Re: libxenguest and xenguest.h

[Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

On 15.09.2020 07:18, Jürgen Groß wrote:
> Andy has reported a libxenguest related build failure of qemu when
> building qemu outside the Xen build environment. Problem is xenguest.h
> now including xenctrl_dom.h, which is including xen/libelf/libelf.h.
> 
> The underlying problem is that libxenguest is basically offering some
> "official" functions via xenguest.h, while some other functions are
> only Xen internally usable and are defined in xenctrl_dom.h.
> 
> This is a rather weird construction and I'm seeing the following
> solutions:
> 
> 1. Make xen/include/xen/libelf.h a public header (or split the parts
>     needed by xenguest.h into a public header)

Besides being conceptually wrong imo, this could (afaict) cause name
space issues to consumers. This definitely gets a -1 from me, if not
a -2.

> 2. Reflect the two parts of libxenguest by carving out the xenctrl_dom.h
>     defined parts into a new library not made public
> 
> 3. Make the xenctrl_dom.h interfaces internal again by not adding it to
>     the installed headers

This option would seem to imply that qemu has no real need to include
this header, as otherwise how would this address the build issue?

Jan