-Libguestfs is a library for accessing and modifying guest disk images.
-Amongst the things this is good for: making batch configuration
-changes to guests, getting disk used/free statistics (see also:
-virt-df), migrating between virtualization systems (see also:
-virt-p2v), performing partial backups, performing partial guest
-clones, cloning guests and changing registry/UUID/hostname info, and
-much else besides.
-
-Libguestfs uses Linux kernel and qemu code, and can access any type of
-guest filesystem that Linux and qemu can, including but not limited
-to: ext2/3/4, btrfs, FAT and NTFS, LVM, many different disk partition
-schemes, qcow, qcow2, vmdk.
-
-Libguestfs provides ways to enumerate guest storage (eg. partitions,
-LVs, what filesystem is in each LV, etc.). It can also run commands
-in the context of the guest. Also you can access filesystems over
-FUSE.
-
-Libguestfs is a library that can be linked with C and C++ management
-programs (or management programs written in OCaml, Perl, Python, Ruby,
-Java, PHP, Haskell or C#). You can also use it from shell scripts or the
-command line.
-
-Libguestfs was written by Richard W.M. Jones (rjones@redhat.com) and
-hacked on by lots of other people. For discussion, development,
-patches, etc. please use the mailing list:
-
- http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs
+Libguestfs is tools and a library for accessing and modifying guest
+disk images. For more information see the home page:
+ http://libguestfs.org/
-Home page
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+For discussion, development, patches, etc. please use the mailing
+list:
- http://libguestfs.org/
+ http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs
Requirements
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- recent QEMU >= 0.12 with virtio-serial support
+- recent QEMU >= 0.13 with virtio-serial support
-- febootstrap >= 3.0
+- kernel >= 2.6.34 with virtio-serial support enabled. virtio-block
+ support is not required but comes highly recommended.
+
+- febootstrap >= 3.0 (recommended >= 3.3)
*NB*: febootstrap 2.x WILL NOT WORK
febootstrap 3.x is distro-independent, and is required on
Debian and other distros too
- libxml2 (optional)
+- libconfig (optional, to parse /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf)
+
- Augeas (http://augeas.net/) (optional)
- gperf
- squashfs-tools (mksquashfs only)
-- genisoimage / mkisofs
+- genisoimage (NOT mkisofs any more)
-- hivex >= 1.2.1 (http://libguestfs.org/download)
+- hivex >= 1.2.7 (http://libguestfs.org/download)
- (Optional) Berkeley DB 'db_dump' and 'db_load' utilities
(db4-utils or db4.X-util or similar)
- (Optional) OCaml if you want to rebuild the generated files, and
also to build the OCaml bindings
-- (Optional) local Fedora mirror
+- (Optional) OCaml PCRE bindings (ocaml-pcre).
- (Optional) Perl if you want to build the perl bindings
- (Optional, but highly recommended) perl-libintl for translating perl code.
-- (Optional) po4a for translating manpages and POD files.
+- po4a for translating manpages and POD files.
+ This is optional when compiling from the tarball, but mandatory
+ if you compile from git.
- (Optional) PHP, phpize if you want to build the PHP bindings
+- (Optional, but highly recommended) getfacl, getfattr
+
Running ./configure will check you have all the requirements installed
on your machine.
Then make the daemon, library and root filesystem:
- ./configure [--with-mirror=URI]
+ ./configure
make
-Use the optional --with-mirror parameter to specify the URI of a local
-Fedora mirror. See the discussion of the MIRROR parameter in the
-febootstrap(8) manpage.
-
Finally run the tests:
make check
make install
+You can run guestfish, guestmount and the virt tools without needing
+to install, using the "run" script in the top directory. This script
+sets up some environment variables. For example:
+
+ ./run ./fish/guestfish [usual guestfish args ...]
+
+ ./run ./inspector/virt-inspector [usual virt-inspector args ...]
+
+If you are already in the fish/ subdirectory, then the following
+command will also work:
+
+ ../run ./guestfish [...]
+
+You can also make a symlink (note: NOT a hard link) from your $PATH to
+the run script, eg:
+
+ cd ~/bin
+ ln -s ~/libguestfs/run libguestfs-run
+ cd ~/libguestfs
+ libguestfs-run ./inspector/virt-inspector [...]
+
+You can also run the C programs under valgrind like this:
+
+ ./run valgrind [valgrind opts...] ./cat/virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
+
+This also works with sudo (eg. if you need root access for libvirt or
+to access a block device):
+
+ sudo ./run ./cat/virt-cat -d LinuxGuest /etc/passwd
+
qemu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On my machines I can usually rebuild the appliance in around 3
-minutes. If it takes much longer for you, use a local Fedora mirror
+minutes. If it takes much longer for you, use a local distro mirror
or squid.
To use squid to cache yum downloads, read this first:
Copyright and license information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Red Hat Inc.
The library is distributed under the LGPLv2+. The programs are
distributed under the GPLv2+. Please see the files COPYING and