guestfish
- guestfish -a disk.img
+ guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img
- guestfish -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
+ guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
guestfish -d libvirt-domain
- guestfish -a disk.img -i
+ guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -i
guestfish -d libvirt-domain -i
(read-only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or
virtual machine might be live.
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+Guestfish is a shell and command-line tool for examining and modifying
+virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
+the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
+
+Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
+shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
+rescue a broken virtual machine image, you should look at the
+L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
+
=head1 EXAMPLES
=head2 As an interactive shell
'man' to read the manual
'quit' to quit the shell
- ><fs> man
+ ><fs> add-ro disk.img
+ ><fs> run
+ ><fs> list-filesystems
+ /dev/sda1: ext4
+ /dev/vg_guest/lv_root: ext4
+ /dev/vg_guest/lv_swap: swap
+ ><fs> mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
+ ><fs> cat /etc/fstab
+ # /etc/fstab
+ # Created by anaconda
+ [...]
+ ><fs> exit
=head2 From shell scripts
-Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest:
+Create a new C</etc/motd> file in a guest or disk image:
guestfish <<_EOF_
add disk.img
write /etc/motd "Welcome, new users"
_EOF_
-List the LVM logical volumes in a guest:
+List the LVM logical volumes in a disk image:
guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
run
lvs
_EOF_
+List all the filesystems in a disk image:
+
+ guestfish -a disk.img --ro <<_EOF_
+ run
+ list-filesystems
+ _EOF_
+
=head2 On one command line
Update C</etc/resolv.conf> in a guest:
Edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively:
- guestfish --add disk.img \
+ guestfish --rw --add disk.img \
--mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
--mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
guestfish --ro -d libvirt-domain -i cat /etc/group
+Another way to edit C</boot/grub/grub.conf> interactively is:
+
+ guestfish --rw -a disk.img -i edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
+
=head2 As a script interpreter
Create a 100MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
=head2 Remote control
- eval `guestfish --listen --ro`
- guestfish --remote add disk.img
+ eval "`guestfish --listen`"
+ guestfish --remote add-ro disk.img
guestfish --remote run
guestfish --remote lvs
-=head1 DESCRIPTION
-
-Guestfish is a shell and command-line tool for examining and modifying
-virtual machine filesystems. It uses libguestfs and exposes all of
-the functionality of the guestfs API, see L<guestfs(3)>.
-
-Guestfish gives you structured access to the libguestfs API, from
-shell scripts or the command line or interactively. If you want to
-rescue a broken virtual machine image, you should look at the
-L<virt-rescue(1)> command.
-
=head1 OPTIONS
=over 4
Displays general help on options.
-=item B<-h> | B<--cmd-help>
+=item B<-h>
+
+=item B<--cmd-help>
Lists all available guestfish commands.
-=item B<-h cmd> | B<--cmd-help cmd>
+=item B<-h cmd>
+
+=item B<--cmd-help cmd>
Displays detailed help on a single command C<cmd>.
-=item B<-a image> | B<--add image>
+=item B<-a image>
+
+=item B<--add image>
Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
-=item B<-c URI> | B<--connect URI>
+The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and
+force a particular format use the I<--format=..> option.
+
+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.
+
+=item B<-c URI>
+
+=item B<--connect URI>
When used in conjunction with the I<-d> option, this specifies
the libvirt URI to use. The default is to use the default libvirt
connection.
-=item B<-d libvirt-domain> | B<--domain libvirt-domain>
+=item B<--csh>
+
+If using the I<--listen> option and a csh-like shell, use this option.
+See section L</REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH> below.
+
+=item B<-d libvirt-domain>
+
+=item B<--domain libvirt-domain>
Add disks from the named libvirt domain. If the I<--ro> option is
also used, then any libvirt domain can be used. However in write
mode, only libvirt domains which are shut down can be named here.
-=item B<-D> | B<--no-dest-paths>
+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.
+
+=item B<-D>
+
+=item B<--no-dest-paths>
Don't tab-complete paths on the guest filesystem. It is useful to be
able to hit the tab key to complete paths on the guest filesystem, but
this causes extra "hidden" guestfs calls to be made, so this option is
here to allow this feature to be disabled.
-=item B<-f file> | B<--file file>
+=item B<--echo-keys>
+
+When prompting for keys and passphrases, guestfish normally turns
+echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
+worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
+you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
+
+=item B<-f file>
+
+=item B<--file file>
Read commands from C<file>. To write pure guestfish
scripts, use:
#!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
-=item B<-i> | B<--inspector>
+=item B<--format=raw|qcow2|..>
+
+=item B<--format>
+
+The default for the I<-a> option is to auto-detect the format of the
+disk image. Using this forces the disk format for I<-a> options which
+follow on the command line. Using I<--format> with no argument
+switches back to auto-detection for subsequent I<-a> options.
+
+For example:
+
+ guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img
+
+forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img>.
+
+ guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img
+
+forces raw format (no auto-detection) for C<disk.img> and reverts to
+auto-detection for C<another.img>.
+
+If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
+this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
+security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). See also
+L</add-drive-opts>.
+
+=item B<-i>
+
+=item B<--inspector>
Using L<virt-inspector(1)> code, inspect the disks looking for
an operating system and mount filesystems as they would be
(for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device directly:
- guestfish -a /dev/Guests/MyGuest -i
+ guestfish --rw -a /dev/Guests/MyGuest -i
Note that the command line syntax changed slightly over older
versions of guestfish. You can still use the old syntax:
guestfish [--ro] -i libvirt-domain
+Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the C<inspect-os>
+command and then using other commands to mount the filesystems that
+were found.
+
=item B<--keys-from-stdin>
Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is
Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See section
L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
-=item B<-m dev[:mountpoint]> | B<--mount 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[:options]]>
Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint.
If any I<-m> or I<--mount> options are given, the guest is
automatically launched.
-If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you
-can either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions
-and LVs available (see L</list-partitions> and L</lvs> commands),
-or you can use the L<virt-list-filesystems(1)> program.
+If you don't know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
+either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
+filesystems and LVs available (see L</list-partitions>,
+L</list-filesystems> and L</lvs> commands), or you can use the
+L<virt-filesystems(1)> program.
+
+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> | B<--no-sync>
+=item B<-n>
+
+=item B<--no-sync>
Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
of autosync in the L<guestfs(3)> manpage.
-=item B<-N type> | B<--new type> | B<-N help>
+=item B<-N type>
+
+=item B<--new type>
+
+=item B<-N help>
Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
alternative to the I<-a> option: whereas I<-a> adds an existing disk,
Send remote commands to C<$GUESTFISH_PID> or C<pid>. See section
L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET> below.
-=item B<-r> | B<--ro>
+=item B<-r>
+
+=item B<--ro>
-This changes the I<-a> and I<-m> options so that disks are added and
-mounts are done read-only (see L<guestfs(3)/guestfs_mount_ro>).
+This changes the I<-a>, I<-d> and I<-m> options so that disks are
+added and mounts are done read-only.
The option must always be used if the disk image or virtual machine
might be running, and is generally recommended in cases where you
don't need write access to the disk.
Note that prepared disk images created with I<-N> are not affected by
-the I<--ro> option.
+this option. Also commands like C<add> are not affected - you have to
+specify the C<readonly:true> option explicitly if you need it.
+
+See also L</OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE> below.
=item B<--selinux>
Enable SELinux support for the guest. See L<guestfs(3)/SELINUX>.
-=item B<-v> | B<--verbose>
+=item B<-v>
+
+=item B<--verbose>
Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you find
a bug.
-=item B<-V> | B<--version>
+=item B<-V>
+
+=item B<--version>
Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
+=item B<-w>
+
+=item B<--rw>
+
+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>
Echo each command before executing it.
C<run> is a synonym for C<launch>. You must C<launch> (or C<run>)
your guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
-The only exception is that if the I<-m> or I<--mount> option was
-given, the guest is automatically run for you (simply because
-guestfish can't mount the disks you asked for without doing this).
+The only exception is that if any of the I<-i>, I<-m>, I<--mount>,
+I<-N> or I<--new> options were given then C<run> is done
+automatically, simply because guestfish can't perform the action you
+asked for without doing this.
+
+=head1 OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
+
+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<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 1.12 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, 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.
=head1 QUOTING
command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
+=head1 OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
+
+Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
+documentation as C<[argname:..]>. You can use them as in these
+examples:
+
+ add-drive-opts filename
+
+ add-drive-opts filename readonly:true
+
+ add-drive-opts filename format:qcow2 readonly:false
+
+Each optional argument can appear at most once. All optional
+arguments must appear after the required ones.
+
=head1 NUMBERS
This section applies to all commands which can take integers
rm-rf /home/*
-Assuming you don't have a directory literally called C</home/*>
+Assuming you don't have a directory called literally C</home/*>
then the above command will return an error.
To perform wildcard expansion, use the C<glob> command.
C<glob> only works on simple guest paths and not on device names.
If you have several parameters, each containing a wildcard, then glob
-will perform a cartesian product.
+will perform a Cartesian product.
=head1 COMMENTS
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
Finally you have to tell LVM to scan for volume groups on
the newly created mapper device:
- ><fs> vgscan
- ><fs> vg-activate-all true
+ vgscan
+ vg-activate-all true
The logical volume(s) can now be mounted in the usual way.
it and deactivate the volume groups by calling C<vg-activate false VG>
on each one. Then you can close the mapper device:
- ><fs> vg-activate false /dev/VG
- ><fs> luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
+ vg-activate false /dev/VG
+ luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
=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
+
+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:
-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.
+ win:e:\foo\bar => /e/FOO/bar
+
+This only works in argument positions that expect a path.
=head1 UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
Start a guestfish server process using:
- eval `guestfish --listen`
+ eval "`guestfish --listen`"
and then send it commands by doing:
which is how the I<--remote> option knows where to send the commands.
You can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
- eval `guestfish --listen`
+ eval "`guestfish --listen`"
pid1=$GUESTFISH_PID
- eval `guestfish --listen`
+ eval "`guestfish --listen`"
pid2=$GUESTFISH_PID
...
guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
+=head2 REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH
+
+When using csh-like shells (csh, tcsh etc) you have to add the
+I<--csh> option:
+
+ eval "`guestfish --listen --csh`"
+
=head2 REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
help
help cmd
-Without any parameter, this lists all commands. With a C<cmd>
-parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
+Without any parameter, this provides general help.
+
+With a C<cmd> parameter, this displays detailed help for that command.
=head2 quit | exit
The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor. If not
set, it uses C<vi>.
+=item GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE
+
+The C<display> command uses C<$GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE> to
+display images. If not set, it uses L<display(1)>.
+
=item GUESTFISH_PID
Used with the I<--remote> option to specify the remote guestfish
process to control. See section
L</REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET>.
+=item HEXEDITOR
+
+The L</hexedit> command uses C<$HEXEDITOR> as the external hex
+editor. If not specified, the external L<hexedit(1)> program
+is used.
+
=item HOME
If compiled with GNU readline support, various files in the
=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 each
-handle will require rather a large amount of space in this directory
-for short periods of time (~ 80 MB). You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
-configure another directory to use in case C</tmp> is not large
+If libguestfs was compiled to use the supermin appliance then the
+real appliance is cached in this directory, shared between all
+handles belonging to the same EUID. You can use C<$TMPDIR> to
+configure another directory to use in case C</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-inspector(1)>,
L<virt-list-filesystems(1)>,
L<virt-list-partitions(1)>,
L<virt-ls(1)>,
L<virt-rescue(1)>,
L<virt-resize(1)>,
L<virt-tar(1)>,
-L<virt-win-reg(1)>.
+L<virt-tar-in(1)>,
+L<virt-tar-out(1)>,
+L<virt-win-reg(1)>,
+L<display(1)>,
+L<hexedit(1)>.
=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