[vbox-dev] Question about the XML configuration files

[walt]

I've been building vbox from svn for a while now, and so the XML file
describing my WinXP virtual machine has gone through at least three
automatic translations for version bumps.

While tracking down some flakiness with networking adapters I discovered
that in my one XML file there are *four* separate descriptions of my
virtual XP machine, i.e. four separate virtual hard drives, four copies
of the network adapters, etc. etc.  It appears that only the last copy
is being used, judging by which copy is altered when I change settings.

Is this expected behavior?

I would just delete the virtual machine but vbox won't let me do that
without first deleting the snapshots, and I'm not willing to do that.

BTW this problem of being forced to delete snapshots before I can use
an existing virtual disk for another virtual machine is quite limiting.
I've wanted many times to delete a machine and start over with the same
virtual disk, but I can't do that until I discard all of the snapshots
first.

Could the description of a virtual disk be made to include all of its
existing snapshots, so it could be shared with other people, other
virtual machines, etc?

Thanks!