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>.
9 Note that this call checks for the existence of C<filename>. This
10 stops you from specifying other types of drive which are supported
11 by qemu such as C<nbd:> and C<http:> URLs. To specify those, use
12 the general C<config> call instead.
14 =head2 add-drive | add
18 This function adds a virtual machine disk image C<filename> to the
19 guest. The first time you call this function, the disk appears as IDE
20 disk 0 (C</dev/sda>) in the guest, the second time as C</dev/sdb>, and
23 You don't necessarily need to be root when using libguestfs. However
24 you obviously do need sufficient permissions to access the filename
25 for whatever operations you want to perform (ie. read access if you
26 just want to read the image or write access if you want to modify the
29 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter C<-drive file=filename>.
31 Note that this call checks for the existence of C<filename>. This
32 stops you from specifying other types of drive which are supported
33 by qemu such as C<nbd:> and C<http:> URLs. To specify those, use
34 the general C<config> call instead.
36 =head2 add-drive-ro | add-ro
40 This adds a drive in snapshot mode, making it effectively
43 Note that writes to the device are allowed, and will be seen for
44 the duration of the guestfs handle, but they are written
45 to a temporary file which is discarded as soon as the guestfs
46 handle is closed. We don't currently have any method to enable
47 changes to be committed, although qemu can support this.
49 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter
50 C<-drive file=filename,snapshot=on>.
52 Note that this call checks for the existence of C<filename>. This
53 stops you from specifying other types of drive which are supported
54 by qemu such as C<nbd:> and C<http:> URLs. To specify those, use
55 the general C<config> call instead.
61 Close the current Augeas handle and free up any resources
62 used by it. After calling this, you have to call
63 C<aug-init> again before you can use any other
68 aug-defnode name expr val
70 Defines a variable C<name> whose value is the result of
73 If C<expr> evaluates to an empty nodeset, a node is created,
74 equivalent to calling C<aug-set> C<expr>, C<value>.
75 C<name> will be the nodeset containing that single node.
77 On success this returns a pair containing the
78 number of nodes in the nodeset, and a boolean flag
79 if a node was created.
85 Defines an Augeas variable C<name> whose value is the result
86 of evaluating C<expr>. If C<expr> is NULL, then C<name> is
89 On success this returns the number of nodes in C<expr>, or
90 C<0> if C<expr> evaluates to something which is not a nodeset.
96 Look up the value associated with C<path>. If C<path>
97 matches exactly one node, the C<value> is returned.
103 Create a new Augeas handle for editing configuration files.
104 If there was any previous Augeas handle associated with this
105 guestfs session, then it is closed.
107 You must call this before using any other C<aug-*>
110 C<root> is the filesystem root. C<root> must not be NULL,
113 The flags are the same as the flags defined in
114 E<lt>augeas.hE<gt>, the logical I<or> of the following
119 =item C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP> = 1
121 Keep the original file with a C<.augsave> extension.
123 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NEWFILE> = 2
125 Save changes into a file with extension C<.augnew>, and
126 do not overwrite original. Overrides C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP>.
128 =item C<AUG_TYPE_CHECK> = 4
130 Typecheck lenses (can be expensive).
132 =item C<AUG_NO_STDINC> = 8
134 Do not use standard load path for modules.
136 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NOOP> = 16
138 Make save a no-op, just record what would have been changed.
140 =item C<AUG_NO_LOAD> = 32
142 Do not load the tree in C<aug-init>.
146 To close the handle, you can call C<aug-close>.
148 To find out more about Augeas, see L<http://augeas.net/>.
152 aug-insert path label true|false
154 Create a new sibling C<label> for C<path>, inserting it into
155 the tree before or after C<path> (depending on the boolean
158 C<path> must match exactly one existing node in the tree, and
159 C<label> must be a label, ie. not contain C</>, C<*> or end
160 with a bracketed index C<[N]>.
166 Load files into the tree.
168 See C<aug_load> in the Augeas documentation for the full gory
175 This is just a shortcut for listing C<aug-match>
176 C<path/*> and sorting the resulting nodes into alphabetical order.
182 Returns a list of paths which match the path expression C<path>.
183 The returned paths are sufficiently qualified so that they match
184 exactly one node in the current tree.
190 Move the node C<src> to C<dest>. C<src> must match exactly
191 one node. C<dest> is overwritten if it exists.
197 Remove C<path> and all of its children.
199 On success this returns the number of entries which were removed.
205 This writes all pending changes to disk.
207 The flags which were passed to C<aug-init> affect exactly
214 Set the value associated with C<path> to C<value>.
216 =head2 blockdev-flushbufs
218 blockdev-flushbufs device
220 This tells the kernel to flush internal buffers associated
223 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
225 =head2 blockdev-getbsz
227 blockdev-getbsz device
229 This returns the block size of a device.
231 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
232 I<filesystem block size>).
234 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
236 =head2 blockdev-getro
238 blockdev-getro device
240 Returns a boolean indicating if the block device is read-only
241 (true if read-only, false if not).
243 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
245 =head2 blockdev-getsize64
247 blockdev-getsize64 device
249 This returns the size of the device in bytes.
251 See also C<blockdev-getsz>.
253 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
255 =head2 blockdev-getss
257 blockdev-getss device
259 This returns the size of sectors on a block device.
260 Usually 512, but can be larger for modern devices.
262 (Note, this is not the size in sectors, use C<blockdev-getsz>
265 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
267 =head2 blockdev-getsz
269 blockdev-getsz device
271 This returns the size of the device in units of 512-byte sectors
272 (even if the sectorsize isn't 512 bytes ... weird).
274 See also C<blockdev-getss> for the real sector size of
275 the device, and C<blockdev-getsize64> for the more
276 useful I<size in bytes>.
278 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
280 =head2 blockdev-rereadpt
282 blockdev-rereadpt device
284 Reread the partition table on C<device>.
286 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
288 =head2 blockdev-setbsz
290 blockdev-setbsz device blocksize
292 This sets the block size of a device.
294 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
295 I<filesystem block size>).
297 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
299 =head2 blockdev-setro
301 blockdev-setro device
303 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-only.
305 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
307 =head2 blockdev-setrw
309 blockdev-setrw device
311 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-write.
313 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
319 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
321 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
322 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
323 as end of string). For those you need to use the C<download>
324 function which has a more complex interface.
326 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
327 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
332 checksum csumtype path
334 This call computes the MD5, SHAx or CRC checksum of the
337 The type of checksum to compute is given by the C<csumtype>
338 parameter which must have one of the following values:
344 Compute the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) specified by POSIX
345 for the C<cksum> command.
349 Compute the MD5 hash (using the C<md5sum> program).
353 Compute the SHA1 hash (using the C<sha1sum> program).
357 Compute the SHA224 hash (using the C<sha224sum> program).
361 Compute the SHA256 hash (using the C<sha256sum> program).
365 Compute the SHA384 hash (using the C<sha384sum> program).
369 Compute the SHA512 hash (using the C<sha512sum> program).
373 The checksum is returned as a printable string.
379 Change the mode (permissions) of C<path> to C<mode>. Only
380 numeric modes are supported.
384 chown owner group path
386 Change the file owner to C<owner> and group to C<group>.
388 Only numeric uid and gid are supported. If you want to use
389 names, you will need to locate and parse the password file
390 yourself (Augeas support makes this relatively easy).
394 command 'arguments ...'
396 This call runs a command from the guest filesystem. The
397 filesystem must be mounted, and must contain a compatible
398 operating system (ie. something Linux, with the same
399 or compatible processor architecture).
401 The single parameter is an argv-style list of arguments.
402 The first element is the name of the program to run.
403 Subsequent elements are parameters. The list must be
404 non-empty (ie. must contain a program name).
406 The return value is anything printed to I<stdout> by
409 If the command returns a non-zero exit status, then
410 this function returns an error message. The error message
411 string is the content of I<stderr> from the command.
413 The C<$PATH> environment variable will contain at least
414 C</usr/bin> and C</bin>. If you require a program from
415 another location, you should provide the full path in the
418 Shared libraries and data files required by the program
419 must be available on filesystems which are mounted in the
420 correct places. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
421 all filesystems that are needed are mounted at the right
424 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
425 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
430 command-lines 'arguments ...'
432 This is the same as C<command>, but splits the
433 result into a list of lines.
435 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
436 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
441 config qemuparam qemuvalue
443 This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters
444 of the form C<-param value>. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we
445 prevent you from setting some parameters which would interfere with
446 parameters that we use.
448 The first character of C<param> string must be a C<-> (dash).
450 C<value> can be NULL.
456 This copies a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
457 either a destination filename or destination directory.
463 This copies a file or directory from C<src> to C<dest>
464 recursively using the C<cp -a> command.
468 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
470 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
471 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
474 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
475 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
476 to find out what you can do.
482 This returns the kernel messages (C<dmesg> output) from
483 the guest kernel. This is sometimes useful for extended
484 debugging of problems.
486 Another way to get the same information is to enable
487 verbose messages with C<set-verbose> or by setting
488 the environment variable C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> before
493 download remotefilename (filename|-)
495 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
496 on the local machine.
498 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
500 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
502 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
506 drop-caches whattodrop
508 This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache,
509 and/or dentries and inode caches. The parameter C<whattodrop>
510 tells the kernel what precisely to drop, see
511 L<http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches>
513 Setting C<whattodrop> to 3 should drop everything.
515 This automatically calls L<sync(2)> before the operation,
516 so that the maximum guest memory is freed.
522 This runs C<e2fsck -p -f device>, ie. runs the ext2/ext3
523 filesystem checker on C<device>, noninteractively (C<-p>),
524 even if the filesystem appears to be clean (C<-f>).
526 This command is only needed because of C<resize2fs>
527 (q.v.). Normally you should use C<fsck>.
533 This compares the two files C<file1> and C<file2> and returns
534 true if their content is exactly equal, or false otherwise.
536 The external L<cmp(1)> program is used for the comparison.
542 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
543 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
545 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
551 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
552 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
553 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
555 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
556 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
563 This command lists out all files and directories, recursively,
564 starting at C<directory>. It is essentially equivalent to
565 running the shell command C<find directory -print> but some
566 post-processing happens on the output, described below.
568 This returns a list of strings I<without any prefix>. Thus
569 if the directory structure was:
575 then the returned list from C<find> C</tmp> would be
583 If C<directory> is not a directory, then this command returns
586 The returned list is sorted.
592 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
593 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
595 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
596 list of status codes from C<fsck>.
604 Multiple status codes can be summed together.
608 A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if
609 errors have been corrected on the filesystem.
613 Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
618 This command is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
624 Return the additional kernel options which are added to the
625 guest kernel command line.
627 If C<NULL> then no options are added.
633 Get the autosync flag.
639 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
646 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
653 Return the current search path.
655 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
656 return the default path.
662 Return the current qemu binary.
664 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
665 return the default qemu binary name.
671 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
672 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
674 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
680 This returns the verbose messages flag.
684 grub-install root device
686 This command installs GRUB (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
687 C<device>, with the root directory being C<root>.
693 This runs C<hexdump -C> on the given C<path>. The result is
694 the human-readable, canonical hex dump of the file.
696 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
697 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
704 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
705 (in the C<BUSY> state).
707 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
713 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
714 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
716 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
722 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
723 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
724 other objects like files.
732 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
733 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
734 other objects like directories.
742 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
743 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
745 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
751 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
752 (in the C<READY> state).
754 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
756 =head2 kill-subprocess
760 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
766 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
769 You should call this after configuring the handle
770 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
776 List all the block devices.
778 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
780 =head2 list-partitions
784 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
786 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
788 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
795 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
796 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
798 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
799 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
805 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
806 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
807 hidden files are shown.
809 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
810 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
816 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
818 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
819 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
822 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
826 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
828 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
829 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
831 =head2 lvm-remove-all
835 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
836 and physical volumes.
838 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
839 can easily destroy all your data>.
845 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
846 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
848 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
849 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
853 lvresize device mbytes
855 This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM logical
856 volume to C<mbytes>. When reducing, data in the reduced part
863 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
864 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
866 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
867 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
869 See also C<lvs-full>.
875 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
876 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
882 Create a directory named C<path>.
888 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
889 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
895 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
896 or LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
901 mount device mountpoint
903 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
904 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
905 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
906 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
909 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
910 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
911 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
914 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
915 on the underlying device.
917 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
918 call, in order to improve reliability.
922 mount-options options device mountpoint
924 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
925 allows you to set the mount options as for the
926 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
930 mount-ro device mountpoint
932 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
933 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
937 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
939 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
940 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
941 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
947 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
948 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
950 Some internal mounts are not shown.
956 This moves a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
957 either a destination filename or destination directory.
963 This is a test probe into the guestfs daemon running inside
964 the qemu subprocess. Calling this function checks that the
965 daemon responds to the ping message, without affecting the daemon
966 or attached block device(s) in any other way.
972 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
973 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
980 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
983 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
984 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
985 to remove those first.
991 This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM physical
992 volume to match the new size of the underlying device.
998 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
999 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
1001 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
1002 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
1004 See also C<pvs-full>.
1010 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
1011 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1017 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
1019 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
1020 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
1022 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
1023 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
1024 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
1025 function which has a more complex interface.
1031 This resizes an ext2 or ext3 filesystem to match the size of
1032 the underlying device.
1034 I<Note:> It is sometimes required that you run C<e2fsck-f>
1035 on the C<device> before calling this command. For unknown reasons
1036 C<resize2fs> sometimes gives an error about this and sometimes not.
1037 In any case, it is always safe to call C<e2fsck-f> before
1038 calling this function.
1044 Remove the single file C<path>.
1050 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
1051 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
1058 Remove the single directory C<path>.
1060 =head2 set-append | append
1064 This function is used to add additional options to the
1065 guest kernel command line.
1067 The default is C<NULL> unless overridden by setting
1068 C<LIBGUESTFS_APPEND> environment variable.
1070 Setting C<append> to C<NULL> means I<no> additional options
1071 are passed (libguestfs always adds a few of its own).
1073 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
1075 set-autosync true|false
1077 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
1078 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
1079 C<sync> when the handle is closed
1080 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
1082 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
1083 enabled by default).
1087 set-e2label device label
1089 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
1090 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
1093 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
1094 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
1098 set-e2uuid device uuid
1100 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
1101 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
1102 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
1103 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
1105 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
1106 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
1108 =head2 set-path | path
1112 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
1114 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
1115 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
1117 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
1119 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
1123 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
1125 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
1128 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
1129 environment variable.
1131 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
1133 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
1135 set-verbose true|false
1137 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
1139 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
1140 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
1144 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
1146 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
1147 partitions on block devices.
1149 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
1151 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
1152 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
1153 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
1154 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
1155 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
1156 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
1157 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
1159 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
1160 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
1162 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
1163 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
1164 the string C<,> (comma).
1166 See also: C<sfdisk-l>, C<sfdisk-N>
1168 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1169 can easily destroy all your data>.
1173 sfdisk-N device n cyls heads sectors line
1175 This runs L<sfdisk(8)> option to modify just the single
1176 partition C<n> (note: C<n> counts from 1).
1178 For other parameters, see C<sfdisk>. You should usually
1179 pass C<0> for the cyls/heads/sectors parameters.
1181 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1182 can easily destroy all your data>.
1184 =head2 sfdisk-disk-geometry
1186 sfdisk-disk-geometry device
1188 This displays the disk geometry of C<device> read from the
1189 partition table. Especially in the case where the underlying
1190 block device has been resized, this can be different from the
1191 kernel's idea of the geometry (see C<sfdisk-kernel-geometry>).
1193 The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to
1196 =head2 sfdisk-kernel-geometry
1198 sfdisk-kernel-geometry device
1200 This displays the kernel's idea of the geometry of C<device>.
1202 The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to
1209 This displays the partition table on C<device>, in the
1210 human-readable output of the L<sfdisk(8)> command. It is
1211 not intended to be parsed.
1217 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
1219 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
1225 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
1226 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
1227 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
1229 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
1235 This runs the L<strings(1)> command on a file and returns
1236 the list of printable strings found.
1238 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1239 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1244 strings-e encoding path
1246 This is like the C<strings> command, but allows you to
1247 specify the encoding.
1249 See the L<strings(1)> manpage for the full list of encodings.
1251 Commonly useful encodings are C<l> (lower case L) which will
1252 show strings inside Windows/x86 files.
1254 The returned strings are transcoded to UTF-8.
1256 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1257 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1264 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
1265 underlying disk image.
1267 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
1272 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
1274 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
1275 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1277 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
1279 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1283 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
1285 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1286 it to local file C<tarfile>.
1288 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
1290 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1294 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
1296 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
1297 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1299 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
1301 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1305 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1307 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1308 it to local file C<tarball>.
1310 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1312 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1318 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1319 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1320 to create a new zero-length file.
1326 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1327 superblock on C<device>.
1329 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1330 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1331 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1332 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1334 =head2 umount | unmount
1338 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1339 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1340 contains the filesystem.
1342 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1346 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1348 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1352 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1354 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1357 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1359 See also C<download>.
1361 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1365 vg-activate true|false 'volgroups ...'
1367 This command activates or (if C<activate> is false) deactivates
1368 all logical volumes in the listed volume groups C<volgroups>.
1369 If activated, then they are made known to the
1370 kernel, ie. they appear as C</dev/mapper> devices. If deactivated,
1371 then those devices disappear.
1373 This command is the same as running C<vgchange -a y|n volgroups...>
1375 Note that if C<volgroups> is an empty list then B<all> volume groups
1376 are activated or deactivated.
1378 =head2 vg-activate-all
1380 vg-activate-all true|false
1382 This command activates or (if C<activate> is false) deactivates
1383 all logical volumes in all volume groups.
1384 If activated, then they are made known to the
1385 kernel, ie. they appear as C</dev/mapper> devices. If deactivated,
1386 then those devices disappear.
1388 This command is the same as running C<vgchange -a y|n>
1392 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1394 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1395 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1401 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1403 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1410 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1411 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1413 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1414 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1416 See also C<vgs-full>.
1422 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1423 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1427 write-file path content size
1429 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1430 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1431 with length C<size>.
1433 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1434 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1435 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1437 I<NB.> Owing to a bug, writing content containing ASCII NUL
1438 characters does I<not> work, even if the length is specified.
1439 We hope to resolve this bug in a future version. In the meantime
1442 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1443 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1450 This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of C<device>.
1452 How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's I<not> enough
1453 to securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove
1454 any partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.
1460 This runs the I<zerofree> program on C<device>. This program
1461 claims to zero unused inodes and disk blocks on an ext2/3
1462 filesystem, thus making it possible to compress the filesystem
1465 You should B<not> run this program if the filesystem is
1468 It is possible that using this program can damage the filesystem
1469 or data on the filesystem.