5 guestfish - the libguestfs Filesystem Interactive SHell
9 guestfish [--options] [commands]
13 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img
15 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
17 guestfish -d libvirt-domain
19 guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -i
21 guestfish -d libvirt-domain -i
25 Using guestfish in read/write mode on live virtual machines can be
26 dangerous, potentially causing disk corruption. Use the I<--ro>
27 (read-only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or
28 virtual machine might be live.
32 Guestfish is a shell and command-line tool for examining and modifying
33 virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
34 the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
36 Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
37 shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
38 rescue a broken virtual machine image, you should look at the
39 L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
43 =head2 As an interactive shell
47 Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
48 editing virtual machine filesystems.
50 Type: 'help' for a list of commands
51 'man' to read the manual
52 'quit' to quit the shell
56 ><fs> list-filesystems
58 /dev/vg_guest/lv_root: ext4
59 /dev/vg_guest/lv_swap: swap
60 ><fs> mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
67 =head2 From shell scripts
69 Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest or disk image:
74 mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
75 write /etc/motd "Welcome, new users"
78 List the LVM logical volumes in a disk image:
80 guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
85 List all the filesystems in a disk image:
87 guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
92 =head2 On one command line
94 Update C</etc/resolv.conf> in a guest:
97 add disk.img : run : mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root / : \
98 write /etc/resolv.conf "nameserver 1.2.3.4"
100 Edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively:
102 guestfish --rw --add disk.img \
103 --mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
104 --mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
105 edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
107 =head2 Mount disks automatically
109 Use the I<-i> option to automatically mount the
110 disks from a virtual machine:
112 guestfish --ro -a disk.img -i cat /etc/group
114 guestfish --ro -d libvirt-domain -i cat /etc/group
116 Another way to edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively is:
118 guestfish --rw -a disk.img -i edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
120 =head2 As a script interpreter
122 Create a 100MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
124 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
125 sparse test1.img 100M
127 part-disk /dev/sda mbr
130 =head2 Start with a prepared disk
132 An alternate way to create a 100MB disk called C<test1.img> containing
133 a single ext2-formatted partition:
137 To list what is available do:
139 guestfish -N help | less
141 =head2 Remote control
143 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
144 guestfish --remote add-ro disk.img
145 guestfish --remote run
146 guestfish --remote lvs
154 Displays general help on options.
160 Lists all available guestfish commands.
164 =item B<--cmd-help cmd>
166 Displays detailed help on a single command C<cmd>.
172 Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
174 The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and
175 force a particular format use the I<--format=..> option.
177 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add> command,
178 with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
179 with C<format:...> if the I<--format:...> flag was given.
183 =item B<--connect URI>
185 When used in conjunction with the I<-d> option, this specifies
186 the libvirt URI to use. The default is to use the default libvirt
191 If using the I<--listen> option and a csh-like shell, use this option.
192 See section L</REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH> below.
194 =item B<-d libvirt-domain>
196 =item B<--domain libvirt-domain>
198 Add disks from the named libvirt domain. If the I<--ro> option is
199 also used, then any libvirt domain can be used. However in write
200 mode, only libvirt domains which are shut down can be named here.
202 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add-domain> command,
203 with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
204 with C<format:...> if the I<--format:...> flag was given.
208 =item B<--no-dest-paths>
210 Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
211 able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
212 this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
213 here to allow this feature to be disabled.
217 When prompting for keys and passphrases, guestfish normally turns
218 echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
219 worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
220 you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
226 Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
229 #!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
231 =item B<--format=raw|qcow2|..>
235 The default for the I<-a> option is to auto-detect the format of the
236 disk image. Using this forces the disk format for I<-a> options which
237 follow on the command line. Using I<--format> with no argument
238 switches back to auto-detection for subsequent I<-a> options.
242 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img
244 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img>.
246 guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img
248 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img> and reverts to
249 auto-detection for C<another.img>.
251 If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
252 this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
253 security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). See also
260 Using L<virt-inspector(1)> code, inspect the disks looking for
261 an operating system and mount filesystems as they would be
262 mounted on the real virtual machine.
264 Typical usage is either:
266 guestfish -d myguest -i
268 (for an inactive libvirt domain called I<myguest>), or:
270 guestfish --ro -d myguest -i
272 (for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
274 guestfish --rw -a /dev/Guests/MyGuest -i
276 Note that the command line syntax changed slightly over older
277 versions of guestfish. You can still use the old syntax:
279 guestfish [--ro] -i disk.img
281 guestfish [--ro] -i libvirt-domain
283 Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<inspect-os>
284 command and then using other commands to mount the filesystems that
287 =item B<--keys-from-stdin>
289 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is
290 to try to read passphrases from the user by opening C</dev/tty>.
294 Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
295 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
299 Connect to a live virtual machine.
300 (Experimental, see L<guestfs(3)/ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS>).
302 =item B<-m dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
304 =item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
306 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
308 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to C</>.
310 You have to mount something on C</> before most commands will work.
312 If any I<-m> or I<--mount> options are given, the guest is
313 automatically launched.
315 If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
316 either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
317 filesystems and LVs available (see L</list-partitions>,
318 L</list-filesystems> and L</lvs> commands), or you can use the
319 L<virt-filesystems(1)> program.
321 The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list of
322 mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem. If this is not
323 given, then the mount options are either the empty string or C<ro>
324 (the latter if the I<--ro> flag is used). By specifying the mount
325 options, you override this default choice. Probably the only time you
326 would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended attributes if the
327 filesystem can support them:
329 -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
331 Using this flag is equivalent to using the C<mount-options> command.
337 Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
338 of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
346 Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
347 alternative to the I<-a> option: whereas I<-a> adds an existing disk,
348 I<-N> creates a preformatted disk with a filesystem and adds it.
349 See L</PREPARED DISK IMAGES> below.
351 =item B<--progress-bars>
353 Enable progress bars, even when guestfish is used non-interactively.
355 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used as an
358 =item B<--no-progress-bars>
360 Disable progress bars.
362 =item B<--remote[=pid]>
364 Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
365 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
371 This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
372 added and mounts are done read-only.
374 The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
375 might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
376 don't need write access to the disk.
378 Note that prepared disk images created with I<-N> are not affected by
379 this option. Also commands like C<add> are not affected - you have to
380 specify the C<readonly:true> option explicitly if you need it.
382 See also L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
386 Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
392 Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
399 Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
405 This option does nothing at the moment.
406 See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
410 Echo each command before executing it.
414 =head1 COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
416 Any additional (non-option) arguments are treated as commands to
419 Commands to execute should be separated by a colon (C<:>), where the
420 colon is a separate parameter. Thus:
422 guestfish cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] ...
424 If there are no additional arguments, then we enter a shell, either an
425 interactive shell with a prompt (if the input is a terminal) or a
426 non-interactive shell.
428 In either command line mode or non-interactive shell, the first
429 command that gives an error causes the whole shell to exit. In
430 interactive mode (with a prompt) if a command fails, you can continue
433 =head1 USING launch (OR run)
435 As with L<guestfs(3)>, you must first configure your guest by adding
436 disks, then launch it, then mount any disks you need, and finally
437 issue actions/commands. So the general order of the day is:
459 C<run> is a synonym for C<launch>. You must C<launch> (or C<run>)
460 your guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
462 The only exception is that if any of the I<-i>, I<-m>, I<--mount>,
463 I<-N> or I<--new> options were given then C<run> is done
464 automatically, simply because guestfish can't perform the action you
465 asked for without doing this.
467 =head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
469 The guestfish (and L<guestmount(1)>) options I<--ro> and I<--rw>
470 affect whether the other command line options I<-a>, I<-c>, I<-d>,
471 I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for writing.
473 In libguestfs E<lt> 1.6.2, guestfish and guestmount defaulted to
474 opening disk images supplied on the command line for write. To open a
475 disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
477 This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
478 then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
480 By libguestfs 1.10 we intend to change the default the other way. Disk
481 images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
482 I<guestfish --rw> or change a configuration file in order to get write
483 access for disk images specified by those other command line options.
485 This version of guestfish has a I<--rw> option which does nothing (it
486 is already the default). However it is highly recommended that you
487 use this option to indicate that guestfish needs write access, and to
488 prepare your scripts for the day when this option will be required for
491 B<Note:> This does I<not> affect commands like L</add> and L</mount>,
492 or any other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
496 You can quote ordinary parameters using either single or double
499 add "file with a space.img"
505 A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
506 a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing whitespace
507 to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A literal single quote
508 must be escaped with a backslash.
510 vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
511 command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
512 command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
514 =head1 OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
516 Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
517 documentation as C<[argname:..]>. You can use them as in these
520 add-drive-opts filename
522 add-drive-opts filename readonly:true
524 add-drive-opts filename format:qcow2 readonly:false
526 Each optional argument can appear at most once. All optional
527 arguments must appear after the required ones.
531 This section applies to all commands which can take integers
536 When the command takes a parameter measured in bytes, you can use one
537 of the following suffixes to specify kilobytes, megabytes and larger
542 =item B<k> or B<K> or B<KiB>
544 The size in kilobytes (multiplied by 1024).
548 The size in SI 1000 byte units.
552 The size in megabytes (multiplied by 1048576).
556 The size in SI 1000000 byte units.
560 The size in gigabytes (multiplied by 2**30).
564 The size in SI 10**9 byte units.
568 The size in terabytes (multiplied by 2**40).
572 The size in SI 10**12 byte units.
576 The size in petabytes (multiplied by 2**50).
580 The size in SI 10**15 byte units.
584 The size in exabytes (multiplied by 2**60).
588 The size in SI 10**18 byte units.
592 The size in zettabytes (multiplied by 2**70).
596 The size in SI 10**21 byte units.
600 The size in yottabytes (multiplied by 2**80).
604 The size in SI 10**24 byte units.
610 truncate-size /file 1G
612 would truncate the file to 1 gigabyte.
614 Be careful because a few commands take sizes in kilobytes or megabytes
615 (eg. the parameter to L</memsize> is specified in megabytes already).
616 Adding a suffix will probably not do what you expect.
618 =head2 OCTAL AND HEXADECIMAL NUMBERS
620 For specifying the radix (base) use the C convention: C<0> to prefix
621 an octal number or C<0x> to prefix a hexadecimal number. For example:
623 1234 decimal number 1234
624 02322 octal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
625 0x4d2 hexadecimal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
627 When using the C<chmod> command, you almost always want to specify an
628 octal number for the mode, and you must prefix it with C<0> (unlike
629 the Unix L<chmod(1)> program):
631 chmod 0777 /public # OK
632 chmod 777 /public # WRONG! This is mode 777 decimal = 01411 octal.
634 Commands that return numbers usually print them in decimal, but
635 some commands print numbers in other radices (eg. C<umask> prints
636 the mode in octal, preceeded by C<0>).
638 =head1 WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
640 Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs
641 wildcard expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the
642 following will not do what you expect:
646 Assuming you don't have a directory called literally C</home/*>
647 then the above command will return an error.
649 To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
653 runs C<rm-rf> on each path that matches (ie. potentially running
654 the command many times), equivalent to:
660 C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
662 If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
663 will perform a Cartesian product.
667 Any line which starts with a I<#> character is treated as a comment
668 and ignored. The I<#> can optionally be preceeded by whitespace,
669 but B<not> by a command. For example:
675 Blank lines are also ignored.
677 =head1 RUNNING COMMANDS LOCALLY
679 Any line which starts with a I<!> character is treated as a command
680 sent to the local shell (C</bin/sh> or whatever L<system(3)> uses).
684 tgz-out /remote local/remote-data.tar.gz
686 will create a directory C<local> on the host, and then export
687 the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
688 C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>. (See C<tgz-out>).
690 To change the local directory, use the C<lcd> command. C<!cd> will
691 have no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
693 =head2 LOCAL COMMANDS WITH INLINE EXECUTION
695 If a line starts with I<E<lt>!> then the shell command is executed (as
696 for I<!>), but subsequently any output (stdout) of the shell command
697 is parsed and executed as guestfish commands.
699 Thus you can use shell script to construct arbitrary guestfish
700 commands which are then parsed by guestfish.
702 For example it is tedious to create a sequence of files
703 (eg. C</foo.1> through C</foo.100>) using guestfish commands
704 alone. However this is simple if we use a shell script to
705 create the guestfish commands for us:
707 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do echo write /foo.$n $n; done
709 or with names like C</foo.001>:
711 <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do printf "write /foo.%03d %d\n" $n $n; done
713 When using guestfish interactively it can be helpful to just run the
714 shell script first (ie. remove the initial C<E<lt>> character so it is
715 just an ordinary I<!> local command), see what guestfish commands it
716 would run, and when you are happy with those prepend the C<E<lt>>
717 character to run the guestfish commands for real.
721 Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
722 first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
723 command). For example:
725 cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
727 (where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
728 program). The above command would list all accounts in the guest
729 filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
732 hexdump /bin/ls | head
733 list-devices | tail -1
734 tgz-out / - | tar ztf -
736 The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
737 symbol is optional. Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
738 straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
739 anything else that makes sense on the host side.
741 To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
746 =head1 HOME DIRECTORIES
748 If a parameter starts with the character C<~> then the tilde may be
749 expanded as a home directory path (either C<~> for the current user's
750 home directory, or C<~user> for another user).
752 Note that home directory expansion happens for users known I<on the
753 host>, not in the guest filesystem.
755 To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
760 =head1 ENCRYPTED DISKS
762 Libguestfs has some support for Linux guests encrypted according to
763 the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard, which includes nearly all
764 whole disk encryption systems used by modern Linux guests. Currently
765 only LVM-on-LUKS is supported.
767 Identify encrypted block devices and partitions using L</vfs-type>:
769 ><fs> vfs-type /dev/sda2
772 Then open those devices using L</luks-open>. This creates a
773 device-mapper device called C</dev/mapper/luksdev>.
775 ><fs> luks-open /dev/sda2 luksdev
776 Enter key or passphrase ("key"): <enter the passphrase>
778 Finally you have to tell LVM to scan for volume groups on
779 the newly created mapper device:
784 The logical volume(s) can now be mounted in the usual way.
786 Before closing a LUKS device you must unmount any logical volumes on
787 it and deactivate the volume groups by calling C<vg-activate false VG>
788 on each one. Then you can close the mapper device:
790 vg-activate false /dev/VG
791 luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
795 If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
796 paths (with some limitations). The following commands are equivalent:
798 file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
800 file win:/windows/system32/config/system.log
802 file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
804 file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\conFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
806 This syntax implicitly calls C<case-sensitive-path> (q.v.) so it also
807 handles case insensitivity like Windows would. This only works in
808 argument positions that expect a path.
810 =head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
812 For commands such as C<upload>, C<download>, C<tar-in>, C<tar-out> and
813 others which upload from or download to a local file, you can use the
814 special filename C<-> to mean "from stdin" or "to stdout". For example:
818 reads stdin and creates from that a file C</foo> in the disk image,
821 tar-out /etc - | tar tf -
823 writes the tarball to stdout and then pipes that into the external
824 "tar" command (see L</PIPES>).
826 When using C<-> to read from stdin, the input is read up to the end of
827 stdin. You can also use a special "heredoc"-like syntax to read up to
828 some arbitrary end marker:
836 Any string of characters can be used instead of C<END>. The end
837 marker must appear on a line of its own, without any preceeding or
838 following characters (not even spaces).
840 Note that the C<-E<lt>E<lt>> syntax only applies to parameters used to
841 upload local files (so-called "FileIn" parameters in the generator).
843 =head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
845 By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
846 (ie. taking commands from a human over a tty), and will exit on the
847 first error in non-interactive mode (scripts, commands given on the
850 If you prefix a command with a I<-> character, then that command will
851 not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
854 =head1 REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
856 Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
857 particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
858 changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting
859 up a guestfish process each time.
861 Start a guestfish server process using:
863 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
865 and then send it commands by doing:
867 guestfish --remote cmd [...]
869 To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
871 guestfish --remote exit
873 Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
874 command. You can change this in the usual way. See section
875 L</EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR>.
877 =head2 CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
879 The C<eval> statement sets the environment variable C<$GUESTFISH_PID>,
880 which is how the I<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
881 You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
883 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
885 eval "`guestfish --listen`"
888 guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
889 guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
891 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH
893 When using csh-like shells (csh, tcsh etc) you have to add the
896 eval "`guestfish --listen --csh`"
898 =head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
900 Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
901 C</tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID>, where C<$UID> is the effective
902 user ID of the process, and C<$PID> is the process ID of the server.
904 Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
906 =head1 PREPARED DISK IMAGES
908 Use the I<-N type> or I<--new type> parameter to select one of a set
909 of preformatted disk images that guestfish can make for you to save
910 typing. This is particularly useful for testing purposes. This
911 option is used instead of the I<-a> option, and like I<-a> can appear
912 multiple times (and can be mixed with I<-a>).
914 The new disk is called C<test1.img> for the first I<-N>, C<test2.img>
915 for the second and so on. Existing files in the current directory are
918 The type briefly describes how the disk should be sized, partitioned,
919 how filesystem(s) should be created, and how content should be added.
920 Optionally the type can be followed by extra parameters, separated by
921 C<:> (colon) characters. For example, I<-N fs> creates a default
922 100MB, sparsely-allocated disk, containing a single partition, with
923 the partition formatted as ext2. I<-N fs:ext4:1G> is the same, but
924 for an ext4 filesystem on a 1GB disk instead.
926 To list the available types and any extra parameters they take, run:
928 guestfish -N help | less
930 Note that the prepared filesystem is not mounted. You would usually
931 have to use the C<mount /dev/sda1 /> command or add the
932 I<-m /dev/sda1> option.
934 If any I<-N> or I<--new> options are given, the guest is automatically
939 Create a 100MB disk with an ext4-formatted partition:
943 Create a 32MB disk with a VFAT-formatted partition, and mount it:
945 guestfish -N fs:vfat:32M -m /dev/sda1
947 Create a blank 200MB disk:
949 guestfish -N disk:200M
953 Some (not all) long-running commands send progress notification
954 messages as they are running. Guestfish turns these messages into
957 When a command that supports progress bars takes longer than two
958 seconds to run, and if progress bars are enabled, then you will see
959 one appearing below the command:
961 ><fs> copy-size /large-file /another-file 2048M
962 / 10% [#####-----------------------------------------] 00:30
964 The spinner on the left hand side moves round once for every progress
965 notification received from the backend. This is a (reasonably) golden
966 assurance that the command is "doing something" even if the progress
967 bar is not moving, because the command is able to send the progress
968 notifications. When the bar reaches 100% and the command finishes,
969 the spinner disappears.
971 Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used
972 interactively. You can enable them even for non-interactive modes
973 using I<--progress-bars>, and you can disable them completely using
974 I<--no-progress-bars>.
976 =head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
978 The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
979 other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
986 Without any parameter, this provides general help.
988 With a C<cmd> parameter, this displays detailed help for that command.
992 This exits guestfish. You can also use C<^D> key.
1002 guestfish returns 0 if the commands completed without error, or
1003 1 if there was an error.
1005 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1011 The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
1016 Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
1017 process to control. See section
1018 L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET>.
1022 The L</hexedit> command uses C<$HEXEDITOR> as the external hex
1023 editor. If not specified, the external L<hexedit(1)> program
1028 If compiled with GNU readline support, various files in the
1029 home directory can be used. See L</FILES>.
1031 =item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
1033 Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
1035 =item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
1037 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages. This has the
1038 same effect as using the B<-v> option.
1040 =item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
1042 Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
1045 LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
1047 =item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
1049 Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
1050 See the discussion of paths in L<guestfs(3)>.
1052 =item LIBGUESTFS_QEMU
1054 Set the default qemu binary that libguestfs uses. If not set, then
1055 the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
1058 =item LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
1060 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1> to enable command traces.
1064 The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager. If not
1065 set, it uses C<more>.
1069 Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp> except for the
1070 cached supermin appliance which defaults to C</var/tmp>.
1072 If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then the
1073 real appliance is cached in this directory, shared between all
1074 handles belonging to the same EUID. You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
1075 configure another directory to use in case C</var/tmp> is not large
1084 =item $HOME/.guestfish
1086 If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
1087 is saved in this file.
1089 =item $HOME/.inputrc
1093 If compiled with GNU readline support, then these files can be used to
1094 configure readline. For further information, please see
1095 L<readline(3)/INITIALIZATION FILE>.
1097 To write rules which only apply to guestfish, use:
1103 Variables that you can set in inputrc that change the behaviour
1104 of guestfish in useful ways include:
1108 =item completion-ignore-case (default: on)
1110 By default, guestfish will ignore case when tab-completing
1111 paths on the disk. Use:
1113 set completion-ignore-case off
1115 to make guestfish case sensitive.
1121 =item test2.img (etc)
1123 When using the C<-N> or C<--new> option, the prepared disk or
1124 filesystem will be created in the file C<test1.img> in the current
1125 directory. The second use of C<-N> will use C<test2.img> and so on.
1126 Any existing file with the same name will be overwritten.
1133 L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
1136 L<virt-copy-out(1)>,
1139 L<virt-filesystems(1)>,
1140 L<virt-inspector(1)>,
1141 L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
1142 L<virt-list-partitions(1)>,
1155 Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)
1159 Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc.
1160 L<http://libguestfs.org/>
1162 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1163 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1164 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
1165 (at your option) any later version.
1167 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1168 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1169 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1170 GNU General Public License for more details.
1172 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1173 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
1174 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.