[Xen-devel] 4.2 TODO / Release Status

[Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Plan for a 4.2 release:
http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-03/msg00793.html

The time line is as follows:

19 March        -- TODO list locked down
2 April         -- Feature Freeze
                                                << WE ARE HERE
Mid/Late May    -- First release candidate
Weekly          -- RCN+1 until it is ready

The updated TODO list follows. Per the release plan a strong case will
now have to be made as to why new items should be added to the list,
especially as a blocker, rather than deferred to 4.3.

hypervisor, blockers:
      * Performance regression due to contention on p2m lock. Patches
        posted, reviewed, updated, to go in shortly (Tim, Andres) 
 
tools, blockers:
      * libxl stable API -- we would like 4.2 to define a stable API
        which downstream's can start to rely on not changing. Aspects of
        this are:
              * Safe fork vs. fd handling hooks. Involves API changes
                (Ian J, patches posted)
              * libxl_wait_for_free_memory/libxl_wait_for_memory_target.
                Interface needs an overhaul, related to
                locking/serialization over domain create (deferred to
                4.3). IanJ to add note about this interface being
                substandard but otherwise defer to 4.3.
              * libxl_*_path. Majority made internal, only configdir and
                lockdir remain public (used by xl). Good enough?
              * Interfaces which may need to be async:
                      * libxl_domain_suspend. Probably need to move
                        xc_domain_save into a separate process, as per
                        <20366.40183.410388.447630@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>. 
Likely need to do the same for xc_domain_restore too. I'm not sure if IanJ is 
working (or planning to work on) this.
                      * libxl_domain_create_{new,restore} -- IanJ has
                        patches as part of event series.
                      * libxl_domain_core_dump. Can take a dummy ao_how
                        and remain synchronous internally. (IanC, patch
                        posted)
                      * libxl_device_{disk,nic,vkb,add}_add (and
                        remove?). Roger Pau Monnà fixes disk as part of
                        hotplug script series and adds infrastructure
                        which should make the others trivial. (Roger
                        investigating)
                      * libxl_cdrom_insert. Should be easy once
                        disk_{add,remove} done, IanJ to look at (or
                        doing so?).
                      * libxl_device_disk_local_{attach,detach}. Become
                        internal as part of Stefano's domain 0 disk
                        attach series (patches posted)
                      * libxl_device_pci_{add,remove}. Roger
                        investigating along with other add,remove
                        functions.
                      * libxl_xen_tmem_*. All functions are "fast" and
                        therefore no async needed. Exception is
                        tmem_destroy which Dan Magenheimer says is
                        obsolete and can just be removed. (Ian C, patch
                        to remove tmem_destroy included, DONE)
                      * libxl_fork -- IanJ's event series will remove
                        all users of this.
      * [BUG] Manually ballooning dom0.  xl mem-set 0 [foo] fails with
        "libxl: error: libxl.c:2569:libxl_set_memory_target: cannot get
        memory info from /local/domain/0/memory/static-max: No such file
        or directory". This might be suitable for an enthusiastic
        on-looker. (George Dunlap, in the absence of said onlooker)
      * xl compatibility with xm:
              * [BUG] cannot create an empty CD-ROM driver on HVM guest,
                reported by Fabio Fantoni in
                <4F9672DD.2080902@xxxxxxxxxx>
              * [BUG] does not honour scheduler weight params, reported
                by Dieter Bloms in <20120423193518.GA16134@xxxxxxxx>,
                Dieter's patch has been accepted. (DONE, However see
                next bug...)
              * [BUG] Spurious CPU params error message when starting a
                domain, e.g. "Cpu weight out of range, valid values are
                within range from 1 to 65535". This is an issue with
                Dieter Bloms' patch to honour scheduler params.
              * does not automatically try to select a (set of)  node(s)
                on which to create a VM and pin its vcpus there. (Dario
                Faggioli)
      * More formally deprecate xm/xend. Manpage patches already in
        tree. Needs release noting and communication around -rc1 to
        remind people to test xl.
      * xl to refuse to run if xend is running, Roger Pau Monnà (patch
        posted)
      * Domain 0 block attach & general hotplug when using qdisk backend
        (need to start qemu as necessary etc) (Stefano S, patches
        posted)
      * file:// backend performance (DONE)
              * qemu-xen-traditional and upstream qemu-xen performance
                has been improved and is now satisfactory. (Hence this
                whole item is DONE)
              * Xen 4.2 will prefer blktap2 if a kernel module is
                available (e.g. older dom0 kernel or DKMS provided
                kernel module) and will fallback to qemu qdisk if no
                blktap2 is available.
              * There will be no userspace "blktap3" for Xen 4.2
      * Improved Hotplug script support (Roger Pau MonnÃ, patches
        posted)
      * Block script support -- follows on from hotplug script (Roger
        Pau MonnÃ)

hypervisor, nice to have:
      * PoD performance improvements (George Dunlap)

tools, nice to have:
      * Upstream qemu feature patches:
              * Upstream qemu PCI passthrough support (Anthony Perard,
                patches sent)
              * Upstream qemu save restore (Anthony Perard, Stefano
                Stabellini, qemu patches applied, waiting for libxl etc
                side which has been recently reposted)
      * Initial xl support for Remus (memory checkpoint, blackholing)
        (Shriram, waiting on libxl side of qemu upstream save/restore)
      * xl compatibility with xm:
              * xl support for autospawning vncviewer (vncviewer=1 or
                otherwise) (Goncalo Gomes, new version of patch posted
                recently)
              * support for vif "rate" parameter (Mathieu GagnÃ, all now
                applied, DONE)

[0] http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-03/msg00883.html



_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel