Re: [PATCH] machine: add missing doc for memory-backend option

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 11/01/21 23:27, Igor Mammedov wrote:

Add documentation for '-machine memory-backend' CLI option and
how to use it.

PS:
While at it add a comment to x-use-canonical-path-for-ramblock-id,
to make sure it won't go away by accident.

Signed-off-by: Igor Mammedov <imamm...@redhat.com>
---
  backends/hostmem.c |  8 ++++++++
  qemu-options.hx    | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
  2 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/backends/hostmem.c b/backends/hostmem.c
index 4bde00e8e7..f6f4e818c7 100644
--- a/backends/hostmem.c
+++ b/backends/hostmem.c
@@ -497,6 +497,14 @@ host_memory_backend_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
          host_memory_backend_get_share, host_memory_backend_set_share);
      object_class_property_set_description(oc, "share",
          "Mark the memory as private to QEMU or shared");
+    /*
+     * Do not delete/rename option till 4.0 and older machine types exist,
+     * Option will be used by upper layers to override (disable) canonical path
+     * for ramblock-id set by compat properties on old machine types ( <= 4.0),
+     * to keep migration working when backend is used for main RAM with
+     * -machine memory-backend= option (main RAM historically used prefix-less
+     * ramblock-id).
+     */
      object_class_property_add_bool(oc, "x-use-canonical-path-for-ramblock-id",
          host_memory_backend_get_use_canonical_path,
          host_memory_backend_set_use_canonical_path);
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 459c916d3d..c02628bd26 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ DEF("machine", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_machine, \
      "                suppress-vmdesc=on|off disables self-describing migration 
(default=off)\n"
      "                nvdimm=on|off controls NVDIMM support (default=off)\n"
      "                memory-encryption=@var{} memory encryption object to use 
(default=none)\n"
-    "                hmat=on|off controls ACPI HMAT support (default=off)\n",
+    "                hmat=on|off controls ACPI HMAT support (default=off)\n"
+    "                memory-backend='backend-id' specifies explicitly provided 
backend for main RAM (default=none)\n",
      QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
  SRST
  ``-machine [type=]name[,prop=value[,...]]``
@@ -96,6 +97,28 @@ SRST
      ``hmat=on|off``
          Enables or disables ACPI Heterogeneous Memory Attribute Table
          (HMAT) support. The default is off.
+
+     ``memory-backend='id'``
+        An alternative to legacy ``-mem-path`` and ``mem-prealloc`` options.
+        Allows to use a memory backend as main RAM.
+
+        For example:
+        ::
+        -object 
memory-backend-file,id=pc.ram,size=512M,mem-path=/hugetlbfs,prealloc=on,share=on
+        -machine memory-backend=pc.ram
+        -m 512M
+
+        Migration compatibility note:
+        a) as backend id one shall use value of 'default-ram-id', advertised by
+        machine type (available via ``query-machines`` QMP command)
+        b) for machine types 4.0 and older, user shall
+        use ``x-use-canonical-path-for-ramblock-id=on`` backend option,
+        if migration to/from old QEMU (<5.0) is expected.
+        For example:
+        ::
+        -object 
memory-backend-ram,id=pc.ram,size=512M,x-use-canonical-path-for-ramblock-id=on
+        -machine memory-backend=pc.ram
+        -m 512M
  ERST

HXCOMM Deprecated by -machine

Queued, thanks.

Paolo