+=head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
+
+The guestfish (and L<guestmount(1)>) options I<--ro> and I<--rw>
+affect whether the other command line options I<-a>, I<-c>, I<-d>,
+I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for writing.
+
+In libguestfs E<lt> 1.6.2, guestfish and guestmount defaulted to
+opening disk images supplied on the command line for write. To open a
+disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
+
+This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
+then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
+
+By libguestfs 1.8 we intend to change the default the other way. Disk
+images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
+I<guestfish --rw> or change a configuration file in order to get write
+access for disk images specified by those other command line options.
+
+This version of guestfish has a I<--rw> option which does nothing (it
+is already the default). However it is highly recommended that you
+use this option to indicate that guestfish needs write access, and to
+prepare your scripts for the day when this option will be required for
+write access.
+
+B<Note:> This does I<not> affect commands like L</add> and L</mount>,
+or any other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
+