microvm command UX overhaul

[astro]

One day I would like to rewrite the microvm command in Rust with improved arguments parsing. Leave your UX ideas here!

The current user interface looks like this:

Usage: /run/current-system/sw/bin/microvm <action> [flags]

Actions:
          -c <name>  Create a MicroVM
          -u <name>  Rebuild (update) a MicroVM
          -r <name>  Run a MicroVM in foreground
          -l         List MicroVMs

Flags:
          -f <flake> Create using another flake than git+file:///etc/nixos
          -R         Restart after update

[marvin]

good idea. i would suggest if u want to focus ppl on one command because ppl are lazzy then i would also suggest adding

• stop/start vm
• destroy VM
• restart/reset VM
• also we maybe need to advance the "-u" option with a more descriptive comment

this is just my 5 cents ....
i am willing to help, test and improve things on microVM or even on the rust development if wished.

[kraftnix]

An equivalent to machinectl shell for shelling / logging into a microVM would be helpful for debugging + management purposes.

[astro]

An equivalent to machinectl shell for shelling / logging into a microVM would be helpful for debugging + management purposes.

That will require either one of:

• Support vmsh #22
• Capturing the hypervisor's/MicroVM's console to serve it on a bidirectional (UNIX) socket

[Sohalt]

It would also be nice to have a snapshot/restore commands for hypervisors, which support runtime snapshots.

[astro]

An equivalent to machinectl shell for shelling / logging into a microVM would be helpful for debugging + management purposes.

@kraftnix Since d5cae2c a local console is available with the current microvm -C command for hypervisors that provide a pty (qemu and cloud-hypervisor).

[alexandru0-dev]

@astro i would like to contribute to the project, tho using microvm command is a bash script.
I would like to write a rust implementation in the future. Your thoughts on it?

[astro]

I started with a project skeleton 14 months ago but then realized: I was kinda rebuilding what colmena already does - just locally instead of via ssh. Maybe we could shoehorn it into deploying microvms?

Then again, the tooling could look much different: it could start with a listing of VMs, asynchronously evaluating new configurations in the background, interactively offering to update them...

[alexandru0-dev]

@astro Probably that's the best way to go.
Btw can you create a server group like discord? It's probably easier to communicate that way

[astro]

@alexandru0-dev Ok, I created a chat room at https://matrix.to/#/#microvm.nix:envs.net