VHD Support addition
cover VHD Support addition
[PATCH 0/4] VHD Support addition
The patches that follow implement Microsoft's VHD format support, and apply to xen-unstable.hg CS 15281:356588dda4bc
This is based on the VHD format spec covered by Microsoft's "Open Specification Promise":
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp/default.mspx
MS VHD Spec can be found at the following link:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/f/e/ffef50a5-07dd-4cf8-aaa3-442c0673a029/Virtual%20Hard%20Disk%20Format%20Spec_10_18_06.doc
It is divided up into the following patches:
qemu-vhd-support.patch [1/4] tapdisk-vhd-support.patch [2/4] blktap-fixes.patch [3/4] vdisk-support.patch [4/4]
### libvdisk ####
These patches implement a shared library (libvdisk) between qemu, and blktap which can be explanded upon for additional formats in the future. This was done in order to avoid code duplcation between the two areas. At this time, it only supports the vhd format.
### vdisk_tool ###
The vdisk_tool provides a means of creating, and converting vhd files. Like libvdisk, it is designed with future support of additional formats in mind, but currently only supports vhd.
Usage: vdisk_tool OPTIONS -# <format-specific options> <filename>
OPTIONS:
[-f <format>] [-C] [-H] [-M] [-D <block> [-b <num_blocks>] -o outfile]]
-C Create a vdisk
-H Read vdisk headers from file
-M Modify a vdisk
-D Dump a vhd
block first block to read (required)
num_blocks number of blocks to read. If not
specified, whole file will be read
outfile output file. If not specified,
stdout is used
With this, you can convert foo.vhd to raw volume /dev/foo/bar:
vdisk_tool -D 0 -o /dev/foo/bar foo.vhd
To convert foo.vhd to fixed bar.vhd
vdisk_tool -D 0 -o bar.vhd foo.vhd
vdisk_tool -C -# -S <sizeB> -f bar.vhd
To read blocks 2 through 6 from foo.vhd to stdout:
vdisk_tool -D 2 -b 5 foo.vhd