X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=88fca7d3064839f2b88783c71ea71ef827bebf58;hp=f32c8596e6bf097577676742b66f61972e1d2dab;hb=7baf58278b620504d67acd01d3d992603fcd3b70;hpb=b3f11c5f62f725fa3f09452b38d52dba764f80d0 diff --git a/README b/README index f32c859..88fca7d 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -16,9 +16,8 @@ LVs, what filesystem is in each LV, etc.). It can also run commands in the context of the guest. Also you can access filesystems over FTP. Libguestfs is a library that can be linked with C and C++ management -programs (or management programs written in other languages, if people -contribute the language bindings). You can also use it from shell -scripts or the command line. +programs (or management programs written in OCaml, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java +or Haskell). You can also use it from shell scripts or the command line. Libguestfs was written by Richard W.M. Jones (rjones@redhat.com). For discussion please use the fedora-virt mailing list: @@ -29,19 +28,31 @@ For discussion please use the fedora-virt mailing list: Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- recent QEMU with vmchannel support +- recent QEMU >= 0.10 with vmchannel support + http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2009-02/msg01042.html -- febootstrap >= 1.2 +- febootstrap >= 2.0 -- XDR, rpcgen +- fakeroot -- Augeas (http://augeas.net/) +- fakechroot >= 2.9 + +- XDR, rpcgen (on Linux these are provided by glibc) + +- squashfs-tools (mksquashfs only) + +- (Optional) Augeas (http://augeas.net/) - perldoc (pod2man, pod2text) to generate the manual pages and -other documentation. + other documentation. + +- (Optional) Readline to have nicer command-line editing in guestfish. + +- (Optional) 'reged' program from chntpw to decode Windows registry + entries (http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/) - (Optional) OCaml if you want to rebuild the generated files, and -also to build the OCaml bindings + also to build the OCaml bindings - (Optional) local Fedora mirror @@ -49,6 +60,13 @@ also to build the OCaml bindings - (Optional) Python if you want to build the python bindings +- (Optional) Ruby, rake if you want to build the ruby bindings + +- (Optional) Java, JNI, jpackage-utils if you want to build the java +bindings + +- (Optional) GHC if you want to build the Haskell bindings + Running ./configure will check you have all the requirements installed on your machine. @@ -70,11 +88,80 @@ Finally run the tests: make check If everything works, you can install the library and tools by running -these commands as root: +this command as root: make install +Fedora +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +We provide packages for Fedora >= 11 in Fedora. Use those, or build +from our source RPMs - it's far simpler that way. + +You can compile libguestfs on Fedora 10 but you cannot use it with the +version of qemu in Fedora 10. You need to compile your own qemu, see +section 'qemu' below. + + +RHEL / EPEL / CentOS etc +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +We provide packages in EPEL which cover RHEL/CentOS >= 5. Use those +or build from our source RPMs. + + +Debian +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +libguestfs should build and run on Debian. At the moment we don't +provide Debian packages, and because of the appliance it's rather +complicated to provide a package which could be accepted into the +Debian repositories. Want to help? Please contact us. + + +qemu +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +By far the most common problem is with broken or incompatible +qemu releases. + +First of all, you need qemu >= 0.10.4, which contains a vmchannel +implementation. There are several, conflicting, incompatible things +called 'vmchannel' which at one time or another have been added or +proposed for qemu/KVM. The _only_ one we support is this one: + + http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2009-02/msg01042.html + +Secondly, different versions of qemu have problems booting the +appliance for different reasons. This varies between versions of +qemu, and Linux distributions which add their own patches. + +If you find a problem, you could try using your own qemu built from +source (qemu is very easy to build from source), with a 'qemu +wrapper'. Qemu wrappers are described in the guestfs(3) manpage. + + +Note on using KVM +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +By default the configure script will look for qemu-kvm (KVM support). +You will need a reasonably recent processor for this to work. KVM is +much faster than using plain Qemu. + +You may also need to enable KVM support for non-root users, by following +these instructions: + + http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/FAQ#How_can_I_use_kvm_with_a_non-privileged_user.3F + +On some systems, this will work too: + + chmod o+rw /dev/kvm + +On some systems, the chmod will not survive a reboot, and you will +need to make edits to the udev configuration. + + Notes on cross-architecture support ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @@ -93,10 +180,11 @@ that in future we will be able to cross-compile the daemon. Mirroring tip ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -Having a local Fedora mirror makes a massive difference to the time it -takes to build and rebuild initramfs images. +On my machines I can usually rebuild the appliance in around 3 +minutes. If it takes much longer for you, use a local Fedora mirror +or squid. -Failing that, use squid to cache yum downloads, but read this first: +To use squid to cache yum downloads, read this first: https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/pipermail/yum/2006-August/009041.html (In brief, because yum chooses random mirrors each time, squid doesn't work very well with default yum configuration. To get around this, @@ -108,8 +196,24 @@ You will also need to substantially increase the squid configuration limits: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Using_Mock_to_test_package_builds#Using_Squid_to_Speed_Up_Mock_package_downloads -IntelligentMirror is another possibility, although I couldn't get it -to work for me. + +Porting to other Linux distros / non-Linux +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +libguestfs itself should be fairly portable to other Linux +distributions. Non-Linux ports are trickier, but we will accept +patches if they aren't too invasive. + +The main porting issues are with the dependencies needed to build the +appliance. You will need to find or port the following packages +first: + + - fakeroot + - fakechroot + - python + - rpm-python http://www.rpm.org/ + - yum http://yum.baseurl.org/ + - febootstrap http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap/ Copyright and license information