Python in Domain Configurations

[Elliott Mitchell <ehem+xen@xxxxxxx>]

There is a distinct weakness in Xen which ends up dragging in domain
configuration limitations.  I was thinking of using Python for parsing
extra data out of domain configuration files.  Only to find sample domain
configuration files were in fact fully valid Python.

Having experimented, it appears entirely feasible to use libpython to
parse current domain configuration files.  Looking further it appears
Python was in fact used in the past to handle domain configuration files.

Why was this removed?

The only context I could find was 54fbaf446b and
https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/PythonInXlConfig which don't explain
the reasoning.

Would the maintainers be amenable to revisiting the decision to remove
support for full Python in domain configuration files?

The obvious reason is having full Python would increase the size of `xl`.
In most cases I'm unsure this would be too problematic.  The case where
it would matter is the daemon process.  Issue here is plenty of other
extra libraries are also bloating the runtime size of `xl`.  I suspect
the daemon process really needs to be split into a separate executable to
reduce overhead anyway.


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