vm-builder

[Serge Hallyn]

Quoting Ryan Harper (ryan.harper at ubuntu.com):
> * Serge Hallyn <serge.hallyn at ubuntu.com> [2014-02-06 17:04]:
> > Quoting Peter Matulis (peter.matulis at canonical.com):
> > > On 12/10/2013 12:13 PM, Serge Hallyn wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > Years ago it was decided that vm-builder would be deprecated in favor
> > > > of alternatives (cloud images, live-build, and some others).  This was
> > > > dicussed at at least two separate physical UDSes.  However, it was
> > > > never actually dropped from the archive.  As a result people kept
> > > > using it despite it being considered deprecated and no longer
> > > > maintained.  This is resulting in people losing data and time, i.e.
> > > > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vm-builder/+bug/1090223
> > > > 
> > > > I intend to open a bug to ask that it be removed from the archive
> > > > for trusty.  If anyone objects, please reply here.
> > > 
> > > What is the state of documentation for 'live-build and some others'?  We
> > > shouldn't assume everyone has been cloudified.
> > 
> > Pretty poor.  I am placing my hopes more on Robie's uvtool package than
> > live-build.  It is what I've been using for projects needing to migrate
> > from vmbuilder.  uvtool should definately gain a server guide section.
> 
> Definitely.  I'd be happy to contribute here.  I've been a heavy user of
> uvtool since I found out about it last fall.

Hi Ryan,

I could be wrong but think Robie was going to write a section, so be
sure to coordinate if so.

Note that there is one package left which is in heavy use and still
uses vm-builder:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/auto-upgrade-testing/+bug/1261416

I do intend to come up with a patch to convert it to uvtool, however if
you have time, it sounds like you've used uvtool a lot more than I have,
so help would be greatly appreciated.

> I saw this back in December, but didn't get a chance to play with it
> yet.
> 
> http://libguestfs.org/virt-builder.1.html

Interestingly, it appears to come down to using virt-install to
come up with the initial image :)

smoser has occasionally mentioned another tool - whose name I
always forget but is as I recall ungoogle-able - which actually
works by simply booting an install iso and driving the installer.
That would be a nice complement to uvtool - one exercising our
published cloud images, and the other our iso installer.

-serge