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Hi everyone,<br>
<br>
as far as XML goes "extradata" is a simple key/value store. The
meaning of the value varies greatly with the key, and the ones you
mentioned starting with GUI/ are internal stuff managed by the
VirtualBox VM manager UI code. <br>
<br>
I would strongly advise against relying on those extradata fields,
because they're not immediately written out (IIRC it's postponed
until GUI termination, or at least for a while to not trigger too
many updates). They're also updated only when the GUI is running.
One can create VMs (and organize them in groups) without using the
GUI, and then this is stale data...<br>
<br>
The only truly reliable approach is to use the VirtualBox API. You
can query which VMs are there, which groups, ...<br>
<br>
Interpreting the XML files is theoretically possible, but there have
been many changes over the years which moved attributes and tags
around, changed defaults and so on. So getting this right will be
essentially implementing a 2nd version of the XML parsing code in
VirtualBox, which is quite a bit of hairy code in
src/VBox/Main/xml/Settings.cpp<br>
<br>
The only thing which is possible with usual XML tools is to validate
them against src/VBox/Main/xml/VirtualBox-settings.xsd (and it's
likely that you find some perfectly valid config files which don't
validate due to sloppiness/bugs in the XML schema definition).<br>
<br>
Klaus<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2021-11-03 15:04, fth0 wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:4FCFE67F-559C-4166-BD86-FFC4F4FFD8B0@t-online.de">
Hi Bernard, hi Stéphane,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">the only "documentation" of the VirtualBox.xml
format that I know of is the VirtualBox source code, and you'll
find the group attribute names in
src/VBox/Frontends/VirtualBox/src/manager/chooser/UIChooserAbstractModel.cpp
(search for "go", including the quotes).</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">AFAIU, "go" represents an open group,
"gc" represents a closed group. I'm not sure about the roles of
"n" for "name" and "nf" for "name favorite".</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Regards</div>
<div class="">fth0<br class="">
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">Am 03.11.2021 um 10:30 schrieb Bernard
Giannetti <<a href="mailto:thebernmeister@hotmail.com" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">thebernmeister@hotmail.com</a>>:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class="moz-signature">
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">Hi,</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">I'm the author of
the Ubuntu VirtualBox indicator and have some additional
questions/clarifications please...</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">My indicator
parses the VirtualBox configuration file at
~/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml to determine the
virtual machines and groups. Using only the XMLtags
ExtraDataItem where <span style="background-color:
rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;" class="">name="GUI/GroupDefinitions/*", I have assumed
that:</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display:
inline !important;" class=""><br class="">
</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display:
inline !important;" class="">'go=...' is a group</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display:
inline !important;" class="">'m=...': is a machine
UUID</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display:
inline !important;" class=""><br class="">
</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">I noticed between
version 1.5 and 1.6 there was the addition of the value <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10pt;" class="">"n=GLOBAL" which I skip; I
assume this is safe to do so?</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10pt;" class=""><br class="">
</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10pt;" class="">As Stéphane reported below,
I have not seen the name="gc=..." before and cannot
reproduce this under version 1.5 or 1.6. Can 'gc' be
treated the same as 'go' (that is, a group)?</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none;" class="">
<div id="Signature" class="">
<div class="">
<div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" style="font-size:
10pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">
<div style="line-height: 21px;" class=""><span style="line-height: 18px;" class=""><font class="" size="2" face="Arial"><br class="ecxApple-interchange-newline">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span><br class="">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span></font></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span>
<div style="line-height: 21px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span>
<div class=""><font style="line-height: normal;" class="" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">Thanks,</span></font></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span>
<div class=""><font style="line-height: normal;" class="" size="2" face="Arial"><br style="line-height: 18px;" class="">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span></font></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class=""></span>
<div class=""><font style="line-height: normal;" class="" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;" class="">Bernard.</span></font></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none;" class="">
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10pt;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<hr tabindex="-1" style="display: inline-block; width:
961.375px;" class="">
<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr" class=""><font style="font-size: 11pt;" class="" face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><b class="">From:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Stéphane
Charette <<a href="mailto:stephanecharette@gmail.com" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">stephanecharette@gmail.com</a>><br class="">
<b class="">Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wednesday, 3
November 2021 17:56<br class="">
<b class="">To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:vbox-dev@virtualbox.org" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">vbox-dev@virtualbox.org</a>
<<a href="mailto:vbox-dev@virtualbox.org" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">vbox-dev@virtualbox.org</a>>;
Bernard Giannetti <<a href="mailto:thebernmeister@hotmail.com" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">thebernmeister@hotmail.com</a>><br class="">
<b class="">Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>VB xml
format</font>
<div class=""> </div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">Devs,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Is there documentation available for
the VirtualBox XML file format? Specifically,
what you'd expect to find in Ubuntu at this
location: ~/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Bernard Giannetti (the author of the
VirtualBox indicator on Ubuntu) and I are trying
to understand some fields and could use some
assistance. Specifically, right now we're trying
to understand the meaning of "<font class="" face="monospace"><b class="">gc=</b></font>..."
in <font class="" face="monospace"><ExtraDataItem
name="GUI/GroupDefinitions/"</font>.<br class="" clear="all">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Thanks,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Stéphane</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
--<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class="">
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padding-right: 10px; padding-top:
20px; padding-bottom: 20px;" class="" width="107" valign="bottom" align="left"><a href="https://about.me/stephane.charette?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=edit_panel&utm_content=thumb" target="_blank" class="" moz-do-not-send="true"><img alt="" src="https://thumbs.about.me/thumbnail/users/s/t/e/stephane.charette_emailsig.jpg?_1613974105_595" style="margin: 0px; padding:
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<div style="font-size: 18px;
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Charette</div>
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Nova", Helvetica, Arial,
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