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Bug 868692 - Libvirt: Double dash in VM causes it to disappear - bad parsing of XML
Summary: Libvirt: Double dash in VM causes it to disappear - bad parsing of XML
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: libvirt
Version: 6.4
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: rc
: 6.4
Assignee: Ján Tomko
QA Contact: Virtualization Bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-10-21 19:25 UTC by Dave
Modified: 2013-02-21 07:10 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

Fixed In Version: libvirt-0.10.2-6.el6
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-02-21 07:10:45 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)
Relevant XML and log files for this bug (3.19 KB, application/x-compressed-tar)
2012-10-21 19:25 UTC, Dave 		no flags Details
View All


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHSA-2013:0276 0 normal SHIPPED_LIVE Moderate: libvirt security, bug fix, and enhancement update 2013-02-20 21:18:26 UTC

Description Dave 2012-10-21 19:25:45 UTC 
Created attachment 630989 [details]
Relevant XML and log files for this bug

Description of problem:
OS: Scientific Linux 6.3 on x86-64

I came back after reboot to find a VM missing that I had been working on all night.  After google-researching a few things, I found that the VM was not appearing in the VM list due to a double dash:

# less /var/log/libvirt/libvirtd.log
[[
012-10-21 17:59:55.758+0000: 2877: error : catchXMLError:683 : /etc/libvirt/qemu/win7--64.xml:4: Comment not terminated
<!--
WARNING: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED FILE. CHANGES
  virsh edit win7--64
-----------------^
2012-10-21 18:06:18.977+0000: 2873: error : remoteDispatchAuthPolkit:2559 : Policy kit denied action org.libvirt.unix.manage from pid 3984, uid 500: exit status 1

---

The kVM had been created as "win7--64" and ended up in /etc/libvirt/qemu as "win7--64.xml".  Upon starting the ' virt-manager ', the VM was missing due to this bug because the XML parser couldn't detect that the double dash was part of the comment - not trying to end it.



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
libvirt-0.9.10-21.el6_3.5.x86_64
kernel-2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64


How reproducible:
Should be 100%, but the whole thing was working OK until I rebooted

Steps to Reproduce:
1. See attachment - contains original .xml file, fixed .xml file, and relevant log files
2.
3.
  
Actual results:
Teh Craziness Happen(TM)

Expected results:
GUI should at least show some error messages as to why the kVM went missing :(
Also, XML parser should either escape the double dash, or disallow it to be created in the 1st place when constructing a kVM.

Additional info:

# Workaround fix:
o I was able to work around the problem by:

# virsh edit win7--64  # did not happen - error:
kvm error: Domain not found: no domain with matching name

# nano /etc/libvirt/qemu/win7--64.xml # and removed double-dashes
# mv /etc/libvirt/qemu/win7--64.xml win7-64.xml

' service libvirtd restart '

o After restarting ' virt-manager ', the missing VM turned up OK as "win7-64".
I was able to boot it OK, but it did not resume from its Suspended (Saved) state.

---

Refs:
http://www.mentby.com/Group/scientific-linux-users/kvm-vms-disappeared.html
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.scientific.user/1778
http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/FAQ#My_VM_doesn.27t_show_up_with_.27virsh_list.27

---

note: I did search the bugzilla under libvirtd but did not find a matching bug:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=specific&order=relevance+desc&bug_status=__open__&product=Red+Hat+Enterprise+Linux+6&content=libvirt
Comment 1 Dave Allan 2012-10-22 15:42:18 UTC 
It appears that a domain name with a double hyphen is causing libvirt to generate XML that does not comply with the W3C recommendation:

For compatibility, the string " -- " (double-hyphen) MUST NOT occur within comments.] See:

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-comments
Comment 3 Ján Tomko 2012-10-23 12:31:19 UTC 
I have proposed a patch upstream that prevents putting double hyphens in the comment:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2012-October/msg01268.html
Comment 4 Ján Tomko 2012-10-23 13:44:30 UTC 
Fixed upstream by:

commit 9b704ab8235af010b1fda4886201aab02098b969
Author:     Ján Tomko <jtomko>
AuthorDate: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:16:44 +0200
Commit:     Michal Privoznik <mprivozn>
CommitDate: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:24:31 +0200

    xml: omit domain name from comment if it contains double hyphen
    
    We put a comment containing "virsh edit <domain_name>" at the start of
    the XML. W3C recommendation forbids the use of "--" in comments [1] and
    libvirt can't parse it either. This patch omits the domain name if it
    contains a double hyphen.
    
    [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-comments

Moving to POST:
http://post-office.corp.redhat.com/archives/rhvirt-patches/2012-October/msg01132.html
Comment 5 Ján Tomko 2012-10-25 09:17:50 UTC 
This doesn't fix it for snapshots, as it only checks the snapshot name in that case, not the domain name:

2012-10-25 08:32:51.506+0000: 5460: error : catchXMLError:691 : (domain_snapshot):4: Double hyphen within comment: <!--
WARNING: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED FILE. CHANGES 
  virsh snapshot-edit free--dos 1351153952
--------------------------^
2012-10-25 08:32:51.506+0000: 5460: error : qemuDomainSnapshotLoad:514 : Failed to parse snapshot XML from file '/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/snapshot/free--dos/1351153952.xml'
Comment 6 Jiri Denemark 2012-10-29 13:46:05 UTC 
Back in POST: http://post-office.corp.redhat.com/archives/rhvirt-patches/2012-October/msg01198.html
Comment 7 zhpeng 2012-10-30 05:26:21 UTC 
Reproduce it with:
libvirt-0.10.2-5.el6.x86_64

Test with:
libvirt-0.10.2-6.el6.x86_64

define/save/restore/snapshot

All passed.

So it's VERIFIED.
Comment 8 errata-xmlrpc 2013-02-21 07:10:45 UTC 
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0276.html
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