Revision as of 15:26, 30 October 2012

Additional common image properties

We propose adding four properties to Glance images that identify operating system characteristics: `os_arch`, `os_distro`, `os_version`, `os_nick`. Descriptions of each follow. For more context, see the email thread on this topic [1].

Property: os_arch

JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema:

{
  "os_arch":
  {
     "type": "string",
     "required": false,
     "default": null,
     "description": "Operating system architecture as specified in http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/image_properties/os_arch",
  }
}

Example usage

    "os_arch": "x86_64"

Discussion

Standardized values will aid in searching for an appropriate image. I propose that we keep a list of suggested values on a web page similar to the image statuses page [2]. This could be as loosely moderated as a wiki page or it could have some kind of clearly stated submission procedure for new os_arch values. I think usage would be self-policing, i.e., if you want your images to be found, you'd want to use the community's terms for the architecture.

See [4] for an example version of the standardized values page.

Property: os_distro

JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema:

{
  "os_distro":
  {
     "type": "string",
     "required": false,
     "default": null,
     "description": "Common name of operating system distribution as specified in http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/image_properties/os_distro",
  }
}

Example usage

  "os_distro": "debian"

Discussion

Standardized values will aid in searching for an appropriate image. Same idea as the `os_arch` proposal, though this would probably change much faster. The page would outline the basic rule (e.g., "Common name of the operating system distribution in all-lowercase") and provide a list of names to use. (If we want to be developer-friendly, we could have associated with each approved name a list of un-approved variants to make it easier to search for the proper value.)

See [5] for an example version of the standardized values page.

Property: os_version

JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema

{
  "os_version":
  {
     "type": "string",
     "required": false,
     "default": null,
     "description": "Operating system version as specified by the distributor",
  }
}

Example usage

  "os_version": "11.10"

Discussion

Previous discussion [3] mentioned standardizing this field, but the values are controlled by the operating system vendors. It makes sorting tricky, but this this would be a secondary sort field anyway.

References

• [1] http://markmail.org/message/zjbcg2kkmpbhfrj3
• [2] http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/statuses.html
• [3] http://wiki.openstack.org/CommonImageProperties
• [4] http://wiki.openstack.org/glance-common-image-properties-os_arch
• [5] http://wiki.openstack.org/glance-common-image-properties-os_distro