Re: Standard NBD URL syntax (again)
On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 10:55:45AM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> So last night I had an important thought about this:
>
> * What existing export names are people using in real life?
Good point.
> nbdkit doesn't use export names for anything - you can pass
> anything you like.
>
> qemu-nbd has an odd system where the export name must match what was
> specified on the command line, but AFAIK it doesn't care about it
> otherwise.
>
> qemu's internal NBD server may permit multiple export names, but I'm
> not totally sure about that. What do they look like? Arbitrary
> strings? Absolute paths? Relative paths?
>
> nbd-server supports multiple export names, and it does appear to want
> absolute paths.
You're confusing two things here.
In nbd-server, the section name is used as the export name; and the
configuration line that starts with 'export=' is used as the path of the
file or device that is exported, but not as the export name.
i.e., in a configuration like this:
[mydevice]
export=/home/wouter/device
the exportname is "mydevice", not "/home/wouter/device".
Beyond that, nbd-server does support all characters as the exportname
that GKeyFile would support in a section name, and e.g., the LTSP people
use something that looks like a path as an export name:
[/opt/ltsp/i386]
exportname = /opt/ltsp/i386.img
With the benefit of hindsight, I've often thought that it was a mistake
to call the device to be served "export=" in the configuration, but now
it's probably way too late to change that anymore.
> Can it use arbitrary strings too, or are absolute paths the only
> option? How about relative paths?
>
> Basically, I think what we most commonly use export names for should
> influence how we decide to use them in URLs.
That certainly does make sense.
--
To the thief who stole my anti-depressants: I hope you're happy
-- seen somewhere on the Internet on a photo of a billboard
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