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,cache=off>.
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). Note that
405 the command runs directly, and is I<not> invoked via
406 the shell (see C<sh>).
408 The return value is anything printed to I<stdout> by
411 If the command returns a non-zero exit status, then
412 this function returns an error message. The error message
413 string is the content of I<stderr> from the command.
415 The C<$PATH> environment variable will contain at least
416 C</usr/bin> and C</bin>. If you require a program from
417 another location, you should provide the full path in the
420 Shared libraries and data files required by the program
421 must be available on filesystems which are mounted in the
422 correct places. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
423 all filesystems that are needed are mounted at the right
426 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
427 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
432 command-lines 'arguments ...'
434 This is the same as C<command>, but splits the
435 result into a list of lines.
437 See also: C<sh-lines>
439 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
440 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
445 config qemuparam qemuvalue
447 This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters
448 of the form C<-param value>. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we
449 prevent you from setting some parameters which would interfere with
450 parameters that we use.
452 The first character of C<param> string must be a C<-> (dash).
454 C<value> can be NULL.
460 This copies a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
461 either a destination filename or destination directory.
467 This copies a file or directory from C<src> to C<dest>
468 recursively using the C<cp -a> command.
472 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
474 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
475 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
478 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
479 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
480 to find out what you can do.
486 This returns the kernel messages (C<dmesg> output) from
487 the guest kernel. This is sometimes useful for extended
488 debugging of problems.
490 Another way to get the same information is to enable
491 verbose messages with C<set-verbose> or by setting
492 the environment variable C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> before
497 download remotefilename (filename|-)
499 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
500 on the local machine.
502 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
504 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
506 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
510 drop-caches whattodrop
512 This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache,
513 and/or dentries and inode caches. The parameter C<whattodrop>
514 tells the kernel what precisely to drop, see
515 L<http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches>
517 Setting C<whattodrop> to 3 should drop everything.
519 This automatically calls L<sync(2)> before the operation,
520 so that the maximum guest memory is freed.
526 This runs C<e2fsck -p -f device>, ie. runs the ext2/ext3
527 filesystem checker on C<device>, noninteractively (C<-p>),
528 even if the filesystem appears to be clean (C<-f>).
530 This command is only needed because of C<resize2fs>
531 (q.v.). Normally you should use C<fsck>.
537 This compares the two files C<file1> and C<file2> and returns
538 true if their content is exactly equal, or false otherwise.
540 The external L<cmp(1)> program is used for the comparison.
546 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
547 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
549 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
555 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
556 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
557 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
559 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
560 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
567 This command lists out all files and directories, recursively,
568 starting at C<directory>. It is essentially equivalent to
569 running the shell command C<find directory -print> but some
570 post-processing happens on the output, described below.
572 This returns a list of strings I<without any prefix>. Thus
573 if the directory structure was:
579 then the returned list from C<find> C</tmp> would be
587 If C<directory> is not a directory, then this command returns
590 The returned list is sorted.
596 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
597 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
599 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
600 list of status codes from C<fsck>.
608 Multiple status codes can be summed together.
612 A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if
613 errors have been corrected on the filesystem.
617 Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
622 This command is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
628 Return the additional kernel options which are added to the
629 guest kernel command line.
631 If C<NULL> then no options are added.
637 Get the autosync flag.
643 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
650 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
657 Return the current search path.
659 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
660 return the default path.
666 Return the current qemu binary.
668 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
669 return the default qemu binary name.
675 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
676 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
678 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
684 This returns the verbose messages flag.
690 This command searches for all the pathnames matching
691 C<pattern> according to the wildcard expansion rules
694 If no paths match, then this returns an empty list
695 (note: not an error).
697 It is just a wrapper around the C L<glob(3)> function
698 with flags C<GLOB_MARK|GLOB_BRACE>.
699 See that manual page for more details.
703 grub-install root device
705 This command installs GRUB (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
706 C<device>, with the root directory being C<root>.
712 This runs C<hexdump -C> on the given C<path>. The result is
713 the human-readable, canonical hex dump of the file.
715 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
716 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
723 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
724 (in the C<BUSY> state).
726 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
732 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
733 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
735 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
741 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
742 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
743 other objects like files.
751 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
752 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
753 other objects like directories.
761 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
762 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
764 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
770 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
771 (in the C<READY> state).
773 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
775 =head2 kill-subprocess
779 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
785 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
788 You should call this after configuring the handle
789 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
795 List all the block devices.
797 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
799 =head2 list-partitions
803 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
805 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
807 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
814 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
815 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
817 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
818 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
824 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
825 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
826 hidden files are shown.
828 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
829 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
835 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
837 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
838 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
841 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
845 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
847 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
848 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
850 =head2 lvm-remove-all
854 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
855 and physical volumes.
857 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
858 can easily destroy all your data>.
864 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
865 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
867 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
868 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
872 lvresize device mbytes
874 This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM logical
875 volume to C<mbytes>. When reducing, data in the reduced part
882 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
883 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
885 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
886 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
888 See also C<lvs-full>.
894 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
895 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
901 Create a directory named C<path>.
907 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
908 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
914 This command creates a temporary directory. The
915 C<template> parameter should be a full pathname for the
916 temporary directory name with the final six characters being
919 For example: "/tmp/myprogXXXXXX" or "/Temp/myprogXXXXXX",
920 the second one being suitable for Windows filesystems.
922 The name of the temporary directory that was created
925 The temporary directory is created with mode 0700
926 and is owned by root.
928 The caller is responsible for deleting the temporary
929 directory and its contents after use.
931 See also: L<mkdtemp(3)>
937 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
938 or LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
943 mount device mountpoint
945 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
946 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
947 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
948 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
951 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
952 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
953 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
956 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
957 on the underlying device.
959 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
960 call, in order to improve reliability.
964 mount-options options device mountpoint
966 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
967 allows you to set the mount options as for the
968 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
972 mount-ro device mountpoint
974 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
975 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
979 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
981 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
982 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
983 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
989 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
990 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
992 Some internal mounts are not shown.
998 This moves a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
999 either a destination filename or destination directory.
1001 =head2 ntfs-3g-probe
1003 ntfs-3g-probe true|false device
1005 This command runs the L<ntfs-3g.probe(8)> command which probes
1006 an NTFS C<device> for mountability. (Not all NTFS volumes can
1007 be mounted read-write, and some cannot be mounted at all).
1009 C<rw> is a boolean flag. Set it to true if you want to test
1010 if the volume can be mounted read-write. Set it to false if
1011 you want to test if the volume can be mounted read-only.
1013 The return value is an integer which C<0> if the operation
1014 would succeed, or some non-zero value documented in the
1015 L<ntfs-3g.probe(8)> manual page.
1021 This is a test probe into the guestfs daemon running inside
1022 the qemu subprocess. Calling this function checks that the
1023 daemon responds to the ping message, without affecting the daemon
1024 or attached block device(s) in any other way.
1030 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
1031 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
1038 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
1041 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
1042 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
1043 to remove those first.
1049 This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM physical
1050 volume to match the new size of the underlying device.
1056 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
1057 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
1059 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
1060 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
1062 See also C<pvs-full>.
1068 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
1069 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1075 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
1077 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
1078 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
1080 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
1081 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
1082 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
1083 function which has a more complex interface.
1089 This resizes an ext2 or ext3 filesystem to match the size of
1090 the underlying device.
1092 I<Note:> It is sometimes required that you run C<e2fsck-f>
1093 on the C<device> before calling this command. For unknown reasons
1094 C<resize2fs> sometimes gives an error about this and sometimes not.
1095 In any case, it is always safe to call C<e2fsck-f> before
1096 calling this function.
1102 Remove the single file C<path>.
1108 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
1109 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
1116 Remove the single directory C<path>.
1122 This command writes patterns over C<device> to make data retrieval
1125 It is an interface to the L<scrub(1)> program. See that
1126 manual page for more details.
1128 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1129 can easily destroy all your data>.
1135 This command writes patterns over a file to make data retrieval
1138 The file is I<removed> after scrubbing.
1140 It is an interface to the L<scrub(1)> program. See that
1141 manual page for more details.
1143 =head2 scrub-freespace
1147 This command creates the directory C<dir> and then fills it
1148 with files until the filesystem is full, and scrubs the files
1149 as for C<scrub-file>, and deletes them.
1150 The intention is to scrub any free space on the partition
1153 It is an interface to the L<scrub(1)> program. See that
1154 manual page for more details.
1156 =head2 set-append | append
1160 This function is used to add additional options to the
1161 guest kernel command line.
1163 The default is C<NULL> unless overridden by setting
1164 C<LIBGUESTFS_APPEND> environment variable.
1166 Setting C<append> to C<NULL> means I<no> additional options
1167 are passed (libguestfs always adds a few of its own).
1169 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
1171 set-autosync true|false
1173 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
1174 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
1175 C<sync> when the handle is closed
1176 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
1178 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
1179 enabled by default).
1183 set-e2label device label
1185 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
1186 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
1189 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
1190 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
1194 set-e2uuid device uuid
1196 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
1197 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
1198 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
1199 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
1201 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
1202 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
1204 =head2 set-path | path
1208 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
1210 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
1211 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
1213 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
1215 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
1219 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
1221 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
1224 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
1225 environment variable.
1227 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
1229 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
1231 set-verbose true|false
1233 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
1235 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
1236 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
1240 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
1242 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
1243 partitions on block devices.
1245 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
1247 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
1248 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
1249 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
1250 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
1251 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
1252 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
1253 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
1255 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
1256 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
1258 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
1259 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
1260 the string C<,> (comma).
1262 See also: C<sfdisk-l>, C<sfdisk-N>
1264 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1265 can easily destroy all your data>.
1269 sfdisk-N device n cyls heads sectors line
1271 This runs L<sfdisk(8)> option to modify just the single
1272 partition C<n> (note: C<n> counts from 1).
1274 For other parameters, see C<sfdisk>. You should usually
1275 pass C<0> for the cyls/heads/sectors parameters.
1277 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1278 can easily destroy all your data>.
1280 =head2 sfdisk-disk-geometry
1282 sfdisk-disk-geometry device
1284 This displays the disk geometry of C<device> read from the
1285 partition table. Especially in the case where the underlying
1286 block device has been resized, this can be different from the
1287 kernel's idea of the geometry (see C<sfdisk-kernel-geometry>).
1289 The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to
1292 =head2 sfdisk-kernel-geometry
1294 sfdisk-kernel-geometry device
1296 This displays the kernel's idea of the geometry of C<device>.
1298 The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to
1305 This displays the partition table on C<device>, in the
1306 human-readable output of the L<sfdisk(8)> command. It is
1307 not intended to be parsed.
1313 This call runs a command from the guest filesystem via the
1316 This is like C<command>, but passes the command to:
1318 /bin/sh -c "command"
1320 Depending on the guest's shell, this usually results in
1321 wildcards being expanded, shell expressions being interpolated
1324 All the provisos about C<command> apply to this call.
1330 This is the same as C<sh>, but splits the result
1331 into a list of lines.
1333 See also: C<command-lines>
1339 Sleep for C<secs> seconds.
1345 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
1347 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
1353 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
1354 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
1355 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
1357 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
1363 This runs the L<strings(1)> command on a file and returns
1364 the list of printable strings found.
1366 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1367 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1372 strings-e encoding path
1374 This is like the C<strings> command, but allows you to
1375 specify the encoding.
1377 See the L<strings(1)> manpage for the full list of encodings.
1379 Commonly useful encodings are C<l> (lower case L) which will
1380 show strings inside Windows/x86 files.
1382 The returned strings are transcoded to UTF-8.
1384 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1385 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1392 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
1393 underlying disk image.
1395 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
1400 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
1402 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
1403 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1405 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
1407 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1411 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
1413 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1414 it to local file C<tarfile>.
1416 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
1418 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1422 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
1424 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
1425 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1427 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
1429 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1433 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1435 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1436 it to local file C<tarball>.
1438 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1440 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1446 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1447 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1448 to create a new zero-length file.
1454 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1455 superblock on C<device>.
1457 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1458 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1459 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1460 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1462 =head2 umount | unmount
1466 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1467 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1468 contains the filesystem.
1470 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1474 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1476 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1480 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1482 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1485 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1487 See also C<download>.
1489 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1493 vg-activate true|false 'volgroups ...'
1495 This command activates or (if C<activate> is false) deactivates
1496 all logical volumes in the listed volume groups C<volgroups>.
1497 If activated, then they are made known to the
1498 kernel, ie. they appear as C</dev/mapper> devices. If deactivated,
1499 then those devices disappear.
1501 This command is the same as running C<vgchange -a y|n volgroups...>
1503 Note that if C<volgroups> is an empty list then B<all> volume groups
1504 are activated or deactivated.
1506 =head2 vg-activate-all
1508 vg-activate-all true|false
1510 This command activates or (if C<activate> is false) deactivates
1511 all logical volumes in all volume groups.
1512 If activated, then they are made known to the
1513 kernel, ie. they appear as C</dev/mapper> devices. If deactivated,
1514 then those devices disappear.
1516 This command is the same as running C<vgchange -a y|n>
1520 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1522 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1523 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1529 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1531 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1538 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1539 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1541 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1542 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1544 See also C<vgs-full>.
1550 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1551 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1557 This command counts the characters in a file, using the
1558 C<wc -c> external command.
1564 This command counts the lines in a file, using the
1565 C<wc -l> external command.
1571 This command counts the words in a file, using the
1572 C<wc -w> external command.
1576 write-file path content size
1578 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1579 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1580 with length C<size>.
1582 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1583 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1584 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1586 I<NB.> Owing to a bug, writing content containing ASCII NUL
1587 characters does I<not> work, even if the length is specified.
1588 We hope to resolve this bug in a future version. In the meantime
1591 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1592 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1599 This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of C<device>.
1601 How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's I<not> enough
1602 to securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove
1603 any partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.
1605 See also: C<scrub-device>.
1611 This runs the I<zerofree> program on C<device>. This program
1612 claims to zero unused inodes and disk blocks on an ext2/3
1613 filesystem, thus making it possible to compress the filesystem
1616 You should B<not> run this program if the filesystem is
1619 It is possible that using this program can damage the filesystem
1620 or data on the filesystem.