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Subject: [RFC PATCH] introduction.tex: introduce a glossary of terms
It is useful to have a glossary of common terms at the front of the document to define common terms we are going to use throughout the specification. Whilst writing this list I notice we refer to a device in host terms - perhaps we need slightly tighter definitions of what a device is? For discussion I've defined a Device Interface in terms of the guest visible side and a Device Backend in terms of what runs on the host. Cc: Nikos Dragazis <ndragazis@arrikto.com> Cc: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Alex BennÃe <alex.bennee@linaro.org> --- introduction.tex | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+) diff --git a/introduction.tex b/introduction.tex index 33da3ec..c84a112 100644 --- a/introduction.tex +++ b/introduction.tex @@ -81,6 +81,36 @@ \section{Terminology}\label{Terminology} The key words ``MUST'', ``MUST NOT'', ``REQUIRED'', ``SHALL'', ``SHALL NOT'', ``SHOULD'', ``SHOULD NOT'', ``RECOMMENDED'', ``MAY'', and ``OPTIONAL'' in this document are to be interpreted as described in \hyperref[intro:rfc2119]{[RFC2119]}. +\subsection{Glossary}\label{intro:Glossary} + +The following are definitions of common terms used throughout the specification. + +\begin{description} +\item[Guest] + A virtual machine hosted by a hypervisor. +\item[Host] + The system hosting a virtual machine. It may consist of multiple + components including a hypervisor, primary OS and it's user-space. +\item[Device Interface] + The series of configuration, control and operation mechanisms + visible to the guest that make a Virtio device. +\item[Device Driver] + The software (usually part of a kernel) running on the guest which + accesses the device interface. +\item[Device Backend] + The software running on the host that services requests made of the + device interface. The implementation details of the backend should + be transparent to the guest. +\item[Notification] + An asynchronous signal sent to either the device backend or the + device driver to indicate a virtqueue has been updated. For guests + this is typically a device interrupt. +\item[Doorbell Register] + A guest visible register that when accessed will trigger a + notification to the backend via some implementation defined + mechanism. +\end{description} + \subsection{Legacy Interface: Terminology}\label{intro:Legacy Interface: Terminology} -- 2.26.0.103.g3bab5d5625
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