+/* This function does the hard work of building the supermin appliance
+ * on the fly. 'path' is the directory containing the control files.
+ * 'kernel' and 'initrd' are where we will return the names of the
+ * kernel and initrd (only initrd is built). The work is done by
+ * an external script. We just tell it where to put the result.
+ */
+static int
+build_supermin_appliance (guestfs_h *g, const char *path,
+ char **kernel, char **initrd)
+{
+ char cmd[4096];
+ int r, len;
+
+ len = strlen (g->tmpdir);
+ *kernel = safe_malloc (g, len + 8);
+ snprintf (*kernel, len+8, "%s/kernel", g->tmpdir);
+ *initrd = safe_malloc (g, len + 8);
+ snprintf (*initrd, len+8, "%s/initrd", g->tmpdir);
+
+ snprintf (cmd, sizeof cmd,
+ "PATH='%s':$PATH "
+ "libguestfs-supermin-helper '%s' %s %s",
+ path,
+ path, *kernel, *initrd);
+
+ r = system (cmd);
+ if (r == -1 || WEXITSTATUS(r) != 0) {
+ error (g, _("external command failed: %s"), cmd);
+ free (*kernel);
+ free (*initrd);
+ *kernel = *initrd = NULL;
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static int read_all (guestfs_h *g, FILE *fp, char **ret);
+
+/* Test qemu binary (or wrapper) runs, and do 'qemu -help' and
+ * 'qemu -version' so we know what options this qemu supports and
+ * the version.
+ */
+static int
+test_qemu (guestfs_h *g)
+{
+ char cmd[1024];
+ FILE *fp;
+
+ free (g->qemu_help);
+ free (g->qemu_version);
+ g->qemu_help = NULL;
+ g->qemu_version = NULL;
+
+ snprintf (cmd, sizeof cmd, "LC_ALL=C '%s' -help", g->qemu);
+
+ fp = popen (cmd, "r");
+ /* qemu -help should always work (qemu -version OTOH wasn't
+ * supported by qemu 0.9). If this command doesn't work then it
+ * probably indicates that the qemu binary is missing.
+ */
+ if (!fp) {
+ /* XXX This error is never printed, even if the qemu binary
+ * doesn't exist. Why?
+ */
+ error:
+ perrorf (g, _("%s: command failed: If qemu is located on a non-standard path, try setting the LIBGUESTFS_QEMU environment variable."), cmd);
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ if (read_all (g, fp, &g->qemu_help) == -1)
+ goto error;
+
+ if (pclose (fp) == -1)
+ goto error;
+
+ snprintf (cmd, sizeof cmd, "LC_ALL=C '%s' -version 2>/dev/null", g->qemu);
+
+ fp = popen (cmd, "r");
+ if (fp) {
+ /* Intentionally ignore errors. */
+ read_all (g, fp, &g->qemu_version);
+ pclose (fp);
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static int
+read_all (guestfs_h *g, FILE *fp, char **ret)