[virt-tools-list] [RFC virt-viewer 00/12] Add more sophisticated version check to .vv files

[Jonathon Jongsma]

On Tue, 2015-06-02 at 16:29 +0200, Christophe Fergeau wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> oVirt people have been asking for a better way to check the client version
> which is being started (minimum required version can be different on Windows,
> rhel, debian, ...). This patch series adds a new --with-osid argument to
> remote-viewer's configure as well as a new 'versions' field to .vv file which can
> be used to specify (osid, version) couples rather than the simpler 'version' field
> which can only match a single version.
> 
> This is bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1200103
> 
> Christophe
> 
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So, I was unsure about this approach when I first saw it. It seemed to
allow an explosion of version specifications. You'd also have to
coordinate between the server (or, whoever is creating the .vv file) and
the distribution packagers to make sure both were using the same osid.
The vv-file-creator also has to have a lot of detailed knowledge about
exactly which packages in which distributions provide the required
features.

So there are certainly some downsides.

On the other hand, it's probably unlikely that you'll often need more
than a couple of version specificiations. Especially since the old
single-valued "version" field is still used as a fallback. So although
it does feel a bit inelegant, I think I'm OK with it. I can't come up
with any better ideas at the moment. I'd like to hear what other people
think though.

Jonathon