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 C<$PATH> environment variable will contain at least
376 C</usr/bin> and C</bin>. If you require a program from
377 another location, you should provide the full path in the
380 Shared libraries and data files required by the program
381 must be available on filesystems which are mounted in the
382 correct places. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure
383 all filesystems that are needed are mounted at the right
388 command-lines 'arguments ...'
390 This is the same as C<command>, but splits the
391 result into a list of lines.
395 config qemuparam qemuvalue
397 This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters
398 of the form C<-param value>. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we
399 prevent you from setting some parameters which would interfere with
400 parameters that we use.
402 The first character of C<param> string must be a C<-> (dash).
404 C<value> can be NULL.
408 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
410 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
411 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
414 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
415 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
416 to find out what you can do.
420 download remotefilename (filename|-)
422 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
423 on the local machine.
425 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
427 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
429 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
435 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
436 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
438 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
444 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
445 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
446 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
448 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
449 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
456 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
457 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
459 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
460 list of status codes from C<fsck>, and note that multiple
461 status codes can be summed together.
463 It is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
464 Note that checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
471 Get the autosync flag.
477 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
484 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
491 Return the current search path.
493 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
494 return the default path.
500 Return the current qemu binary.
502 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
503 return the default qemu binary name.
509 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
510 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
512 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
518 This returns the verbose messages flag.
524 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
525 (in the C<BUSY> state).
527 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
533 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
534 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
536 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
542 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
543 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
544 other objects like files.
552 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
553 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
554 other objects like directories.
562 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
563 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
565 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
571 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
572 (in the C<READY> state).
574 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
576 =head2 kill-subprocess
580 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
586 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
589 You should call this after configuring the handle
590 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
596 List all the block devices.
598 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
600 =head2 list-partitions
604 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
606 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
608 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
615 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
616 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
618 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
619 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
625 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
626 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
627 hidden files are shown.
629 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
630 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
636 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
638 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
639 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
642 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
646 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
648 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
649 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
651 =head2 lvm-remove-all
655 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
656 and physical volumes.
658 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
659 can easily destroy all your data>.
665 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
666 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
668 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
669 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
675 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
676 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
678 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
679 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
681 See also C<lvs-full>.
687 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
688 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
694 Create a directory named C<path>.
700 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
701 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
707 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
708 of LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
713 mount device mountpoint
715 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
716 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
717 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
718 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
721 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
722 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
723 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
726 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
727 on the underlying device.
729 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
730 call, in order to improve reliability.
734 mount-options options device mountpoint
736 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
737 allows you to set the mount options as for the
738 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
742 mount-ro device mountpoint
744 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
745 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
749 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
751 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
752 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
753 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
759 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
760 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
762 Some internal mounts are not shown.
768 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
769 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
776 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
779 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
780 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
781 to remove those first.
787 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
788 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
790 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
791 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
793 See also C<pvs-full>.
799 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
800 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
806 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
808 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
809 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
811 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
812 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
813 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
814 function which has a more complex interface.
820 Remove the single file C<path>.
826 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
827 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
834 Remove the single directory C<path>.
836 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
838 set-autosync true|false
840 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
841 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
842 C<sync> when the handle is closed
843 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
845 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
850 set-e2label device label
852 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
853 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
856 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
857 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
861 set-e2uuid device uuid
863 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
864 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
865 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
866 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
868 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
869 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
871 =head2 set-path | path
875 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
877 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
878 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
880 The string C<path> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
881 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
883 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
885 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
889 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
891 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
894 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
895 environment variable.
897 The string C<qemu> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
898 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
900 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
902 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
904 set-verbose true|false
906 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
908 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
909 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
913 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
915 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
916 partitions on block devices.
918 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
920 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
921 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
922 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
923 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
924 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
925 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
926 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
928 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
929 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
931 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
932 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
933 the string C<,> (comma).
935 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
936 can easily destroy all your data>.
942 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
944 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
950 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
951 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
952 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
954 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
960 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
961 underlying disk image.
963 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
968 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
970 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
971 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
973 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
975 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
979 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
981 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
982 it to local file C<tarfile>.
984 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
986 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
990 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
992 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
993 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
995 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
997 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1001 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1003 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1004 it to local file C<tarball>.
1006 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1008 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1014 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1015 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1016 to create a new zero-length file.
1022 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1023 superblock on C<device>.
1025 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1026 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1027 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1028 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1030 =head2 umount | unmount
1034 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1035 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1036 contains the filesystem.
1038 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1042 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1044 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1048 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1050 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1053 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1055 See also C<download>.
1057 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1061 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1063 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1064 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1070 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1072 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1079 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1080 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1082 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1083 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1085 See also C<vgs-full>.
1091 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1092 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1096 write-file path content size
1098 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1099 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1100 with length C<size>.
1102 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1103 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1104 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1106 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1107 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use