5 guestmount - Mount a guest filesystem on the host using FUSE and libguestfs
9 guestmount [--options] -a disk.img -m device [--ro] mountpoint
11 guestmount [--options] -a disk.img -i [--ro] mountpoint
13 guestmount [--options] -d Guest -i [--ro] mountpoint
17 You must I<not> use C<guestmount> in read-write mode on live virtual
18 machines. If you do this, you risk disk corruption in the VM.
22 The guestmount program can be used to mount virtual machine
23 filesystems and other disk images on the host. It uses libguestfs for
24 access to the guest filesystem, and FUSE (the "filesystem in
25 userspace") to make it appear as a mountable device.
27 Along with other options, you have to give at least one device (I<-a>
28 option) or libvirt domain (I<-d> option), and at least one mountpoint
29 (I<-m> option) or use the I<-i> inspection option. How this works is
30 better explained in the L<guestfish(1)> manual page, or by looking at
33 FUSE lets you mount filesystems as non-root. The mountpoint must be
34 owned by you, and the filesystem will not be visible to any other
35 users unless you make certain global configuration changes to
36 C</etc/fuse.conf>. To unmount the filesystem, use the C<fusermount -u>
41 For a typical Windows guest which has its main filesystem on the
44 guestmount -a windows.img -m /dev/sda1 --ro /mnt
46 For a typical Linux guest which has a /boot filesystem on the first
47 partition, and the root filesystem on a logical volume:
49 guestmount -a linux.img -m /dev/VG/LV -m /dev/sda1:/boot --ro /mnt
51 To get libguestfs to detect guest mountpoints for you:
53 guestmount -a guest.img -i --ro /mnt
55 For a libvirt guest called "Guest" you could do:
57 guestmount -d Guest -i --ro /mnt
59 If you don't know what filesystems are contained in a guest or
60 disk image, use L<virt-filesystems(1)> first:
62 virt-filesystems MyGuest
64 If you want to trace the libguestfs calls but without excessive
65 debugging information, we recommend:
67 guestmount [...] --trace /mnt
69 If you want to debug the program, we recommend:
71 guestmount [...] --trace --verbose /mnt
75 =head2 Other users cannot see the filesystem by default
77 If you mount a filesystem as one user (eg. root), then other users
78 will not be able to see it by default. The fix is to add the FUSE
79 C<allow_other> option when mounting:
81 sudo guestmount [...] -o allow_other /mnt
91 Add a block device or virtual machine image.
93 The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and
94 force a particular format use the I<--format=..> option.
98 =item B<--connect URI>
100 When used in conjunction with the I<-d> option, this specifies
101 the libvirt URI to use. The default is to use the default libvirt
104 =item B<-d libvirt-domain>
106 =item B<--domain libvirt-domain>
108 Add disks from the named libvirt domain. If the I<--ro> option is
109 also used, then any libvirt domain can be used. However in write
110 mode, only libvirt domains which are shut down can be named here.
112 Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names.
114 =item B<--dir-cache-timeout N>
116 Set the readdir cache timeout to I<N> seconds, the default being 60
117 seconds. The readdir cache [actually, there are several
118 semi-independent caches] is populated after a readdir(2) call with the
119 stat and extended attributes of the files in the directory, in
120 anticipation that they will be requested soon after.
122 There is also a different attribute cache implemented by FUSE
123 (see the FUSE option I<-o attr_timeout>), but the FUSE cache
124 does not anticipate future requests, only cache existing ones.
128 When prompting for keys and passphrases, guestfish normally turns
129 echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
130 worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
131 you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
133 =item B<--format=raw|qcow2|..>
137 The default for the I<-a> option is to auto-detect the format of the
138 disk image. Using this forces the disk format for I<-a> options which
139 follow on the command line. Using I<--format> with no argument
140 switches back to auto-detection for subsequent I<-a> options.
142 If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
143 this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
144 security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). See also
145 L<guestfs(3)/guestfs_add_drive_opts>.
149 Display help on special FUSE options (see I<-o> below).
153 Display brief help and exit.
159 Using L<virt-inspector(1)> code, inspect the disks looking for
160 an operating system and mount filesystems as they would be
161 mounted on the real virtual machine.
163 =item B<--keys-from-stdin>
165 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is
166 to try to read passphrases from the user by opening C</dev/tty>.
170 Connect to a live virtual machine.
171 (Experimental, see L<guestfs(3)/ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS>).
173 =item B<-m dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
175 =item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
177 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint
178 B<in the guest> (this has nothing to do with mountpoints in the host).
180 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to C</>. You have to mount
183 The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list of
184 mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem. If this is not
185 given, then the mount options are either the empty string or C<ro>
186 (the latter if the I<--ro> flag is used). By specifying the mount
187 options, you override this default choice. Probably the only time you
188 would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended attributes if the
189 filesystem can support them:
191 -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
197 By default, we attempt to sync the guest disk when the FUSE mountpoint
198 is unmounted. If you specify this option, then we don't attempt to
199 sync the disk. See the discussion of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)>
204 =item B<--option option>
206 Pass extra options to FUSE.
208 To get a list of all the extra options supported by FUSE, use the
209 command below. Note that only the FUSE I<-o> options can be passed,
210 and only some of them are a good idea.
212 guestmount --fuse-help
214 Some potentially useful FUSE options:
218 =item B<-o allow_other>
220 Allow other users to see the filesystem.
222 =item B<-o attr_timeout=N>
224 Enable attribute caching by FUSE, and set the timeout to I<N> seconds.
226 =item B<-o kernel_cache>
228 Allow the kernel to cache files (reduces the number of reads
229 that have to go through the L<guestfs(3)> API). This is generally
230 a good idea if you can afford the extra memory usage.
232 =item B<-o uid=N> B<-o gid=N>
234 Use these options to map all UIDs and GIDs inside the guest filesystem
235 to the chosen values.
243 Add devices and mount everything read-only. Also disallow writes and
244 make the disk appear read-only to FUSE.
246 This is highly recommended if you are not going to edit the guest
247 disk. If the guest is running and this option is I<not> supplied,
248 then there is a strong risk of disk corruption in the guest. We try
249 to prevent this from happening, but it is not always possible.
251 See also L<guestfish(1)/OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE>.
255 Enable SELinux support for the guest.
261 Enable verbose messages from underlying libguestfs.
267 Display the program version and exit.
273 This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
274 added and mounts are done read-write.
276 See L<guestfish(1)/OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE>.
282 Trace libguestfs calls and entry into each FUSE function.
284 This also stops the daemon from forking into the background.
292 =item $HOME/.libguestfs-tools.rc
294 =item /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf
296 This configuration file controls the default read-only or read-write
297 mode (I<--ro> or I<--rw>).
299 See L<guestfish(1)/OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE>.
305 This program returns 0 if successful, or non-zero if there was an
311 L<virt-inspector(1)>,
316 L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
317 L<http://fuse.sf.net/>.
321 Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)
325 Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc.
326 L<http://libguestfs.org/>
328 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
329 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
330 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
331 (at your option) any later version.
333 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
334 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
335 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
336 GNU General Public License for more details.
338 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
339 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
340 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.