[vbox-dev] questions regarding the new group feature

[Sergey Dubov]

Willi Burmeister <wib at qrv.uni-kiel.de> писал(а) в своём письме Thu, 27 Sep  
2012 10:35:59 +0400:

> Hi,
> first I would like to say thanks for the long missing group feature.
> Here some questions about it's usage and behaviour:
> 1. This feature can not be found in the documentation. Why?
>  The documentation is great, but this feature is completly missing.
> 2. Why is it not possible to have empty groups?
>  You always have to select a VM before creating a group and a group
>   disappears after the last VM is removed. This is annoying.
> 3. How do I remove a VM from a group (GUI)?
>  Pressing CTRL while dragging a VM adds the VM to another group. That's
>   great, but how can I remove a VM from a group? I know how to do it on
>   the CLI.
> 4. GUI and CLI are inconsistent in displaying group names. Why?
>  GUI shows groups as "name" while CLI shows "/name". So if you want
>   to add a VM to a group you have to type
>  % VBoxManage modifyvm  <VM-name> --groups /<name1>,/<name2>
> 5. This feature is moving files and dirs around. Why?
>
>   Adding a VM to a group creates a subfolder below machinefolder and
>   moves the VM into it. This is confusing and triggers the backup to
>   save unnecessary old content.
>
>   Try this:
>
>   % VBoxManage modifyvm  OpenIndiana --groups /Solaris,/pfsense
>
>   % find . -name OpenIndiana | head -1
>   ./Solaris/OpenIndiana
>
>   % VBoxManage modifyvm  OpenIndiana --groups /pfsense,/Solaris
>
>   % find . -name OpenIndiana | head -1
>   ./pfsense/OpenIndiana
>
>   What's the reason for this? I don't see any benefits in this behaviour.
>
>
>
> Thanks again for improving VirtualBox.
>
> Greetings
>
> Willi
>
> P.S. I'm using VirtualBox 4.2.0 on Solaris 11
>
>
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Hello Willi.
I'd like to answer selectively for few of your questions.

2.
- Why is it not possible to have empty groups?
- Groups are 'ad hoc' which means the fact 'the group exists or not'  
depends on VMs it contains. If there is some VM in some group - there is a  
group; if there is no VMs in some group - there is no group. So, in  
current implementation groups are exists only if contains VM(s).

3.
- How do I remove a VM from a group (GUI)?
- You can move out VM from group by drag&drop this VM out of that group.  
You can remove VM fully using the context menu / 'remove' action.

- Pressing CTRL while dragging a VM adds the VM to another group.
- Yes, thats a way to have VM more in one group if necessary.

4.
- GUI and CLI are inconsistent in displaying group names. Why? GUI shows  
groups as "name" while CLI shows "/name".
- Reflecting group names as "/name" in GUI was decided as 'unfriendly'  
(users feedback), so we decided to reflect if the way it is now.

-- 
With Best Regards,
[Oracle/VirtualBox] Sergey Dubov