[virt-tools-list] Can we obsolete virt-convert, virt-clone, virt-image?

[Richard W.M. Jones]

virt-convert & virt-image:

These tools depend on the virt-image format, a noble attempt to make a
non-proprietary version of OVF.  I think there is still a need to make
an open version of the horrible proprietary fake-standard of OVF, but
virt-image isn't it.

Having these tools does create confusion for users (particularly
versus when they should run 'qemu-img convert' or virt-v2v) so I think
we should drop them.

virt-clone:

This tool is supposed to clone existing images.  But you can just run
dd/cp to clone the disks + 'virt-install --import' to create libvirt
configuration.

To do full cloning you will really need something a lot more advanced
that can see inside the disks, ie. virt-sysprep, or that can sparsify
disks (virt-sysprep), or that can do templating (virt-builder et al).

virt-clone is troublesome for me.  Most people I meet who try to use
it should be using virt-sysprep.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
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