5 guestfish - the libguestfs Filesystem Interactive SHell
9 guestfish [--options] [commands]
13 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img
15 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
17 guestfish -d libvirt-domain
19 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -i
21 guestfish -d libvirt-domain -i
25 Using guestfish in read/write mode on live virtual machines can be
26 dangerous, potentially causing disk corruption. Use the I<--ro>
27 (read-only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or
28 virtual machine might be live.
32 Guestfish is a shell and command-line tool for examining and modifying
33 virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
34 the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
36 Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
37 shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
38 rescue a broken virtual machine image, you should look at the
39 L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
43 =head2 As an interactive shell
47 Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
48 editing virtual machine filesystems.
50 Type: 'help' for a list of commands
51 'man' to read the manual
52 'quit' to quit the shell
56 ><fs> list-filesystems
58 /dev/vg_guest/lv_root: ext4
59 /dev/vg_guest/lv_swap: swap
60 ><fs> mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
67 =head2 From shell scripts
69 Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest or disk image:
74 mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
75 write /etc/motd "Welcome, new users"
78 List the LVM logical volumes in a disk image:
80 guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
85 List all the filesystems in a disk image:
87 guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
92 =head2 On one command line
94 Update C</etc/resolv.conf> in a guest:
97 add disk.img : run : mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root / : \
98 write /etc/resolv.conf "nameserver 1.2.3.4"
100 Edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively:
102 guestfish --rw --add disk.img \
103 --mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
104 --mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
105 edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
107 =head2 Mount disks automatically
109 Use the I<-i> option to automatically mount the
110 disks from a virtual machine:
112 guestfish --ro -a disk.img -i cat /etc/group
114 guestfish --ro -d libvirt-domain -i cat /etc/group
116 Another way to edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively is:
118 guestfish --rw -a disk.img -i edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
120 =head2 As a script interpreter
122 Create a 100MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
124 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
125 sparse test1.img 100M
127 part-disk /dev/sda mbr
130 =head2 Start with a prepared disk
132 An alternate way to create a 100MB disk called C<test1.img> containing
133 a single ext2-formatted partition:
137 To list what is available do:
139 guestfish -N help | less
141 =head2 Remote control
143 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
144 guestfish --remote add-ro disk.img
145 guestfish --remote run
146 guestfish --remote lvs
154 Displays general help on options.
160 Lists all available guestfish commands.
164 =item B<--cmd-help cmd>
166 Displays detailed help on a single command C<cmd>.
172 Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
174 The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and
175 force a particular format use the I<--format=..> option.
177 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add> command,
178 with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
179 with C<format:...> if the I<--format=...> flag was given.
183 =item B<--connect URI>
185 When used in conjunction with the I<-d> option, this specifies
186 the libvirt URI to use. The default is to use the default libvirt
191 If using the I<--listen> option and a csh-like shell, use this option.
192 See section L</REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH> below.
194 =item B<-d libvirt-domain>
196 =item B<--domain libvirt-domain>
198 Add disks from the named libvirt domain. If the I<--ro> option is
199 also used, then any libvirt domain can be used. However in write
200 mode, only libvirt domains which are shut down can be named here.
202 Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names.
204 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add-domain> command,
205 with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
206 with C<format:...> if the I<--format=...> flag was given.
210 =item B<--no-dest-paths>
212 Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
213 able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
214 this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
215 here to allow this feature to be disabled.
219 When prompting for keys and passphrases, guestfish normally turns
220 echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
221 worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
222 you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
228 Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
231 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
233 =item B<--format=raw|qcow2|..>
237 The default for the I<-a> option is to auto-detect the format of the
238 disk image. Using this forces the disk format for I<-a> options which
239 follow on the command line. Using I<--format> with no argument
240 switches back to auto-detection for subsequent I<-a> options.
244 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img
246 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img>.
248 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img
250 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img> and reverts to
251 auto-detection for C<another.img>.
253 If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
254 this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
255 security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). See also
262 Using L<virt-inspector(1)> code, inspect the disks looking for
263 an operating system and mount filesystems as they would be
264 mounted on the real virtual machine.
266 Typical usage is either:
268 guestfish -d myguest -i
270 (for an inactive libvirt domain called I<myguest>), or:
272 guestfish --ro -d myguest -i
274 (for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
276 guestfish --rw -a /dev/Guests/MyGuest -i
278 Note that the command line syntax changed slightly over older
279 versions of guestfish. You can still use the old syntax:
281 guestfish [--ro] -i disk.img
283 guestfish [--ro] -i libvirt-domain
285 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<inspect-os>
286 command and then using other commands to mount the filesystems that
289 =item B<--keys-from-stdin>
291 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is
292 to try to read passphrases from the user by opening C</dev/tty>.
296 Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
297 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
301 Connect to a live virtual machine.
302 (Experimental, see L<guestfs(3)/ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS>).
304 =item B<-m dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
306 =item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
308 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
310 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to C</>.
312 You have to mount something on C</> before most commands will work.
314 If any I<-m> or I<--mount> options are given, the guest is
315 automatically launched.
317 If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
318 either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
319 filesystems and LVs available (see L</list-partitions>,
320 L</list-filesystems> and L</lvs> commands), or you can use the
321 L<virt-filesystems(1)> program.
323 The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list of
324 mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem. If this is not
325 given, then the mount options are either the empty string or C<ro>
326 (the latter if the I<--ro> flag is used). By specifying the mount
327 options, you override this default choice. Probably the only time you
328 would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended attributes if the
329 filesystem can support them:
331 -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
333 Using this flag is equivalent to using the C<mount-options> command.
339 Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
340 of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
348 Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
349 alternative to the I<-a> option: whereas I<-a> adds an existing disk,
350 I<-N> creates a preformatted disk with a filesystem and adds it.
351 See L</PREPARED DISK IMAGES> below.
353 =item B<--progress-bars>
355 Enable progress bars, even when guestfish is used non-interactively.
357 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used as an
360 =item B<--no-progress-bars>
362 Disable progress bars.
364 =item B<--remote[=pid]>
366 Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
367 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
373 This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
374 added and mounts are done read-only.
376 The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
377 might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
378 don't need write access to the disk.
380 Note that prepared disk images created with I<-N> are not affected by
381 this option. Also commands like C<add> are not affected - you have to
382 specify the C<readonly:true> option explicitly if you need it.
384 See also L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
388 Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
394 Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
401 Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
407 This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
408 added and mounts are done read-write.
410 See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
414 Echo each command before executing it.
418 =head1 COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
420 Any additional (non-option) arguments are treated as commands to
423 Commands to execute should be separated by a colon (C<:>), where the
424 colon is a separate parameter. Thus:
426 guestfish cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] ...
428 If there are no additional arguments, then we enter a shell, either an
429 interactive shell with a prompt (if the input is a terminal) or a
430 non-interactive shell.
432 In either command line mode or non-interactive shell, the first
433 command that gives an error causes the whole shell to exit. In
434 interactive mode (with a prompt) if a command fails, you can continue
437 =head1 USING launch (OR run)
439 As with L<guestfs(3)>, you must first configure your guest by adding
440 disks, then launch it, then mount any disks you need, and finally
441 issue actions/commands. So the general order of the day is:
463 C<run> is a synonym for C<launch>. You must C<launch> (or C<run>)
464 your guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
466 The only exception is that if any of the I<-i>, I<-m>, I<--mount>,
467 I<-N> or I<--new> options were given then C<run> is done
468 automatically, simply because guestfish can't perform the action you
469 asked for without doing this.
471 =head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
473 The guestfish, L<guestmount(1)> and L<virt-rescue(1)> options I<--ro>
474 and I<--rw> affect whether the other command line options I<-a>,
475 I<-c>, I<-d>, I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for
478 In libguestfs E<le> 1.10, guestfish, guestmount and virt-rescue
479 defaulted to opening disk images supplied on the command line for
480 write. To open a disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
482 This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
483 then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
485 In a future libguestfs we intend to change the default the other way.
486 Disk images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
487 I<guestfish --rw>, I<guestmount --rw>, I<virt-rescue --rw>, or change
488 the configuration file C</etc/libguestfs-tools.conf> in order to get
489 write access for disk images specified by those other command line
492 This version of guestfish, guestmount and virt-rescue has a I<--rw>
493 option which does nothing (it is already the default). However it is
494 highly recommended that you use this option to indicate that you need
495 write access, and prepare your scripts for the day when this option
496 will be required for write access.
498 B<Note:> This does I<not> affect commands like L</add> and L</mount>,
499 or any other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
503 You can quote ordinary parameters using either single or double
506 add "file with a space.img"
512 A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
513 a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing whitespace
514 to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A literal single quote
515 must be escaped with a backslash.
517 vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
518 command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
519 command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
521 =head2 ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN DOUBLE QUOTED ARGUMENTS
523 In double-quoted arguments (only) use backslash to insert special
530 Alert (bell) character.
546 Carriage return character.
550 Horizontal tab character.
554 Vertical tab character.
558 A literal double quote character.
562 A character with octal value I<ooo>. There must be precisely 3 octal
567 A character with hex value I<hh>. There must be precisely 2 hex
570 In the current implementation C<\000> and C<\x00> cannot be used
575 A literal backslash character.
579 =head1 OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
581 Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
582 documentation as C<[argname:..]>. You can use them as in these
585 add-drive-opts filename
587 add-drive-opts filename readonly:true
589 add-drive-opts filename format:qcow2 readonly:false
591 Each optional argument can appear at most once. All optional
592 arguments must appear after the required ones.
596 This section applies to all commands which can take integers
601 When the command takes a parameter measured in bytes, you can use one
602 of the following suffixes to specify kilobytes, megabytes and larger
607 =item B<k> or B<K> or B<KiB>
609 The size in kilobytes (multiplied by 1024).
613 The size in SI 1000 byte units.
617 The size in megabytes (multiplied by 1048576).
621 The size in SI 1000000 byte units.
625 The size in gigabytes (multiplied by 2**30).
629 The size in SI 10**9 byte units.
633 The size in terabytes (multiplied by 2**40).
637 The size in SI 10**12 byte units.
641 The size in petabytes (multiplied by 2**50).
645 The size in SI 10**15 byte units.
649 The size in exabytes (multiplied by 2**60).
653 The size in SI 10**18 byte units.
657 The size in zettabytes (multiplied by 2**70).
661 The size in SI 10**21 byte units.
665 The size in yottabytes (multiplied by 2**80).
669 The size in SI 10**24 byte units.
675 truncate-size /file 1G
677 would truncate the file to 1 gigabyte.
679 Be careful because a few commands take sizes in kilobytes or megabytes
680 (eg. the parameter to L</memsize> is specified in megabytes already).
681 Adding a suffix will probably not do what you expect.
683 =head2 OCTAL AND HEXADECIMAL NUMBERS
685 For specifying the radix (base) use the C convention: C<0> to prefix
686 an octal number or C<0x> to prefix a hexadecimal number. For example:
688 1234 decimal number 1234
689 02322 octal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
690 0x4d2 hexadecimal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
692 When using the C<chmod> command, you almost always want to specify an
693 octal number for the mode, and you must prefix it with C<0> (unlike
694 the Unix L<chmod(1)> program):
696 chmod 0777 /public # OK
697 chmod 777 /public # WRONG! This is mode 777 decimal = 01411 octal.
699 Commands that return numbers usually print them in decimal, but
700 some commands print numbers in other radices (eg. C<umask> prints
701 the mode in octal, preceeded by C<0>).
703 =head1 WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
705 Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs
706 wildcard expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the
707 following will not do what you expect:
711 Assuming you don't have a directory called literally C</home/*>
712 then the above command will return an error.
714 To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
718 runs C<rm-rf> on each path that matches (ie. potentially running
719 the command many times), equivalent to:
725 C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
727 If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
728 will perform a Cartesian product.
732 Any line which starts with a I<#> character is treated as a comment
733 and ignored. The I<#> can optionally be preceeded by whitespace,
734 but B<not> by a command. For example:
740 Blank lines are also ignored.
742 =head1 RUNNING COMMANDS LOCALLY
744 Any line which starts with a I<!> character is treated as a command
745 sent to the local shell (C</bin/sh> or whatever L<system(3)> uses).
749 tgz-out /remote local/remote-data.tar.gz
751 will create a directory C<local> on the host, and then export
752 the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
753 C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>. (See C<tgz-out>).
755 To change the local directory, use the C<lcd> command. C<!cd> will
756 have no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
758 =head2 LOCAL COMMANDS WITH INLINE EXECUTION
760 If a line starts with I<E<lt>!> then the shell command is executed (as
761 for I<!>), but subsequently any output (stdout) of the shell command
762 is parsed and executed as guestfish commands.
764 Thus you can use shell script to construct arbitrary guestfish
765 commands which are then parsed by guestfish.
767 For example it is tedious to create a sequence of files
768 (eg. C</foo.1> through C</foo.100>) using guestfish commands
769 alone. However this is simple if we use a shell script to
770 create the guestfish commands for us:
772 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do echo write /foo.$n $n; done
774 or with names like C</foo.001>:
776 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do printf "write /foo.%03d %d\n" $n $n; done
778 When using guestfish interactively it can be helpful to just run the
779 shell script first (ie. remove the initial C<E<lt>> character so it is
780 just an ordinary I<!> local command), see what guestfish commands it
781 would run, and when you are happy with those prepend the C<E<lt>>
782 character to run the guestfish commands for real.
786 Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
787 first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
788 command). For example:
790 cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
792 (where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
793 program). The above command would list all accounts in the guest
794 filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
797 hexdump /bin/ls | head
798 list-devices | tail -1
799 tgz-out / - | tar ztf -
801 The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
802 symbol is optional. Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
803 straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
804 anything else that makes sense on the host side.
806 To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
811 =head1 HOME DIRECTORIES
813 If a parameter starts with the character C<~> then the tilde may be
814 expanded as a home directory path (either C<~> for the current user's
815 home directory, or C<~user> for another user).
817 Note that home directory expansion happens for users known I<on the
818 host>, not in the guest filesystem.
820 To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
825 =head1 ENCRYPTED DISKS
827 Libguestfs has some support for Linux guests encrypted according to
828 the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard, which includes nearly all
829 whole disk encryption systems used by modern Linux guests. Currently
830 only LVM-on-LUKS is supported.
832 Identify encrypted block devices and partitions using L</vfs-type>:
834 ><fs> vfs-type /dev/sda2
837 Then open those devices using L</luks-open>. This creates a
838 device-mapper device called C</dev/mapper/luksdev>.
840 ><fs> luks-open /dev/sda2 luksdev
841 Enter key or passphrase ("key"): <enter the passphrase>
843 Finally you have to tell LVM to scan for volume groups on
844 the newly created mapper device:
849 The logical volume(s) can now be mounted in the usual way.
851 Before closing a LUKS device you must unmount any logical volumes on
852 it and deactivate the volume groups by calling C<vg-activate false VG>
853 on each one. Then you can close the mapper device:
855 vg-activate false /dev/VG
856 luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
860 If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
861 drive letters and paths (with some limitations). The following
862 commands are equivalent:
864 file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
866 file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
868 file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
870 The parameter is rewritten "behind the scenes" by looking up the
871 position where the drive is mounted, prepending that to the path,
872 changing all backslash characters to forward slash, then resolving the
873 result using L</case-sensitive-path>. For example if the E: drive
874 was mounted on C</e> then the parameter might be rewritten like this:
876 win:e:\foo\bar => /e/FOO/bar
878 This only works in argument positions that expect a path.
880 =head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
882 For commands such as C<upload>, C<download>, C<tar-in>, C<tar-out> and
883 others which upload from or download to a local file, you can use the
884 special filename C<-> to mean "from stdin" or "to stdout". For example:
888 reads stdin and creates from that a file C</foo> in the disk image,
891 tar-out /etc - | tar tf -
893 writes the tarball to stdout and then pipes that into the external
894 "tar" command (see L</PIPES>).
896 When using C<-> to read from stdin, the input is read up to the end of
897 stdin. You can also use a special "heredoc"-like syntax to read up to
898 some arbitrary end marker:
906 Any string of characters can be used instead of C<END>. The end
907 marker must appear on a line of its own, without any preceeding or
908 following characters (not even spaces).
910 Note that the C<-E<lt>E<lt>> syntax only applies to parameters used to
911 upload local files (so-called "FileIn" parameters in the generator).
913 =head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
915 By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
916 (ie. taking commands from a human over a tty), and will exit on the
917 first error in non-interactive mode (scripts, commands given on the
920 If you prefix a command with a I<-> character, then that command will
921 not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
924 =head1 REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
926 Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
927 particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
928 changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting
929 up a guestfish process each time.
931 Start a guestfish server process using:
933 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
935 and then send it commands by doing:
937 guestfish --remote cmd [...]
939 To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
941 guestfish --remote exit
943 Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
944 command. You can change this in the usual way. See section
945 L</EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR>.
947 =head2 CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
949 The C<eval> statement sets the environment variable C<$GUESTFISH_PID>,
950 which is how the I<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
951 You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
953 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
955 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
958 guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
959 guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
961 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH
963 When using csh-like shells (csh, tcsh etc) you have to add the
966 eval "`guestfish --listen --csh`"
968 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
970 Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
971 C</tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID>, where C<$UID> is the effective
972 user ID of the process, and C<$PID> is the process ID of the server.
974 Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
976 =head2 USING REMOTE CONTROL ROBUSTLY FROM SHELL SCRIPTS
978 From Bash, you can use the following code which creates a guestfish
979 instance, correctly quotes the command line, handles failure to start,
980 and cleans up guestfish when the script exits:
986 guestfish[0]="guestfish"
987 guestfish[1]="--listen"
990 guestfish[4]="disk.img"
993 eval $("${guestfish[@]}")
994 if [ -z "$GUESTFISH_PID" ]; then
995 echo "error: guestfish didn't start up, see error messages above"
1001 guestfish --remote -- exit >/dev/null 2>&1 ||:
1003 trap cleanup_guestfish EXIT ERR
1005 guestfish --remote -- run
1009 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL RUN COMMAND HANGING
1011 Using the C<run> (or C<launch>) command remotely in a command
1012 substitution context hangs, ie. don't do (note the backquotes):
1014 a=`guestfish --remote run`
1016 Since the C<run> command produces no output on stdout, this is not
1017 useful anyway. For further information see
1018 L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592910>.
1020 =head1 PREPARED DISK IMAGES
1022 Use the I<-N type> or I<--new type> parameter to select one of a set
1023 of preformatted disk images that guestfish can make for you to save
1024 typing. This is particularly useful for testing purposes. This
1025 option is used instead of the I<-a> option, and like I<-a> can appear
1026 multiple times (and can be mixed with I<-a>).
1028 The new disk is called C<test1.img> for the first I<-N>, C<test2.img>
1029 for the second and so on. Existing files in the current directory are
1032 The type briefly describes how the disk should be sized, partitioned,
1033 how filesystem(s) should be created, and how content should be added.
1034 Optionally the type can be followed by extra parameters, separated by
1035 C<:> (colon) characters. For example, I<-N fs> creates a default
1036 100MB, sparsely-allocated disk, containing a single partition, with
1037 the partition formatted as ext2. I<-N fs:ext4:1G> is the same, but
1038 for an ext4 filesystem on a 1GB disk instead.
1040 To list the available types and any extra parameters they take, run:
1042 guestfish -N help | less
1044 Note that the prepared filesystem is not mounted. You would usually
1045 have to use the C<mount /dev/sda1 /> command or add the
1046 I<-m /dev/sda1> option.
1048 If any I<-N> or I<--new> options are given, the guest is automatically
1053 Create a 100MB disk with an ext4-formatted partition:
1055 guestfish -N fs:ext4
1057 Create a 32MB disk with a VFAT-formatted partition, and mount it:
1059 guestfish -N fs:vfat:32M -m /dev/sda1
1061 Create a blank 200MB disk:
1063 guestfish -N disk:200M
1065 =head1 PROGRESS BARS
1067 Some (not all) long-running commands send progress notification
1068 messages as they are running. Guestfish turns these messages into
1071 When a command that supports progress bars takes longer than two
1072 seconds to run, and if progress bars are enabled, then you will see
1073 one appearing below the command:
1075 ><fs> copy-size /large-file /another-file 2048M
1076 / 10% [#####-----------------------------------------] 00:30
1078 The spinner on the left hand side moves round once for every progress
1079 notification received from the backend. This is a (reasonably) golden
1080 assurance that the command is "doing something" even if the progress
1081 bar is not moving, because the command is able to send the progress
1082 notifications. When the bar reaches 100% and the command finishes,
1083 the spinner disappears.
1085 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used
1086 interactively. You can enable them even for non-interactive modes
1087 using I<--progress-bars>, and you can disable them completely using
1088 I<--no-progress-bars>.
1090 =head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
1092 The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
1093 other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
1100 Without any parameter, this provides general help.
1102 With a C<cmd> parameter, this displays detailed help for that command.
1106 This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
1116 guestfish returns 0 if the commands completed without error, or
1117 1 if there was an error.
1119 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1125 The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
1128 =item FEBOOTSTRAP_KERNEL
1130 =item FEBOOTSTRAP_MODULES
1132 These two environment variables allow the kernel that libguestfs uses
1133 in the appliance to be selected. If C<$FEBOOTSTRAP_KERNEL> is not
1134 set, then the most recent host kernel is chosen. For more information
1135 about kernel selection, see L<febootstrap-supermin-helper(8)>. This
1136 feature is only available in febootstrap E<ge> 3.8.
1138 =item GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE
1140 The C<display> command uses C<$GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE> to
1141 display images. If not set, it uses L<display(1)>.
1145 Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
1146 process to control. See section
1147 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET>.
1151 The L</hexedit> command uses C<$HEXEDITOR> as the external hex
1152 editor. If not specified, the external L<hexedit(1)> program
1157 If compiled with GNU readline support, various files in the
1158 home directory can be used. See L</FILES>.
1160 =item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
1162 Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
1164 =item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
1166 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages. This has the
1167 same effect as using the B<-v> option.
1169 =item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
1171 Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
1174 LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
1176 =item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
1178 Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
1179 See the discussion of paths in L<guestfs(3)>.
1181 =item LIBGUESTFS_QEMU
1183 Set the default qemu binary that libguestfs uses. If not set, then
1184 the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
1187 =item LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
1189 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1> to enable command traces.
1193 The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager. If not
1194 set, it uses C<more>.
1198 Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp> except for the
1199 cached supermin appliance which defaults to C</var/tmp>.
1201 If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then the
1202 real appliance is cached in this directory, shared between all
1203 handles belonging to the same EUID. You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
1204 configure another directory to use in case C</var/tmp> is not large
1213 =item $HOME/.libguestfs-tools.rc
1215 =item /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf
1217 This configuration file controls the default read-only or read-write
1218 mode (I<--ro> or I<--rw>).
1220 See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE>.
1222 =item $HOME/.guestfish
1224 If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
1225 is saved in this file.
1227 =item $HOME/.inputrc
1231 If compiled with GNU readline support, then these files can be used to
1232 configure readline. For further information, please see
1233 L<readline(3)/INITIALIZATION FILE>.
1235 To write rules which only apply to guestfish, use:
1241 Variables that you can set in inputrc that change the behaviour
1242 of guestfish in useful ways include:
1246 =item completion-ignore-case (default: on)
1248 By default, guestfish will ignore case when tab-completing
1249 paths on the disk. Use:
1251 set completion-ignore-case off
1253 to make guestfish case sensitive.
1259 =item test2.img (etc)
1261 When using the I<-N> or I<--new> option, the prepared disk or
1262 filesystem will be created in the file C<test1.img> in the current
1263 directory. The second use of I<-N> will use C<test2.img> and so on.
1264 Any existing file with the same name will be overwritten.
1271 L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
1272 L<virt-alignment-scan(1)>,
1275 L<virt-copy-out(1)>,
1278 L<virt-filesystems(1)>,
1279 L<virt-inspector(1)>,
1280 L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
1281 L<virt-list-partitions(1)>,
1286 L<virt-sparsify(1)>,
1294 L<febootstrap-supermin-helper(8)>.
1298 Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)
1302 Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Red Hat Inc.
1303 L<http://libguestfs.org/>
1305 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1306 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1307 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
1308 (at your option) any later version.
1310 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1311 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1312 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1313 GNU General Public License for more details.
1315 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1316 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
1317 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.