5 guestfish - the libguestfs Filesystem Interactive SHell
9 guestfish [--options] [commands]
15 guestfish -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
17 guestfish -i libvirt-domain
19 guestfish -i disk.img [disk.img ...]
23 =head2 As an interactive shell
27 Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
28 editing virtual machine filesystems.
30 Type: 'help' for help with commands
31 'quit' to quit the shell
35 =head2 From shell scripts
37 Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest:
42 mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
43 write_file /etc/motd "Welcome, new users" 0
46 List the LVM logical volumes in a guest:
48 guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
53 =head2 On one command line
55 Update C</etc/resolv.conf> in a guest:
58 add disk.img : run : mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root / : \
59 write-file /etc/resolv.conf "nameserver 1.2.3.4" 0
61 Edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively:
63 guestfish --add disk.img \
64 --mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
65 --mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
66 edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
68 =head2 Using virt-inspector
70 Use the I<-i> option to get virt-inspector to mount
71 the filesystems automatically as they would be mounted
72 in the virtual machine:
74 guestfish --ro -i disk.img cat /etc/group
76 =head2 As a script interpreter
78 Create a 100MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
80 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
83 part-disk /dev/sda mbr
86 =head2 Start with a prepared disk
88 An alternate way to create a 100MB disk called C<test1.img> containing
89 a single ext2-formatted partition:
93 To list what is available do:
95 guestfish -N list | less
99 eval `guestfish --listen --ro`
100 guestfish --remote add disk.img
101 guestfish --remote run
102 guestfish --remote lvs
106 Guestfish is a shell and command-line tool for examining and modifying
107 virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
108 the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
110 Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
111 shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
112 rescue a broken virtual machine image, you should look at the
113 L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
115 Using guestfish in read/write mode on live virtual machines can be
116 dangerous, potentially causing disk corruption. Use the I<--ro>
117 (read-only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or
118 virtual machine might be live.
126 Displays general help on options.
128 =item B<-h> | B<--cmd-help>
130 Lists all available guestfish commands.
132 =item B<-h cmd> | B<--cmd-help cmd>
134 Displays detailed help on a single command C<cmd>.
136 =item B<-a image> | B<--add image>
138 Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
140 =item B<-D> | B<--no-dest-paths>
142 Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
143 able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
144 this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
145 here to allow this feature to be disabled.
147 =item B<-f file> | B<--file file>
149 Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
152 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
154 =item B<-i> | B<--inspector>
156 Run virt-inspector on the named libvirt domain or list of disk
157 images. If virt-inspector is available and if it can identify
158 the domain or disk images, then partitions will be mounted
159 correctly at start-up.
161 Typical usage is either:
165 (for an inactive libvirt domain called I<myguest>), or:
167 guestfish --ro -i myguest
169 (for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
171 guestfish -i /dev/Guests/MyGuest
173 You cannot use I<-a>, I<-m>, I<-N>, I<--listen>, I<--remote> or
174 I<--selinux> in conjunction with this option, and options other than
175 I<--ro> might not behave correctly.
177 See also: L<virt-inspector(1)>.
181 Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
182 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
184 =item B<-m dev[:mountpoint]> | B<--mount dev[:mountpoint]>
186 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
188 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to C</>.
190 You have to mount something on C</> before most commands will work.
192 If any I<-m> or I<--mount> options are given, the guest is
193 automatically launched.
195 If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you
196 can either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions
197 and LVs available (see L</list-partitions> and L</lvs> commands),
198 or you can use the L<virt-list-filesystems(1)> program.
200 =item B<-n> | B<--no-sync>
202 Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
203 of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
205 =item B<-N type> | B<--new type> | B<-N list>
207 Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
208 alternative to the I<-a> option: whereas I<-a> adds an existing disk,
209 I<-N> creates a preformatted disk with a filesystem and adds it.
210 See L</PREPARED DISK IMAGES> below.
212 =item B<--remote[=pid]>
214 Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
215 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
217 =item B<-r> | B<--ro>
219 This changes the I<-a> and I<-m> options so that disks are added and
220 mounts are done read-only (see L<guestfs(3)/guestfs_mount_ro>).
222 The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
223 might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
224 don't need write access to the disk.
226 Note that prepared disk images created with I<-N> are not affected by
231 Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
233 =item B<-v> | B<--verbose>
235 Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
238 =item B<-V> | B<--version>
240 Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
244 Echo each command before executing it.
248 =head1 COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
250 Any additional (non-option) arguments are treated as commands to
253 Commands to execute should be separated by a colon (C<:>), where the
254 colon is a separate parameter. Thus:
256 guestfish cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] ...
258 If there are no additional arguments, then we enter a shell, either an
259 interactive shell with a prompt (if the input is a terminal) or a
260 non-interactive shell.
262 In either command line mode or non-interactive shell, the first
263 command that gives an error causes the whole shell to exit. In
264 interactive mode (with a prompt) if a command fails, you can continue
267 =head1 USING launch (OR run)
269 As with L<guestfs(3)>, you must first configure your guest by adding
270 disks, then launch it, then mount any disks you need, and finally
271 issue actions/commands. So the general order of the day is:
293 C<run> is a synonym for C<launch>. You must C<launch> (or C<run>)
294 your guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
296 The only exception is that if the I<-m> or I<--mount> option was
297 given, the guest is automatically run for you (simply because
298 guestfish can't mount the disks you asked for without doing this).
302 You can quote ordinary parameters using either single or double
305 add "file with a space.img"
311 A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
312 a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing whitespace
313 to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A literal single quote
314 must be escaped with a backslash.
316 vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
317 command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
318 command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
322 Commands which take integers as parameters use the C convention which
323 is to use C<0> to prefix an octal number or C<0x> to prefix a
324 hexadecimal number. For example:
326 1234 decimal number 1234
327 02322 octal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
328 0x4d2 hexadecimal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
330 When using the C<chmod> command, you almost always want to specify an
331 octal number for the mode, and you must prefix it with C<0> (unlike
332 the Unix L<chmod(1)> program):
334 chmod 0777 /public # OK
335 chmod 777 /public # WRONG! This is mode 777 decimal = 01411 octal.
337 Commands that return numbers usually print them in decimal, but
338 some commands print numbers in other radices (eg. C<umask> prints
339 the mode in octal, preceeded by C<0>).
341 =head1 WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
343 Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs
344 wildcard expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the
345 following will not do what you expect:
349 Assuming you don't have a directory literally called C</home/*>
350 then the above command will return an error.
352 To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
356 runs C<rm-rf> on each path that matches (ie. potentially running
357 the command many times), equivalent to:
363 C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
365 If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
366 will perform a cartesian product.
370 Any line which starts with a I<#> character is treated as a comment
371 and ignored. The I<#> can optionally be preceeded by whitespace,
372 but B<not> by a command. For example:
378 Blank lines are also ignored.
380 =head1 RUNNING COMMANDS LOCALLY
382 Any line which starts with a I<!> character is treated as a command
383 sent to the local shell (C</bin/sh> or whatever L<system(3)> uses).
387 tgz-out /remote local/remote-data.tar.gz
389 will create a directory C<local> on the host, and then export
390 the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
391 C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>. (See C<tgz-out>).
393 To change the local directory, use the C<lcd> command. C<!cd> will
394 have no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
398 Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
399 first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
400 command). For example:
402 cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
404 (where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
405 program). The above command would list all accounts in the guest
406 filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
409 hexdump /bin/ls | head
410 list-devices | tail -1
411 tgz-out / - | tar ztf -
413 The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
414 symbol is optional. Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
415 straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
416 anything else that makes sense on the host side.
418 To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
423 =head1 HOME DIRECTORIES
425 If a parameter starts with the character C<~> then the tilde may be
426 expanded as a home directory path (either C<~> for the current user's
427 home directory, or C<~user> for another user).
429 Note that home directory expansion happens for users known I<on the
430 host>, not in the guest filesystem.
432 To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
439 If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
440 paths (with some limitations). The following commands are equivalent:
442 file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
444 file win:/windows/system32/config/system.log
446 file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
448 file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\conFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
450 This syntax implicitly calls C<case-sensitive-path> (q.v.) so it also
451 handles case insensitivity like Windows would. This only works in
452 argument positions that expect a path.
454 =head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
456 By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
457 (ie. taking commands from a human over a tty), and will exit on the
458 first error in non-interactive mode (scripts, commands given on the
461 If you prefix a command with a I<-> character, then that command will
462 not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
465 =head1 REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
467 Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
468 particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
469 changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting
470 up a guestfish process each time.
472 Start a guestfish server process using:
474 eval `guestfish --listen`
476 and then send it commands by doing:
478 guestfish --remote cmd [...]
480 To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
482 guestfish --remote exit
484 Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
485 command. You can change this in the usual way. See section
486 L</EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR>.
488 =head2 CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
490 The C<eval> statement sets the environment variable C<$GUESTFISH_PID>,
491 which is how the I<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
492 You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
494 eval `guestfish --listen`
496 eval `guestfish --listen`
499 guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
500 guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
502 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
504 Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
505 C</tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID>, where C<$UID> is the effective
506 user ID of the process, and C<$PID> is the process ID of the server.
508 Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
510 =head1 PREPARED DISK IMAGES
512 Use the I<-N type> or I<--new type> parameter to select one of a set
513 of preformatted disk images that guestfish can make for you to save
514 typing. This is particularly useful for testing purposes. This
515 option is used instead of the I<-a> option, and like I<-a> can appear
516 multiple times (and can be mixed with I<-a>).
518 The new disk is called C<test1.img> for the first I<-N>, C<test2.img>
519 for the second and so on. Existing files in the current directory are
520 not overwritten, so you may need to do C<rm -f test1.img>.
522 The type briefly describes how the disk should be sized, partitioned,
523 how filesystem(s) should be created, and how content should be added.
524 Optionally the type can be followed by extra parameters, separated by
525 C<:> (colon) characters. For example, I<-N fs> creates a default
526 100MB, sparsely-allocated disk, containing a single partition, with
527 the partition formatted as ext2. I<-N fs:ext4:1G> is the same, but
528 for an ext4 filesystem on a 1GB disk instead.
530 To list the available types and any extra parameters they take, run:
532 guestfish -N list | less
534 Note that the prepared filesystem is not mounted. You would usually
535 have to use the C<mount /dev/sda1 /> command or add the
536 I<-m /dev/sda1> option.
538 If any I<-N> or I<--new> options are given, the guest is automatically
543 Create a 100MB disk with an ext4-formatted partition:
547 Create a 32MB disk with a VFAT-formatted partition, and mount it:
549 guestfish -N fs:vfat:32M -m /dev/sda1
551 Create a blank 200MB disk:
553 guestfish -N disk:200M
555 =head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
557 For commands such as C<upload>, C<download>, C<tar-in>, C<tar-out> and
558 others which upload from or download to a local file, you can use the
559 special filename C<-> to mean "from stdin" or "to stdout". For example:
563 reads stdin and creates from that a file C</foo> in the disk image,
566 tar-out /etc - | tar tf -
568 writes the tarball to stdout and then pipes that into the external
569 "tar" command (see L</PIPES>).
571 When using C<-> to read from stdin, the input is read up to the end of
572 stdin. You can also use a special "heredoc"-like syntax to read up to
573 some arbitrary end marker:
581 Any string of characters can be used instead of C<END>. The end
582 marker must appear on a line of its own, without any preceeding or
583 following characters (not even spaces).
585 Note that the C<-E<lt>E<lt>> syntax only applies to parameters used to
586 upload local files (so-called "FileIn" parameters in the generator).
588 =head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
590 The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
591 other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
593 =head2 alloc | allocate
597 This creates an empty (zeroed) file of the given size, and then adds
598 so it can be further examined.
600 For more advanced image creation, see L<qemu-img(1)> utility.
602 Size can be specified (where C<nn> means a number):
606 =item C<nn> or C<nn>K or C<nn>KB
608 number of kilobytes, eg: C<1440> = standard 3.5in floppy
610 =item C<nn>M or C<nn>MB
614 =item C<nn>G or C<nn>GB
618 =item C<nn>T or C<nn>TB
622 =item C<nn>P or C<nn>PB
626 =item C<nn>E or C<nn>EB
632 number of 512 byte sectors
640 This echos the parameters to the terminal.
642 =head2 edit | vi | emacs
646 This is used to edit a file. It downloads the file, edits it
647 locally using your editor, then uploads the result.
649 The editor is C<$EDITOR>. However if you use the alternate
650 commands C<vi> or C<emacs> you will get those corresponding
653 NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
654 (> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
660 Expand wildcards in any paths in the args list, and run C<command>
661 repeatedly on each matching path.
663 See section WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING.
670 Without any parameter, this lists all commands. With a C<cmd>
671 parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
677 Change the local directory, ie. the current directory of guestfish
680 Note that C<!cd> won't do what you might expect.
688 This is used to view a file.
690 The default viewer is C<$PAGER>. However if you use the alternate
691 command C<less> you will get the C<less> command specifically.
693 NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
694 (> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
698 This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
704 Close and reopen the libguestfs handle. It is not necessary to use
705 this normally, because the handle is closed properly when guestfish
706 exits. However this is occasionally useful for testing.
712 This creates an empty sparse file of the given size, and then adds
713 so it can be further examined.
715 In all respects it works the same as the C<alloc> command, except that
716 the image file is allocated sparsely, which means that disk blocks are
717 not assigned to the file until they are needed. Sparse disk files
718 only use space when written to, but they are slower and there is a
719 danger you could run out of real disk space during a write operation.
721 For more advanced image creation, see L<qemu-img(1)> utility.
723 Size can be specified (where C<nn> means a number):
727 =item C<nn> or C<nn>K or C<nn>KB
729 number of kilobytes, eg: C<1440> = standard 3.5in floppy
731 =item C<nn>M or C<nn>MB
735 =item C<nn>G or C<nn>GB
739 =item C<nn>T or C<nn>TB
743 =item C<nn>P or C<nn>PB
747 =item C<nn>E or C<nn>EB
753 number of 512 byte sectors
761 Run the command as usual, but print the elapsed time afterwards. This
762 can be useful for benchmarking operations.
768 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
774 The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
779 Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
780 process to control. See section
781 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET>.
785 If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
786 is saved in C<$HOME/.guestfish>
788 =item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
790 Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
792 =item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
794 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages. This has the
795 same effect as using the B<-v> option.
797 =item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
799 Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
802 LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
804 =item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
806 Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
807 See the discussion of paths in L<guestfs(3)>.
809 =item LIBGUESTFS_QEMU
811 Set the default qemu binary that libguestfs uses. If not set, then
812 the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
815 =item LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
817 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1> to enable command traces.
821 The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager. If not
822 set, it uses C<more>.
826 Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp>.
828 If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then each
829 handle will require rather a large amount of space in this directory
830 for short periods of time (~ 80 MB). You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
831 configure another directory to use in case C</tmp> is not large
838 guestfish returns I<0> if the commands completed without error, or
839 I<1> if there was an error.
844 L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
848 L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
849 L<virt-list-partitions(1)>,
859 Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)
863 Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat Inc.
864 L<http://libguestfs.org/>
866 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
867 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
868 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
869 (at your option) any later version.
871 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
872 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
873 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
874 GNU General Public License for more details.
876 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
877 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
878 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.