926b7b6e6c
We currently generate two completely separate API references for the
libvirt public API. One at 'docs/html/' and one at 'docs/devhelp/'.
Both are published on the website, but we only link to content in
the 'docs/html/' pages.
Both are installed in the libvirt-docs sub-RPM, with a full copy
of the website including 'docs/html/' in /usr/share/docs/libvirt-docs,
while the 'docs/devhelp/' content goes to /usr/share/gtk-doc/. The
latter was broken for years until:
commit ca6f602546cb28658db05f29bc840e04d22d0947
Author: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
Date: Fri May 10 14:54:52 2019 +0200
docs: Introduce $(devhelphtml_generated)
Our XSLT magic generates one Devhelp-compatible HTML file
per documentation module, but so far we have only shipped
and installed documentation for virterror.
Now that we have $(modules), however, we can generate the
list of files the same way we do for regular documentation
and make sure we always ship and install everything.
That this bug went unnoticed for so long is a sign of how few
people are using the devhelp docs. The only commits to the devhelp
code since it was first introduced have been fixing various build
problems that hit.
The only obvious difference between the two sets of docs is the CSS
styling in use. Overall devhelp does not look compelling enough to
justify having two duplicated sets of API docs. Eliminating it will
reduce the amount of XSL code we are carrying in the tree which is
an attractive benefit.
Reviewed-by: Pavel Hrdina <phrdina@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
Signed-off-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: