This project served me well for a long while. My requirements have grown, so there is now a new, better version available at filakhtov/qemu-launcher that, in addition to being able to launch QEMU-based virtual machines from predefined configuration files, uses a better configuration file format - YAML, as well as supports vCPU pinning feature and is written in Rust.
This is a simple wrapper for QEMU written in C++. The idea is to have a directory (repository of virtual machines), that contains .conf (extension can be configured using CONFIGURATION_EXTENSION macro) configuration files with virtual machine definitions and be able to start any machine by running the qemu <machine-name> command.
Copy the config.hh.in file into the config.hh file and adjust as necessary. Execute the make command to build the qemu binary and then place it whenever you like (e.g. /opt/bin, /usr/local/bin).
Configuration file is just a simple set command-line options that are expected by the qemu command, without a leading - (dash) symbol, one option per line. First word on each line is an option name, such as drive for -drive option or cpu for -cpu option. Then follows an optional value for the given option, such as file=ubuntu.iso,media=cdrom for -drive file=ubuntu.iso,media=cdrom option or Ubuntu Linux for -name "Ubuntu Linux" option. Note, that option value is read as is and there is no need to use quotes " even if value contains spaces.
Comments can be added using #, either in between the line or at the end of the line. If there is a need to use a # (hash) anywhere in the value it can be prefixed by the \ (backslash) to escape it. In an unlikely event where \ (backslash) is needed right befor the # (hash) symbol it can be prefixed by another backslash, i.e. \\# comment, this will produce just the \ (backslash) value.
Just open up a PR or raise an issue and let's work from there.