Please update to open-vm-tools 10.0.7

Oliver, we would like to keep in step with Debian. Would you mind filing a debian bug for 10.0.7? I don't see one already. Thanks.

Okay, done. See https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=815116

Thx, Oliver

From 10.0.5 to 10.0.7 the only substantive change is the addition of 'the namespace command line utility "vmware-namespace-cmd"'. The 'vmware-namespace-cmd' tool comes without documentation beyond the cmdline usage text and I have been unable to find documentation online for this tools on VMWare's site. In the past Debian developers have been kind enough to provide man pages for other tools in this package but I don't see much to go on.

Oliver, can you document the importance, and usage, of the new "vmware-namespace-cmd" executable in this bug? Thank you.

Hi Robert,

I asked the developer, and this is the description. The utility also give a usage information. Let me know if this helps.

Description:

The namespace tool exposes VMODL and Guest side API for a publish/subscribe mechanism which enables reliable/persistent communication and reliable asynchronous notifications to/from VMs without networking. The core of this mechanism is VM Namespace DB (based on SQL lite database) which is an entity that resides in ESX and facilitates the bidirectional communication between Guest Operating System and the Management application. The information exchanged can be key/value pairs . Namespace tool uses secure guest rpc channel to store data into namespaceDB (sqlite database) and provide two way communication between VMX and guest side. Guest side interface is namespace tool and VC side interface uses internal VMODL API

Usage:

  vmware-namespace-cmd [OPTION...] [get-value | set-key | delete-key] [<namespace-name>]

Example:
  vmware-namespace-cmd set-key <namespace-name> -k <key-name> -v <value>
  vmware-namespace-cmd set-key <namespace-name> -k <key-name> -f <file-path>
  echo "<value>" | vmware-namespace-cmd set-key <namespace-name> -k <key-name> -s
  vmware-namespace-cmd delete-key <namespace-name> -k <key-name>
  vmware-namespace-cmd get-value <namespace-name> -k <key-name>

Help Options:
  -h, --help Show help options
  --help-all Show all help options
  --help-get-value Show help for command "get-value"
  --help-set-key Show help for command "set-key"
  --help-delete-key Show help for command "delete-key"

vmware-namespace-cmd command get-value:
  -k, --key=<key-name> Key value to return

vmware-namespace-cmd command set-key: - Create or update key value pair

  -k, --key=<key-name> Key name to use
  -v, --value=<value> Value to set
  -o, --oldValue=<old-value> Value must match with current key value in the namespace for update operation to proceed
  -f, --fromFile=<file-path> Value to use from file path
  -s, --stdin Value to use from standard input

vmware-namespace-cmd command delete-key:- Delete key value pair

  -k, --key=<key-name> Key name to use
  -o, --oldValue=<old-value> Value must match with current key value in the namespace for delete operation to proceed

Application Options:
  -V, --verbose Verbose logging mode

In order to enable cloud-init to work on vSphere/ESXi, Ubuntu needs to include open-vm-tools 10.0.7 or later. Can you please include this in 16.04 release. It does not appear to be included in Beta2.

Thanks,
John

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Seeing as 10.0.7 is Debian now, I can look at pulling that in. We have
a FFE pending. The Security team indicates that should happen shortly.
Once that happens we are planning on a straight sync for 10.0.7. So
barring import issues and/or late testing, I think that we can land
10.0.7 for 16.04.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/open-vm-tools/+bug/1558198
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When building open-vm-tools for Ubuntu 16.10, we encountered a build error:

command line option '-std=c++11' is valid for C++/ObjC++ but not for C [-Werror]

I am not sure if this is already addressed in the patches for the Debian package, but to make sure the following patch fixes it:

==== //depot/bora-vmsoft/vmtools-prod/install/Source/services/plugins/dndcp/Makefile.am#5 (text) ====

@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@

 libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS =
 libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS += @GTK_CPPFLAGS@
-libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS += @GTKMM_CPPFLAGS@
 libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS += @PLUGIN_CPPFLAGS@
 libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS += -I$(top_srcdir)/services/plugins/dndcp/dnd
 libdndcp_la_CPPFLAGS += -I$(top_srcdir)/services/plugins/dndcp/dndGuest
@@ -34,6 +33,7 @@
 # So, we need to pass these to C++ compilation only.
 libdndcp_la_CXXFLAGS =
 libdndcp_la_CXXFLAGS += @SIGCXX_CPPFLAGS@
+libdndcp_la_CXXFLAGS += @GTKMM_CPPFLAGS@

 libdndcp_la_LDFLAGS =
 libdndcp_la_LDFLAGS += @PLUGIN_LDFLAGS@

This bug had been blocked by bug #1482777 for a security review of xml-security-c and xerces-c for inclusion in the main archive. The security team did not approve those packages, see that bug for more details. At this time we will need to move forward with open-vm-tools 10.0.7 without the vgauth feature (which depends on those packages) for 16.04 GA.

Post-GA we will discuss alternatives per bug #1482777 to enable vgauth.

I don't want to overrule anybody, but think it is worth to ask:
Since the update will be handled in bug #1558198 and the follow on discussion regarding vgauth will be in bug #1482777.
Can't we close this bug as DUP to the FFE bug #1558198 then?

Since you are all doing great work on it already I'm moving it at least away from new/undecided for now.