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RE: [Xen-devel] Passing ioctls between front-end and back-end drivers

To: "Nick Logan" <nick_logan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Xen-devel] Passing ioctls between front-end and back-end drivers
From: "Ian Pratt" <m+Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 16:03:18 -0000
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Thread-index: AcXurxGgn/04RECARm6zBmit8nG8jwABTLGQ
Thread-topic: [Xen-devel] Passing ioctls between front-end and back-end drivers
> I see that the block driver supports requests for READ, WRITE 
> and PROBE. 
> Is there any recommended way to pass ioctl requests from the 
> front-end to be executed by the back-end driver?

Currently, no.

Creating a new request operation type that allows the front end to pass
through ioctls would be useful, but it ends up being rather Linux
specific. Further, for security reasons the backend is going to need to
be able to decode the ioctl and decide whether its safe to issue or not.
It would be better to have a 'wire protocol' for this.

A mechanism for passing scsi commands through would be better, but even
then there are a bunch of vendor-specific ones its not entirely easy to
tell whether they should be allowed by a guest or not. I suspect we need
to draw up a list of what "ioctls" should be allowed. What one do you
want to perform?

Ian 

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