Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add> command,
with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
-with C<format:...> if the I<--format:...> flag was given.
+with C<format:...> if the I<--format=...> flag was given.
=item B<-c URI>
also used, then any libvirt domain can be used. However in write
mode, only libvirt domains which are shut down can be named here.
+Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names.
+
Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<add-domain> command,
with C<readonly:true> if the I<--ro> flag was given, and
with C<format:...> if the I<--format:...> flag was given.
Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
-=item B<-m dev[:mountpoint]>
+=item B<--live>
+
+Connect to a live virtual machine.
+(Experimental, see L<guestfs(3)/ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS>).
+
+=item B<-m dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
-=item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint]>
+=item B<--mount dev[:mountpoint[:options]]>
Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
L</list-filesystems> and L</lvs> commands), or you can use the
L<virt-filesystems(1)> program.
-Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<mount-options>
-command or the C<mount-ro> command if the I<--ro> flag was given.
+The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list of
+mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem. If this is not
+given, then the mount options are either the empty string or C<ro>
+(the latter if the I<--ro> flag is used). By specifying the mount
+options, you override this default choice. Probably the only time you
+would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended attributes if the
+filesystem can support them:
+
+ -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
+
+Using this flag is equivalent to using the C<mount-options> command.
=item B<-n>
=item B<--rw>
-This option does nothing at the moment.
+This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
+added and mounts are done read-write.
+
See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
=item B<-x>
=head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
-The guestfish (and L<guestmount(1)>) options I<--ro> and I<--rw>
-affect whether the other command line options I<-a>, I<-c>, I<-d>,
-I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for writing.
+The guestfish, L<guestmount(1)> and L<virt-rescue(1)> options I<--ro>
+and I<--rw> affect whether the other command line options I<-a>,
+I<-c>, I<-d>, I<-i> and I<-m> open disk images read-only or for
+writing.
-In libguestfs E<lt> 1.6.2, guestfish and guestmount defaulted to
-opening disk images supplied on the command line for write. To open a
-disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
+In libguestfs E<le> 1.10, guestfish, guestmount and virt-rescue
+defaulted to opening disk images supplied on the command line for
+write. To open a disk image read-only you have to do I<-a image --ro>.
This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
-By libguestfs 1.8 we intend to change the default the other way. Disk
-images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
-I<guestfish --rw> or change a configuration file in order to get write
-access for disk images specified by those other command line options.
+In a future libguestfs we intend to change the default the other way.
+Disk images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
+I<guestfish --rw>, I<guestmount --rw>, I<virt-rescue --rw>, or change
+the configuration file C</etc/libguestfs-tools.conf> in order to get
+write access for disk images specified by those other command line
+options.
-This version of guestfish has a I<--rw> option which does nothing (it
-is already the default). However it is highly recommended that you
-use this option to indicate that guestfish needs write access, and to
-prepare your scripts for the day when this option will be required for
-write access.
+This version of guestfish, guestmount and virt-rescue has a I<--rw>
+option which does nothing (it is already the default). However it is
+highly recommended that you use this option to indicate that you need
+write access, and prepare your scripts for the day when this option
+will be required for write access.
B<Note:> This does I<not> affect commands like L</add> and L</mount>,
or any other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
+=head2 ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN DOUBLE QUOTED ARGUMENTS
+
+In double-quoted arguments (only) use backslash to insert special
+characters:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item C<\a>
+
+Alert (bell) character.
+
+=item C<\b>
+
+Backspace character.
+
+=item C<\f>
+
+Form feed character.
+
+=item C<\n>
+
+Newline character.
+
+=item C<\r>
+
+Carriage return character.
+
+=item C<\t>
+
+Horizontal tab character.
+
+=item C<\v>
+
+Vertical tab character.
+
+=item C<\">
+
+A literal double quote character.
+
+=item C<\ooo>
+
+A character with octal value I<ooo>. There must be precisely 3 octal
+digits (unlike C).
+
+=item C<\xhh>
+
+A character with hex value I<hh>. There must be precisely 2 hex
+digits.
+
+In the current implementation C<\000> and C<\x00> cannot be used
+in strings.
+
+=item C<\\>
+
+A literal backslash character.
+
+=back
+
=head1 OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
To change the local directory, use the C<lcd> command. C<!cd> will
have no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
+=head2 LOCAL COMMANDS WITH INLINE EXECUTION
+
+If a line starts with I<E<lt>!> then the shell command is executed (as
+for I<!>), but subsequently any output (stdout) of the shell command
+is parsed and executed as guestfish commands.
+
+Thus you can use shell script to construct arbitrary guestfish
+commands which are then parsed by guestfish.
+
+For example it is tedious to create a sequence of files
+(eg. C</foo.1> through C</foo.100>) using guestfish commands
+alone. However this is simple if we use a shell script to
+create the guestfish commands for us:
+
+ <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do echo write /foo.$n $n; done
+
+or with names like C</foo.001>:
+
+ <! for n in `seq 1 100`; do printf "write /foo.%03d %d\n" $n $n; done
+
+When using guestfish interactively it can be helpful to just run the
+shell script first (ie. remove the initial C<E<lt>> character so it is
+just an ordinary I<!> local command), see what guestfish commands it
+would run, and when you are happy with those prepend the C<E<lt>>
+character to run the guestfish commands for real.
+
=head1 PIPES
Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
=head1 WINDOWS PATHS
If a path is prefixed with C<win:> then you can use Windows-style
-paths (with some limitations). The following commands are equivalent:
+drive letters and paths (with some limitations). The following
+commands are equivalent:
file /WINDOWS/system32/config/system.LOG
- file win:/windows/system32/config/system.log
-
file win:\windows\system32\config\system.log
- file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\conFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
+ file WIN:C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.LOG
-This syntax implicitly calls C<case-sensitive-path> (q.v.) so it also
-handles case insensitivity like Windows would. This only works in
-argument positions that expect a path.
+The parameter is rewritten "behind the scenes" by looking up the
+position where the drive is mounted, prepending that to the path,
+changing all backslash characters to forward slash, then resolving the
+result using L</case-sensitive-path>. For example if the E: drive
+was mounted on C</e> then the parameter might be rewritten like this:
+
+ win:e:\foo\bar => /e/FOO/bar
+
+This only works in argument positions that expect a path.
=head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
+=head2 REMOTE CONTROL RUN COMMAND HANGING
+
+Using the C<run> (or C<launch>) command remotely in a command
+substitution context hangs, ie. don't do (note the backquotes):
+
+ a=`guestfish --remote run`
+
+Since the C<run> command produces no output on stdout, this is not
+useful anyway. For further information see
+L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592910>.
+
=head1 PREPARED DISK IMAGES
Use the I<-N type> or I<--new type> parameter to select one of a set
@ACTIONS@
-=head1 EXIT CODE
+=head1 EXIT STATUS
guestfish returns 0 if the commands completed without error, or
1 if there was an error.
The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
set, it uses C<vi>.
+=item FEBOOTSTRAP_KERNEL
+
+=item FEBOOTSTRAP_MODULES
+
+These two environment variables allow the kernel that libguestfs uses
+in the appliance to be selected. If C<$FEBOOTSTRAP_KERNEL> is not
+set, then the most recent host kernel is chosen. For more information
+about kernel selection, see L<febootstrap-supermin-helper(8)>. This
+feature is only available in febootstrap E<ge> 3.8.
+
+=item GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE
+
+The C<display> command uses C<$GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE> to
+display images. If not set, it uses L<display(1)>.
+
=item GUESTFISH_PID
Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
=item TMPDIR
-Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp>.
+Location of temporary directory, defaults to C</tmp> except for the
+cached supermin appliance which defaults to C</var/tmp>.
If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then the
real appliance is cached in this directory, shared between all
handles belonging to the same EUID. You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
-configure another directory to use in case C</tmp> is not large
+configure another directory to use in case C</var/tmp> is not large
enough.
=back
=over 4
+=item $HOME/.libguestfs-tools.rc
+
+=item /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf
+
+This configuration file controls the default read-only or read-write
+mode (I<--ro> or I<--rw>).
+
+See L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE>.
+
=item $HOME/.guestfish
If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
=item test2.img (etc)
-When using the C<-N> or C<--new> option, the prepared disk or
+When using the I<-N> or I<--new> option, the prepared disk or
filesystem will be created in the file C<test1.img> in the current
-directory. The second use of C<-N> will use C<test2.img> and so on.
+directory. The second use of I<-N> will use C<test2.img> and so on.
Any existing file with the same name will be overwritten.
=back
L<guestfs(3)>,
L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
L<virt-cat(1)>,
+L<virt-copy-in(1)>,
+L<virt-copy-out(1)>,
L<virt-df(1)>,
L<virt-edit(1)>,
L<virt-filesystems(1)>,
L<virt-make-fs(1)>,
L<virt-rescue(1)>,
L<virt-resize(1)>,
+L<virt-sparsify(1)>,
L<virt-tar(1)>,
+L<virt-tar-in(1)>,
+L<virt-tar-out(1)>,
L<virt-win-reg(1)>,
-L<hexedit(1)>.
+L<display(1)>,
+L<hexedit(1)>,
+L<febootstrap-supermin-helper(8)>.
=head1 AUTHORS
=head1 COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Red Hat Inc.
L<http://libguestfs.org/>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
git.annexia.org / libguestfs.git / blobdiff