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authorRichard Henderson <richard.henderson@linaro.org>2023-07-06 18:19:42 +0100
committerRichard Henderson <richard.henderson@linaro.org>2023-07-06 18:19:42 +0100
commit97c81ef4b8e203d9620fd46e7eb77004563e3675 (patch)
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parent822cb97cefe2416ce61fe8007ad69904bbe24502 (diff)
parent3548fa01511b4d8d19d4b187d3989b7033b733d8 (diff)
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Merge tag 'pull-9p-20230706' of https://github.com/cschoenebeck/qemu into staging
Administrative changes only: * Deprecate 9p 'proxy' backend. * Raise status of 9p to 'Maintained'. # -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- # # iQJLBAABCgA1FiEEltjREM96+AhPiFkBNMK1h2Wkc5UFAmSmkAsXHHFlbXVfb3Nz # QGNydWRlYnl0ZS5jb20ACgkQNMK1h2Wkc5We1xAAol+HbhQ2zNCJUbZ2/WY3Jf0H # K86DRQIs6w6UkL9msFz+id+tR5i50HoJ3+RnOKvy/fPqO8Rv6mb0d9r+bIG1JJCc # ubHP91x/nyDbP0XbLMtmtCz/T4g67E11Qqriq7lH1bPF7ccU3iXHZNup9HARjOoE # SQo9x4e7IDi1WdmM2vjvRXCh4ZLIlBv7c+2vAeP4V7FhJhDkL+1y+w6aCFw0xpd8 # lto3Egnhz6pk7+SJfQwCl3rfozHhCxlNmcNa+7vqckVFpdJrvtKOQB4cn9yVDPr/ # WjmYoB2J3MwYuZz+qAkdRJ6dUTLJb87YqJJe6lcKq0lqjiFBk7TccvIN9WgyJQd/ # eLUPCCyo98g9RCaPzjLc4MgbpCPCmqJkg8A1vJzykvq51BqJZcdkwfJ7LFmsvTSo # IfR1Seq4OUUzTZ2gWh8wJBNcPpAbilHzQnumxBEupe0Dg/pwoQWCywTYJN6Yf/6+ # PzcK39bVFKrEyc4Z1Y/yXvAzD7nX8X78kSHvxYYEQfzruLIVQjUUQ7Mp3TiJvljk # mLdcYqavjawgC2zmZU4L2Lx4Su7iVIkhNWj57WkfooSzLrAjueYQIJEltAt8Qmn6 # x3+u3xI/myNKujMpaqgTAU5Gk2J2UApshq5Zwe8HpnVwWoxS3QetXdA/f4AXwZOk # TpnKPYQa7edPLSSAbAs= # =GzjR # -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- # gpg: Signature made Thu 06 Jul 2023 10:57:31 AM BST # gpg: using RSA key 96D8D110CF7AF8084F88590134C2B58765A47395 # gpg: issuer "qemu_oss@crudebyte.com" # gpg: Good signature from "Christian Schoenebeck <qemu_oss@crudebyte.com>" [unknown] # gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature! # gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner. # Primary key fingerprint: ECAB 1A45 4014 1413 BA38 4926 30DB 47C3 A012 D5F4 # Subkey fingerprint: 96D8 D110 CF7A F808 4F88 5901 34C2 B587 65A4 7395 * tag 'pull-9p-20230706' of https://github.com/cschoenebeck/qemu: MAINTAINERS: raise status of 9p to 'Maintained' 9pfs: deprecate 'proxy' backend Signed-off-by: Richard Henderson <richard.henderson@linaro.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs')
-rw-r--r--docs/about/deprecated.rst23
-rw-r--r--docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst3
2 files changed, 26 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
index 0743459..ddc1e48 100644
--- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
+++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
@@ -343,6 +343,29 @@ the addition of volatile memory support, it is now necessary to distinguish
between persistent and volatile memory backends. As such, memdev is deprecated
in favor of persistent-memdev.
+``-fsdev proxy`` and ``-virtfs proxy`` (since 8.1)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The 9p ``proxy`` filesystem backend driver has been deprecated and will be
+removed (along with its proxy helper daemon) in a future version of QEMU. Please
+use ``-fsdev local`` or ``-virtfs local`` for using the 9p ``local`` filesystem
+backend, or alternatively consider deploying virtiofsd instead.
+
+The 9p ``proxy`` backend was originally developed as an alternative to the 9p
+``local`` backend. The idea was to enhance security by dispatching actual low
+level filesystem operations from 9p server (QEMU process) over to a separate
+process (the virtfs-proxy-helper binary). However this alternative never gained
+momentum. The proxy backend is much slower than the local backend, hasn't seen
+any development in years, and showed to be less secure, especially due to the
+fact that its helper daemon must be run as root, whereas with the local backend
+QEMU is typically run as unprivileged user and allows to tighten behaviour by
+mapping permissions et al by using its 'mapped' security model option.
+
+Nowadays it would make sense to reimplement the ``proxy`` backend by using
+QEMU's ``vhost`` feature, which would eliminate the high latency costs under
+which the 9p ``proxy`` backend currently suffers. However as of to date nobody
+has indicated plans for such kind of reimplemention unfortunately.
+
Block device options
''''''''''''''''''''
diff --git a/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst b/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst
index 6cdeedf..bd310eb 100644
--- a/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst
+++ b/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ Synopsis
Description
-----------
+NOTE: The 9p 'proxy' backend is deprecated (since QEMU 8.1) and will be
+removed, along with this daemon, in a future version of QEMU!
+
Pass-through security model in QEMU 9p server needs root privilege to do
few file operations (like chown, chmod to any mode/uid:gid). There are two
issues in pass-through security model: