Fetaure Request: Check if running configuration is outdated

[okryvulia]

vm list displays configured values instead of running. Mark vm name with asterisk when vm needs to be restarted due to pending configuration.

 # vm li
NAME             DATASTORE  LOADER  CPU  MEMORY  VNC           AUTO     STATE
vcloud-helpdesk  default    uefi    2    4G      -             No       Stopped
vcloud-ol10      default    uefi    2    4G      -             No       Stopped
vcloud-oradb*    default    uefi    8    128G    0.0.0.0:5900  No       Running (97531)
vcloud-pkg       default    uefi    8    64g     0.0.0.0:5901  Yes [1]  Running (20143)

Simple patch proposed

--- lib/vm-bhyve/vm-core.orig	2026-02-20 08:52:24.483446000 +0200
+++ lib/vm-bhyve/vm-core	2026-02-20 09:16:26.766863000 +0200
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
     local _memory _run _vm _auto _num _vnc _pid
     local _state _pcpu _rss _uptime
     local _format="%s^%s^%s^%s^%s^%s^%s^%s\n"
+    local _cfg_newer
 
     while getopts rv _opt ; do
         case ${_opt} in
@@ -98,6 +99,12 @@
                         continue
                     fi
                 fi
+
+		# check if vm configuration is newer than running
+		_cfg_newer=$(find ${VM_DS_PATH}/${_name} -name ${_name}.conf -newer /dev/vmm/${_name} 2>/dev/null)
+		if [ ${_cfg_newer} ];  then
+		    _name=${_name}"*"
+		fi
 
                 if [ -n "${VM_OPT_VERBOSE}" ]; then
                     printf "${_format}" "${_name}" "${_ds}" "${_loader}" "${_cpu}" "${_memory}" "${_vnc}" "${_auto}" "${_pcpu}" "${_rss}" "${_uptime}" "${_run}"

[GogoFC]

Hello. I personally don't see the reason why this feature is neded. I'm just a user though.
It's known the new config will pick up when VM is powered off completely and booted again, not restarted.
Every time config is changed VM should be powered off and started back up. So then I don't see much use of having a reminder telling you to power off.
Why do you think this would help you or others?

[okryvulia]

Based on workload sometimes vm cannot be stopped/started immediately after configuration is changed. Indicate this may be useful in such caseses.

[metalefty]

Personally, I don't like such a high-context use of asterisks.
Also, some people use and parse the output of vm list for some purposes. The asterisk might be a noise for them.

[GogoFC]

Maybe it would be nice to have something like vm list -v for verbose? Then include config changes pending or something like that and other things in the future like which switch a VM is on? So that way this default view can stay like this otherwise I'll need a longer terminal :) . I personally would like to see the IP of the VM, but that would require something external to keep track of IPs, or even a user field to add info like that?

[metalefty]

Yeah, the switch information would be useful.

Ideally, we should use a structured format such as YAML or JSON for machine parsing, for example, vm list -j.