On Thu, Aug 08, 2019 at 06:48:25AM +0200, Markus Armbruster wrote: > Please excuse the attention-grabbing subject. > > Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <phi...@redhat.com> writes: > > > On 8/7/19 10:16 PM, Markus Armbruster wrote: > [...] > >> Can you tell me offhand what I have to install so configure enables > >> CONFIG_NETMAP? > > > > The steps are listed in tests/docker/dockerfiles/debian-amd64.docker, > > but you can get to this point running: > > > > $ make docker-image-debian-amd64 V=1 DEBUG=1 > > > > This will build the docker image with netmap (so you don't have to mess > > with your workstation setup), then build QEMU within the image. > > So, to make use of QEMU's netmap backend (CONFIG_NETMAP), you have to > build and install netmap software from sources. Which pretty much > ensures nobody uses it. It was added in commit 58952137b0b (Nov 2013). > The commit message points to <http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/netmap/>, > which gives me "connection timed out" right now. > > On the other hand, it's covered in MAINTAINERS, and has seen > non-janitorial activity as late as Dec 2018 (commit c693fc748a). > > Luigi, Giuseppe, Vincenzo, what's the status of the netmap project?
I think Giuseppe and Vincenzo are currently maintain netmap. I worked with them on my master's thesis. :) I can give you some information, but I'm sure they can be more specific. More info here: https://github.com/luigirizzo/netmap > > Why is the QEMU netmap backend worth keeping? Netmap provides a virtual switch (VALE) and netmap pipes that can be useful for VMs and the netmap backend allows us to use them. > > Who is using the netmap backend? > > How do they obtain a netmap-enabled QEMU? Compile it from sources > themselves? Yes, I think so. > > Would it make sense to have netmap packaged in common Linux distros? > Maybe yes, for the virtual switch (VALE) and netmap pipes there shouldn't be a problem. To use the network cards, however, you would need the modified drivers. Cheers, Stefano
