0d44788fc3
Introduce a bunch of new public APIs related to backup checkpoints.
Checkpoints are modeled heavily after virDomainSnapshotPtr (both
represent a point in time of the guest), although a snapshot exists
with the intent of rolling back to that state, while a checkpoint
exists to make it possible to create an incremental backup at a later
time. We may have a future hypervisor that can completely manage
checkpoints without libvirt metadata, but the first two planned
hypervisors (qemu and test) both always use libvirt for tracking
metadata relations between checkpoints, so for now, I've deferred
the counterpart of virDomainSnapshotHasMetadata for a separate
API addition at a later date if there is ever a need for it.
Note that until we allow snapshots and checkpoints to exist
simultaneously on the same domain (although the actual prevention of
this will be in a separate patch for the sake of an easier revert down
the road), that it is not possible to branch out to create more than
one checkpoint child to a given parent, although it may become
possible later when we revert to a snapshot that coincides with a
checkpoint. This also means that for now, the decision of which
checkpoint becomes the parent of a newly created one is the only
checkpoint with no child (so while there are APIs for dealing with a
current snapshot, we do not need those for checkpoints). We may end
up exposing a notion of a current checkpoint later, but it's easier to
add stuff when proven needed than to blindly support it now and wish
we hadn't exposed it.
The following map shows the API relations to snapshots, with new APIs
on the right:
Operate on a domain object to create/redefine a child:
virDomainSnapshotCreateXML virDomainCheckpointCreateXML
Operate on a child object for lifetime management:
virDomainSnapshotDelete virDomainCheckpointDelete
virDomainSnapshotFree virDomainCheckpointFree
virDomainSnapshotRef virDomainCheckpointRef
Operate on a child object to learn more about it:
virDomainSnapshotGetXMLDesc virDomainCheckpointGetXMLDesc
virDomainSnapshotGetConnect virDomainCheckpointGetConnect
virDomainSnapshotGetDomain virDomainCheckpointGetDomain
virDomainSnapshotGetName virDomainCheckpiontGetName
virDomainSnapshotGetParent virDomainCheckpiontGetParent
virDomainSnapshotHasMetadata (deferred for later)
virDomainSnapshotIsCurrent (no counterpart, see note above)
Operate on a domain object to list all children:
virDomainSnapshotNum (no counterparts, these are the old
virDomainSnapshotListNames racy interfaces)
virDomainSnapshotListAllSnapshots virDomainListAllCheckpoints
Operate on a child object to list descendents:
virDomainSnapshotNumChildren (no counterparts, these are the old
virDomainSnapshotListChildrenNames racy interfaces)
virDomainSnapshotListAllChildren virDomainCheckpointListAllChildren
Operate on a domain to locate a particular child:
virDomainSnapshotLookupByName virDomainCheckpointLookupByName
virDomainSnapshotCurrent (no counterpart, see note above)
virDomainHasCurrentSnapshot (no counterpart, old racy interface)
Operate on a snapshot to roll back to earlier state:
virDomainSnapshotRevert (no counterpart, instead checkpoints
are used in incremental backups via
XML to virDomainBackupBegin)
Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Libvirt API for virtualization
Libvirt provides a portable, long term stable C API for managing the virtualization technologies provided by many operating systems. It includes support for QEMU, KVM, Xen, LXC, bhyve, Virtuozzo, VMware vCenter and ESX, VMware Desktop, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and the POWER Hypervisor.
For some of these hypervisors, it provides a stateful management daemon which runs on the virtualization host allowing access to the API both by non-privileged local users and remote users.
Layered packages provide bindings of the libvirt C API into other languages including Python, Perl, PHP, Go, Java, OCaml, as well as mappings into object systems such as GObject, CIM and SNMP.
Further information about the libvirt project can be found on the website:
License
The libvirt C API is distributed under the terms of GNU Lesser General
Public License, version 2.1 (or later). Some parts of the code that are
not part of the C library may have the more restrictive GNU General
Public License, version 2.0 (or later). See the files COPYING.LESSER
and COPYING for full license terms & conditions.
Installation
Libvirt uses the GNU Autotools build system, so in general can be built and installed with the usual commands. For example, to build in a manner that is suitable for installing as root, use:
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
$ make
$ sudo make install
While to build & install as an unprivileged user
$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr
$ make
$ make install
The libvirt code relies on a large number of 3rd party libraries. These will
be detected during execution of the configure script and a summary printed
which lists any missing (optional) dependencies.
Contributing
The libvirt project welcomes contributions in many ways. For most components the best way to contribute is to send patches to the primary development mailing list. Further guidance on this can be found on the website:
https://libvirt.org/contribute.html
Contact
The libvirt project has two primary mailing lists:
- libvirt-users@redhat.com (for user discussions)
- libvir-list@redhat.com (for development only)
Further details on contacting the project are available on the website: