Re: [Libguestfs] [v2v PATCH 2/2] -i vmx -it ssh: document percent encoding in ssh URIs in more detail

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 08:49:30AM +0200, Laszlo Ersek wrote: > On the vmfs file system, ESXi encodes guest name characters that it > considers reserved with fairly unpredictable, proprietary rules. For > example, the ESXi webgui forbids backslash characters (\) completely, a > percent sign (%) is encoded as %25, and a dollar sign ($) is replaced with > underscore (_). Therefore the user can only construct the pathname part of > the ssh:// URI in two steps: (1) determine the precise absolute pathname > of the VMX file by way of logging in to the ESXi server interactively, and > *reading* (not guessing) whatever ESXi chose for naming directories and > files, (2) given the absolute, server-local pathname, percent-encode the > characters that are reserved in URIs, following the open standard(s) that > cover this. > > Document this procedure: reorder the paragraphs of the affected section so > that they describe segments of the URI from the left to the right, and > then elaborate on the pathname segment. > > Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1938954 > Signed-off-by: Laszlo Ersek <lersek(a)redhat.com&gt; > --- > docs/virt-v2v-input-vmware.pod | 19 ++++++++++++++++--- > 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/docs/virt-v2v-input-vmware.pod b/docs/virt-v2v-input-vmware.pod > index 4f4af2a9d804..38a0b30cd5fc 100644 > --- a/docs/virt-v2v-input-vmware.pod > +++ b/docs/virt-v2v-input-vmware.pod > @@ -167,14 +167,27 @@ C<ssh://...> URI pointing to the VMX file. A typical URI looks like: > > ssh://root@esxi.example.com/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my%20guest/my%20guest.vmx > > -Any space must be escaped with C<%20> and other non-ASCII characters > -may also need to be URI-escaped. > - > The username is not required if it is the same as your local username. > > You may optionally supply a port number after the hostname if the SSH > server is not listening on the default port (22). > > +For determining the pathname component of the URI, log in to the ESXi > +server via SSH interactively, and identify the absolute pathname of the > +VMX file on the ESXi server, such as: > + > + /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my guest/my guest.vmx > + > +Subsequently, on the virt-v2v command line, L<percent-encode any > +reserved > +characters|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding#Reserved_characters> > +that you find in the individual pathname components. For example, space > +characters must be specified as C<%20>: > + > + /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my%20guest/my%20guest.vmx > + > +Refer to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1938954>;. > + > =head2 VMX: Importing a guest Acked-by: Richard W.M. Jones <rjones(a)redhat.com&gt; Rich.