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 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add-domain> command,
203 with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
204 with C<format:...> if the I<--format:...> flag was given.
208 =item B<--no-dest-paths>
210 Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
211 able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
212 this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
213 here to allow this feature to be disabled.
217 When prompting for keys and passphrases, guestfish normally turns
218 echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
219 worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
220 you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
226 Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
229 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
231 =item B<--format=raw|qcow2|..>
235 The default for the I<-a> option is to auto-detect the format of the
236 disk image. Using this forces the disk format for I<-a> options which
237 follow on the command line. Using I<--format> with no argument
238 switches back to auto-detection for subsequent I<-a> options.
242 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img
244 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img>.
246 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img
248 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img> and reverts to
249 auto-detection for C<another.img>.
251 If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
252 this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
253 security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). See also
260 Using L<virt-inspector(1)> code, inspect the disks looking for
261 an operating system and mount filesystems as they would be
262 mounted on the real virtual machine.
264 Typical usage is either:
266 guestfish -d myguest -i
268 (for an inactive libvirt domain called I<myguest>), or:
270 guestfish --ro -d myguest -i
272 (for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
274 guestfish --rw -a /dev/Guests/MyGuest -i
276 Note that the command line syntax changed slightly over older
277 versions of guestfish. You can still use the old syntax:
279 guestfish [--ro] -i disk.img
281 guestfish [--ro] -i libvirt-domain
283 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<inspect-os>
284 command and then using other commands to mount the filesystems that
287 =item B<--keys-from-stdin>
289 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is
290 to try to read passphrases from the user by opening C</dev/tty>.
294 Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
295 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
299 Connect to a live virtual machine.
300 (Experimental, see L<guestfs(3)/ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS>).
302 =item B<-m dev[:mountpoint]>
304 =item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint]>
306 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
308 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to C</>.
310 You have to mount something on C</> before most commands will work.
312 If any I<-m> or I<--mount> options are given, the guest is
313 automatically launched.
315 If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
316 either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
317 filesystems and LVs available (see L</list-partitions>,
318 L</list-filesystems> and L</lvs> commands), or you can use the
319 L<virt-filesystems(1)> program.
321 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<mount-options>
322 command or the C<mount-ro> command if the I<--ro> flag was given.
328 Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
329 of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
337 Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
338 alternative to the I<-a> option: whereas I<-a> adds an existing disk,
339 I<-N> creates a preformatted disk with a filesystem and adds it.
340 See L</PREPARED DISK IMAGES> below.
342 =item B<--progress-bars>
344 Enable progress bars, even when guestfish is used non-interactively.
346 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used as an
349 =item B<--no-progress-bars>
351 Disable progress bars.
353 =item B<--remote[=pid]>
355 Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
356 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
362 This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
363 added and mounts are done read-only.
365 The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
366 might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
367 don't need write access to the disk.
369 Note that prepared disk images created with I<-N> are not affected by
370 this option. Also commands like C<add> are not affected - you have to
371 specify the C<readonly:true> option explicitly if you need it.
373 See also L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
377 Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
383 Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
390 Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
396 This option does nothing at the moment.
397 See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
401 Echo each command before executing it.
405 =head1 COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
407 Any additional (non-option) arguments are treated as commands to
410 Commands to execute should be separated by a colon (C<:>), where the
411 colon is a separate parameter. Thus:
413 guestfish cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] ...
415 If there are no additional arguments, then we enter a shell, either an
416 interactive shell with a prompt (if the input is a terminal) or a
417 non-interactive shell.
419 In either command line mode or non-interactive shell, the first
420 command that gives an error causes the whole shell to exit. In
421 interactive mode (with a prompt) if a command fails, you can continue
424 =head1 USING launch (OR run)
426 As with L<guestfs(3)>, you must first configure your guest by adding
427 disks, then launch it, then mount any disks you need, and finally
428 issue actions/commands. So the general order of the day is:
450 C<run> is a synonym for C<launch>. You must C<launch> (or C<run>)
451 your guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
453 The only exception is that if any of the I<-i>, I<-m>, I<--mount>,
454 I<-N> or I<--new> options were given then C<run> is done
455 automatically, simply because guestfish can't perform the action you
456 asked for without doing this.
458 =head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
460 The guestfish (and L<guestmount(1)>) options I<--ro> and I<--rw>
461 affect whether the other command line options I<-a>, I<-c>, I<-d>,
462 I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for writing.
464 In libguestfs E<lt> 1.6.2, guestfish and guestmount defaulted to
465 opening disk images supplied on the command line for write. To open a
466 disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
468 This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
469 then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
471 By libguestfs 1.10 we intend to change the default the other way. Disk
472 images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
473 I<guestfish --rw> or change a configuration file in order to get write
474 access for disk images specified by those other command line options.
476 This version of guestfish has a I<--rw> option which does nothing (it
477 is already the default). However it is highly recommended that you
478 use this option to indicate that guestfish needs write access, and to
479 prepare your scripts for the day when this option will be required for
482 B<Note:> This does I<not> affect commands like L</add> and L</mount>,
483 or any other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
487 You can quote ordinary parameters using either single or double
490 add "file with a space.img"
496 A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
497 a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing whitespace
498 to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A literal single quote
499 must be escaped with a backslash.
501 vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
502 command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
503 command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
505 =head1 OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
507 Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
508 documentation as C<[argname:..]>. You can use them as in these
511 add-drive-opts filename
513 add-drive-opts filename readonly:true
515 add-drive-opts filename format:qcow2 readonly:false
517 Each optional argument can appear at most once. All optional
518 arguments must appear after the required ones.
522 This section applies to all commands which can take integers
527 When the command takes a parameter measured in bytes, you can use one
528 of the following suffixes to specify kilobytes, megabytes and larger
533 =item B<k> or B<K> or B<KiB>
535 The size in kilobytes (multiplied by 1024).
539 The size in SI 1000 byte units.
543 The size in megabytes (multiplied by 1048576).
547 The size in SI 1000000 byte units.
551 The size in gigabytes (multiplied by 2**30).
555 The size in SI 10**9 byte units.
559 The size in terabytes (multiplied by 2**40).
563 The size in SI 10**12 byte units.
567 The size in petabytes (multiplied by 2**50).
571 The size in SI 10**15 byte units.
575 The size in exabytes (multiplied by 2**60).
579 The size in SI 10**18 byte units.
583 The size in zettabytes (multiplied by 2**70).
587 The size in SI 10**21 byte units.
591 The size in yottabytes (multiplied by 2**80).
595 The size in SI 10**24 byte units.
601 truncate-size /file 1G
603 would truncate the file to 1 gigabyte.
605 Be careful because a few commands take sizes in kilobytes or megabytes
606 (eg. the parameter to L</memsize> is specified in megabytes already).
607 Adding a suffix will probably not do what you expect.
609 =head2 OCTAL AND HEXADECIMAL NUMBERS
611 For specifying the radix (base) use the C convention: C<0> to prefix
612 an octal number or C<0x> to prefix a hexadecimal number. For example:
614 1234 decimal number 1234
615 02322 octal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
616 0x4d2 hexadecimal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
618 When using the C<chmod> command, you almost always want to specify an
619 octal number for the mode, and you must prefix it with C<0> (unlike
620 the Unix L<chmod(1)> program):
622 chmod 0777 /public # OK
623 chmod 777 /public # WRONG! This is mode 777 decimal = 01411 octal.
625 Commands that return numbers usually print them in decimal, but
626 some commands print numbers in other radices (eg. C<umask> prints
627 the mode in octal, preceeded by C<0>).
629 =head1 WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
631 Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs
632 wildcard expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the
633 following will not do what you expect:
637 Assuming you don't have a directory called literally C</home/*>
638 then the above command will return an error.
640 To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
644 runs C<rm-rf> on each path that matches (ie. potentially running
645 the command many times), equivalent to:
651 C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
653 If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
654 will perform a Cartesian product.
658 Any line which starts with a I<#> character is treated as a comment
659 and ignored. The I<#> can optionally be preceeded by whitespace,
660 but B<not> by a command. For example:
666 Blank lines are also ignored.
668 =head1 RUNNING COMMANDS LOCALLY
670 Any line which starts with a I<!> character is treated as a command
671 sent to the local shell (C</bin/sh> or whatever L<system(3)> uses).
675 tgz-out /remote local/remote-data.tar.gz
677 will create a directory C<local> on the host, and then export
678 the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
679 C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>. (See C<tgz-out>).
681 To change the local directory, use the C<lcd> command. C<!cd> will
682 have no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
684 =head2 LOCAL COMMANDS WITH INLINE EXECUTION
686 If a line starts with I<E<lt>!> then the shell command is executed (as
687 for I<!>), but subsequently any output (stdout) of the shell command
688 is parsed and executed as guestfish commands.
690 Thus you can use shell script to construct arbitrary guestfish
691 commands which are then parsed by guestfish.
693 For example it is tedious to create a sequence of files
694 (eg. C</foo.1> through C</foo.100>) using guestfish commands
695 alone. However this is simple if we use a shell script to
696 create the guestfish commands for us:
698 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do echo write /foo.$n $n; done
700 or with names like C</foo.001>:
702 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do printf "write /foo.%03d %d\n" $n $n; done
704 When using guestfish interactively it can be helpful to just run the
705 shell script first (ie. remove the initial C<E<lt>> character so it is
706 just an ordinary I<!> local command), see what guestfish commands it
707 would run, and when you are happy with those prepend the C<E<lt>>
708 character to run the guestfish commands for real.
712 Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
713 first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
714 command). For example:
716 cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
718 (where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
719 program). The above command would list all accounts in the guest
720 filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
723 hexdump /bin/ls | head
724 list-devices | tail -1
725 tgz-out / - | tar ztf -
727 The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
728 symbol is optional. Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
729 straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
730 anything else that makes sense on the host side.
732 To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
737 =head1 HOME DIRECTORIES
739 If a parameter starts with the character C<~> then the tilde may be
740 expanded as a home directory path (either C<~> for the current user's
741 home directory, or C<~user> for another user).
743 Note that home directory expansion happens for users known I<on the
744 host>, not in the guest filesystem.
746 To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
751 =head1 ENCRYPTED DISKS
753 Libguestfs has some support for Linux guests encrypted according to
754 the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard, which includes nearly all
755 whole disk encryption systems used by modern Linux guests. Currently
756 only LVM-on-LUKS is supported.
758 Identify encrypted block devices and partitions using L</vfs-type>:
760 ><fs> vfs-type /dev/sda2
763 Then open those devices using L</luks-open>. This creates a
764 device-mapper device called C</dev/mapper/luksdev>.
766 ><fs> luks-open /dev/sda2 luksdev
767 Enter key or passphrase ("key"): <enter the passphrase>
769 Finally you have to tell LVM to scan for volume groups on
770 the newly created mapper device:
775 The logical volume(s) can now be mounted in the usual way.
777 Before closing a LUKS device you must unmount any logical volumes on
778 it and deactivate the volume groups by calling C<vg-activate false VG>
779 on each one. Then you can close the mapper device:
781 vg-activate false /dev/VG
782 luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
786 If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
787 paths (with some limitations). The following commands are equivalent:
789 file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
791 file win:/windows/system32/config/system.log
793 file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
795 file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\conFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
797 This syntax implicitly calls C<case-sensitive-path> (q.v.) so it also
798 handles case insensitivity like Windows would. This only works in
799 argument positions that expect a path.
801 =head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
803 For commands such as C<upload>, C<download>, C<tar-in>, C<tar-out> and
804 others which upload from or download to a local file, you can use the
805 special filename C<-> to mean "from stdin" or "to stdout". For example:
809 reads stdin and creates from that a file C</foo> in the disk image,
812 tar-out /etc - | tar tf -
814 writes the tarball to stdout and then pipes that into the external
815 "tar" command (see L</PIPES>).
817 When using C<-> to read from stdin, the input is read up to the end of
818 stdin. You can also use a special "heredoc"-like syntax to read up to
819 some arbitrary end marker:
827 Any string of characters can be used instead of C<END>. The end
828 marker must appear on a line of its own, without any preceeding or
829 following characters (not even spaces).
831 Note that the C<-E<lt>E<lt>> syntax only applies to parameters used to
832 upload local files (so-called "FileIn" parameters in the generator).
834 =head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
836 By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
837 (ie. taking commands from a human over a tty), and will exit on the
838 first error in non-interactive mode (scripts, commands given on the
841 If you prefix a command with a I<-> character, then that command will
842 not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
845 =head1 REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
847 Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
848 particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
849 changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting
850 up a guestfish process each time.
852 Start a guestfish server process using:
854 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
856 and then send it commands by doing:
858 guestfish --remote cmd [...]
860 To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
862 guestfish --remote exit
864 Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
865 command. You can change this in the usual way. See section
866 L</EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR>.
868 =head2 CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
870 The C<eval> statement sets the environment variable C<$GUESTFISH_PID>,
871 which is how the I<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
872 You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
874 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
876 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
879 guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
880 guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
882 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH
884 When using csh-like shells (csh, tcsh etc) you have to add the
887 eval "`guestfish --listen --csh`"
889 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
891 Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
892 C</tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID>, where C<$UID> is the effective
893 user ID of the process, and C<$PID> is the process ID of the server.
895 Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
897 =head1 PREPARED DISK IMAGES
899 Use the I<-N type> or I<--new type> parameter to select one of a set
900 of preformatted disk images that guestfish can make for you to save
901 typing. This is particularly useful for testing purposes. This
902 option is used instead of the I<-a> option, and like I<-a> can appear
903 multiple times (and can be mixed with I<-a>).
905 The new disk is called C<test1.img> for the first I<-N>, C<test2.img>
906 for the second and so on. Existing files in the current directory are
909 The type briefly describes how the disk should be sized, partitioned,
910 how filesystem(s) should be created, and how content should be added.
911 Optionally the type can be followed by extra parameters, separated by
912 C<:> (colon) characters. For example, I<-N fs> creates a default
913 100MB, sparsely-allocated disk, containing a single partition, with
914 the partition formatted as ext2. I<-N fs:ext4:1G> is the same, but
915 for an ext4 filesystem on a 1GB disk instead.
917 To list the available types and any extra parameters they take, run:
919 guestfish -N help | less
921 Note that the prepared filesystem is not mounted. You would usually
922 have to use the C<mount /dev/sda1 /> command or add the
923 I<-m /dev/sda1> option.
925 If any I<-N> or I<--new> options are given, the guest is automatically
930 Create a 100MB disk with an ext4-formatted partition:
934 Create a 32MB disk with a VFAT-formatted partition, and mount it:
936 guestfish -N fs:vfat:32M -m /dev/sda1
938 Create a blank 200MB disk:
940 guestfish -N disk:200M
944 Some (not all) long-running commands send progress notification
945 messages as they are running. Guestfish turns these messages into
948 When a command that supports progress bars takes longer than two
949 seconds to run, and if progress bars are enabled, then you will see
950 one appearing below the command:
952 ><fs> copy-size /large-file /another-file 2048M
953 / 10% [#####-----------------------------------------] 00:30
955 The spinner on the left hand side moves round once for every progress
956 notification received from the backend. This is a (reasonably) golden
957 assurance that the command is "doing something" even if the progress
958 bar is not moving, because the command is able to send the progress
959 notifications. When the bar reaches 100% and the command finishes,
960 the spinner disappears.
962 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used
963 interactively. You can enable them even for non-interactive modes
964 using I<--progress-bars>, and you can disable them completely using
965 I<--no-progress-bars>.
967 =head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
969 The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
970 other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
977 Without any parameter, this provides general help.
979 With a C<cmd> parameter, this displays detailed help for that command.
983 This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
993 guestfish returns 0 if the commands completed without error, or
994 1 if there was an error.
996 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1002 The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
1007 Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
1008 process to control. See section
1009 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET>.
1013 The L</hexedit> command uses C<$HEXEDITOR> as the external hex
1014 editor. If not specified, the external L<hexedit(1)> program
1019 If compiled with GNU readline support, various files in the
1020 home directory can be used. See L</FILES>.
1022 =item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
1024 Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
1026 =item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
1028 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages. This has the
1029 same effect as using the B<-v> option.
1031 =item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
1033 Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
1036 LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
1038 =item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
1040 Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
1041 See the discussion of paths in L<guestfs(3)>.
1043 =item LIBGUESTFS_QEMU
1045 Set the default qemu binary that libguestfs uses. If not set, then
1046 the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
1049 =item LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
1051 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1> to enable command traces.
1055 The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager. If not
1056 set, it uses C<more>.
1060 Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp> except for the
1061 cached supermin appliance which defaults to C</var/tmp>.
1063 If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then the
1064 real appliance is cached in this directory, shared between all
1065 handles belonging to the same EUID. You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
1066 configure another directory to use in case C</var/tmp> is not large
1075 =item $HOME/.guestfish
1077 If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
1078 is saved in this file.
1080 =item $HOME/.inputrc
1084 If compiled with GNU readline support, then these files can be used to
1085 configure readline. For further information, please see
1086 L<readline(3)/INITIALIZATION FILE>.
1088 To write rules which only apply to guestfish, use:
1094 Variables that you can set in inputrc that change the behaviour
1095 of guestfish in useful ways include:
1099 =item completion-ignore-case (default: on)
1101 By default, guestfish will ignore case when tab-completing
1102 paths on the disk. Use:
1104 set completion-ignore-case off
1106 to make guestfish case sensitive.
1112 =item test2.img (etc)
1114 When using the C<-N> or C<--new> option, the prepared disk or
1115 filesystem will be created in the file C<test1.img> in the current
1116 directory. The second use of C<-N> will use C<test2.img> and so on.
1117 Any existing file with the same name will be overwritten.
1124 L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
1127 L<virt-copy-out(1)>,
1130 L<virt-filesystems(1)>,
1131 L<virt-inspector(1)>,
1132 L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
1133 L<virt-list-partitions(1)>,
1146 Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)
1150 Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc.
1151 L<http://libguestfs.org/>
1153 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1154 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1155 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
1156 (at your option) any later version.
1158 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1159 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1160 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1161 GNU General Public License for more details.
1163 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1164 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
1165 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.