[[!template id=project

title="Blktap2 driver support"

contact="""
[port-xen](mailto:port-xen@NetBSD.org)
"""

mentors="""
"""

category="kernel"
difficulty="hard"
duration=""

description="""
Abstract: The blktap2 method provides a userland daemon to provide access to on disk files, arbitrated by the kernel. The NetBSD kernel lacks this support and currently disables blktap in xentools.

Deliverables:

* blktap2 driver for /dev/blktapX
* Tool support to be enabled in xentools
* Enable access to various file formats (Qcow, VHD etc) , via the
[ tap: ] disk specification.

Implementation:

The driver interacts with some areas of the kernel that are different
from linux - eg: inter-domain page mapping, interdomain
signalling. This may make it more challenging than a simple driver,
especially with test/debug/performance risk.

Note: There's opportunity to compare notes with the FUSE/rump implementations.

See <http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Blktap> and
<http://xenbits.xensource.com/hg/xen-unstable.hg/file/tip/tools/blktap2/README>
"""

]]