1 =head2 add-cdrom | cdrom
5 This function adds a virtual CD-ROM disk image to the guest.
7 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter C<-cdrom filename>.
13 This function adds a virtual machine disk image C<filename> to the
14 guest. The first time you call this function, the disk appears as IDE
15 disk 0 (C</dev/sda>) in the guest, the second time as C</dev/sdb>, and
18 You don't necessarily need to be root when using libguestfs. However
19 you obviously do need sufficient permissions to access the filename
20 for whatever operations you want to perform (ie. read access if you
21 just want to read the image or write access if you want to modify the
24 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter C<-drive file=filename>.
30 Close the current Augeas handle and free up any resources
31 used by it. After calling this, you have to call
32 C<aug-init> again before you can use any other
37 aug-defnode name expr val
39 Defines a variable C<name> whose value is the result of
42 If C<expr> evaluates to an empty nodeset, a node is created,
43 equivalent to calling C<aug-set> C<expr>, C<value>.
44 C<name> will be the nodeset containing that single node.
46 On success this returns a pair containing the
47 number of nodes in the nodeset, and a boolean flag
48 if a node was created.
54 Defines an Augeas variable C<name> whose value is the result
55 of evaluating C<expr>. If C<expr> is NULL, then C<name> is
58 On success this returns the number of nodes in C<expr>, or
59 C<0> if C<expr> evaluates to something which is not a nodeset.
65 Look up the value associated with C<path>. If C<path>
66 matches exactly one node, the C<value> is returned.
72 Create a new Augeas handle for editing configuration files.
73 If there was any previous Augeas handle associated with this
74 guestfs session, then it is closed.
76 You must call this before using any other C<aug-*>
79 C<root> is the filesystem root. C<root> must not be NULL,
82 The flags are the same as the flags defined in
83 E<lt>augeas.hE<gt>, the logical I<or> of the following
88 =item C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP> = 1
90 Keep the original file with a C<.augsave> extension.
92 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NEWFILE> = 2
94 Save changes into a file with extension C<.augnew>, and
95 do not overwrite original. Overrides C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP>.
97 =item C<AUG_TYPE_CHECK> = 4
99 Typecheck lenses (can be expensive).
101 =item C<AUG_NO_STDINC> = 8
103 Do not use standard load path for modules.
105 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NOOP> = 16
107 Make save a no-op, just record what would have been changed.
109 =item C<AUG_NO_LOAD> = 32
111 Do not load the tree in C<aug-init>.
115 To close the handle, you can call C<aug-close>.
117 To find out more about Augeas, see L<http://augeas.net/>.
121 aug-insert path label true|false
123 Create a new sibling C<label> for C<path>, inserting it into
124 the tree before or after C<path> (depending on the boolean
127 C<path> must match exactly one existing node in the tree, and
128 C<label> must be a label, ie. not contain C</>, C<*> or end
129 with a bracketed index C<[N]>.
135 Load files into the tree.
137 See C<aug_load> in the Augeas documentation for the full gory
144 This is just a shortcut for listing C<aug-match>
145 C<path/*> and sorting the resulting nodes into alphabetical order.
151 Returns a list of paths which match the path expression C<path>.
152 The returned paths are sufficiently qualified so that they match
153 exactly one node in the current tree.
159 Move the node C<src> to C<dest>. C<src> must match exactly
160 one node. C<dest> is overwritten if it exists.
166 Remove C<path> and all of its children.
168 On success this returns the number of entries which were removed.
174 This writes all pending changes to disk.
176 The flags which were passed to C<aug-init> affect exactly
183 Set the value associated with C<path> to C<value>.
185 =head2 blockdev-flushbufs
187 blockdev-flushbufs device
189 This tells the kernel to flush internal buffers associated
192 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
194 =head2 blockdev-getbsz
196 blockdev-getbsz device
198 This returns the block size of a device.
200 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
201 I<filesystem block size>).
203 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
205 =head2 blockdev-getro
207 blockdev-getro device
209 Returns a boolean indicating if the block device is read-only
210 (true if read-only, false if not).
212 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
214 =head2 blockdev-getsize64
216 blockdev-getsize64 device
218 This returns the size of the device in bytes.
220 See also C<blockdev-getsz>.
222 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
224 =head2 blockdev-getss
226 blockdev-getss device
228 This returns the size of sectors on a block device.
229 Usually 512, but can be larger for modern devices.
231 (Note, this is not the size in sectors, use C<blockdev-getsz>
234 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
236 =head2 blockdev-getsz
238 blockdev-getsz device
240 This returns the size of the device in units of 512-byte sectors
241 (even if the sectorsize isn't 512 bytes ... weird).
243 See also C<blockdev-getss> for the real sector size of
244 the device, and C<blockdev-getsize64> for the more
245 useful I<size in bytes>.
247 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
249 =head2 blockdev-rereadpt
251 blockdev-rereadpt device
253 Reread the partition table on C<device>.
255 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
257 =head2 blockdev-setbsz
259 blockdev-setbsz device blocksize
261 This sets the block size of a device.
263 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
264 I<filesystem block size>).
266 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
268 =head2 blockdev-setro
270 blockdev-setro device
272 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-only.
274 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
276 =head2 blockdev-setrw
278 blockdev-setrw device
280 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-write.
282 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
288 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
290 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
291 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
292 as end of string). For those you need to use the C<download>
293 function which has a more complex interface.
295 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
296 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
301 checksum csumtype path
303 This call computes the MD5, SHAx or CRC checksum of the
306 The type of checksum to compute is given by the C<csumtype>
307 parameter which must have one of the following values:
313 Compute the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) specified by POSIX
314 for the C<cksum> command.
318 Compute the MD5 hash (using the C<md5sum> program).
322 Compute the SHA1 hash (using the C<sha1sum> program).
326 Compute the SHA224 hash (using the C<sha224sum> program).
330 Compute the SHA256 hash (using the C<sha256sum> program).
334 Compute the SHA384 hash (using the C<sha384sum> program).
338 Compute the SHA512 hash (using the C<sha512sum> program).
342 The checksum is returned as a printable string.
348 Change the mode (permissions) of C<path> to C<mode>. Only
349 numeric modes are supported.
353 chown owner group path
355 Change the file owner to C<owner> and group to C<group>.
357 Only numeric uid and gid are supported. If you want to use
358 names, you will need to locate and parse the password file
359 yourself (Augeas support makes this relatively easy).
363 command 'arguments ...'
365 This call runs a command from the guest filesystem. The
366 filesystem must be mounted, and must contain a compatible
367 operating system (ie. something Linux, with the same
368 or compatible processor architecture).
370 The single parameter is an argv-style list of arguments.
371 The first element is the name of the program to run.
372 Subsequent elements are parameters. The list must be
373 non-empty (ie. must contain a program name).
375 The C<$PATH> environment variable will contain at least
376 C</usr/bin> and C</bin>. If you require a program from
377 another location, you should provide the full path in the
380 Shared libraries and data files required by the program
381 must be available on filesystems which are mounted in the
382 correct places. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
383 all filesystems that are needed are mounted at the right
388 command-lines 'arguments ...'
390 This is the same as C<command>, but splits the
391 result into a list of lines.
395 config qemuparam qemuvalue
397 This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters
398 of the form C<-param value>. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we
399 prevent you from setting some parameters which would interfere with
400 parameters that we use.
402 The first character of C<param> string must be a C<-> (dash).
404 C<value> can be NULL.
410 This copies a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
411 either a destination filename or destination directory.
417 This copies a file or directory from C<src> to C<dest>
418 recursively using the C<cp -a> command.
422 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
424 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
425 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
428 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
429 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
430 to find out what you can do.
436 This returns the kernel messages (C<dmesg> output) from
437 the guest kernel. This is sometimes useful for extended
438 debugging of problems.
440 Another way to get the same information is to enable
441 verbose messages with C<set-verbose> or by setting
442 the environment variable C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> before
447 download remotefilename (filename|-)
449 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
450 on the local machine.
452 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
454 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
456 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
460 drop-caches whattodrop
462 This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache,
463 and/or dentries and inode caches. The parameter C<whattodrop>
464 tells the kernel what precisely to drop, see
465 L<http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches>
467 Setting C<whattodrop> to 3 should drop everything.
469 This automatically calls L<sync(2)> before the operation,
470 so that the maximum guest memory is freed.
476 This compares the two files C<file1> and C<file2> and returns
477 true if their content is exactly equal, or false otherwise.
479 The external L<cmp(1)> program is used for the comparison.
485 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
486 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
488 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
494 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
495 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
496 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
498 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
499 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
506 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
507 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
509 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
510 list of status codes from C<fsck>.
518 Multiple status codes can be summed together.
522 A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if
523 errors have been corrected on the filesystem.
527 Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
532 This command is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
538 Get the autosync flag.
544 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
551 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
558 Return the current search path.
560 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
561 return the default path.
567 Return the current qemu binary.
569 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
570 return the default qemu binary name.
576 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
577 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
579 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
585 This returns the verbose messages flag.
589 grub-install root device
591 This command installs GRUB (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
592 C<device>, with the root directory being C<root>.
598 This runs C<hexdump -C> on the given C<path>. The result is
599 the human-readable, canonical hex dump of the file.
601 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
602 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
609 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
610 (in the C<BUSY> state).
612 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
618 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
619 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
621 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
627 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
628 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
629 other objects like files.
637 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
638 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
639 other objects like directories.
647 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
648 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
650 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
656 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
657 (in the C<READY> state).
659 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
661 =head2 kill-subprocess
665 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
671 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
674 You should call this after configuring the handle
675 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
681 List all the block devices.
683 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
685 =head2 list-partitions
689 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
691 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
693 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
700 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
701 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
703 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
704 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
710 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
711 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
712 hidden files are shown.
714 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
715 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
721 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
723 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
724 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
727 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
731 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
733 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
734 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
736 =head2 lvm-remove-all
740 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
741 and physical volumes.
743 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
744 can easily destroy all your data>.
750 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
751 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
753 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
754 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
760 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
761 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
763 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
764 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
766 See also C<lvs-full>.
772 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
773 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
779 Create a directory named C<path>.
785 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
786 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
792 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
793 or LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
798 mount device mountpoint
800 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
801 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
802 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
803 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
806 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
807 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
808 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
811 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
812 on the underlying device.
814 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
815 call, in order to improve reliability.
819 mount-options options device mountpoint
821 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
822 allows you to set the mount options as for the
823 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
827 mount-ro device mountpoint
829 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
830 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
834 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
836 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
837 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
838 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
844 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
845 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
847 Some internal mounts are not shown.
853 This moves a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
854 either a destination filename or destination directory.
860 This is a test probe into the guestfs daemon running inside
861 the qemu subprocess. Calling this function checks that the
862 daemon responds to the ping message, without affecting the daemon
863 or attached block device(s) in any other way.
869 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
870 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
877 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
880 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
881 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
882 to remove those first.
888 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
889 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
891 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
892 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
894 See also C<pvs-full>.
900 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
901 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
907 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
909 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
910 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
912 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
913 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
914 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
915 function which has a more complex interface.
921 Remove the single file C<path>.
927 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
928 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
935 Remove the single directory C<path>.
937 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
939 set-autosync true|false
941 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
942 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
943 C<sync> when the handle is closed
944 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
946 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
951 set-e2label device label
953 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
954 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
957 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
958 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
962 set-e2uuid device uuid
964 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
965 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
966 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
967 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
969 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
970 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
972 =head2 set-path | path
976 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
978 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
979 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
981 The string C<path> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
982 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
984 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
986 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
990 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
992 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
995 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
996 environment variable.
998 The string C<qemu> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
999 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
1001 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
1003 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
1005 set-verbose true|false
1007 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
1009 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
1010 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
1014 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
1016 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
1017 partitions on block devices.
1019 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
1021 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
1022 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
1023 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
1024 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
1025 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
1026 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
1027 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
1029 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
1030 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
1032 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
1033 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
1034 the string C<,> (comma).
1036 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1037 can easily destroy all your data>.
1043 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
1045 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
1051 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
1052 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
1053 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
1055 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
1061 This runs the L<strings(1)> command on a file and returns
1062 the list of printable strings found.
1064 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1065 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1070 strings-e encoding path
1072 This is like the C<strings> command, but allows you to
1073 specify the encoding.
1075 See the L<strings(1)> manpage for the full list of encodings.
1077 Commonly useful encodings are C<l> (lower case L) which will
1078 show strings inside Windows/x86 files.
1080 The returned strings are transcoded to UTF-8.
1082 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1083 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1090 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
1091 underlying disk image.
1093 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
1098 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
1100 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
1101 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1103 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
1105 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1109 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
1111 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1112 it to local file C<tarfile>.
1114 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
1116 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1120 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
1122 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
1123 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1125 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
1127 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1131 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1133 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1134 it to local file C<tarball>.
1136 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1138 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1144 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1145 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1146 to create a new zero-length file.
1152 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1153 superblock on C<device>.
1155 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1156 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1157 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1158 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1160 =head2 umount | unmount
1164 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1165 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1166 contains the filesystem.
1168 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1172 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1174 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1178 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1180 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1183 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1185 See also C<download>.
1187 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1191 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1193 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1194 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1200 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1202 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1209 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1210 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1212 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1213 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1215 See also C<vgs-full>.
1221 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1222 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1226 write-file path content size
1228 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1229 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1230 with length C<size>.
1232 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1233 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1234 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1236 I<NB.> Owing to a bug, writing content containing ASCII NUL
1237 characters does I<not> work, even if the length is specified.
1238 We hope to resolve this bug in a future version. In the meantime
1241 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1242 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1249 This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of C<device>.
1251 How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's I<not> enough
1252 to securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove
1253 any partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.