[Qemu-devel] Is network backend netmap worth keeping? (was: [PATCH v2 27/29] Include sysemu/sysemu.h a lot less)

[Markus Armbruster]

Please excuse the attention-grabbing subject.

Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <address@hidden> 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?

Why is the QEMU netmap backend worth keeping?

Who is using the netmap backend?

How do they obtain a netmap-enabled QEMU?  Compile it from sources
themselves?

Would it make sense to have netmap packaged in common Linux distros?