Re: BHYVE SNAPSHOT image format proposal

On 7/14/23 13:08, Rob Wing wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 9:40 AM Matthew Grooms <mgrooms@shrew.net 
> <mailto:mgrooms@shrew.net>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     I see a need to define a format for bhyve so it's possible to mix
>     different sections and encodings inside a unified stream. But all the
>     data in your nvlist example above can be easily be represented as text.
>     We already have JSON, YAML, XML, etc ... By adopting an preexisting
>     format, we could retain the snapshot structure instead of lifting it up
>     into the stream format. Even if we decide to break the structure up
>     into
>     different nvlist stream sections, using a common format would allow
>     other tools to more easily parse and validate the structure inside
>     these
>     sections. Isn't that a good thing? Is there a reason we're trying to
>     reinvent the wheel here?
> 
> Does JSON support storing binary data? I'm under the impression that it 
> does not.

Hey Rob,

I wasn't suggesting that any of the bulk data be encoded. But I think I 
see the disconnect as I replied to the reply vs the original proposal. 
I'll try again this weekend when I have more time to read everything 
again and re-digest.

-Matthew