=head1 NAME
-guestfish - the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell
+guestfish - the libguestfs Filesystem Interactive SHell
=head1 SYNOPSIS
guestfish [--options] [commands]
+ guestfish
+
+ guestfish -a disk.img
+
+ guestfish -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
+
+ guestfish -i libvirt-domain
+
+ guestfish -i disk.img [disk.img ...]
+
=head1 EXAMPLES
+=head2 As an interactive shell
+
+ $ guestfish
+
+ Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
+ editing virtual machine filesystems.
+
+ Type: 'help' for help with commands
+ 'quit' to quit the shell
+
+ ><fs> help
+
=head2 From shell scripts
Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest:
guestfish <<_EOF_
add disk.img
run
- mount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /
- write_file /etc/motd "Hello users" 0
+ mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
+ write_file /etc/motd "Welcome, new users" 0
_EOF_
-List the LVs in a guest:
+List the LVM logical volumes in a guest:
- guestfish <<_EOF_
- add disk.img
+ guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
run
lvs
_EOF_
-=head2 On the command line
+=head2 On one command line
-List the LVM PVs in a guest image:
+Update C</etc/resolv.conf> in a guest:
- guestfish add disk.img : run : pvs
+ guestfish \
+ add disk.img : run : mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root / : \
+ write-file /etc/resolv.conf "nameserver 1.2.3.4" 0
-Remove C</boot/grub/menu.lst> (in reality not such a great idea):
+Edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively:
guestfish --add disk.img \
- --mount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 \
+ --mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
--mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
- rm /boot/grub/menu.lst : \
- sync : exit
+ edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
-=head2 As an interactive shell
+=head2 Using virt-inspector
- $ guestfish
-
- Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
- editing virtual machine filesystems.
-
- Type: 'help' for help with commands
- 'quit' to quit the shell
-
- ><fs> help
+Use the I<-i> option to get virt-inspector to mount
+the filesystems automatically as they would be mounted
+in the virtual machine:
+
+ guestfish --ro -i disk.img cat /etc/group
+
+=head2 As a script interpreter
+
+Create a 50MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
+
+ #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
+ alloc /tmp/output.img 50M
+ run
+ part-disk /dev/sda mbr
+ mkfs ext2 /dev/sda1
+
+=head2 Remote control
+
+ eval `guestfish --listen --ro`
+ guestfish --remote add disk.img
+ guestfish --remote run
+ guestfish --remote lvs
=head1 DESCRIPTION
virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
+Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
+shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
+rescue a broken virtual machine image, you might want to look at the
+L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
+
+Using guestfish in read/write mode on live virtual machines can be
+dangerous, potentially causing disk corruption. Use the I<--ro>
+(read-only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or
+virtual machine might be live.
+
=head1 OPTIONS
=over 4
Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
+=item B<-D> | B<--no-dest-paths>
+
+Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
+able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
+this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
+here to allow this feature to be disabled.
+
+=item B<-f file> | B<--file file>
+
+Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
+scripts, use:
+
+ #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
+
+=item B<-i> | B<--inspector>
+
+Run virt-inspector on the named libvirt domain or list of disk
+images. If virt-inspector is available and if it can identify
+the domain or disk images, then partitions will be mounted
+correctly at start-up.
+
+Typical usage is either:
+
+ guestfish -i myguest
+
+(for an inactive libvirt domain called I<myguest>), or:
+
+ guestfish --ro -i myguest
+
+(for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
+
+ guestfish -i /dev/Guests/MyGuest
+
+You cannot use I<-a>, I<-m>, I<--listen>, I<--remote> or I<--selinux>
+in conjunction with this option, and options other than I<--ro> might
+not behave correctly.
+
+See also: L<virt-inspector(1)>.
+
+=item B<--listen>
+
+Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
+I<REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
+
=item B<-m dev[:mountpoint]> | B<--mount dev[:mountpoint]>
Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
If any C<-m> or C<--mount> options are given, the guest is
automatically launched.
+If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you
+can either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions
+and LVs available (see L</list-partitions> and L</lvs> commands),
+or you can use the L<virt-list-filesystems(1)> program.
+
=item B<-n> | B<--no-sync>
Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
+=item B<--remote[=pid]>
+
+Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
+I<REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
+
=item B<-r> | B<--ro>
-This changes the C<-m> option so that mounts are done read-only
-(see C<guestfs_mount_ro> in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage).
+This changes the C<-a> and C<-m> options so that disks are added and
+mounts are done read-only (see L<guestfs(3)/guestfs_mount_ro>).
+
+The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
+might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
+don't need write access to the disk.
+
+=item B<--selinux>
+
+Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
=item B<-v> | B<--verbose>
Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
a bug.
+=item B<-V> | B<--version>
+
+Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
+
+=item B<-x>
+
+Echo each command before executing it.
+
=back
=head1 COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
rm '/"'
A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
-a space-separated list, enclosed in quotes. For example:
+a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing whitespace
+to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A literal single quote
+must be escaped with a backslash.
vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
+ command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
+ command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
+
+=head1 WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
+
+Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs
+wildcard expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the
+following will not do what you expect:
+
+ rm-rf /home/*
+
+Assuming you don't have a directory literally called C</home/*>
+then the above command will return an error.
+
+To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
+
+ glob rm-rf /home/*
+
+runs C<rm-rf> on each path that matches (ie. potentially running
+the command many times), equivalent to:
+
+ rm-rf /home/jim
+ rm-rf /home/joe
+ rm-rf /home/mary
+
+C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
+
+If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
+will perform a cartesian product.
=head1 COMMENTS
the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>. (See C<tgz-out>).
+=head1 PIPES
+
+Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
+first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
+command). For example:
+
+ cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
+
+(where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
+program). The above command would list all accounts in the guest
+filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
+Other examples:
+
+ hexdump /bin/ls | head
+ list-devices | tail -1
+
+The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
+symbol is optional. Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
+straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
+anything else that makes sense on the host side.
+
+To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
+to quote it, eg:
+
+ echo "|"
+
+=head1 HOME DIRECTORIES
+
+If a parameter starts with the character C<~> then the tilde may be
+expanded as a home directory path (either C<~> for the current user's
+home directory, or C<~user> for another user).
+
+Note that home directory expansion happens for users known I<on the
+host>, not in the guest filesystem.
+
+To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
+it, eg:
+
+ echo "~"
+
+=head1 WINDOWS PATHS
+
+If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
+paths (with some limitations). The following commands are equivalent:
+
+ file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
+
+ file win:/windows/system32/config/system.log
+
+ file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
+
+ file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\conFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
+
+This syntax implicitly calls C<case-sensitive-path> (q.v.) so it also
+handles case insensitivity like Windows would. This only works in
+argument positions that expect a path.
+
=head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
error.
-=head1 COMMANDS
+=head1 REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
-=head2 help
+Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
+particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
+changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting
+up a guestfish process each time.
- help
- help cmd
+Start a guestfish server process using:
-Without any parameter, this lists all commands. With a C<cmd>
-parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
+ eval `guestfish --listen`
-=head2 quit | exit
+and then send it commands by doing:
-This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
+ guestfish --remote cmd [...]
+
+To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
+
+ guestfish --remote exit
+
+Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
+command. You can change this in the usual way. See section I<EXIT ON
+ERROR BEHAVIOUR>.
+
+=head2 CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
+
+The C<eval> statement sets the environment variable C<$GUESTFISH_PID>,
+which is how the C<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
+You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
+
+ eval `guestfish --listen`
+ pid1=$GUESTFISH_PID
+ eval `guestfish --listen`
+ pid2=$GUESTFISH_PID
+ ...
+ guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
+ guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
+
+=head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
+
+Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
+C</tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID>, where C<$UID> is the effective
+user ID of the process, and C<$PID> is the process ID of the server.
+
+Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
+
+=head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
+
+The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
+other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
=head2 alloc | allocate
number of gigabytes
+=item C<nn>T or C<nn>TB
+
+number of terabytes
+
+=item C<nn>P or C<nn>PB
+
+number of petabytes
+
+=item C<nn>E or C<nn>EB
+
+number of exabytes
+
=item C<nn>sects
number of 512 byte sectors
NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
(> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
+=head2 glob
+
+ glob command args...
+
+Expand wildcards in any paths in the args list, and run C<command>
+repeatedly on each matching path.
+
+See section WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING.
+
+=head2 help
+
+ help
+ help cmd
+
+Without any parameter, this lists all commands. With a C<cmd>
+parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
+
+=head2 lcd
+
+ lcd directory
+
+Change the local directory, ie. the current directory of guestfish
+itself.
+
+Note that C<!cd> won't do what you might expect.
+
+=head2 more | less
+
+ more filename
+
+ less filename
+
+This is used to view a file.
+
+The default viewer is C<$PAGER>. However if you use the alternate
+command C<less> you will get the C<less> command specifically.
+
+NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
+(> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
+
+=head2 quit | exit
+
+This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
+
+=head2 reopen
+
+ reopen
+
+Close and reopen the libguestfs handle. It is not necessary to use
+this normally, because the handle is closed properly when guestfish
+exits. However this is occasionally useful for testing.
+
+=head2 sparse
+
+ sparse filename size
+
+This creates an empty sparse file of the given size, and then adds
+so it can be further examined.
+
+In all respects it works the same as the C<alloc> command, except that
+the image file is allocated sparsely, which means that disk blocks are
+not assigned to the file until they are needed. Sparse disk files
+only use space when written to, but they are slower and there is a
+danger you could run out of real disk space during a write operation.
+
+For more advanced image creation, see L<qemu-img(1)> utility.
+
+Size can be specified (where C<nn> means a number):
+
+=over 4
+
+=item C<nn> or C<nn>K or C<nn>KB
+
+number of kilobytes, eg: C<1440> = standard 3.5in floppy
+
+=item C<nn>M or C<nn>MB
+
+number of megabytes
+
+=item C<nn>G or C<nn>GB
+
+number of gigabytes
+
+=item C<nn>T or C<nn>TB
+
+number of terabytes
+
+=item C<nn>P or C<nn>PB
+
+number of petabytes
+
+=item C<nn>E or C<nn>EB
+
+number of exabytes
+
+=item C<nn>sects
+
+number of 512 byte sectors
+
+=back
+
+=head2 time
+
+ time command args...
+
+Run the command as usual, but print the elapsed time afterwards. This
+can be useful for benchmarking operations.
+
+=head1 COMMANDS
+
@ACTIONS@
=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
=over 4
+=item EDITOR
+
+The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
+set, it uses C<vi>.
+
+=item GUESTFISH_PID
+
+Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
+process to control. See section I<REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A
+SOCKET>.
+
+=item HOME
+
+If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
+is saved in C<$HOME/.guestfish>
+
+=item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
+
+Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
+
=item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages. This has the
same effect as using the B<-v> option.
+=item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
+
+Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
+example:
+
+ LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
+
=item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
used.
-=item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
+=item LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
-Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
+Set C<LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1> to enable command traces.
-=item HOME
+=item PAGER
-If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
-is saved in C<$HOME/.guestfish>
+The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager. If not
+set, it uses C<more>.
-=item EDITOR
+=item TMPDIR
-The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
-set, it uses C<vi>.
+Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp>.
+
+If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then each
+handle will require rather a large amount of space in this directory
+for short periods of time (~ 80 MB). You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
+configure another directory to use in case C</tmp> is not large
+enough.
=back
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<guestfs(3)>,
-L<http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/libguestfs>.
+L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
+L<virt-cat(1)>,
+L<virt-edit(1)>,
+L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
+L<virt-ls(1)>,
+L<virt-rescue(1)>,
+L<virt-tar(1)>.
=head1 AUTHORS
=head1 COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat Inc.
-L<http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/libguestfs>
+L<http://libguestfs.org/>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by