Change output format of qvm-ls to something sane

[marmarek]

Reported by woju on 12 Nov 2014 14:28 UTC

1. Let's get rid of the ASCII art table anyway. It contributes nothing. Compare it to xl list, virsh list etc.
2. Make flags field for boolean (and close to boolean) attributes, like internal, include in backups and even running.
3. Let user choose freely from available columns (in addition to current switches like -n). Cf. ps -o. Let him/her(/it in case of software) choose even arbitrary variables aka properties. It's really easier than it sounds.
4. Introduce simple filters like "templates", "only running", "HVM" etc. (vm.class.name == ...)

Migrated-From: https://wiki.qubes-os.org/ticket/923

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 12 Nov 2014 14:46 UTC
I concur :)

Shall we preserve the old format (ASCI art) for backward compatibility (and use it by default when no switches passed), in case there were some user-written scripts parsing this output? Or perhaps R2/R3 switch allows us to ignore this potential compatibility problem? Perhaps only use the old format if --old-format switch passed?

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 12 Nov 2014 14:46 UTC
I concur :)

Shall we preserve the old format (ASCI art) for backward compatibility (and use it by default when no switches passed), in case there were some user-written scripts parsing this output? Or perhaps R2/R3 switch allows us to ignore this potential compatibility problem? Perhaps only use the old format if --old-format switch passed?

[marmarek]

Comment by woju on 12 Nov 2014 15:14 UTC
I think it should stay in R2.0 untouched, but we can just remove it altogether in R3. I think nobody will ever need the table in the strict meaning of the word. Anybody who attempted to parse such format is probably better with python -c 'import qubes; ...'. Question is, what to do for R2.1?

[marmarek]

Comment by woju on 12 Nov 2014 15:14 UTC
I think it should stay in R2.0 untouched, but we can just remove it altogether in R3. I think nobody will ever need the table in the strict meaning of the word. Anybody who attempted to parse such format is probably better with python -c 'import qubes; ...'. Question is, what to do for R2.1?

[kalkin]

Some time ago i wrote a zsh function which shows a nicer human readable output. Maybe it will inspire someone to solve it similar in python

▶ dom0            Running  Yes  Admin  n/a          black   19677MB
▶ foo             Running              *firewallvm  orange  4096MB
▶ emacs           Running              *firewallvm  orange  2048MB
▶ firewallvm      Running       Proxy  netvm        green   3000MB
◍ bar             Transient            *firewallvm  blue    4096MB
■ private         Halted               *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ media           Running              firewallvm   yellow  2048MB
▶ netvm           Running       Net    n/a          red     300MB
▶ news            Running              *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ zum             Running              *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ skype           Running              *firewallvm  green   1024MB

[kalkin]

Some time ago i wrote a zsh function which shows a nicer human readable output. Maybe it will inspire someone to solve it similar in python

▶ dom0            Running  Yes  Admin  n/a          black   19677MB
▶ foo             Running              *firewallvm  orange  4096MB
▶ emacs           Running              *firewallvm  orange  2048MB
▶ firewallvm      Running       Proxy  netvm        green   3000MB
◍ bar             Transient            *firewallvm  blue    4096MB
■ private         Halted               *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ media           Running              firewallvm   yellow  2048MB
▶ netvm           Running       Net    n/a          red     300MB
▶ news            Running              *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ zum             Running              *firewallvm  green   4000MB
▶ skype           Running              *firewallvm  green   1024MB

[marmarek]

@woju can you paste output from the core3 qvm-ls?

[marmarek]

@woju can you paste output from the core3 qvm-ls?

[woju]

NAME                          STATUS   LABEL      TEMPLATE                     NETVM
dom0                          0rU----- -          -                            -
testvm                        a------- red        fedora-21                    -
fedora-21                     t-U----- black      -                            -

Actually we can close this, because it was fixed long ago in core3 branch.

[woju]

NAME                          STATUS   LABEL      TEMPLATE                     NETVM
dom0                          0rU----- -          -                            -
testvm                        a------- red        fedora-21                    -
fedora-21                     t-U----- black      -                            -

Actually we can close this, because it was fixed long ago in core3 branch.

[marmarek]

Just to make sure: besides this fancy STATUS column, is it possible to get something human-readable? With VM type ("AppVM", "TemplateVM" etc), status ("running"), ...

[marmarek]

Just to make sure: besides this fancy STATUS column, is it possible to get something human-readable? With VM type ("AppVM", "TemplateVM" etc), status ("running"), ...

[woju]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 04:02:00PM -0700, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:

Just to make sure: besides this fancy STATUS column, is it possible
to get something human-readable? With VM type ("AppVM", "TemplateVM"
etc), status ("running"), ...

No, it is not at the moment. But it can be, if it is needed.

[woju]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 04:02:00PM -0700, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:

Just to make sure: besides this fancy STATUS column, is it possible
to get something human-readable? With VM type ("AppVM", "TemplateVM"
etc), status ("running"), ...

No, it is not at the moment. But it can be, if it is needed.