X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=be4953d5c4363edde53f9e7d7a330cf35829c95f;hp=f128eb58444dc5548a2176c282f7126500f53920;hb=dc8e4b057ecd3984d7c27c8e;hpb=866ec00d1f8bc40042795b66ceec12608bb1f9e8 diff --git a/README b/README index f128eb5..be4953d 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,82 +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 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. - -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 -FUSE. - -Libguestfs is a library that can be linked with C and C++ management -programs (or management programs written in OCaml, Perl, Python, Ruby, -Java, Haskell or C#). You can also use it from shell scripts or the -command line. - -Libguestfs was written by Richard W.M. Jones (rjones@redhat.com) and -hacked on by lots of other people. For discussion, development, -patches, etc. please use the mailing list: - - http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs +Libguestfs is tools and a library for accessing and modifying guest +disk images. For more information see the home page: + http://libguestfs.org/ -Home page ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +For discussion, development, patches, etc. please use the mailing +list: - http://libguestfs.org/ + http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- recent QEMU >= 0.12 with virtio-serial support - -- febootstrap >= 2.8 +- recent QEMU >= 0.13 with virtio-serial support -- fakeroot +- kernel >= 2.6.34 with virtio-serial support enabled. virtio-block + and virtio-serial support are not required but highly recommended. -- fakechroot >= 2.9 +- 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) +- pcre (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions C library) (optional) -- libmagic (the library that corresponds to the 'file' command) +- libmagic (the library that corresponds to the 'file' command) (optional) -- libvirt +- libvirt (optional) -- libxml2 +- libxml2 (optional) + +- Augeas (http://augeas.net/) (optional) + +- gperf - squashfs-tools (mksquashfs only) - genisoimage / mkisofs -- (Optional) hivex >= 1.2.1 to build Windows Registry support +- hivex >= 1.2.1 (http://libguestfs.org/download) -- (Optional) FUSE to build the FUSE module +- (Optional) Berkeley DB 'db_dump' and 'db_load' utilities + (db4-utils or db4.X-util or similar) -- (Optional) 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) xmllint to validate virt-inspector RELAX NG schema -- (Optional) OCaml + OCaml library xml-light if you want to rebuild - the generated files, and also to build the OCaml bindings - (http://tech.motion-twin.com/xmllight.html) - -- (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 @@ -89,11 +68,24 @@ bindings - (Optional) GHC if you want to build the Haskell bindings -- (Optional) Perl XML::XPath, Sys::Virt modules (for libvirt support -in virt-inspector). +- (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. @@ -103,13 +95,9 @@ 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 @@ -120,40 +108,6 @@ 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 is now built as a package in Debian by Guido Gunther and -the other Debian libvirt maintainers. See: - -http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianLibvirtTeam#Packages - -You can build for Debian in two different ways, either building a -Fedora-based appliance using febootstrap, yum, rpm, fakeroot, -fakechroot (all packaged in Debian). However the recommended way is -to build a Debian-based appliance using debootstrap and debirf. - -Both ways are supported by the configure script. - - qemu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @@ -209,88 +163,23 @@ 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. -However we still offer the ability to use vmchannel, and in future we -may add support for other types of qemu, which is useful in a few -cases, specifically where qemu packagers decide to compile out support -for SLIRP (qemu packagers: please don't do this). +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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -If you configure with --enable-supermin then we will build a supermin -appliance (supermin = super-minimized). This is a very specialized -appliance which is built on-the-fly at runtime (specifically, when you -call guestfs_launch). - -The normal appliance is a self-contained Linux operating system, based -on the Fedora/RHEL/CentOS Linux distro. So it contains a complete -copy of all the libraries and programs needed, like kernel, libc, -bash, coreutils etc etc. - -The supermin appliance removes the kernel and all the executable -libraries and programs from the appliance. That just leaves a -skeleton of config files and some data files, which is obviously -massively smaller than the normal appliance. At runtime we rebuild -the appliance on-the-fly from the libraries and programs on the host -(eg. pulling in the real /lib/libc.so, the real /bin/bash etc.) - -Although this process of rebuilding the appliance each time sounds -slow, it turns out to be faster than using the prebuilt appliance. -(Most of the saving comes from not compressing the appliance - it -transpires that decompressing the appliance is the slowest part of the -whole boot sequence). On my machine, a new appliance can be built in -under a fifth of a second, and the boot time is several seconds -shorter. - -The big advantage of the supermin appliance for distributions like -Fedora is that it gets security fixes automatically from the host, so -there is no need to rebuild the whole of libguestfs for a security -update in some underlying library. - -There are several DISADVANTAGES: - -It won't work at all except in very narrow, controlled cases like the -Fedora packaging case. We control the dependencies of the libguestfs -RPM tightly to ensure that the required binaries are actually present -on the host. - -Furthermore there are certain unlikely changes in the packages on the -host which could break a supermin appliance, eg. an updated library -which depends on an additional data file. - -Also supermin appliances are subjected to changes in the host kernel -which might break compatibility with qemu -- these are, of course, -real bugs in any case. - -Lastly, supermin appliances really can't be moved between branches of -distributions (eg. built on Fedora 12 and moved to Fedora 10) because -they are not self-contained and they rely on certain libraries being -around. You shouldn't do this anyway. - -Use supermin appliances with caution. - - -Notes on cross-architecture support ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - -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 FUSE will work fine, but running commands in guests may -not be possible. - -To enable this requires work for cross-architecture and 32-on-64 -support in febootstrap, fakeroot and fakechroot. - -The daemon/ directory contains its own configure script. This is so -that in future we will be able to cross-compile the daemon. +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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 +minutes. If it takes much longer for you, use a local distro mirror or squid. To use squid to cache yum downloads, read this first: @@ -314,15 +203,8 @@ 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://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap/ +appliance. You will need to port the febootstrap first +(http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap/). Copyright and license information