github.com/vmware/govmomi@v0.37.2/vapi/library/finder/README.md (about) 1 # The content library finder 2 The govmomi package now includes a finder for the content library, [`github.com/vmware/govmomi/vapi/library.Finder`](https://github.com/akutz/govmomi/blob/feature/content-library/vapi/library/finder/finder.go). This finder supports searching for objects in the content library using an inventory path design similar to the [standard govmomi finder](https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/blob/main/find/finder.go) and includes support for wildcard matching courtesy of golang's [`path.Match`](https://golang.org/pkg/path/#Match). For example: 3 4 | Pattern | Result | 5 |---------|--------| 6 | `*` | Gets all of the content libraries | 7 | `*/` | Gets all of the content library items for all of the content libraries. | 8 | `/Public/` | Gets all of the content library items for the content library named `Public` | 9 | `/*/*/` | Gets all of the content library files for all of the content library items for all of the content libraries. | 10 | `Public/*/photon2*` | Gets all of the files that begin with `photon2` in all of the content library items for the content library named `Public` | 11 12 The use of a wildcard character in the search string results in a full listing of content library objects for that part of the path's server-side analogue. If `Public/Photon2*` is searched, then all of the content library items for the `Public` library are listed in order to perform the wildcard matching. However, if `Public/PhotonOS-2-GA` then the server-side API call [`library:item:find`](https://vdc-repo.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/1cd28284-3b72-4885-9e31-d1c6d9e26686/71ef7304-a6c9-43b3-a3cd-868b2c236c81/doc/operations/com/vmware/content/library/item.find-operation.html) is used to find an item with the name `PhotonOS-2-GA`. 13 14 ## Performance 15 Search strings that do not use wildcard characters **should** be **more** efficient as these searches rely on server-side find calls and do not require dumping all of the objects. However, this is only true for systems with a large number of objects in the content libraries. This is due to the number of round-trips required to lookup an object with a direct path. For example: 16 17 | Search path | Roundtrips | 18 |------|------------| 19 | `Public/Photon2` | 4 | 20 | `Public*/Photon2*` | 2 | 21 22 The *absolute* search path takes twice as many roundtrips compared to the search path with wildcards: 23 24 ### Absolute path search logic 25 1. Find library ID for library with name using server-side find API 26 2. Get library with library ID 27 3. Find item ID for item with name using server-side find API 28 4. Get item with item ID 29 30 ### Wildcard search logic 31 1. Get all of the libraries and filter the pattern on the client-side 32 2. Get all of the items for the library and filter the pattern on the client-=side 33 34 ### Searches at scale 35 While a system that has few content library objects benefits from wildcard search logic, the fact is that the above approach regarding absolute paths proves out to be **much** more efficient for systems with large numbers of content library objects. 36 37 38 ## `govc library.ls` 39 40 ### Listing all the objects in the content library 41 42 ```console 43 $ govc library.ls '*/*/' 44 /ISOs/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1804/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1804.iso 45 /ISOs/CoreOS Production/coreos_production_iso_image.iso 46 /ISOs/VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso/VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 47 /ISOs/VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso/VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 48 /ISOs/ubuntu-16.04.5-server-amd64/ubuntu-16.04.5-server-amd64.iso 49 /ISOs/photon-2.0-304b817/photon-2.0-304b817.iso 50 /OVAs/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.10000-8217866_OVF10.ova/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.10000-8217866_OVF10.ova 51 /OVAs/coreos_production_vmware_ova/coreos_production_vmware_ova.ovf 52 /OVAs/coreos_production_vmware_ova/coreos_production_vmware_ova-1.vmdk 53 /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-2.iso 54 /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template.ovf 55 /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-1.vmdk 56 /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-3.nvram 57 /OVAs/photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817/photon-ova-disk1.vmdk 58 /OVAs/photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817/photon-ova.ovf 59 /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos-2.nvram 60 /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos-1.vmdk 61 /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos.ovf 62 /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon-1.vmdk 63 /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon.ovf 64 /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon-2.nvram 65 /OVAs/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ovf 66 /OVAs/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-1.vmdk 67 /sk8-TestUploadOVA/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init.ovf 68 /sk8-TestUploadOVA/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 69 /Public/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init.ovf 70 /Public/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 71 ``` 72 73 ## `govc library.info` 74 75 ### Getting the info for all the objects in the content library 76 77 ```console 78 $ govc library.info '*/*/' 79 Name: CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1804.iso 80 Path: /ISOs/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1804/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1804.iso 81 Size: 824637106200 82 Version: 1 83 Name: coreos_production_iso_image.iso 84 Path: /ISOs/CoreOS Production/coreos_production_iso_image.iso 85 Size: 824637441624 86 Version: 1 87 Name: VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 88 Path: /ISOs/VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso/VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 89 Size: 824637106368 90 Version: 1 91 Name: VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 92 Path: /ISOs/VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso/VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso 93 Size: 824637106504 94 Version: 1 95 Name: ubuntu-16.04.5-server-amd64.iso 96 Path: /ISOs/ubuntu-16.04.5-server-amd64/ubuntu-16.04.5-server-amd64.iso 97 Size: 824637441944 98 Version: 1 99 Name: photon-2.0-304b817.iso 100 Path: /ISOs/photon-2.0-304b817/photon-2.0-304b817.iso 101 Size: 824637106672 102 Version: 1 103 Name: VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.10000-8217866_OVF10.ova 104 Path: /OVAs/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.10000-8217866_OVF10.ova/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.10000-8217866_OVF10.ova 105 Size: 824637106880 106 Version: 1 107 Name: coreos_production_vmware_ova.ovf 108 Path: /OVAs/coreos_production_vmware_ova/coreos_production_vmware_ova.ovf 109 Size: 824637107032 110 Version: 1 111 Name: coreos_production_vmware_ova-1.vmdk 112 Path: /OVAs/coreos_production_vmware_ova/coreos_production_vmware_ova-1.vmdk 113 Size: 824637107072 114 Version: 1 115 Name: centos_cloud_template-2.iso 116 Path: /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-2.iso 117 Size: 824636997760 118 Version: 1 119 Name: centos_cloud_template.ovf 120 Path: /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template.ovf 121 Size: 824636997792 122 Version: 1 123 Name: centos_cloud_template-1.vmdk 124 Path: /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-1.vmdk 125 Size: 824636997832 126 Version: 1 127 Name: centos_cloud_template-3.nvram 128 Path: /OVAs/centos_cloud_template/centos_cloud_template-3.nvram 129 Size: 824636997856 130 Version: 1 131 Name: photon-ova-disk1.vmdk 132 Path: /OVAs/photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817/photon-ova-disk1.vmdk 133 Size: 824637107280 134 Version: 1 135 Name: photon-ova.ovf 136 Path: /OVAs/photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817/photon-ova.ovf 137 Size: 824637107328 138 Version: 1 139 Name: yakity-centos-2.nvram 140 Path: /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos-2.nvram 141 Size: 824637253000 142 Version: 2 143 Name: yakity-centos-1.vmdk 144 Path: /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos-1.vmdk 145 Size: 824637253024 146 Version: 2 147 Name: yakity-centos.ovf 148 Path: /OVAs/yakity-centos/yakity-centos.ovf 149 Size: 824637253056 150 Version: 2 151 Name: yakity-photon-1.vmdk 152 Path: /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon-1.vmdk 153 Size: 824637107504 154 Version: 5 155 Name: yakity-photon.ovf 156 Path: /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon.ovf 157 Size: 824637107536 158 Version: 5 159 Name: yakity-photon-2.nvram 160 Path: /OVAs/yakity-photon/yakity-photon-2.nvram 161 Size: 824637107560 162 Version: 5 163 Name: ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ovf 164 Path: /OVAs/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ovf 165 Size: 824637442112 166 Version: 1 167 Name: ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-1.vmdk 168 Path: /OVAs/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64/ubuntu-16.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-1.vmdk 169 Size: 824637442136 170 Version: 1 171 Name: photon2-cloud-init.ovf 172 Path: /sk8-TestUploadOVA/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init.ovf 173 Size: 824636903184 174 Version: 1 175 Name: photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 176 Path: /sk8-TestUploadOVA/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 177 Size: 824636903208 178 Version: 1 179 Name: photon2-cloud-init.ovf 180 Path: /Public/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init.ovf 181 Size: 824637442304 182 Version: 3 183 Name: photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 184 Path: /Public/photon2-cloud-init/photon2-cloud-init-1.vmdk 185 Size: 824637442328 186 Version: 3 187 ```