Re: Where should the vhost-user specification live?

On Mon, Jun 1, 2026 at 2:39=E2=80=AFPM Michael S. Tsirkin <[email protected]> =
wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 01, 2026 at 02:32:11PM +0200, Albert Esteve wrote:
> >  But also because, in my opinion, separating
> > the specification would improve development agility by decoupling
> > specification development from QEMU's review and release cycles.
>
> Generally for QEMU this will be less agility, unless I misunderstand
> what is proposed)
>
> Because presumably there will need to be spec releases then?
>
> So
>         new feature -> spec tree -> spec release -> qemu implementation -=
> qemu release
>
> is surely longer that what we have now.

I see your point.

However, we do not really need to introduce a heavy release management
layer. We could just operate it as a living document, where the main
branch is the authoritative source of truth.

For the workflow, development doesn't have to be strictly sequential
either. A contributor can propose the spec update while working on the
implementation, much like we do for VirtIO updates. Actually, this way
one update/change supports the other.

I guess my point is that a dedicated repository could lower the
barrier for new changes AND keep QEMU's own development speed mostly
unaffected.

BR,
Albert

>
> Whether there will be more agility for non qemu users will depend on
> how often spec releases are cut.
>
>
>
> --
> MST
>