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.
410 This copies a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
411 either a destination filename or destination directory.
417 This copies a file or directory from C<src> to C<dest>
418 recursively using the C<cp -a> command.
422 debug subcmd 'extraargs ...'
424 The C<debug> command exposes some internals of
425 C<guestfsd> (the guestfs daemon) that runs inside the
428 There is no comprehensive help for this command. You have
429 to look at the file C<daemon/debug.c> in the libguestfs source
430 to find out what you can do.
434 download remotefilename (filename|-)
436 Download file C<remotefilename> and save it as C<filename>
437 on the local machine.
439 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
441 See also C<upload>, C<cat>.
443 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
447 drop-caches whattodrop
449 This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache,
450 and/or dentries and inode caches. The parameter C<whattodrop>
451 tells the kernel what precisely to drop, see
452 L<http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches>
454 Setting C<whattodrop> to 3 should drop everything.
456 This automatically calls L<sync(2)> before the operation,
457 so that the maximum guest memory is freed.
463 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file, directory
464 (or anything) with the given C<path> name.
466 See also C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<stat>.
472 This call uses the standard L<file(1)> command to determine
473 the type or contents of the file. This also works on devices,
474 for example to find out whether a partition contains a filesystem.
476 The exact command which runs is C<file -bsL path>. Note in
477 particular that the filename is not prepended to the output
484 This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on C<device> which
485 should have filesystem type C<fstype>.
487 The returned integer is the status. See L<fsck(8)> for the
488 list of status codes from C<fsck>.
496 Multiple status codes can be summed together.
500 A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if
501 errors have been corrected on the filesystem.
505 Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported
510 This command is entirely equivalent to running C<fsck -a -t fstype device>.
516 Get the autosync flag.
522 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
529 This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
536 Return the current search path.
538 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
539 return the default path.
545 Return the current qemu binary.
547 This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
548 return the default qemu binary name.
554 This returns the current state as an opaque integer. This is
555 only useful for printing debug and internal error messages.
557 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
563 This returns the verbose messages flag.
567 grub-install root device
569 This command installs GRUB (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
570 C<device>, with the root directory being C<root>.
576 This returns true iff this handle is busy processing a command
577 (in the C<BUSY> state).
579 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
585 This returns true iff this handle is being configured
586 (in the C<CONFIG> state).
588 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
594 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a directory
595 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
596 other objects like files.
604 This returns C<true> if and only if there is a file
605 with the given C<path> name. Note that it returns false for
606 other objects like directories.
614 This returns true iff this handle is launching the subprocess
615 (in the C<LAUNCHING> state).
617 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
623 This returns true iff this handle is ready to accept commands
624 (in the C<READY> state).
626 For more information on states, see L<guestfs(3)>.
628 =head2 kill-subprocess
632 This kills the qemu subprocess. You should never need to call this.
638 Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine
641 You should call this after configuring the handle
642 (eg. adding drives) but before performing any actions.
648 List all the block devices.
650 The full block device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda>
652 =head2 list-partitions
656 List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
658 The full partition device names are returned, eg. C</dev/sda1>
660 This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to
667 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
668 there is no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
670 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It
671 is I<not> intended that you try to parse the output string.
677 List the files in C<directory> (relative to the root directory,
678 there is no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but
679 hidden files are shown.
681 This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. Programs
682 should probably use C<readdir> instead.
688 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
690 This is the same as C<stat> except that if C<path>
691 is a symbolic link, then the link is stat-ed, not the file it
694 This is the same as the C<lstat(2)> system call.
698 lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
700 This creates an LVM volume group called C<logvol>
701 on the volume group C<volgroup>, with C<size> megabytes.
703 =head2 lvm-remove-all
707 This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups
708 and physical volumes.
710 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
711 can easily destroy all your data>.
717 Remove an LVM logical volume C<device>, where C<device> is
718 the path to the LV, such as C</dev/VG/LV>.
720 You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying
721 the VG name, C</dev/VG>.
727 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
728 of the L<lvs(8)> command.
730 This returns a list of the logical volume device names
731 (eg. C</dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00>).
733 See also C<lvs-full>.
739 List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
740 of the L<lvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
746 Create a directory named C<path>.
752 Create a directory named C<path>, creating any parent directories
753 as necessary. This is like the C<mkdir -p> shell command.
759 This creates a filesystem on C<device> (usually a partition
760 of LVM logical volume). The filesystem type is C<fstype>, for
765 mount device mountpoint
767 Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices
768 are named C</dev/sda>, C</dev/sdb> and so on, as they were added to
769 the guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have
770 the usual names (eg. C</dev/sda1>). Also LVM C</dev/VG/LV>-style
773 The rules are the same as for L<mount(2)>: A filesystem must
774 first be mounted on C</> before others can be mounted. Other
775 filesystems can only be mounted on directories which already
778 The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
779 on the underlying device.
781 The filesystem options C<sync> and C<noatime> are set with this
782 call, in order to improve reliability.
786 mount-options options device mountpoint
788 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
789 allows you to set the mount options as for the
790 L<mount(8)> I<-o> flag.
794 mount-ro device mountpoint
796 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
797 mounts the filesystem with the read-only (I<-o ro>) flag.
801 mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
803 This is the same as the C<mount> command, but it
804 allows you to set both the mount options and the vfstype
805 as for the L<mount(8)> I<-o> and I<-t> flags.
811 This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns
812 the list of devices (eg. C</dev/sda1>, C</dev/VG/LV>).
814 Some internal mounts are not shown.
820 This moves a file from C<src> to C<dest> where C<dest> is
821 either a destination filename or destination directory.
827 This creates an LVM physical volume on the named C<device>,
828 where C<device> should usually be a partition name such
835 This wipes a physical volume C<device> so that LVM will no longer
838 The implementation uses the C<pvremove> command which refuses to
839 wipe physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have
840 to remove those first.
846 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
847 of the L<pvs(8)> command.
849 This returns a list of just the device names that contain
850 PVs (eg. C</dev/sda2>).
852 See also C<pvs-full>.
858 List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent
859 of the L<pvs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
865 Return the contents of the file named C<path>.
867 The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing
868 C<LF> and C<CRLF> character sequences are I<not> returned.
870 Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
871 (specifically, files containing C<\0> character which is treated
872 as end of line). For those you need to use the C<read-file>
873 function which has a more complex interface.
879 Remove the single file C<path>.
885 Remove the file or directory C<path>, recursively removing the
886 contents if its a directory. This is like the C<rm -rf> shell
893 Remove the single directory C<path>.
895 =head2 set-autosync | autosync
897 set-autosync true|false
899 If C<autosync> is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
900 best effort attempt to run C<umount-all> followed by
901 C<sync> when the handle is closed
902 (also if the program exits without closing handles).
904 This is disabled by default (except in guestfish where it is
909 set-e2label device label
911 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
912 C<device> to C<label>. Filesystem labels are limited to
915 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2label>
916 to return the existing label on a filesystem.
920 set-e2uuid device uuid
922 This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
923 C<device> to C<uuid>. The format of the UUID and alternatives
924 such as C<clear>, C<random> and C<time> are described in the
925 L<tune2fs(8)> manpage.
927 You can use either C<tune2fs-l> or C<get-e2uuid>
928 to return the existing UUID of a filesystem.
930 =head2 set-path | path
934 Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
936 The default is C<$libdir/guestfs> unless overridden by setting
937 C<LIBGUESTFS_PATH> environment variable.
939 The string C<path> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
940 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
942 Setting C<path> to C<NULL> restores the default path.
944 =head2 set-qemu | qemu
948 Set the qemu binary that we will use.
950 The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the
953 You can also override this by setting the C<LIBGUESTFS_QEMU>
954 environment variable.
956 The string C<qemu> is stashed in the libguestfs handle, so the caller
957 must make sure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle.
959 Setting C<qemu> to C<NULL> restores the default qemu binary.
961 =head2 set-verbose | verbose
963 set-verbose true|false
965 If C<verbose> is true, this turns on verbose messages (to C<stderr>).
967 Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
968 C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG> is defined and set to C<1>.
972 sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
974 This is a direct interface to the L<sfdisk(8)> program for creating
975 partitions on block devices.
977 C<device> should be a block device, for example C</dev/sda>.
979 C<cyls>, C<heads> and C<sectors> are the number of cylinders, heads
980 and sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as
981 the I<-C>, I<-H> and I<-S> parameters. If you pass C<0> for any
982 of these, then the corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for
983 'large' disks, you can just pass C<0> for these, but for small
984 (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or rather, the kernel) cannot work
985 out the right geometry and you will need to tell it.
987 C<lines> is a list of lines that we feed to C<sfdisk>. For more
988 information refer to the L<sfdisk(8)> manpage.
990 To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would
991 pass C<lines> as a single element list, when the single element being
992 the string C<,> (comma).
994 B<This command is dangerous. Without careful use you
995 can easily destroy all your data>.
1001 Returns file information for the given C<path>.
1003 This is the same as the C<stat(2)> system call.
1009 Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system.
1010 C<path> should be a file or directory in the mounted file system
1011 (typically it is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
1013 This is the same as the C<statvfs(2)> system call.
1019 This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
1020 underlying disk image.
1022 You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
1027 tar-in (tarfile|-) directory
1029 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarfile> (an
1030 I<uncompressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1032 To upload a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-in>.
1034 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1038 tar-out directory (tarfile|-)
1040 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1041 it to local file C<tarfile>.
1043 To download a compressed tarball, use C<tgz-out>.
1045 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1049 tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
1051 This command uploads and unpacks local file C<tarball> (a
1052 I<gzip compressed> tar file) into C<directory>.
1054 To upload an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-in>.
1056 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1060 tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
1062 This command packs the contents of C<directory> and downloads
1063 it to local file C<tarball>.
1065 To download an uncompressed tarball, use C<tar-out>.
1067 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1073 Touch acts like the L<touch(1)> command. It can be used to
1074 update the timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist,
1075 to create a new zero-length file.
1081 This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
1082 superblock on C<device>.
1084 It is the same as running C<tune2fs -l device>. See L<tune2fs(8)>
1085 manpage for more details. The list of fields returned isn't
1086 clearly defined, and depends on both the version of C<tune2fs>
1087 that libguestfs was built against, and the filesystem itself.
1089 =head2 umount | unmount
1093 This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be
1094 specified either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which
1095 contains the filesystem.
1097 =head2 umount-all | unmount-all
1101 This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
1103 Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
1107 upload (filename|-) remotefilename
1109 Upload local file C<filename> to C<remotefilename> on the
1112 C<filename> can also be a named pipe.
1114 See also C<download>.
1116 Use C<-> instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
1120 vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
1122 This creates an LVM volume group called C<volgroup>
1123 from the non-empty list of physical volumes C<physvols>.
1129 Remove an LVM volume group C<vgname>, (for example C<VG>).
1131 This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume
1138 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1139 of the L<vgs(8)> command.
1141 This returns a list of just the volume group names that were
1142 detected (eg. C<VolGroup00>).
1144 See also C<vgs-full>.
1150 List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent
1151 of the L<vgs(8)> command. The "full" version includes all fields.
1155 write-file path content size
1157 This call creates a file called C<path>. The contents of the
1158 file is the string C<content> (which can contain any 8 bit data),
1159 with length C<size>.
1161 As a special case, if C<size> is C<0>
1162 then the length is calculated using C<strlen> (so in this case
1163 the content cannot contain embedded ASCII NULs).
1165 Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit
1166 of somewhere between 2MB and 4MB. To transfer large files you should use
1173 This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of C<device>.
1175 How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's I<not> enough
1176 to securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove
1177 any partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.