X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=be4953d5c4363edde53f9e7d7a330cf35829c95f;hp=ec05bddd41d6b3a5e7ccb753462b5e658612079e;hb=dc8e4b057ecd3984d7c27c8e;hpb=a5f68bd57d887c8c8818dbb92a9f8b7643f67827;ds=sidebyside diff --git a/README b/README index ec05bdd..be4953d 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,50 +1,61 @@ -Libguestfs is a library for accessing and modifying guest disk images. -Amongst the things this is good for: making batch configuration -changes to guests, getting disk used/free statistics (see also: -virt-df), migrating between virtualization systems (see also: -virt-p2v), performing partial backups, performing partial guest -clones, cloning guests and changing registry/UUID/hostname info, and -much else besides. +Libguestfs is tools and a library for accessing and modifying guest +disk images. For more information see the home page: -Libguestfs uses Linux kernel and qemu code, and can access any type of -guest filesystem that Linux and qemu can, including but not limited -to: ext2/3/4, btrfs, FAT and NTFS, LVM, many different disk partition -schemes, qcow, qcow2, vmdk. + http://libguestfs.org/ -Libguestfs provides ways to enumerate guest storage (eg. partitions, -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. +For discussion, development, patches, etc. please use the mailing +list: -Libguestfs is a library that can be linked with C and C++ management -programs (or management programs written in OCaml, Perl or Python). -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: - - https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-virt + http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- recent QEMU with vmchannel support +- recent QEMU >= 0.13 with virtio-serial support + +- kernel >= 2.6.34 with virtio-serial support enabled. virtio-block + and virtio-serial support are not required but highly recommended. + +- febootstrap >= 3.0 (recommended >= 3.3) + *NB*: febootstrap 2.x WILL NOT WORK + febootstrap 3.x is distro-independent, and is required on + Debian and other distros too + +- XDR, rpcgen (on Linux these are provided by glibc) + +- pcre (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions C library) (optional) + +- libmagic (the library that corresponds to the 'file' command) (optional) + +- libvirt (optional) + +- libxml2 (optional) + +- Augeas (http://augeas.net/) (optional) + +- gperf + +- squashfs-tools (mksquashfs only) + +- genisoimage / mkisofs -- febootstrap >= 1.5 +- hivex >= 1.2.1 (http://libguestfs.org/download) -- XDR, rpcgen +- (Optional) Berkeley DB 'db_dump' and 'db_load' utilities + (db4-utils or db4.X-util or similar) -- Augeas (http://augeas.net/) +- (Optional) FUSE to build the FUSE module -- perldoc (pod2man, pod2text) to generate the manual pages and -other documentation. +- perldoc (pod2man, pod2text, pod2html) to generate the manual pages + and other documentation. - (Optional) Readline to have nicer command-line editing in guestfish. -- (Optional) OCaml if you want to rebuild the generated files, and -also to build the OCaml bindings +- (Optional) xmllint to validate virt-inspector RELAX NG schema -- (Optional) local Fedora mirror +- (Optional) OCaml if you want to rebuild the generated files, and + also to build the OCaml bindings - (Optional) Perl if you want to build the perl bindings @@ -52,6 +63,29 @@ also to build the OCaml 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 + +- (Optional) Perl Sys::Virt module. + +- (Optional) Perl Win::Hivex module. + +- (Optional) Perl Pod::Usage module. + +- (Optional) Perl Test::More module (from perl Test::Simple). + +- (Optional) Perl String::ShellQuote module. + +- (Optional, but highly recommended) perl-libintl for translating perl code. + +- po4a for translating manpages and POD files. + This is optional when compiling from the tarball, but mandatory + if you compile from git. + +- (Optional) PHP, phpize if you want to build the PHP bindings + Running ./configure will check you have all the requirements installed on your machine. @@ -61,45 +95,94 @@ Building Then make the daemon, library and root filesystem: - ./configure [--with-mirror=URI] + ./configure make -Use the optional --with-mirror parameter to specify the URI of a local -Fedora mirror. See the discussion of the MIRROR parameter in the -febootstrap(8) manpage. - 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 -Notes on cross-architecture support +qemu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -At the moment we basically don't support cross-architecture or -32-on-64. This limits what is possible for some guests. Filesystem -operations and FTP export will work fine, but running commands in -guests may not be possible. +By far the most common problem is with broken or incompatible +qemu releases. -To enable this requires work for cross-architecture and 32-on-64 -support in febootstrap, fakeroot and fakechroot. +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. -The daemon/ directory contains its own configure script. This is so -that in future we will be able to cross-compile the daemon. +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. + + +vmchannel +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Previous versions of libguestfs required something called "vmchannel". +Vmchannel is a special device given to virtual machines which allows +them to communicate in some way with the host, often (but not always) +without using a traditional network device. In reality, there is no +one thing called "vmchannel". This idea has been reimplemented +several times under the name vmchannel, and other hypervisors have +their own incompatible implementation(s) too. + +In libguestfs <= 1.0.71, we required a specific vmchannel which is +properly known as "guestfwd" and has been upstream in qemu since here: + + http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2009-02/msg01042.html + +In libguestfs >= 1.0.71 we don't require any vmchannel implementation, +as long as qemu has been compiled with support for SLIRP (user mode +networking, or "-net user"), which is almost always the case. + +In libguestfs >= 1.5.4 we switched again to using qemu's virtio-serial +and removed all the other vmchannels and the SLIRP channel. + + +Supermin appliance +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +In libguestfs >= 1.7.19 the supermin appliance is the default and only +supported form of appliance. For more information see febootstrap +(http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap/). 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 distro 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, @@ -111,14 +194,23 @@ 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 port the febootstrap first +(http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap/). Copyright and license information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat Inc. +Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Red Hat Inc. The library is distributed under the LGPLv2+. The programs are distributed under the GPLv2+. Please see the files COPYING and