1 =head2 add-cdrom | cdrom
5 This function adds a virtual CD-ROM disk image to the guest.
7 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter C<-cdrom filename>.
13 This function adds a virtual machine disk image C<filename> to the
14 guest. The first time you call this function, the disk appears as IDE
15 disk 0 (C</dev/sda>) in the guest, the second time as C</dev/sdb>, and
18 You don't necessarily need to be root when using libguestfs. However
19 you obviously do need sufficient permissions to access the filename
20 for whatever operations you want to perform (ie. read access if you
21 just want to read the image or write access if you want to modify the
24 This is equivalent to the qemu parameter C<-drive file=filename>.
30 Close the current Augeas handle and free up any resources
31 used by it. After calling this, you have to call
32 C<aug-init> again before you can use any other
37 aug-defnode name expr val
39 Defines a variable C<name> whose value is the result of
42 If C<expr> evaluates to an empty nodeset, a node is created,
43 equivalent to calling C<aug-set> C<expr>, C<value>.
44 C<name> will be the nodeset containing that single node.
46 On success this returns a pair containing the
47 number of nodes in the nodeset, and a boolean flag
48 if a node was created.
54 Defines an Augeas variable C<name> whose value is the result
55 of evaluating C<expr>. If C<expr> is NULL, then C<name> is
58 On success this returns the number of nodes in C<expr>, or
59 C<0> if C<expr> evaluates to something which is not a nodeset.
65 Look up the value associated with C<path>. If C<path>
66 matches exactly one node, the C<value> is returned.
72 Create a new Augeas handle for editing configuration files.
73 If there was any previous Augeas handle associated with this
74 guestfs session, then it is closed.
76 You must call this before using any other C<aug-*>
79 C<root> is the filesystem root. C<root> must not be NULL,
82 The flags are the same as the flags defined in
83 E<lt>augeas.hE<gt>, the logical I<or> of the following
88 =item C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP> = 1
90 Keep the original file with a C<.augsave> extension.
92 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NEWFILE> = 2
94 Save changes into a file with extension C<.augnew>, and
95 do not overwrite original. Overrides C<AUG_SAVE_BACKUP>.
97 =item C<AUG_TYPE_CHECK> = 4
99 Typecheck lenses (can be expensive).
101 =item C<AUG_NO_STDINC> = 8
103 Do not use standard load path for modules.
105 =item C<AUG_SAVE_NOOP> = 16
107 Make save a no-op, just record what would have been changed.
109 =item C<AUG_NO_LOAD> = 32
111 Do not load the tree in C<aug-init>.
115 To close the handle, you can call C<aug-close>.
117 To find out more about Augeas, see L<http://augeas.net/>.
121 aug-insert path label true|false
123 Create a new sibling C<label> for C<path>, inserting it into
124 the tree before or after C<path> (depending on the boolean
127 C<path> must match exactly one existing node in the tree, and
128 C<label> must be a label, ie. not contain C</>, C<*> or end
129 with a bracketed index C<[N]>.
135 Load files into the tree.
137 See C<aug_load> in the Augeas documentation for the full gory
144 This is just a shortcut for listing C<aug-match>
145 C<path/*> and sorting the resulting nodes into alphabetical order.
151 Returns a list of paths which match the path expression C<path>.
152 The returned paths are sufficiently qualified so that they match
153 exactly one node in the current tree.
159 Move the node C<src> to C<dest>. C<src> must match exactly
160 one node. C<dest> is overwritten if it exists.
166 Remove C<path> and all of its children.
168 On success this returns the number of entries which were removed.
174 This writes all pending changes to disk.
176 The flags which were passed to C<aug-init> affect exactly
183 Set the value associated with C<path> to C<value>.
185 =head2 blockdev-flushbufs
187 blockdev-flushbufs device
189 This tells the kernel to flush internal buffers associated
192 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
194 =head2 blockdev-getbsz
196 blockdev-getbsz device
198 This returns the block size of a device.
200 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
201 I<filesystem block size>).
203 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
205 =head2 blockdev-getro
207 blockdev-getro device
209 Returns a boolean indicating if the block device is read-only
210 (true if read-only, false if not).
212 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
214 =head2 blockdev-getsize64
216 blockdev-getsize64 device
218 This returns the size of the device in bytes.
220 See also C<blockdev-getsz>.
222 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
224 =head2 blockdev-getss
226 blockdev-getss device
228 This returns the size of sectors on a block device.
229 Usually 512, but can be larger for modern devices.
231 (Note, this is not the size in sectors, use C<blockdev-getsz>
234 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
236 =head2 blockdev-getsz
238 blockdev-getsz device
240 This returns the size of the device in units of 512-byte sectors
241 (even if the sectorsize isn't 512 bytes ... weird).
243 See also C<blockdev-getss> for the real sector size of
244 the device, and C<blockdev-getsize64> for the more
245 useful I<size in bytes>.
247 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
249 =head2 blockdev-rereadpt
251 blockdev-rereadpt device
253 Reread the partition table on C<device>.
255 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
257 =head2 blockdev-setbsz
259 blockdev-setbsz device blocksize
261 This sets the block size of a device.
263 (Note this is different from both I<size in blocks> and
264 I<filesystem block size>).
266 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
268 =head2 blockdev-setro
270 blockdev-setro device
272 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-only.
274 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
276 =head2 blockdev-setrw
278 blockdev-setrw device
280 Sets the block device named C<device> to read-write.
282 This uses the L<blockdev(8)> command.
288 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
290 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
291 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
292 as end of string). For those you need to use the C<download>
293 function which has a more complex interface.
295 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
296 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
301 checksum csumtype path
303 This call computes the MD5, SHAx or CRC checksum of the
306 The type of checksum to compute is given by the C<csumtype>
307 parameter which must have one of the following values:
313 Compute the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) specified by POSIX
314 for the C<cksum> command.
318 Compute the MD5 hash (using the C<md5sum> program).
322 Compute the SHA1 hash (using the C<sha1sum> program).
326 Compute the SHA224 hash (using the C<sha224sum> program).
330 Compute the SHA256 hash (using the C<sha256sum> program).
334 Compute the SHA384 hash (using the C<sha384sum> program).
338 Compute the SHA512 hash (using the C<sha512sum> program).
342 The checksum is returned as a printable string.
348 Change the mode (permissions) of C<path> to C<mode>. Only
349 numeric modes are supported.
353 chown owner group path
355 Change the file owner to C<owner> and group to C<group>.
357 Only numeric uid and gid are supported. If you want to use
358 names, you will need to locate and parse the password file
359 yourself (Augeas support makes this relatively easy).
363 command 'arguments ...'
365 This call runs a command from the guest filesystem. The
366 filesystem must be mounted, and must contain a compatible
367 operating system (ie. something Linux, with the same
368 or compatible processor architecture).
370 The single parameter is an argv-style list of arguments.
371 The first element is the name of the program to run.
372 Subsequent elements are parameters. The list must be
373 non-empty (ie. must contain a program name).
375 The return value is anything printed to I<stdout> by
378 If the command returns a non-zero exit status, then
379 this function returns an error message. The error message
380 string is the content of I<stderr> from the command.
382 The C<$PATH> environment variable will contain at least
383 C</usr/bin> and C</bin>. If you require a program from
384 another location, you should provide the full path in the
387 Shared libraries and data files required by the program
388 must be available on filesystems which are mounted in the
389 correct places. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
390 all filesystems that are needed are mounted at the right
393 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
394 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
399 command-lines 'arguments ...'
401 This is the same as C<command>, but splits the
402 result into a list of lines.
404 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
405 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
410 config qemuparam qemuvalue
412 This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters
413 of the form C<-param value>. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we
414 prevent you from setting some parameters which would interfere with
415 parameters that we use.
417 The first character of C<param> string must be a C<-> (dash).
419 C<value> can be NULL.
425 This copies a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
426 either a destination filename or destination directory.
432 This copies a file or directory from C<src> to C<dest>
433 recursively using the C<cp -a> command.
437 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
439 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
440 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
443 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
444 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
445 to find out what you can do.
451 This returns the kernel messages (C<dmesg> output) from
452 the guest kernel. This is sometimes useful for extended
453 debugging of problems.
455 Another way to get the same information is to enable
456 verbose messages with C<set-verbose> or by setting
457 the environment variable C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> before
462 download remotefilename (filename|-)
464 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
465 on the local machine.
467 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
469 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
471 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
475 drop-caches whattodrop
477 This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache,
478 and/or dentries and inode caches. The parameter C<whattodrop>
479 tells the kernel what precisely to drop, see
480 L<http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches>
482 Setting C<whattodrop> to 3 should drop everything.
484 This automatically calls L<sync(2)> before the operation,
485 so that the maximum guest memory is freed.
491 This compares the two files C<file1> and C<file2> and returns
492 true if their content is exactly equal, or false otherwise.
494 The external L<cmp(1)> program is used for the comparison.
500 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
501 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
503 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
509 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
510 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
511 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
513 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
514 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
521 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
522 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
524 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
525 list of status codes from C<fsck>.
533 Multiple status codes can be summed together.
537 A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if
538 errors have been corrected on the filesystem.
542 Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
547 This command is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
553 Return the additional kernel options which are added to the
554 guest kernel command line.
556 If C<NULL> then no options are added.
562 Get the autosync flag.
568 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
575 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
582 Return the current search path.
584 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
585 return the default path.
591 Return the current qemu binary.
593 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
594 return the default qemu binary name.
600 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
601 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
603 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
609 This returns the verbose messages flag.
613 grub-install root device
615 This command installs GRUB (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
616 C<device>, with the root directory being C<root>.
622 This runs C<hexdump -C> on the given C<path>. The result is
623 the human-readable, canonical hex dump of the file.
625 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
626 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
633 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
634 (in the C<BUSY> state).
636 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
642 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
643 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
645 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
651 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
652 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
653 other objects like files.
661 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
662 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
663 other objects like directories.
671 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
672 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
674 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
680 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
681 (in the C<READY> state).
683 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
685 =head2 kill-subprocess
689 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
695 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
698 You should call this after configuring the handle
699 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
705 List all the block devices.
707 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
709 =head2 list-partitions
713 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
715 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
717 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
724 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
725 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
727 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
728 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
734 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
735 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
736 hidden files are shown.
738 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
739 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
745 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
747 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
748 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
751 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
755 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
757 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
758 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
760 =head2 lvm-remove-all
764 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
765 and physical volumes.
767 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
768 can easily destroy all your data>.
774 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
775 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
777 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
778 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
784 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
785 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
787 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
788 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
790 See also C<lvs-full>.
796 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
797 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
803 Create a directory named C<path>.
809 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
810 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
816 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
817 or LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
822 mount device mountpoint
824 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
825 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
826 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
827 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
830 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
831 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
832 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
835 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
836 on the underlying device.
838 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
839 call, in order to improve reliability.
843 mount-options options device mountpoint
845 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
846 allows you to set the mount options as for the
847 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
851 mount-ro device mountpoint
853 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
854 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
858 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
860 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
861 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
862 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
868 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
869 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
871 Some internal mounts are not shown.
877 This moves a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
878 either a destination filename or destination directory.
884 This is a test probe into the guestfs daemon running inside
885 the qemu subprocess. Calling this function checks that the
886 daemon responds to the ping message, without affecting the daemon
887 or attached block device(s) in any other way.
893 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
894 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
901 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
904 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
905 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
906 to remove those first.
912 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
913 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
915 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
916 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
918 See also C<pvs-full>.
924 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
925 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
931 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
933 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
934 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
936 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
937 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
938 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
939 function which has a more complex interface.
945 Remove the single file C<path>.
951 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
952 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
959 Remove the single directory C<path>.
961 =head2 set-append | append
965 This function is used to add additional options to the
966 guest kernel command line.
968 The default is C<NULL> unless overridden by setting
969 C<LIBGUESTFS_APPEND> environment variable.
971 The string C<append> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
972 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
974 Setting C<append> to C<NULL> means I<no> additional options
975 are passed (libguestfs always adds a few of its own).
977 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
979 set-autosync true|false
981 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
982 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
983 C<sync> when the handle is closed
984 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
986 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
991 set-e2label device label
993 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
994 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
997 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
998 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
1002 set-e2uuid device uuid
1004 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
1005 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
1006 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
1007 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
1009 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
1010 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
1012 =head2 set-path | path
1016 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
1018 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
1019 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
1021 The string C<path> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
1022 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
1024 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
1026 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
1030 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
1032 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
1035 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
1036 environment variable.
1038 The string C<qemu> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
1039 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
1041 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
1043 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
1045 set-verbose true|false
1047 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
1049 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
1050 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
1054 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
1056 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
1057 partitions on block devices.
1059 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
1061 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
1062 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
1063 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
1064 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
1065 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
1066 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
1067 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
1069 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
1070 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
1072 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
1073 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
1074 the string C<,> (comma).
1076 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
1077 can easily destroy all your data>.
1083 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
1085 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
1091 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
1092 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
1093 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
1095 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
1101 This runs the L<strings(1)> command on a file and returns
1102 the list of printable strings found.
1104 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1105 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1110 strings-e encoding path
1112 This is like the C<strings> command, but allows you to
1113 specify the encoding.
1115 See the L<strings(1)> manpage for the full list of encodings.
1117 Commonly useful encodings are C<l> (lower case L) which will
1118 show strings inside Windows/x86 files.
1120 The returned strings are transcoded to UTF-8.
1122 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1123 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1130 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
1131 underlying disk image.
1133 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
1138 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
1140 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
1141 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1143 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
1145 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1149 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
1151 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1152 it to local file C<tarfile>.
1154 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
1156 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1160 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
1162 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
1163 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1165 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
1167 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1171 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1173 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1174 it to local file C<tarball>.
1176 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1178 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1184 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1185 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1186 to create a new zero-length file.
1192 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1193 superblock on C<device>.
1195 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1196 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1197 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1198 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1200 =head2 umount | unmount
1204 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1205 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1206 contains the filesystem.
1208 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1212 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1214 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1218 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1220 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1223 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1225 See also C<download>.
1227 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1231 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1233 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1234 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1240 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1242 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1249 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1250 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1252 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1253 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1255 See also C<vgs-full>.
1261 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1262 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1266 write-file path content size
1268 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1269 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1270 with length C<size>.
1272 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1273 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1274 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1276 I<NB.> Owing to a bug, writing content containing ASCII NUL
1277 characters does I<not> work, even if the length is specified.
1278 We hope to resolve this bug in a future version. In the meantime
1281 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1282 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1289 This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of C<device>.
1291 How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's I<not> enough
1292 to securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove
1293 any partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.