X-Git-Url: http://git.annexia.org/?p=libguestfs.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=guestfish.pod;h=4341e2aea4a89047361fc341c32eb1db0c6caa21;hp=0870b9ee88e33dc5be48c463049f210cf6f0cf9e;hb=e547e639b14072bc238cf161669bc3d94a8d6e13;hpb=efdf252102a65b691e405f80de4261dfc8a0035b

diff --git a/guestfish.pod b/guestfish.pod
index 0870b9e..4341e2a 100644
--- a/guestfish.pod
+++ b/guestfish.pod
@@ -49,13 +49,13 @@ Remove C</boot/grub/menu.lst> (in reality not such a great idea):
 =head2 As an interactive shell
 
  $ guestfish
- 
+
  Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
  editing virtual machine filesystems.
- 
+
  Type: 'help' for help with commands
        'quit' to quit the shell
- 
+
  ><fs> help
 
 =head2 As a script interpreter
@@ -282,6 +282,32 @@ will create a directory C<local> on the host, and then export
 the contents of C</remote> on the mounted filesystem to
 C<local/remote-data.tar.gz>.  (See C<tgz-out>).
 
+=head1 PIPES
+
+Use C<command E<lt>spaceE<gt> | command> to pipe the output of the
+first command (a guestfish command) to the second command (any host
+command).  For example:
+
+ cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 { print }'
+
+(where C<cat> is the guestfish cat command, but C<awk> is the host awk
+program).  The above command would list all accounts in the guest
+filesystem which have UID 0, ie. root accounts including backdoors.
+Other examples:
+
+ hexdump /bin/ls | head
+ list-devices | tail -1
+
+The space before the pipe symbol is required, any space after the pipe
+symbol is optional.  Everything after the pipe symbol is just passed
+straight to the host shell, so it can contain redirections, globs and
+anything else that makes sense on the host side.
+
+To use a literal argument which begins with a pipe symbol, you have
+to quote it, eg:
+
+ echo "|"
+
 =head1 EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
 
 By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
@@ -293,19 +319,10 @@ If you prefix a command with a I<-> character, then that command will
 not cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an
 error.
 
-=head1 COMMANDS
-
-=head2 help
-
- help
- help cmd
-
-Without any parameter, this lists all commands.  With a C<cmd>
-parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
-
-=head2 quit | exit
+=head1 GUESTFISH COMMANDS
 
-This exits guestfish.  You can also use C<^D> key.
+The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
+other words, they are not part of the L<guestfs(3)> API.
 
 =head2 alloc | allocate
 
@@ -358,6 +375,23 @@ editors.
 NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
 (> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
 
+=head2 glob
+
+ glob command args...
+
+Expand wildcards in any paths in the args list, and run C<command>
+repeatedly on each matching path.
+
+See section WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING.
+
+=head2 help
+
+ help
+ help cmd
+
+Without any parameter, this lists all commands.  With a C<cmd>
+parameter, this displays detailed help for a command.
+
 =head2 lcd
 
  lcd directory
@@ -367,14 +401,32 @@ itself.
 
 Note that C<!cd> won't do what you might expect.
 
-=head2 glob
+=head2 more | less
 
- glob command args...
+ more filename
 
-Expand wildcards in any paths in the args list, and run C<command>
-repeatedly on each matching path.
+ less filename
 
-See section WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING.
+This is used to view a file.
+
+The default viewer is C<$PAGER>.  However if you use the alternate
+command C<less> you will get the C<less> command specifically.
+
+NOTE: This will not work reliably for large files
+(> 2 MB) or binary files containing \0 bytes.
+
+=head2 quit | exit
+
+This exits guestfish.  You can also use C<^D> key.
+
+=head2 time
+
+ time command args...
+
+Run the command as usual, but print the elapsed time afterwards.  This
+can be useful for benchmarking operations.
+
+=head1 COMMANDS
 
 @ACTIONS@
 
@@ -382,11 +434,32 @@ See section WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING.
 
 =over 4
 
+=item EDITOR
+
+The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor.  If not
+set, it uses C<vi>.
+
+=item HOME
+
+If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
+is saved in C<$HOME/.guestfish>
+
+=item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
+
+Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
+
 =item LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
 
 Set C<LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1> to enable verbose messages.  This has the
 same effect as using the B<-v> option.
 
+=item LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
+
+Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes.  For
+example:
+
+ LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
+
 =item LIBGUESTFS_PATH
 
 Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and initrd.img.
@@ -398,19 +471,10 @@ Set the default qemu binary that libguestfs uses.  If not set, then
 the qemu which was found at compile time by the configure script is
 used.
 
-=item LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
+=item PAGER
 
-Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
-
-=item HOME
-
-If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history
-is saved in C<$HOME/.guestfish>
-
-=item EDITOR
-
-The C<edit> command uses C<$EDITOR> as the editor.  If not
-set, it uses C<vi>.
+The C<more> command uses C<$PAGER> as the pager.  If not
+set, it uses C<more>.
 
 =back