On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 08:01:20PM +0200, Laurent Vivier wrote:
> As '-help' output is 400 lines long it is not easy
> to find information, but generally we know from
> which area we want the information.
I agree - a bit more order is IMHO needed in the general
-help - I'm not sure this is the place to start.
E.g. it is not your fault that it lists e.g. a ton of random
stuff as Standard options but this becomes more of
a problem if you hide things behind sub-sections.
For example, how do I change the amount of memory?
Currently I do --help and search for memory.
This also diverges from the way one queries other help
(-device foo,help, -cpu help etc).
How about we move detailed help into each option instead?
This will mean only 113 lines which is a lot, but
kind of reasonable.
-machine [type=]name[,prop[=value][,...]] select emulated machine ('-machine
help' for help)
-cpu cpu select CPU ('-cpu help' for list)
-smp [cpus=]n[,prop[=value][,...]] configure SMP ('-smp help' for help)
-numa node[,prop[=value][,...]] configure NUMA ('-numa help' for help)
Of course it's also true that often the help says
nothing useful at all.
> As sections already exist in the help description,
> add some options to only display the wanted section.
>
> '-help' now can take an optional parameter of the
> form -help[=LIST], which is a comma separated list
> of sections to display:
>
> all display all help sections
> help display help options
> standard display standard options
What does standard options mean?
> block display block options
> usb display usb options
> display display display options
> machine display machine options
> network display network options
> character display character options
Character device options?
> url display url options
what are these?
> bt display bt options
bluetooth options?
> tpm display tpm options
> kernel display kernel options
> expert display expert options
> object display object options
what are these?
>
> '-help' without option displays only help options.
>
> Example:
>
> $ x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 -help=kernel,usb
> QEMU emulator version 2.4.50, Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard
> usage: qemu-system-x86_64 [options] [disk_image]
>
> 'disk_image' is a raw hard disk image for IDE hard disk 0
>
> Linux/Multiboot boot specific:
> -kernel bzImage use 'bzImage' as kernel image
> -append cmdline use 'cmdline' as kernel command line
> -initrd file use 'file' as initial ram disk
> -dtb file use 'file' as device tree image
>
> USB options:
> -usb enable the USB driver (will be the default soon)
> -usbdevice name add the host or guest USB device 'name'
>
> Signed-off-by: Laurent Vivier <lviv...@redhat.com>
Maybe a good place to start is rewriting our man page.
We can then distill that to a minimum that makes sense
in -help.
--
MST
