, should cause the mtime for
the directory to be updated. It doesn't really matter what the change is
- it only matters that the change is detected.
The case for needing to check the files *in* the directory, would be a
concern about the modules keeping the same name, but being updated in
place. I'm doubtful that this ever occurs for real, as it would cause
breakage for running programs. Existing running programs would mmap() or
similar the binaries into memory, and cannot be updated in place.
Instead, the inode remains alive, and a new file is created with the
same name, to replace the old file, and once all file descriptors are
closed - the inode is deleted.
So, unless there is a hierarchical directory structure - I believe
checking the modules directory timestamp is near 100% accuracy for
whether modules were added, removed, or updated using "safe" deployment
practices either by RPM or "make install".
I wrote a small test program that checks mtime (also tried ctime) and it
only changes on the directory when files are added and deleted. There is no
change to either if a file in the directory has been updated. It would be
really convenient to check only the directory to see if its' contents have
changed but I'm not aware of how to do that other than with something like
inotify. Suggestions welcomed.
IIUC, Mark's point is that an RPM update won't replace the file in-placec.
It will write out a new temporary file and then rename over the top of the
old file, which should trigger an update on the directory mtime.
Ah, right. I wasn't considering the behavior of package mangers. My simple test
of appending to an existing file doesn't simulate that. Indeed checking mtime on
the directory should work.
I can work on a patch, but one last question is the location of the directory?
It looks like qemu searches all over the place for modules: QEMU_MODULE_DIR env
var, CONFIG_QEMU_MODDIR, directory up from the executable location, directory of
executable location, var/run/qemu. I suppose downstreams will go with
CONFIG_QEMU_MODDIR for module location. Should libvirt have a config option to
specify the path, so downstream can coordinate that between the packages?
Regards,
Jim
