guestfish(1) Virtualization Support guestfish(1)NAMEguestfish - the libguestfs Filesystem Interactive SHell
SYNOPSISguestfish [--options] [commands]
guestfish
guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img
guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -m dev[:mountpoint]
guestfish-d libvirt-domain
guestfish [--ro|--rw] -a disk.img -i
guestfish-d libvirt-domain -i
WARNING
Using guestfish in read/write mode on live virtual machines can be
dangerous, potentially causing disk corruption. Use the --ro (read-
only) option to use guestfish safely if the disk image or virtual
machine might be live.
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 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 virt-rescue(1)
command.
EXAMPLES
As an interactive shell
$ guestfish
Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
editing virtual machine filesystems.
Type: 'help' for a list of commands
'man' to read the manual
'quit' to quit the shell
><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
From shell scripts
Create a new "/etc/motd" file in a guest or disk image:
guestfish <<_EOF_
add disk.img
run
mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root /
write /etc/motd "Welcome, new users"
_EOF_
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_
On one command line
Update "/etc/resolv.conf" in a guest:
guestfish \
add disk.img : run : mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root / : \
write /etc/resolv.conf "nameserver 1.2.3.4"
Edit "/boot/grub/grub.conf" interactively:
guestfish--rw --add disk.img \
--mount /dev/vg_guest/lv_root \
--mount /dev/sda1:/boot \
edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
Mount disks automatically
Use the -i option to automatically mount the disks from a virtual
machine:
guestfish--ro -a disk.img -i cat /etc/group
guestfish--ro -d libvirt-domain -i cat /etc/group
Another way to edit "/boot/grub/grub.conf" interactively is:
guestfish--rw -a disk.img -i edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
As a script interpreter
Create a 100MB disk containing an ext2-formatted partition:
#!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
sparse test1.img 100M
run
part-disk /dev/sda mbr
mkfs ext2 /dev/sda1
Start with a prepared disk
An alternate way to create a 100MB disk called "test1.img" containing a
single ext2-formatted partition:
guestfish-N fs
To list what is available do:
guestfish-N help | less
Remote control
eval "`guestfish --listen`"
guestfish--remote add-ro disk.img
guestfish--remote run
guestfish--remote lvs
OPTIONS--help
Displays general help on options.
-h
--cmd-help
Lists all available guestfish commands.
-h cmd
--cmd-help cmd
Displays detailed help on a single command "cmd".
-a image
--add image
Add a block device or virtual machine image to the shell.
The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this
and force a particular format use the --format=.. option.
Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the "add" command,
with "readonly:true" if the --ro flag was given, and with
"format:..." if the --format=... flag was given.
-c URI
--connect URI
When used in conjunction with the -d option, this specifies the
libvirt URI to use. The default is to use the default libvirt
connection.
--csh
If using the --listen option and a csh-like shell, use this option.
See section "REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH" below.
-d libvirt-domain
--domain libvirt-domain
Add disks from the named libvirt domain. If the --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.
Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names.
Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the "add-domain"
command, with "readonly:true" if the --ro flag was given, and with
"format:..." if the --format=... flag was given.
-D
--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.
--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.
-f file
--file file
Read commands from "file". To write pure guestfish scripts, use:
#!/usr/bin/guestfish -f
--format=raw|qcow2|..
--format
The default for the -a option is to auto-detect the format of the
disk image. Using this forces the disk format for -a options which
follow on the command line. Using --format with no argument
switches back to auto-detection for subsequent -a options.
For example:
guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img
forces raw format (no auto-detection) for "disk.img".
guestfish --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img
forces raw format (no auto-detection) for "disk.img" and reverts to
auto-detection for "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
"add".
-i
--inspector
Using virt-inspector(1) code, inspect the disks looking for an
operating system and mount filesystems as they would be mounted on
the real virtual machine.
Typical usage is either:
guestfish-d myguest -i
(for an inactive libvirt domain called myguest), or:
guestfish--ro -d myguest -i
(for active domains, readonly), or specify the block device
directly:
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 disk.img
guestfish [--ro] -i libvirt-domain
Using this flag is mostly equivalent to using the "inspect-os"
command and then using other commands to mount the filesystems that
were found.
--keys-from-stdin
Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is to
try to read passphrases from the user by opening "/dev/tty".
--listen
Fork into the background and listen for remote commands. See
section "REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET" below.
--live
Connect to a live virtual machine. (Experimental, see "ATTACHING
TO RUNNING DAEMONS" in guestfs(3)).
-m dev[:mountpoint[:options]]
--mount dev[:mountpoint[:options]]
Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given
mountpoint.
If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to "/".
You have to mount something on "/" before most commands will work.
If any -m or --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,
filesystems and LVs available (see "list-partitions", "list-
filesystems" and "lvs" commands), or you can use the
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
"ro" (the latter if the --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 "mount-options" command.
--network
Enable QEMU user networking in the guest.
-N type
--new type
-N help
Prepare a fresh disk image formatted as "type". This is an
alternative to the -a option: whereas -a adds an existing disk, -N
creates a preformatted disk with a filesystem and adds it. See
"PREPARED DISK IMAGES" below.
-n
--no-sync
Disable autosync. This is enabled by default. See the discussion
of autosync in the guestfs(3) manpage.
--pipe-error
If writes fail to pipe commands (see "PIPES" below), then the
command returns an error.
The default (also for historical reasons) is to ignore such errors
so that:
><fs> command_with_lots_of_output | head
doesn't give an error.
--progress-bars
Enable progress bars, even when guestfish is used non-
interactively.
Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used as an
interactive shell.
--no-progress-bars
Disable progress bars.
--remote[=pid]
Send remote commands to $GUESTFISH_PID or "pid". See section
"REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET" below.
-r
--ro
This changes the -a, -d and -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 -N are not affected by
this option. Also commands like "add" are not affected - you have
to specify the "readonly:true" option explicitly if you need it.
See also "OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE" below.
--selinux
Enable SELinux support for the guest. See "SELINUX" in guestfs(3).
-v
--verbose
Enable very verbose messages. This is particularly useful if you
find a bug.
-V
--version
Display the guestfish / libguestfs version number and exit.
-w
--rw
This changes the -a, -d and -m options so that disks are added and
mounts are done read-write.
See "OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE" below.
-x Echo each command before executing it.
COMMANDS ON COMMAND LINE
Any additional (non-option) arguments are treated as commands to
execute.
Commands to execute should be separated by a colon (":"), where the
colon is a separate parameter. Thus:
guestfish cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] : cmd [args...] ...
If there are no additional arguments, then we enter a shell, either an
interactive shell with a prompt (if the input is a terminal) or a non-
interactive shell.
In either command line mode or non-interactive shell, the first command
that gives an error causes the whole shell to exit. In interactive
mode (with a prompt) if a command fails, you can continue to enter
commands.
USING launch (OR run)
As with guestfs(3), you must first configure your guest by adding
disks, then launch it, then mount any disks you need, and finally issue
actions/commands. So the general order of the day is:
· add or -a/--add
· launch (aka run)
· mount or -m/--mount
· any other commands
"run" is a synonym for "launch". You must "launch" (or "run") your
guest before mounting or performing any other commands.
The only exception is that if any of the -i, -m, --mount, -N or --new
options were given then "run" is done automatically, simply because
guestfish can't perform the action you asked for without doing this.
OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE
The guestfish, guestmount(1) and virt-rescue(1) options --ro and --rw
affect whether the other command line options -a, -c, -d, -i and -m
open disk images read-only or for writing.
In libguestfs X 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 -a image --ro.
This matters: If you accidentally open a live VM disk image writable
then you will cause irreversible disk corruption.
In a future libguestfs we intend to change the default the other way.
Disk images will be opened read-only. You will have to either specify
guestfish--rw, guestmount --rw, virt-rescue --rw, or change the
configuration file "/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 --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.
Note: This does not affect commands like "add" and "mount", or any
other libguestfs program apart from guestfish and guestmount.
QUOTING
You can quote ordinary parameters using either single or double quotes.
For example:
add "file with a space.img"
rm '/file name'
rm '/"'
A few commands require a list of strings to be passed. For these, use
a whitespace-separated list, enclosed in quotes. Strings containing
whitespace to be passed through must be enclosed in single quotes. A
literal single quote must be escaped with a backslash.
vgcreate VG "/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1"
command "/bin/echo 'foo bar'"
command "/bin/echo \'foo\'"
ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN DOUBLE QUOTED ARGUMENTS
In double-quoted arguments (only) use backslash to insert special
characters:
"\a"
Alert (bell) character.
"\b"
Backspace character.
"\f"
Form feed character.
"\n"
Newline character.
"\r"
Carriage return character.
"\t"
Horizontal tab character.
"\v"
Vertical tab character.
"\""
A literal double quote character.
"\ooo"
A character with octal value ooo. There must be precisely 3 octal
digits (unlike C).
"\xhh"
A character with hex value hh. There must be precisely 2 hex
digits.
In the current implementation "\000" and "\x00" cannot be used in
strings.
"\\"
A literal backslash character.
OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
Some commands take optional arguments. These arguments appear in this
documentation as "[argname:..]". You can use them as in these
examples:
add filename
add filename readonly:true
add filename format:qcow2 readonly:false
Each optional argument can appear at most once. All optional arguments
must appear after the required ones.
NUMBERS
This section applies to all commands which can take integers as
parameters.
SIZE SUFFIX
When the command takes a parameter measured in bytes, you can use one
of the following suffixes to specify kilobytes, megabytes and larger
sizes:
k or K or KiB
The size in kilobytes (multiplied by 1024).
KB The size in SI 1000 byte units.
M or MiB
The size in megabytes (multiplied by 1048576).
MB The size in SI 1000000 byte units.
G or GiB
The size in gigabytes (multiplied by 2**30).
GB The size in SI 10**9 byte units.
T or TiB
The size in terabytes (multiplied by 2**40).
TB The size in SI 10**12 byte units.
P or PiB
The size in petabytes (multiplied by 2**50).
PB The size in SI 10**15 byte units.
E or EiB
The size in exabytes (multiplied by 2**60).
EB The size in SI 10**18 byte units.
Z or ZiB
The size in zettabytes (multiplied by 2**70).
ZB The size in SI 10**21 byte units.
Y or YiB
The size in yottabytes (multiplied by 2**80).
YB The size in SI 10**24 byte units.
For example:
truncate-size /file 1G
would truncate the file to 1 gigabyte.
Be careful because a few commands take sizes in kilobytes or megabytes
(eg. the parameter to "memsize" is specified in megabytes already).
Adding a suffix will probably not do what you expect.
OCTAL AND HEXADECIMAL NUMBERS
For specifying the radix (base) use the C convention: 0 to prefix an
octal number or "0x" to prefix a hexadecimal number. For example:
1234 decimal number 1234
02322 octal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
0x4d2 hexadecimal number, equivalent to decimal 1234
When using the "chmod" command, you almost always want to specify an
octal number for the mode, and you must prefix it with 0 (unlike the
Unix chmod(1) program):
chmod 0777 /public # OK
chmod 777 /public # WRONG! This is mode 777 decimal = 01411 octal.
Commands that return numbers usually print them in decimal, but some
commands print numbers in other radices (eg. "umask" prints the mode in
octal, preceded by 0).
WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING
Neither guestfish nor the underlying guestfs API performs wildcard
expansion (globbing) by default. So for example the following will not
do what you expect:
rm-rf /home/*
Assuming you don't have a directory called literally "/home/*" then the
above command will return an error.
To perform wildcard expansion, use the "glob" command.
glob rm-rf /home/*
runs "rm-rf" on each path that matches (ie. potentially running the
command many times), equivalent to:
rm-rf /home/jim
rm-rf /home/joe
rm-rf /home/mary
"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.
COMMENTS
Any line which starts with a # character is treated as a comment and
ignored. The # can optionally be preceded by whitespace, but not by a
command. For example:
# this is a comment
# this is a comment
foo # NOT a comment
Blank lines are also ignored.
RUNNING COMMANDS LOCALLY
Any line which starts with a ! character is treated as a command sent
to the local shell ("/bin/sh" or whatever system(3) uses). For
example:
!mkdir local
tgz-out /remote local/remote-data.tar.gz
will create a directory "local" on the host, and then export the
contents of "/remote" on the mounted filesystem to
"local/remote-data.tar.gz". (See "tgz-out").
To change the local directory, use the "lcd" command. "!cd" will have
no effect, due to the way that subprocesses work in Unix.
LOCAL COMMANDS WITH INLINE EXECUTION
If a line starts with <! then the shell command is executed (as for !),
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. "/foo.1"
through "/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 "/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 "<" character so it is just
an ordinary ! local command), see what guestfish commands it would run,
and when you are happy with those prepend the "<" character to run the
guestfish commands for real.
PIPES
Use "command <space> | 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 "cat" is the guestfish cat command, but "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
tgz-out / - | tar ztf -
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 "|"
HOME DIRECTORIES
If a parameter starts with the character "~" then the tilde may be
expanded as a home directory path (either "~" for the current user's
home directory, or "~user" for another user).
Note that home directory expansion happens for users known on the host,
not in the guest filesystem.
To use a literal argument which begins with a tilde, you have to quote
it, eg:
echo "~"
ENCRYPTED DISKS
Libguestfs has some support for Linux guests encrypted according to the
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard, which includes nearly all
whole disk encryption systems used by modern Linux guests. Currently
only LVM-on-LUKS is supported.
Identify encrypted block devices and partitions using "vfs-type":
><fs> vfs-type /dev/sda2
crypto_LUKS
Then open those devices using "luks-open". This creates a device-
mapper device called "/dev/mapper/luksdev".
><fs> luks-open /dev/sda2 luksdev
Enter key or passphrase ("key"): <enter the passphrase>
Finally you have to tell LVM to scan for volume groups on the newly
created mapper device:
vgscan
vg-activate-all true
The logical volume(s) can now be mounted in the usual way.
Before closing a LUKS device you must unmount any logical volumes on it
and deactivate the volume groups by calling "vg-activate false VG" on
each one. Then you can close the mapper device:
vg-activate false /dev/VG
luks-close /dev/mapper/luksdev
WINDOWS PATHS
If a path is prefixed with "win:" then you can use Windows-style 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: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 "case-sensitive-path". For example if the E: drive was
mounted on "/e" then the parameter might be rewritten like this:
win:e:\foo\bar => /e/FOO/bar
This only works in argument positions that expect a path.
UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES
For commands such as "upload", "download", "tar-in", "tar-out" and
others which upload from or download to a local file, you can use the
special filename "-" to mean "from stdin" or "to stdout". For example:
upload - /foo
reads stdin and creates from that a file "/foo" in the disk image, and:
tar-out /etc - | tar tf -
writes the tarball to stdout and then pipes that into the external
"tar" command (see "PIPES").
When using "-" to read from stdin, the input is read up to the end of
stdin. You can also use a special "heredoc"-like syntax to read up to
some arbitrary end marker:
upload -<<END /foo
input line 1
input line 2
input line 3
END
Any string of characters can be used instead of "END". The end marker
must appear on a line of its own, without any preceding or following
characters (not even spaces).
Note that the "-<<" syntax only applies to parameters used to upload
local files (so-called "FileIn" parameters in the generator).
EXIT ON ERROR BEHAVIOUR
By default, guestfish will ignore any errors when in interactive mode
(ie. taking commands from a human over a tty), and will exit on the
first error in non-interactive mode (scripts, commands given on the
command line).
If you prefix a command with a - character, then that command will not
cause guestfish to exit, even if that (one) command returns an error.
REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A SOCKET
Guestfish can be remote-controlled over a socket. This is useful
particularly in shell scripts where you want to make several different
changes to a filesystem, but you don't want the overhead of starting up
a guestfish process each time.
Start a guestfish server process using:
eval "`guestfish --listen`"
and then send it commands by doing:
guestfish--remote cmd [...]
To cause the server to exit, send it the exit command:
guestfish--remote exit
Note that the server will normally exit if there is an error in a
command. You can change this in the usual way. See section "EXIT ON
ERROR BEHAVIOUR".
CONTROLLING MULTIPLE GUESTFISH PROCESSES
The "eval" statement sets the environment variable $GUESTFISH_PID,
which is how the --remote option knows where to send the commands. You
can have several guestfish listener processes running using:
eval "`guestfish --listen`"
pid1=$GUESTFISH_PID
eval "`guestfish --listen`"
pid2=$GUESTFISH_PID
...
guestfish --remote=$pid1 cmd
guestfish --remote=$pid2 cmd
REMOTE CONTROL AND CSH
When using csh-like shells (csh, tcsh etc) you have to add the --csh
option:
eval "`guestfish --listen --csh`"
REMOTE CONTROL DETAILS
Remote control happens over a Unix domain socket called
"/tmp/.guestfish-$UID/socket-$PID", where $UID is the effective user ID
of the process, and $PID is the process ID of the server.
Guestfish client and server versions must match exactly.
USING REMOTE CONTROL ROBUSTLY FROM SHELL SCRIPTS
From Bash, you can use the following code which creates a guestfish
instance, correctly quotes the command line, handles failure to start,
and cleans up guestfish when the script exits:
#!/bin/bash -
set -e
guestfish[0]="guestfish"
guestfish[1]="--listen"
guestfish[2]="--ro"
guestfish[3]="-a"
guestfish[4]="disk.img"
GUESTFISH_PID=
eval $("${guestfish[@]}")
if [ -z "$GUESTFISH_PID" ]; then
echo "error: guestfish didn't start up, see error messages above"
exit 1
fi
cleanup_guestfish ()
{
guestfish--remote -- exit >/dev/null 2>&1 ||:
}
trap cleanup_guestfish EXIT ERR
guestfish--remote -- run
# ...
REMOTE CONTROL RUN COMMAND HANGING
Using the "run" (or "launch") command remotely in a command
substitution context hangs, ie. don't do (note the backquotes):
a=`guestfish --remote run`
Since the "run" command produces no output on stdout, this is not
useful anyway. For further information see
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592910.
PREPARED DISK IMAGES
Use the -N type or --new type parameter to select one of a set of
preformatted disk images that guestfish can make for you to save
typing. This is particularly useful for testing purposes. This option
is used instead of the -a option, and like -a can appear multiple times
(and can be mixed with -a).
The new disk is called "test1.img" for the first -N, "test2.img" for
the second and so on. Existing files in the current directory are
overwritten.
The type briefly describes how the disk should be sized, partitioned,
how filesystem(s) should be created, and how content should be added.
Optionally the type can be followed by extra parameters, separated by
":" (colon) characters. For example, -N fs creates a default 100MB,
sparsely-allocated disk, containing a single partition, with the
partition formatted as ext2. -N fs:ext4:1G is the same, but for an
ext4 filesystem on a 1GB disk instead.
To list the available types and any extra parameters they take, run:
guestfish-N help | less
Note that the prepared filesystem is not mounted. You would usually
have to use the "mount /dev/sda1 /" command or add the -m /dev/sda1
option.
If any -N or --new options are given, the guest is automatically
launched.
EXAMPLES
Create a 100MB disk with an ext4-formatted partition:
guestfish-N fs:ext4
Create a 32MB disk with a VFAT-formatted partition, and mount it:
guestfish-N fs:vfat:32M -m /dev/sda1
Create a blank 200MB disk:
guestfish-N disk:200M
PROGRESS BARS
Some (not all) long-running commands send progress notification
messages as they are running. Guestfish turns these messages into
progress bars.
When a command that supports progress bars takes longer than two
seconds to run, and if progress bars are enabled, then you will see one
appearing below the command:
><fs> copy-size /large-file /another-file 2048M
/ 10% [#####-----------------------------------------] 00:30
The spinner on the left hand side moves round once for every progress
notification received from the backend. This is a (reasonably) golden
assurance that the command is "doing something" even if the progress
bar is not moving, because the command is able to send the progress
notifications. When the bar reaches 100% and the command finishes, the
spinner disappears.
Progress bars are enabled by default when guestfish is used
interactively. You can enable them even for non-interactive modes
using --progress-bars, and you can disable them completely using
--no-progress-bars.
PROMPT
You can change or add colours to the default prompt ("><fs>") by
setting the "GUESTFISH_PS1" environment variable. A simple prompt can
be set by setting this to an alternate string:
$ GUESTFISH_PS1='(type a command) '
$ export GUESTFISH_PS1
$ guestfish
[...]
(type a command) X
You can also use special escape sequences, as described in the table
below:
\\ A literal backslash character.
\[
\] Place non-printing characters (eg. terminal control codes for
colours) between "\[...\]". What this does it to tell the
readline(3) library that it should treat this subsequence as zero-
width, so that command-line redisplay, editing etc works.
\a A bell character.
\e An ASCII ESC (escape) character.
\n A newline.
\r A carriage return.
\NNN
The ASCII character whose code is the octal value NNN.
\xNN
The ASCII character whose code is the hex value NN.
EXAMPLES OF PROMPTS
Note these these require a terminal that supports ANSI escape codes.
GUESTFISH_PS1='\[\e[1;30m\]><fs>\[\e[0;30m\] '
A bold black version of the ordinary prompt.
WINDOWS 8
Windows 8 "fast startup" can prevent guestfish from mounting NTFS
partitions. See "WINDOWS HIBERNATION AND WINDOWS 8 FAST STARTUP" in
guestfs(3).
GUESTFISH COMMANDS
The commands in this section are guestfish convenience commands, in
other words, they are not part of the guestfs(3) API.
help
help
help cmd
Without any parameter, this provides general help.
With a "cmd" parameter, this displays detailed help for that command.
exit
quit
This exits guestfish. You can also use "^D" key.
alloc
allocate
alloc filename size
This creates an empty (zeroed) file of the given size, and then adds so
it can be further examined.
For more advanced image creation, see qemu-img(1) utility.
Size can be specified using standard suffixes, eg. "1M".
To create a sparse file, use "sparse" instead. To create a prepared
disk image, see "PREPARED DISK IMAGES".
copy-in
copy-in local [local ...] /remotedir
"copy-in" copies local files or directories recursively into the disk
image, placing them in the directory called "/remotedir" (which must
exist). This guestfish meta-command turns into a sequence of "tar-in"
and other commands as necessary.
Multiple local files and directories can be specified, but the last
parameter must always be a remote directory. Wildcards cannot be used.
copy-out
copy-out remote [remote ...] localdir
"copy-out" copies remote files or directories recursively out of the
disk image, placing them on the host disk in a local directory called
"localdir" (which must exist). This guestfish meta-command turns into
a sequence of "download", "tar-out" and other commands as necessary.
Multiple remote files and directories can be specified, but the last
parameter must always be a local directory. To download to the current
directory, use "." as in:
copy-out /home .
Wildcards cannot be used in the ordinary command, but you can use them
with the help of "glob" like this:
glob copy-out /home/* .
delete-event
delete-event name
Delete the event handler which was previously registered as "name". If
multiple event handlers were registered with the same name, they are
all deleted.
See also the guestfish commands "event" and "list-events".
display
display filename
Use "display" (a graphical display program) to display an image file.
It downloads the file, and runs "display" on it.
To use an alternative program, set the "GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE"
environment variable. For example to use the GNOME display program:
export GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE=eog
See also display(1).
echo
echo [params ...]
This echos the parameters to the terminal.
edit
vi
emacs
edit filename
This is used to edit a file. It downloads the file, edits it locally
using your editor, then uploads the result.
The editor is $EDITOR. However if you use the alternate commands "vi"
or "emacs" you will get those corresponding editors.
event
event name eventset "shell script ..."
Register a shell script fragment which is executed when an event is
raised. See "guestfs_set_event_callback" in guestfs(3) for a
discussion of the event API in libguestfs.
The "name" parameter is a name that you give to this event handler. It
can be any string (even the empty string) and is simply there so you
can delete the handler using the guestfish "delete-event" command.
The "eventset" parameter is a comma-separated list of one or more
events, for example "close" or "close,trace". The special value "*"
means all events.
The third and final parameter is the shell script fragment (or any
external command) that is executed when any of the events in the
eventset occurs. It is executed using "$SHELL -c", or if $SHELL is not
set then "/bin/sh -c".
The shell script fragment receives callback parameters as arguments $1,
$2 etc. The actual event that was called is available in the
environment variable $EVENT.
event "" close "echo closed"
event messages appliance,library,trace "echo $@"
event "" progress "echo progress: $3/$4"
event "" * "echo $EVENT $@"
See also the guestfish commands "delete-event" and "list-events".
glob
glob command args...
Expand wildcards in any paths in the args list, and run "command"
repeatedly on each matching path.
See "WILDCARDS AND GLOBBING".
hexedit
hexedit <filename|device>
hexedit <filename|device> <max>
hexedit <filename|device> <start> <max>
Use hexedit (a hex editor) to edit all or part of a binary file or
block device.
This command works by downloading potentially the whole file or device,
editing it locally, then uploading it. If the file or device is large,
you have to specify which part you wish to edit by using "max" and/or
"start" "max" parameters. "start" and "max" are specified in bytes,
with the usual modifiers allowed such as "1M" (1 megabyte).
For example to edit the first few sectors of a disk you might do:
hexedit /dev/sda 1M
which would allow you to edit anywhere within the first megabyte of the
disk.
To edit the superblock of an ext2 filesystem on "/dev/sda1", do:
hexedit /dev/sda1 0x400 0x400
(assuming the superblock is in the standard location).
This command requires the external hexedit(1) program. You can specify
another program to use by setting the "HEXEDITOR" environment variable.
See also "hexdump".
lcd
lcd directory
Change the local directory, ie. the current directory of guestfish
itself.
Note that "!cd" won't do what you might expect.
list-events
list-events
List the event handlers registered using the guestfish "event" command.
man
manual
man
Opens the manual page for guestfish.
more
less
more filename
less filename
This is used to view a file.
The default viewer is $PAGER. However if you use the alternate command
"less" you will get the "less" command specifically.
reopen
reopen
Close and reopen the libguestfs handle. It is not necessary to use
this normally, because the handle is closed properly when guestfish
exits. However this is occasionally useful for testing.
setenv
setenv VAR value
Set the environment variable "VAR" to the string "value".
To print the value of an environment variable use a shell command such
as:
!echo $VAR
sparse
sparse filename size
This creates an empty sparse file of the given size, and then adds so
it can be further examined.
In all respects it works the same as the "alloc" command, except that
the image file is allocated sparsely, which means that disk blocks are
not assigned to the file until they are needed. Sparse disk files only
use space when written to, but they are slower and there is a danger
you could run out of real disk space during a write operation.
For more advanced image creation, see qemu-img(1) utility.
Size can be specified using standard suffixes, eg. "1M".
supported
supported
This command returns a list of the optional groups known to the daemon,
and indicates which ones are supported by this build of the libguestfs
appliance.
See also "AVAILABILITY" in guestfs(3).
time
time command args...
Run the command as usual, but print the elapsed time afterwards. This
can be useful for benchmarking operations.
unsetenv
unsetenv VAR
Remove "VAR" from the environment.
COMMANDS
acl-delete-def-file
acl-delete-def-file dir
This function deletes the default POSIX Access Control List (ACL)
attached to directory "dir".
acl-get-file
acl-get-file path acltype
This function returns the POSIX Access Control List (ACL) attached to
"path". The ACL is returned in "long text form" (see acl(5)).
The "acltype" parameter may be:
"access"
Return the ordinary (access) ACL for any file, directory or other
filesystem object.
"default"
Return the default ACL. Normally this only makes sense if "path"
is a directory.
acl-set-file
acl-set-file path acltype acl
This function sets the POSIX Access Control List (ACL) attached to
"path". The "acl" parameter is the new ACL in either "long text form"
or "short text form" (see acl(5)).
The "acltype" parameter may be:
"access"
Set the ordinary (access) ACL for any file, directory or other
filesystem object.
"default"
Set the default ACL. Normally this only makes sense if "path" is a
directory.
add-cdrom
add-cdrom filename
This function adds a virtual CD-ROM disk image to the guest.
Do not use this function! ISO files are just ordinary read-only disk
images. Use "add-drive-ro" instead.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "add-drive" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
add-domain
domain
add-domain dom [libvirturi:..] [readonly:true|false] [iface:..] [live:true|false] [allowuuid:true|false] [readonlydisk:..]
This function adds the disk(s) attached to the named libvirt domain
"dom". It works by connecting to libvirt, requesting the domain and
domain XML from libvirt, parsing it for disks, and calling "add-drive-
opts" on each one.
The number of disks added is returned. This operation is atomic: if an
error is returned, then no disks are added.
This function does some minimal checks to make sure the libvirt domain
is not running (unless "readonly" is true). In a future version we
will try to acquire the libvirt lock on each disk.
Disks must be accessible locally. This often means that adding disks
from a remote libvirt connection (see http://libvirt.org/remote.html)
will fail unless those disks are accessible via the same device path
locally too.
The optional "libvirturi" parameter sets the libvirt URI (see
http://libvirt.org/uri.html). If this is not set then we connect to
the default libvirt URI (or one set through an environment variable,
see the libvirt documentation for full details).
The optional "live" flag controls whether this call will try to connect
to a running virtual machine "guestfsd" process if it sees a suitable
<channel> element in the libvirt XML definition. The default (if the
flag is omitted) is never to try. See "ATTACHING TO RUNNING DAEMONS"
in guestfs(3) for more information.
If the "allowuuid" flag is true (default is false) then a UUID may be
passed instead of the domain name. The "dom" string is treated as a
UUID first and looked up, and if that lookup fails then we treat "dom"
as a name as usual.
The optional "readonlydisk" parameter controls what we do for disks
which are marked <readonly/> in the libvirt XML. Possible values are:
readonlydisk = "error"
If "readonly" is false:
The whole call is aborted with an error if any disk with the
<readonly/> flag is found.
If "readonly" is true:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are added read-only.
readonlydisk = "read"
If "readonly" is false:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are added read-only. Other disks
are added read/write.
If "readonly" is true:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are added read-only.
readonlydisk = "write" (default)
If "readonly" is false:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are added read/write.
If "readonly" is true:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are added read-only.
readonlydisk = "ignore"
If "readonly" is true or false:
Disks with the <readonly/> flag are skipped.
The other optional parameters are passed directly through to "add-
drive-opts".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
add-drive
add
add-drive-opts
add-drive filename [readonly:true|false] [format:..] [iface:..] [name:..] [label:..]
This function adds a disk image called "filename" to the handle.
"filename" may be a regular host file or a host device.
When this function is called before "launch" (the usual case) then the
first time you call this function, the disk appears in the API as
"/dev/sda", the second time as "/dev/sdb", and so on.
In libguestfs X 1.20 you can also call this function after launch (with
some restrictions). This is called "hotplugging". When hotplugging,
you must specify a "label" so that the new disk gets a predictable
name. For more information see "HOTPLUGGING" in guestfs(3).
You don't necessarily need to be root when using libguestfs. However
you obviously do need sufficient permissions to access the filename for
whatever operations you want to perform (ie. read access if you just
want to read the image or write access if you want to modify the
image).
This call checks that "filename" exists.
"filename" may be the special string "/dev/null". See "NULL DISKS" in
guestfs(3).
The optional arguments are:
"readonly"
If true then the image is treated as read-only. Writes are still
allowed, but they are stored in a temporary snapshot overlay which
is discarded at the end. The disk that you add is not modified.
"format"
This forces the image format. If you omit this (or use "add-drive"
or "add-drive-ro") then the format is automatically detected.
Possible formats include "raw" and "qcow2".
Automatic detection of the format opens you up to a potential
security hole when dealing with untrusted raw-format images. See
CVE-2010-3851 and RHBZ#642934. Specifying the format closes this
security hole.
"iface"
This rarely-used option lets you emulate the behaviour of the
deprecated "add-drive-with-if" call (q.v.)
"name"
The name the drive had in the original guest, e.g. "/dev/sdb".
This is used as a hint to the guest inspection process if it is
available.
"label"
Give the disk a label. The label should be a unique, short string
using only ASCII characters "[a-zA-Z]". As well as its usual name
in the API (such as "/dev/sda"), the drive will also be named
"/dev/disk/guestfs/label".
See "DISK LABELS" in guestfs(3).
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
add-drive-ro
add-ro
add-drive-ro filename
This function is the equivalent of calling "add-drive-opts" with the
optional parameter "GUESTFS_ADD_DRIVE_OPTS_READONLY" set to 1, so the
disk is added read-only, with the format being detected automatically.
add-drive-ro-with-if
add-drive-ro-with-if filename iface
This is the same as "add-drive-ro" but it allows you to specify the
QEMU interface emulation to use at run time.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "add-drive" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
add-drive-with-if
add-drive-with-if filename iface
This is the same as "add-drive" but it allows you to specify the QEMU
interface emulation to use at run time.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "add-drive" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
aug-clear
aug-clear augpath
Set the value associated with "path" to "NULL". This is the same as
the augtool(1) "clear" command.
aug-close
aug-close
Close the current Augeas handle and free up any resources used by it.
After calling this, you have to call "aug-init" again before you can
use any other Augeas functions.
aug-defnode
aug-defnode name expr val
Defines a variable "name" whose value is the result of evaluating
"expr".
If "expr" evaluates to an empty nodeset, a node is created, equivalent
to calling "aug-set" "expr", "value". "name" will be the nodeset
containing that single node.
On success this returns a pair containing the number of nodes in the
nodeset, and a boolean flag if a node was created.
aug-defvar
aug-defvar name expr
Defines an Augeas variable "name" whose value is the result of
evaluating "expr". If "expr" is NULL, then "name" is undefined.
On success this returns the number of nodes in "expr", or 0 if "expr"
evaluates to something which is not a nodeset.
aug-get
aug-get augpath
Look up the value associated with "path". If "path" matches exactly
one node, the "value" is returned.
aug-init
aug-init root flags
Create a new Augeas handle for editing configuration files. If there
was any previous Augeas handle associated with this guestfs session,
then it is closed.
You must call this before using any other "aug-*" commands.
"root" is the filesystem root. "root" must not be NULL, use "/"
instead.
The flags are the same as the flags defined in <augeas.h>, the logical
or of the following integers:
"AUG_SAVE_BACKUP" = 1
Keep the original file with a ".augsave" extension.
"AUG_SAVE_NEWFILE" = 2
Save changes into a file with extension ".augnew", and do not
overwrite original. Overrides "AUG_SAVE_BACKUP".
"AUG_TYPE_CHECK" = 4
Typecheck lenses.
This option is only useful when debugging Augeas lenses. Use of
this option may require additional memory for the libguestfs
appliance. You may need to set the "LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE"
environment variable or call "set-memsize".
"AUG_NO_STDINC" = 8
Do not use standard load path for modules.
"AUG_SAVE_NOOP" = 16
Make save a no-op, just record what would have been changed.
"AUG_NO_LOAD" = 32
Do not load the tree in "aug-init".
To close the handle, you can call "aug-close".
To find out more about Augeas, see http://augeas.net/.
aug-insert
aug-insert augpath label true|false
Create a new sibling "label" for "path", inserting it into the tree
before or after "path" (depending on the boolean flag "before").
"path" must match exactly one existing node in the tree, and "label"
must be a label, ie. not contain "/", "*" or end with a bracketed index
"[N]".
aug-load
aug-load
Load files into the tree.
See "aug_load" in the Augeas documentation for the full gory details.
aug-ls
aug-ls augpath
This is just a shortcut for listing "aug-match" "path/*" and sorting
the resulting nodes into alphabetical order.
aug-match
aug-match augpath
Returns a list of paths which match the path expression "path". The
returned paths are sufficiently qualified so that they match exactly
one node in the current tree.
aug-mv
aug-mv src dest
Move the node "src" to "dest". "src" must match exactly one node.
"dest" is overwritten if it exists.
aug-rm
aug-rm augpath
Remove "path" and all of its children.
On success this returns the number of entries which were removed.
aug-save
aug-save
This writes all pending changes to disk.
The flags which were passed to "aug-init" affect exactly how files are
saved.
aug-set
aug-set augpath val
Set the value associated with "path" to "val".
In the Augeas API, it is possible to clear a node by setting the value
to NULL. Due to an oversight in the libguestfs API you cannot do that
with this call. Instead you must use the "aug-clear" call.
available
available 'groups ...'
This command is used to check the availability of some groups of
functionality in the appliance, which not all builds of the libguestfs
appliance will be able to provide.
The libguestfs groups, and the functions that those groups correspond
to, are listed in "AVAILABILITY" in guestfs(3). You can also fetch
this list at runtime by calling "available-all-groups".
The argument "groups" is a list of group names, eg: "["inotify",
"augeas"]" would check for the availability of the Linux inotify
functions and Augeas (configuration file editing) functions.
The command returns no error if all requested groups are available.
It fails with an error if one or more of the requested groups is
unavailable in the appliance.
If an unknown group name is included in the list of groups then an
error is always returned.
Notes:
· You must call "launch" before calling this function.
The reason is because we don't know what groups are supported by
the appliance/daemon until it is running and can be queried.
· If a group of functions is available, this does not necessarily
mean that they will work. You still have to check for errors when
calling individual API functions even if they are available.
· It is usually the job of distro packagers to build complete
functionality into the libguestfs appliance. Upstream libguestfs,
if built from source with all requirements satisfied, will support
everything.
· This call was added in version 1.0.80. In previous versions of
libguestfs all you could do would be to speculatively execute a
command to find out if the daemon implemented it. See also
"version".
See also "filesystem-available".
available-all-groups
available-all-groups
This command returns a list of all optional groups that this daemon
knows about. Note this returns both supported and unsupported groups.
To find out which ones the daemon can actually support you have to call
"available" on each member of the returned list.
See also "available" and "AVAILABILITY" in guestfs(3).
base64-in
base64-in (base64file|-) filename
This command uploads base64-encoded data from "base64file" to
"filename".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
base64-out
base64-out filename (base64file|-)
This command downloads the contents of "filename", writing it out to
local file "base64file" encoded as base64.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
blkid
blkid device
This command returns block device attributes for "device". The
following fields are usually present in the returned hash. Other fields
may also be present.
"UUID"
The uuid of this device.
"LABEL"
The label of this device.
"VERSION"
The version of blkid command.
"TYPE"
The filesystem type or RAID of this device.
"USAGE"
The usage of this device, for example "filesystem" or "raid".
blockdev-flushbufs
blockdev-flushbufs device
This tells the kernel to flush internal buffers associated with
"device".
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-getbsz
blockdev-getbsz device
This returns the block size of a device.
(Note this is different from both size in blocks and filesystem block
size).
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-getro
blockdev-getro device
Returns a boolean indicating if the block device is read-only (true if
read-only, false if not).
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-getsize64
blockdev-getsize64 device
This returns the size of the device in bytes.
See also "blockdev-getsz".
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-getss
blockdev-getss device
This returns the size of sectors on a block device. Usually 512, but
can be larger for modern devices.
(Note, this is not the size in sectors, use "blockdev-getsz" for that).
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-getsz
blockdev-getsz device
This returns the size of the device in units of 512-byte sectors (even
if the sectorsize isn't 512 bytes ... weird).
See also "blockdev-getss" for the real sector size of the device, and
"blockdev-getsize64" for the more useful size in bytes.
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-rereadpt
blockdev-rereadpt device
Reread the partition table on "device".
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-setbsz
blockdev-setbsz device blocksize
This sets the block size of a device.
(Note this is different from both size in blocks and filesystem block
size).
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-setro
blockdev-setro device
Sets the block device named "device" to read-only.
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
blockdev-setrw
blockdev-setrw device
Sets the block device named "device" to read-write.
This uses the blockdev(8) command.
btrfs-device-add
btrfs-device-add 'devices ...' fs
Add the list of device(s) in "devices" to the btrfs filesystem mounted
at "fs". If "devices" is an empty list, this does nothing.
btrfs-device-delete
btrfs-device-delete 'devices ...' fs
Remove the "devices" from the btrfs filesystem mounted at "fs". If
"devices" is an empty list, this does nothing.
btrfs-filesystem-balance
btrfs-filesystem-balance fs
Balance the chunks in the btrfs filesystem mounted at "fs" across the
underlying devices.
btrfs-filesystem-resize
btrfs-filesystem-resize mountpoint [size:N]
This command resizes a btrfs filesystem.
Note that unlike other resize calls, the filesystem has to be mounted
and the parameter is the mountpoint not the device (this is a
requirement of btrfs itself).
The optional parameters are:
"size"
The new size (in bytes) of the filesystem. If omitted, the
filesystem is resized to the maximum size.
See also btrfs(8).
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
btrfs-filesystem-sync
btrfs-filesystem-sync fs
Force sync on the btrfs filesystem mounted at "fs".
btrfs-fsck
btrfs-fsck device [superblock:N] [repair:true|false]
Used to check a btrfs filesystem, "device" is the device file where the
filesystem is stored.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
btrfs-set-seeding
btrfs-set-seeding device true|false
Enable or disable the seeding feature of a device that contains a btrfs
filesystem.
btrfs-subvolume-create
btrfs-subvolume-create dest
Create a btrfs subvolume. The "dest" argument is the destination
directory and the name of the snapshot, in the form
"/path/to/dest/name".
btrfs-subvolume-delete
btrfs-subvolume-delete subvolume
Delete the named btrfs subvolume.
btrfs-subvolume-list
btrfs-subvolume-list fs
List the btrfs snapshots and subvolumes of the btrfs filesystem which
is mounted at "fs".
btrfs-subvolume-set-default
btrfs-subvolume-set-default id fs
Set the subvolume of the btrfs filesystem "fs" which will be mounted by
default. See "btrfs-subvolume-list" to get a list of subvolumes.
btrfs-subvolume-snapshot
btrfs-subvolume-snapshot source dest
Create a writable snapshot of the btrfs subvolume "source". The "dest"
argument is the destination directory and the name of the snapshot, in
the form "/path/to/dest/name".
canonical-device-name
canonical-device-name device
This utility function is useful when displaying device names to the
user. It takes a number of irregular device names and returns them in
a consistent format:
"/dev/hdX"
"/dev/vdX"
These are returned as "/dev/sdX". Note this works for device names
and partition names. This is approximately the reverse of the
algorithm described in "BLOCK DEVICE NAMING" in guestfs(3).
"/dev/mapper/VG-LV"
"/dev/dm-N"
Converted to "/dev/VG/LV" form using "lvm-canonical-lvm-name".
Other strings are returned unmodified.
cap-get-file
cap-get-file path
This function returns the Linux capabilities attached to "path". The
capabilities set is returned in text form (see cap_to_text(3)).
cap-set-file
cap-set-file path cap
This function sets the Linux capabilities attached to "path". The
capabilities set "cap" should be passed in text form (see
cap_from_text(3)).
case-sensitive-path
case-sensitive-path path
This can be used to resolve case insensitive paths on a filesystem
which is case sensitive. The use case is to resolve paths which you
have read from Windows configuration files or the Windows Registry, to
the true path.
The command handles a peculiarity of the Linux ntfs-3g filesystem
driver (and probably others), which is that although the underlying
filesystem is case-insensitive, the driver exports the filesystem to
Linux as case-sensitive.
One consequence of this is that special directories such as
"c:\windows" may appear as "/WINDOWS" or "/windows" (or other things)
depending on the precise details of how they were created. In Windows
itself this would not be a problem.
Bug or feature? You decide:
http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-faq/#posixfilenames1
This function resolves the true case of each element in the path and
returns the case-sensitive path.
Thus "case-sensitive-path" ("/Windows/System32") might return
"/WINDOWS/system32" (the exact return value would depend on details of
how the directories were originally created under Windows).
Note: This function does not handle drive names, backslashes etc.
See also "realpath".
cat
cat path
Return the contents of the file named "path".
Because, in C, this function returns a "char *", there is no way to
differentiate between a "\0" character in a file and end of string. To
handle binary files, use the "read-file" or "download" functions.
checksum
checksum csumtype path
This call computes the MD5, SHAx or CRC checksum of the file named
"path".
The type of checksum to compute is given by the "csumtype" parameter
which must have one of the following values:
"crc"
Compute the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) specified by POSIX for
the "cksum" command.
"md5"
Compute the MD5 hash (using the "md5sum" program).
"sha1"
Compute the SHA1 hash (using the "sha1sum" program).
"sha224"
Compute the SHA224 hash (using the "sha224sum" program).
"sha256"
Compute the SHA256 hash (using the "sha256sum" program).
"sha384"
Compute the SHA384 hash (using the "sha384sum" program).
"sha512"
Compute the SHA512 hash (using the "sha512sum" program).
The checksum is returned as a printable string.
To get the checksum for a device, use "checksum-device".
To get the checksums for many files, use "checksums-out".
checksum-device
checksum-device csumtype device
This call computes the MD5, SHAx or CRC checksum of the contents of the
device named "device". For the types of checksums supported see the
"checksum" command.
checksums-out
checksums-out csumtype directory (sumsfile|-)
This command computes the checksums of all regular files in "directory"
and then emits a list of those checksums to the local output file
"sumsfile".
This can be used for verifying the integrity of a virtual machine.
However to be properly secure you should pay attention to the output of
the checksum command (it uses the ones from GNU coreutils). In
particular when the filename is not printable, coreutils uses a special
backslash syntax. For more information, see the GNU coreutils info
file.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
chmod
chmod mode path
Change the mode (permissions) of "path" to "mode". Only numeric modes
are supported.
Note: When using this command from guestfish, "mode" by default would
be decimal, unless you prefix it with 0 to get octal, ie. use 0700 not
700.
The mode actually set is affected by the umask.
chown
chown owner group path
Change the file owner to "owner" and group to "group".
Only numeric uid and gid are supported. If you want to use names, you
will need to locate and parse the password file yourself (Augeas
support makes this relatively easy).
command
command 'arguments ...'
This call runs a command from the guest filesystem. The filesystem
must be mounted, and must contain a compatible operating system (ie.
something Linux, with the same or compatible processor architecture).
The single parameter is an argv-style list of arguments. The first
element is the name of the program to run. Subsequent elements are
parameters. The list must be non-empty (ie. must contain a program
name). Note that the command runs directly, and is not invoked via the
shell (see "sh").
The return value is anything printed to stdout by the command.
If the command returns a non-zero exit status, then this function
returns an error message. The error message string is the content of
stderr from the command.
The $PATH environment variable will contain at least "/usr/bin" and
"/bin". If you require a program from another location, you should
provide the full path in the first parameter.
Shared libraries and data files required by the program must be
available on filesystems which are mounted in the correct places. It
is the caller's responsibility to ensure all filesystems that are
needed are mounted at the right locations.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
command-lines
command-lines 'arguments ...'
This is the same as "command", but splits the result into a list of
lines.
See also: "sh-lines"
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
compress-device-out
compress-device-out ctype device (zdevice|-) [level:N]
This command compresses "device" and writes it out to the local file
"zdevice".
The "ctype" and optional "level" parameters have the same meaning as in
"compress-out".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
compress-out
compress-out ctype file (zfile|-) [level:N]
This command compresses "file" and writes it out to the local file
"zfile".
The compression program used is controlled by the "ctype" parameter.
Currently this includes: "compress", "gzip", "bzip2", "xz" or "lzop".
Some compression types may not be supported by particular builds of
libguestfs, in which case you will get an error containing the
substring "not supported".
The optional "level" parameter controls compression level. The meaning
and default for this parameter depends on the compression program being
used.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
config
config qemuparam qemuvalue
This can be used to add arbitrary qemu command line parameters of the
form -param value. Actually it's not quite arbitrary - we prevent you
from setting some parameters which would interfere with parameters that
we use.
The first character of "qemuparam" string must be a "-" (dash).
"qemuvalue" can be NULL.
copy-device-to-device
copy-device-to-device src dest [srcoffset:N] [destoffset:N] [size:N]
The four calls "copy-device-to-device", "copy-device-to-file", "copy-
file-to-device", and "copy-file-to-file" let you copy from a source
(device|file) to a destination (device|file).
Partial copies can be made since you can specify optionally the source
offset, destination offset and size to copy. These values are all
specified in bytes. If not given, the offsets both default to zero,
and the size defaults to copying as much as possible until we hit the
end of the source.
The source and destination may be the same object. However overlapping
regions may not be copied correctly.
If the destination is a file, it is created if required. If the
destination file is not large enough, it is extended.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
copy-device-to-file
copy-device-to-file src dest [srcoffset:N] [destoffset:N] [size:N]
See "copy-device-to-device" for a general overview of this call.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
copy-file-to-device
copy-file-to-device src dest [srcoffset:N] [destoffset:N] [size:N]
See "copy-device-to-device" for a general overview of this call.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
copy-file-to-file
copy-file-to-file src dest [srcoffset:N] [destoffset:N] [size:N]
See "copy-device-to-device" for a general overview of this call.
This is not the function you want for copying files. This is for
copying blocks within existing files. See "cp", "cp-a" and "mv" for
general file copying and moving functions.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
copy-size
copy-size src dest size
This command copies exactly "size" bytes from one source device or file
"src" to another destination device or file "dest".
Note this will fail if the source is too short or if the destination is
not large enough.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "copy-device-to-
device" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
cp
cp src dest
This copies a file from "src" to "dest" where "dest" is either a
destination filename or destination directory.
cp-a
cp-a src dest
This copies a file or directory from "src" to "dest" recursively using
the "cp -a" command.
dd
dd src dest
This command copies from one source device or file "src" to another
destination device or file "dest". Normally you would use this to copy
to or from a device or partition, for example to duplicate a
filesystem.
If the destination is a device, it must be as large or larger than the
source file or device, otherwise the copy will fail. This command
cannot do partial copies (see "copy-device-to-device").
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "copy-device-to-
device" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
device-index
device-index device
This function takes a device name (eg. "/dev/sdb") and returns the
index of the device in the list of devices.
Index numbers start from 0. The named device must exist, for example
as a string returned from "list-devices".
See also "list-devices", "part-to-dev".
df
df
This command runs the "df" command to report disk space used.
This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It is not
intended that you try to parse the output string. Use "statvfs" from
programs.
df-h
df-h
This command runs the "df -h" command to report disk space used in
human-readable format.
This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It is not
intended that you try to parse the output string. Use "statvfs" from
programs.
disk-format
disk-format filename
Detect and return the format of the disk image called "filename".
"filename" can also be a host device, etc. If the format of the image
could not be detected, then "unknown" is returned.
Note that detecting the disk format can be insecure under some
circumstances. See "CVE-2010-3851" in guestfs(3).
See also: "DISK IMAGE FORMATS" in guestfs(3)
disk-has-backing-file
disk-has-backing-file filename
Detect and return whether the disk image "filename" has a backing file.
Note that detecting disk features can be insecure under some
circumstances. See "CVE-2010-3851" in guestfs(3).
disk-virtual-size
disk-virtual-size filename
Detect and return the virtual size in bytes of the disk image called
"filename".
Note that detecting disk features can be insecure under some
circumstances. See "CVE-2010-3851" in guestfs(3).
dmesg
dmesg
This returns the kernel messages ("dmesg" output) from the guest
kernel. This is sometimes useful for extended debugging of problems.
Another way to get the same information is to enable verbose messages
with "set-verbose" or by setting the environment variable
"LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1" before running the program.
download
download remotefilename (filename|-)
Download file "remotefilename" and save it as "filename" on the local
machine.
"filename" can also be a named pipe.
See also "upload", "cat".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
download-offset
download-offset remotefilename (filename|-) offset size
Download file "remotefilename" and save it as "filename" on the local
machine.
"remotefilename" is read for "size" bytes starting at "offset" (this
region must be within the file or device).
Note that there is no limit on the amount of data that can be
downloaded with this call, unlike with "pread", and this call always
reads the full amount unless an error occurs.
See also "download", "pread".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
drop-caches
drop-caches whattodrop
This instructs the guest kernel to drop its page cache, and/or dentries
and inode caches. The parameter "whattodrop" tells the kernel what
precisely to drop, see http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches
Setting "whattodrop" to 3 should drop everything.
This automatically calls sync(2) before the operation, so that the
maximum guest memory is freed.
du
du path
This command runs the "du -s" command to estimate file space usage for
"path".
"path" can be a file or a directory. If "path" is a directory then the
estimate includes the contents of the directory and all subdirectories
(recursively).
The result is the estimated size in kilobytes (ie. units of 1024
bytes).
e2fsck
e2fsck device [correct:true|false] [forceall:true|false]
This runs the ext2/ext3 filesystem checker on "device". It can take
the following optional arguments:
"correct"
Automatically repair the file system. This option will cause e2fsck
to automatically fix any filesystem problems that can be safely
fixed without human intervention.
This option may not be specified at the same time as the "forceall"
option.
"forceall"
Assume an answer of 'yes' to all questions; allows e2fsck to be
used non-interactively.
This option may not be specified at the same time as the "correct"
option.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
e2fsck-f
e2fsck-f device
This runs "e2fsck -p -f device", ie. runs the ext2/ext3 filesystem
checker on "device", noninteractively (-p), even if the filesystem
appears to be clean (-f).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "e2fsck" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
echo-daemon
echo-daemon 'words ...'
This command concatenates the list of "words" passed with single spaces
between them and returns the resulting string.
You can use this command to test the connection through to the daemon.
See also "ping-daemon".
egrep
egrep regex path
This calls the external "egrep" program and returns the matching lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
egrepi
egrepi regex path
This calls the external "egrep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
equal
equal file1 file2
This compares the two files "file1" and "file2" and returns true if
their content is exactly equal, or false otherwise.
The external cmp(1) program is used for the comparison.
exists
exists path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a file, directory (or
anything) with the given "path" name.
See also "is-file", "is-dir", "stat".
fallocate
fallocate path len
This command preallocates a file (containing zero bytes) named "path"
of size "len" bytes. If the file exists already, it is overwritten.
Do not confuse this with the guestfish-specific "alloc" command which
allocates a file in the host and attaches it as a device.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "fallocate64" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
fallocate64
fallocate64 path len
This command preallocates a file (containing zero bytes) named "path"
of size "len" bytes. If the file exists already, it is overwritten.
Note that this call allocates disk blocks for the file. To create a
sparse file use "truncate-size" instead.
The deprecated call "fallocate" does the same, but owing to an
oversight it only allowed 30 bit lengths to be specified, effectively
limiting the maximum size of files created through that call to 1GB.
Do not confuse this with the guestfish-specific "alloc" and "sparse"
commands which create a file in the host and attach it as a device.
fgrep
fgrep pattern path
This calls the external "fgrep" program and returns the matching lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
fgrepi
fgrepi pattern path
This calls the external "fgrep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
file
file path
This call uses the standard file(1) command to determine the type or
contents of the file.
This call will also transparently look inside various types of
compressed file.
The exact command which runs is "file -zb path". Note in particular
that the filename is not prepended to the output (the -b option).
The output depends on the output of the underlying file(1) command and
it can change in future in ways beyond our control. In other words,
the output is not guaranteed by the ABI.
See also: file(1), "vfs-type", "lstat", "is-file", "is-blockdev" (etc),
"is-zero".
file-architecture
file-architecture filename
This detects the architecture of the binary "filename", and returns it
if known.
Currently defined architectures are:
"i386"
This string is returned for all 32 bit i386, i486, i586, i686
binaries irrespective of the precise processor requirements of the
binary.
"x86_64"
64 bit x86-64.
"sparc"
32 bit SPARC.
"sparc64"
64 bit SPARC V9 and above.
"ia64"
Intel Itanium.
"ppc"
32 bit Power PC.
"ppc64"
64 bit Power PC.
Libguestfs may return other architecture strings in future.
The function works on at least the following types of files:
· many types of Un*x and Linux binary
· many types of Un*x and Linux shared library
· Windows Win32 and Win64 binaries
· Windows Win32 and Win64 DLLs
Win32 binaries and DLLs return "i386".
Win64 binaries and DLLs return "x86_64".
· Linux kernel modules
· Linux new-style initrd images
· some non-x86 Linux vmlinuz kernels
What it can't do currently:
· static libraries (libfoo.a)
· Linux old-style initrd as compressed ext2 filesystem (RHEL 3)
· x86 Linux vmlinuz kernels
x86 vmlinuz images (bzImage format) consist of a mix of 16-, 32-
and compressed code, and are horribly hard to unpack. If you want
to find the architecture of a kernel, use the architecture of the
associated initrd or kernel module(s) instead.
filesize
filesize file
This command returns the size of "file" in bytes.
To get other stats about a file, use "stat", "lstat", "is-dir", "is-
file" etc. To get the size of block devices, use "blockdev-getsize64".
filesystem-available
filesystem-available filesystem
Check whether libguestfs supports the named filesystem. The argument
"filesystem" is a filesystem name, such as "ext3".
You must call "launch" before using this command.
This is mainly useful as a negative test. If this returns true, it
doesn't mean that a particular filesystem can be mounted, since
filesystems can fail for other reasons such as it being a later version
of the filesystem, or having incompatible features.
See also "available", "AVAILABILITY" in guestfs(3).
fill
fill c len path
This command creates a new file called "path". The initial content of
the file is "len" octets of "c", where "c" must be a number in the
range "[0..255]".
To fill a file with zero bytes (sparsely), it is much more efficient to
use "truncate-size". To create a file with a pattern of repeating
bytes use "fill-pattern".
fill-dir
fill-dir dir nr
This function, useful for testing filesystems, creates "nr" empty files
in the directory "dir" with names 00000000 through "nr-1" (ie. each
file name is 8 digits long padded with zeroes).
fill-pattern
fill-pattern pattern len path
This function is like "fill" except that it creates a new file of
length "len" containing the repeating pattern of bytes in "pattern".
The pattern is truncated if necessary to ensure the length of the file
is exactly "len" bytes.
find
find directory
This command lists out all files and directories, recursively, starting
at "directory". It is essentially equivalent to running the shell
command "find directory -print" but some post-processing happens on the
output, described below.
This returns a list of strings without any prefix. Thus if the
directory structure was:
/tmp/a
/tmp/b
/tmp/c/d
then the returned list from "find" "/tmp" would be 4 elements:
a
b
c
c/d
If "directory" is not a directory, then this command returns an error.
The returned list is sorted.
find0
find0 directory (files|-)
This command lists out all files and directories, recursively, starting
at "directory", placing the resulting list in the external file called
"files".
This command works the same way as "find" with the following
exceptions:
· The resulting list is written to an external file.
· Items (filenames) in the result are separated by "\0" characters.
See find(1) option -print0.
· The result list is not sorted.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
findfs-label
findfs-label label
This command searches the filesystems and returns the one which has the
given label. An error is returned if no such filesystem can be found.
To find the label of a filesystem, use "vfs-label".
findfs-uuid
findfs-uuid uuid
This command searches the filesystems and returns the one which has the
given UUID. An error is returned if no such filesystem can be found.
To find the UUID of a filesystem, use "vfs-uuid".
fsck
fsck fstype device
This runs the filesystem checker (fsck) on "device" which should have
filesystem type "fstype".
The returned integer is the status. See fsck(8) for the list of status
codes from "fsck".
Notes:
· Multiple status codes can be summed together.
· A non-zero return code can mean "success", for example if errors
have been corrected on the filesystem.
· Checking or repairing NTFS volumes is not supported (by linux-
ntfs).
This command is entirely equivalent to running "fsck -a -t fstype
device".
fstrim
fstrim mountpoint [offset:N] [length:N] [minimumfreeextent:N]
Trim the free space in the filesystem mounted on "mountpoint". The
filesystem must be mounted read-write.
The filesystem contents are not affected, but any free space in the
filesystem is "trimmed", that is, given back to the host device, thus
making disk images more sparse, allowing unused space in qcow2 files to
be reused, etc.
This operation requires support in libguestfs, the mounted filesystem,
the host filesystem, qemu and the host kernel. If this support isn't
present it may give an error or even appear to run but do nothing.
See also "zero-free-space". That is a slightly different operation
that turns free space in the filesystem into zeroes. It is valid to
call "fstrim" either instead of, or after calling "zero-free-space".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
get-append
get-append
Return the additional kernel options which are added to the guest
kernel command line.
If "NULL" then no options are added.
get-attach-method
get-attach-method
Return the current attach method.
See "set-attach-method" and "ATTACH METHOD" in guestfs(3).
get-autosync
get-autosync
Get the autosync flag.
get-cachedir
get-cachedir
Get the directory used by the handle to store the appliance cache.
get-direct
get-direct
Return the direct appliance mode flag.
get-e2attrs
get-e2attrs file
This returns the file attributes associated with "file".
The attributes are a set of bits associated with each inode which
affect the behaviour of the file. The attributes are returned as a
string of letters (described below). The string may be empty,
indicating that no file attributes are set for this file.
These attributes are only present when the file is located on an
ext2/3/4 filesystem. Using this call on other filesystem types will
result in an error.
The characters (file attributes) in the returned string are currently:
'A' When the file is accessed, its atime is not modified.
'a' The file is append-only.
'c' The file is compressed on-disk.
'D' (Directories only.) Changes to this directory are written
synchronously to disk.
'd' The file is not a candidate for backup (see dump(8)).
'E' The file has compression errors.
'e' The file is using extents.
'h' The file is storing its blocks in units of the filesystem blocksize
instead of sectors.
'I' (Directories only.) The directory is using hashed trees.
'i' The file is immutable. It cannot be modified, deleted or renamed.
No link can be created to this file.
'j' The file is data-journaled.
's' When the file is deleted, all its blocks will be zeroed.
'S' Changes to this file are written synchronously to disk.
'T' (Directories only.) This is a hint to the block allocator that
subdirectories contained in this directory should be spread across
blocks. If not present, the block allocator will try to group
subdirectories together.
't' For a file, this disables tail-merging. (Not used by upstream
implementations of ext2.)
'u' When the file is deleted, its blocks will be saved, allowing the
file to be undeleted.
'X' The raw contents of the compressed file may be accessed.
'Z' The compressed file is dirty.
More file attributes may be added to this list later. Not all file
attributes may be set for all kinds of files. For detailed
information, consult the chattr(1) man page.
See also "set-e2attrs".
Don't confuse these attributes with extended attributes (see
"getxattr").
get-e2generation
get-e2generation file
This returns the ext2 file generation of a file. The generation (which
used to be called the "version") is a number associated with an inode.
This is most commonly used by NFS servers.
The generation is only present when the file is located on an ext2/3/4
filesystem. Using this call on other filesystem types will result in
an error.
See "set-e2generation".
get-e2label
get-e2label device
This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on
"device".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "vfs-label" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
get-e2uuid
get-e2uuid device
This returns the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on
"device".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "vfs-uuid" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
get-libvirt-requested-credential-challenge
get-libvirt-requested-credential-challenge index
Get the challenge (provided by libvirt) for the "index"'th requested
credential. If libvirt did not provide a challenge, this returns the
empty string "".
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
get-libvirt-requested-credential-defresult
get-libvirt-requested-credential-defresult index
Get the default result (provided by libvirt) for the "index"'th
requested credential. If libvirt did not provide a default result,
this returns the empty string "".
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
get-libvirt-requested-credential-prompt
get-libvirt-requested-credential-prompt index
Get the prompt (provided by libvirt) for the "index"'th requested
credential. If libvirt did not provide a prompt, this returns the
empty string "".
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
get-libvirt-requested-credentials
get-libvirt-requested-credentials
This should only be called during the event callback for events of type
"GUESTFS_EVENT_LIBVIRT_AUTH".
Return the list of credentials requested by libvirt. Possible values
are a subset of the strings provided when you called "set-libvirt-
supported-credentials".
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
get-memsize
get-memsize
This gets the memory size in megabytes allocated to the qemu
subprocess.
If "set-memsize" was not called on this handle, and if
"LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE" was not set, then this returns the compiled-in
default value for memsize.
For more information on the architecture of libguestfs, see guestfs(3).
get-network
get-network
This returns the enable network flag.
get-path
get-path
Return the current search path.
This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
return the default path.
get-pgroup
get-pgroup
This returns the process group flag.
get-pid
pid
get-pid
Return the process ID of the qemu subprocess. If there is no qemu
subprocess, then this will return an error.
This is an internal call used for debugging and testing.
get-qemu
get-qemu
Return the current qemu binary.
This is always non-NULL. If it wasn't set already, then this will
return the default qemu binary name.
get-recovery-proc
get-recovery-proc
Return the recovery process enabled flag.
get-selinux
get-selinux
This returns the current setting of the selinux flag which is passed to
the appliance at boot time. See "set-selinux".
For more information on the architecture of libguestfs, see guestfs(3).
get-smp
get-smp
This returns the number of virtual CPUs assigned to the appliance.
get-tmpdir
get-tmpdir
Get the directory used by the handle to store temporary files.
get-trace
get-trace
Return the command trace flag.
get-umask
get-umask
Return the current umask. By default the umask is 022 unless it has
been set by calling "umask".
get-verbose
get-verbose
This returns the verbose messages flag.
getcon
getcon
This gets the SELinux security context of the daemon.
See the documentation about SELINUX in guestfs(3), and "setcon"
getxattr
getxattr path name
Get a single extended attribute from file "path" named "name". This
call follows symlinks. If you want to lookup an extended attribute for
the symlink itself, use "lgetxattr".
Normally it is better to get all extended attributes from a file in one
go by calling "getxattrs". However some Linux filesystem
implementations are buggy and do not provide a way to list out
attributes. For these filesystems (notably ntfs-3g) you have to know
the names of the extended attributes you want in advance and call this
function.
Extended attribute values are blobs of binary data. If there is no
extended attribute named "name", this returns an error.
See also: "getxattrs", "lgetxattr", attr(5).
getxattrs
getxattrs path
This call lists the extended attributes of the file or directory
"path".
At the system call level, this is a combination of the listxattr(2) and
getxattr(2) calls.
See also: "lgetxattrs", attr(5).
glob-expand
glob-expand pattern
This command searches for all the pathnames matching "pattern"
according to the wildcard expansion rules used by the shell.
If no paths match, then this returns an empty list (note: not an
error).
It is just a wrapper around the C glob(3) function with flags
"GLOB_MARK|GLOB_BRACE". See that manual page for more details.
Notice that there is no equivalent command for expanding a device name
(eg. "/dev/sd*"). Use "list-devices", "list-partitions" etc functions
instead.
grep
grep-opts
grep regex path [extended:true|false] [fixed:true|false] [insensitive:true|false] [compressed:true|false]
This calls the external "grep" program and returns the matching lines.
The optional flags are:
"extended"
Use extended regular expressions. This is the same as using the -E
flag.
"fixed"
Match fixed (don't use regular expressions). This is the same as
using the -F flag.
"insensitive"
Match case-insensitive. This is the same as using the -i flag.
"compressed"
Use "zgrep" instead of "grep". This allows the input to be
compress- or gzip-compressed.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
grepi
grepi regex path
This calls the external "grep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
grub-install
grub-install root device
This command installs GRUB 1 (the Grand Unified Bootloader) on
"device", with the root directory being "root".
Notes:
· There is currently no way in the API to install grub2, which is
used by most modern Linux guests. It is possible to run the grub2
command from the guest, although see the caveats in "RUNNING
COMMANDS" in guestfs(3).
· This uses "grub-install" from the host. Unfortunately grub is not
always compatible with itself, so this only works in rather narrow
circumstances. Careful testing with each guest version is
advisable.
· If grub-install reports the error "No suitable drive was found in
the generated device map." it may be that you need to create a
"/boot/grub/device.map" file first that contains the mapping
between grub device names and Linux device names. It is usually
sufficient to create a file containing:
(hd0) /dev/vda
replacing "/dev/vda" with the name of the installation device.
head
head path
This command returns up to the first 10 lines of a file as a list of
strings.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
head-n
head-n nrlines path
If the parameter "nrlines" is a positive number, this returns the first
"nrlines" lines of the file "path".
If the parameter "nrlines" is a negative number, this returns lines
from the file "path", excluding the last "nrlines" lines.
If the parameter "nrlines" is zero, this returns an empty list.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
hexdump
hexdump path
This runs "hexdump -C" on the given "path". The result is the human-
readable, canonical hex dump of the file.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
hivex-close
hivex-close
Close the current hivex handle.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-commit
hivex-commit filename
Commit (write) changes to the hive.
If the optional "filename" parameter is null, then the changes are
written back to the same hive that was opened. If this is not null
then they are written to the alternate filename given and the original
hive is left untouched.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-add-child
hivex-node-add-child parent name
Add a child node to "parent" named "name".
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-children
hivex-node-children nodeh
Return the list of nodes which are subkeys of "nodeh".
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-delete-child
hivex-node-delete-child nodeh
Delete "nodeh", recursively if necessary.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-get-child
hivex-node-get-child nodeh name
Return the child of "nodeh" with the name "name", if it exists. This
can return 0 meaning the name was not found.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-get-value
hivex-node-get-value nodeh key
Return the value attached to "nodeh" which has the name "key", if it
exists. This can return 0 meaning the key was not found.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-name
hivex-node-name nodeh
Return the name of "nodeh".
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-parent
hivex-node-parent nodeh
Return the parent node of "nodeh".
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-set-value
hivex-node-set-value nodeh key t val
Set or replace a single value under the node "nodeh". The "key" is the
name, "t" is the type, and "val" is the data.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-node-values
hivex-node-values nodeh
Return the array of (key, datatype, data) tuples attached to "nodeh".
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-open
hivex-open filename [verbose:true|false] [debug:true|false] [write:true|false]
Open the Windows Registry hive file named "filename". If there was any
previous hivex handle associated with this guestfs session, then it is
closed.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
hivex-root
hivex-root
Return the root node of the hive.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-value-key
hivex-value-key valueh
Return the key (name) field of a (key, datatype, data) tuple.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-value-type
hivex-value-type valueh
Return the data type field from a (key, datatype, data) tuple.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
hivex-value-utf8
hivex-value-utf8 valueh
This calls "hivex-value-value" (which returns the data field from a
hivex value tuple). It then assumes that the field is a UTF-16LE
string and converts the result to UTF-8 (or if this is not possible, it
returns an error).
This is useful for reading strings out of the Windows registry.
However it is not foolproof because the registry is not strongly-typed
and fields can contain arbitrary or unexpected data.
hivex-value-value
hivex-value-value valueh
Return the data field of a (key, datatype, data) tuple.
This is a wrapper around the hivex(3) call of the same name.
See also: "hivex-value-utf8".
initrd-cat
initrd-cat initrdpath filename
This command unpacks the file "filename" from the initrd file called
"initrdpath". The filename must be given without the initial "/"
character.
For example, in guestfish you could use the following command to
examine the boot script (usually called "/init") contained in a Linux
initrd or initramfs image:
initrd-cat /boot/initrd-<version>.img init
See also "initrd-list".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
initrd-list
initrd-list path
This command lists out files contained in an initrd.
The files are listed without any initial "/" character. The files are
listed in the order they appear (not necessarily alphabetical).
Directory names are listed as separate items.
Old Linux kernels (2.4 and earlier) used a compressed ext2 filesystem
as initrd. We only support the newer initramfs format (compressed cpio
files).
inotify-add-watch
inotify-add-watch path mask
Watch "path" for the events listed in "mask".
Note that if "path" is a directory then events within that directory
are watched, but this does not happen recursively (in subdirectories).
Note for non-C or non-Linux callers: the inotify events are defined by
the Linux kernel ABI and are listed in "/usr/include/sys/inotify.h".
inotify-close
inotify-close
This closes the inotify handle which was previously opened by
inotify_init. It removes all watches, throws away any pending events,
and deallocates all resources.
inotify-files
inotify-files
This function is a helpful wrapper around "inotify-read" which just
returns a list of pathnames of objects that were touched. The returned
pathnames are sorted and deduplicated.
inotify-init
inotify-init maxevents
This command creates a new inotify handle. The inotify subsystem can
be used to notify events which happen to objects in the guest
filesystem.
"maxevents" is the maximum number of events which will be queued up
between calls to "inotify-read" or "inotify-files". If this is passed
as 0, then the kernel (or previously set) default is used. For Linux
2.6.29 the default was 16384 events. Beyond this limit, the kernel
throws away events, but records the fact that it threw them away by
setting a flag "IN_Q_OVERFLOW" in the returned structure list (see
"inotify-read").
Before any events are generated, you have to add some watches to the
internal watch list. See: "inotify-add-watch" and "inotify-rm-watch".
Queued up events should be read periodically by calling "inotify-read"
(or "inotify-files" which is just a helpful wrapper around "inotify-
read"). If you don't read the events out often enough then you risk
the internal queue overflowing.
The handle should be closed after use by calling "inotify-close". This
also removes any watches automatically.
See also inotify(7) for an overview of the inotify interface as exposed
by the Linux kernel, which is roughly what we expose via libguestfs.
Note that there is one global inotify handle per libguestfs instance.
inotify-read
inotify-read
Return the complete queue of events that have happened since the
previous read call.
If no events have happened, this returns an empty list.
Note: In order to make sure that all events have been read, you must
call this function repeatedly until it returns an empty list. The
reason is that the call will read events up to the maximum appliance-
to-host message size and leave remaining events in the queue.
inotify-rm-watch
inotify-rm-watch wd
Remove a previously defined inotify watch. See "inotify-add-watch".
inspect-get-arch
inspect-get-arch root
This returns the architecture of the inspected operating system. The
possible return values are listed under "file-architecture".
If the architecture could not be determined, then the string "unknown"
is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-distro
inspect-get-distro root
This returns the distro (distribution) of the inspected operating
system.
Currently defined distros are:
"archlinux"
Arch Linux.
"buildroot"
Buildroot-derived distro, but not one we specifically recognize.
"centos"
CentOS.
"cirros"
Cirros.
"debian"
Debian.
"fedora"
Fedora.
"freedos"
FreeDOS.
"gentoo"
Gentoo.
"linuxmint"
Linux Mint.
"mageia"
Mageia.
"mandriva"
Mandriva.
"meego"
MeeGo.
"openbsd"
OpenBSD.
"opensuse"
OpenSUSE.
"pardus"
Pardus.
"redhat-based"
Some Red Hat-derived distro.
"rhel"
Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
"scientificlinux"
Scientific Linux.
"slackware"
Slackware.
"sles"
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server or Desktop.
"suse-based"
Some openSuSE-derived distro.
"ttylinux"
ttylinux.
"ubuntu"
Ubuntu.
"unknown"
The distro could not be determined.
"windows"
Windows does not have distributions. This string is returned if
the OS type is Windows.
Future versions of libguestfs may return other strings here. The
caller should be prepared to handle any string.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-drive-mappings
inspect-get-drive-mappings root
This call is useful for Windows which uses a primitive system of
assigning drive letters (like "C:") to partitions. This inspection API
examines the Windows Registry to find out how disks/partitions are
mapped to drive letters, and returns a hash table as in the example
below:
C => /dev/vda2
E => /dev/vdb1
F => /dev/vdc1
Note that keys are drive letters. For Windows, the key is case
insensitive and just contains the drive letter, without the customary
colon separator character.
In future we may support other operating systems that also used drive
letters, but the keys for those might not be case insensitive and might
be longer than 1 character. For example in OS-9, hard drives were
named "h0", "h1" etc.
For Windows guests, currently only hard drive mappings are returned.
Removable disks (eg. DVD-ROMs) are ignored.
For guests that do not use drive mappings, or if the drive mappings
could not be determined, this returns an empty hash table.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details. See also
"inspect-get-mountpoints", "inspect-get-filesystems".
inspect-get-filesystems
inspect-get-filesystems root
This returns a list of all the filesystems that we think are associated
with this operating system. This includes the root filesystem, other
ordinary filesystems, and non-mounted devices like swap partitions.
In the case of a multi-boot virtual machine, it is possible for a
filesystem to be shared between operating systems.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details. See also
"inspect-get-mountpoints".
inspect-get-format
inspect-get-format root
This returns the format of the inspected operating system. You can use
it to detect install images, live CDs and similar.
Currently defined formats are:
"installed"
This is an installed operating system.
"installer"
The disk image being inspected is not an installed operating
system, but a bootable install disk, live CD, or similar.
"unknown"
The format of this disk image is not known.
Future versions of libguestfs may return other strings here. The
caller should be prepared to handle any string.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-hostname
inspect-get-hostname root
This function returns the hostname of the operating system as found by
inspection of the guest's configuration files.
If the hostname could not be determined, then the string "unknown" is
returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-icon
inspect-get-icon root [favicon:true|false] [highquality:true|false]
This function returns an icon corresponding to the inspected operating
system. The icon is returned as a buffer containing a PNG image (re-
encoded to PNG if necessary).
If it was not possible to get an icon this function returns a zero-
length (non-NULL) buffer. Callers must check for this case.
Libguestfs will start by looking for a file called "/etc/favicon.png"
or "C:\etc\favicon.png" and if it has the correct format, the contents
of this file will be returned. You can disable favicons by passing the
optional "favicon" boolean as false (default is true).
If finding the favicon fails, then we look in other places in the guest
for a suitable icon.
If the optional "highquality" boolean is true then only high quality
icons are returned, which means only icons of high resolution with an
alpha channel. The default (false) is to return any icon we can, even
if it is of substandard quality.
Notes:
· Unlike most other inspection API calls, the guest's disks must be
mounted up before you call this, since it needs to read information
from the guest filesystem during the call.
· Security: The icon data comes from the untrusted guest, and should
be treated with caution. PNG files have been known to contain
exploits. Ensure that libpng (or other relevant libraries) are
fully up to date before trying to process or display the icon.
· The PNG image returned can be any size. It might not be square.
Libguestfs tries to return the largest, highest quality icon
available. The application must scale the icon to the required
size.
· Extracting icons from Windows guests requires the external
"wrestool" program from the "icoutils" package, and several
programs ("bmptopnm", "pnmtopng", "pamcut") from the "netpbm"
package. These must be installed separately.
· Operating system icons are usually trademarks. Seek legal advice
before using trademarks in applications.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
inspect-get-major-version
inspect-get-major-version root
This returns the major version number of the inspected operating
system.
Windows uses a consistent versioning scheme which is not reflected in
the popular public names used by the operating system. Notably the
operating system known as "Windows 7" is really version 6.1 (ie. major
= 6, minor = 1). You can find out the real versions corresponding to
releases of Windows by consulting Wikipedia or MSDN.
If the version could not be determined, then 0 is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-minor-version
inspect-get-minor-version root
This returns the minor version number of the inspected operating
system.
If the version could not be determined, then 0 is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details. See also
"inspect-get-major-version".
inspect-get-mountpoints
inspect-get-mountpoints root
This returns a hash of where we think the filesystems associated with
this operating system should be mounted. Callers should note that this
is at best an educated guess made by reading configuration files such
as "/etc/fstab". In particular note that this may return filesystems
which are non-existent or not mountable and callers should be prepared
to handle or ignore failures if they try to mount them.
Each element in the returned hashtable has a key which is the path of
the mountpoint (eg. "/boot") and a value which is the filesystem that
would be mounted there (eg. "/dev/sda1").
Non-mounted devices such as swap devices are not returned in this list.
For operating systems like Windows which still use drive letters, this
call will only return an entry for the first drive "mounted on" "/".
For information about the mapping of drive letters to partitions, see
"inspect-get-drive-mappings".
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details. See also
"inspect-get-filesystems".
inspect-get-package-format
inspect-get-package-format root
This function and "inspect-get-package-management" return the package
format and package management tool used by the inspected operating
system. For example for Fedora these functions would return "rpm"
(package format) and "yum" (package management).
This returns the string "unknown" if we could not determine the package
format or if the operating system does not have a real packaging system
(eg. Windows).
Possible strings include: "rpm", "deb", "ebuild", "pisi", "pacman",
"pkgsrc". Future versions of libguestfs may return other strings.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-package-management
inspect-get-package-management root
"inspect-get-package-format" and this function return the package
format and package management tool used by the inspected operating
system. For example for Fedora these functions would return "rpm"
(package format) and "yum" (package management).
This returns the string "unknown" if we could not determine the package
management tool or if the operating system does not have a real
packaging system (eg. Windows).
Possible strings include: "yum", "up2date", "apt" (for all Debian
derivatives), "portage", "pisi", "pacman", "urpmi", "zypper". Future
versions of libguestfs may return other strings.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-product-name
inspect-get-product-name root
This returns the product name of the inspected operating system. The
product name is generally some freeform string which can be displayed
to the user, but should not be parsed by programs.
If the product name could not be determined, then the string "unknown"
is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-product-variant
inspect-get-product-variant root
This returns the product variant of the inspected operating system.
For Windows guests, this returns the contents of the Registry key
"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" "InstallationType"
which is usually a string such as "Client" or "Server" (other values
are possible). This can be used to distinguish consumer and enterprise
versions of Windows that have the same version number (for example,
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server are both version 6.1, but the former
is "Client" and the latter is "Server").
For enterprise Linux guests, in future we intend this to return the
product variant such as "Desktop", "Server" and so on. But this is not
implemented at present.
If the product variant could not be determined, then the string
"unknown" is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details. See also
"inspect-get-product-name", "inspect-get-major-version".
inspect-get-roots
inspect-get-roots
This function is a convenient way to get the list of root devices, as
returned from a previous call to "inspect-os", but without redoing the
whole inspection process.
This returns an empty list if either no root devices were found or the
caller has not called "inspect-os".
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-type
inspect-get-type root
This returns the type of the inspected operating system. Currently
defined types are:
"linux"
Any Linux-based operating system.
"windows"
Any Microsoft Windows operating system.
"freebsd"
FreeBSD.
"netbsd"
NetBSD.
"openbsd"
OpenBSD.
"hurd"
GNU/Hurd.
"dos"
MS-DOS, FreeDOS and others.
"unknown"
The operating system type could not be determined.
Future versions of libguestfs may return other strings here. The
caller should be prepared to handle any string.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-windows-current-control-set
inspect-get-windows-current-control-set root
This returns the Windows CurrentControlSet of the inspected guest. The
CurrentControlSet is a registry key name such as "ControlSet001".
This call assumes that the guest is Windows and that the Registry could
be examined by inspection. If this is not the case then an error is
returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-get-windows-systemroot
inspect-get-windows-systemroot root
This returns the Windows systemroot of the inspected guest. The
systemroot is a directory path such as "/WINDOWS".
This call assumes that the guest is Windows and that the systemroot
could be determined by inspection. If this is not the case then an
error is returned.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-is-live
inspect-is-live root
If "inspect-get-format" returns "installer" (this is an install disk),
then this returns true if a live image was detected on the disk.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-is-multipart
inspect-is-multipart root
If "inspect-get-format" returns "installer" (this is an install disk),
then this returns true if the disk is part of a set.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-is-netinst
inspect-is-netinst root
If "inspect-get-format" returns "installer" (this is an install disk),
then this returns true if the disk is a network installer, ie. not a
self-contained install CD but one which is likely to require network
access to complete the install.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-list-applications
inspect-list-applications root
Return the list of applications installed in the operating system.
Note: This call works differently from other parts of the inspection
API. You have to call "inspect-os", then "inspect-get-mountpoints",
then mount up the disks, before calling this. Listing applications is
a significantly more difficult operation which requires access to the
full filesystem. Also note that unlike the other "inspect-get-*" calls
which are just returning data cached in the libguestfs handle, this
call actually reads parts of the mounted filesystems during the call.
This returns an empty list if the inspection code was not able to
determine the list of applications.
The application structure contains the following fields:
"app_name"
The name of the application. For Red Hat-derived and Debian-
derived Linux guests, this is the package name.
"app_display_name"
The display name of the application, sometimes localized to the
install language of the guest operating system.
If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "". Callers
needing to display something can use "app_name" instead.
"app_epoch"
For package managers which use epochs, this contains the epoch of
the package (an integer). If unavailable, this is returned as 0.
"app_version"
The version string of the application or package. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
"app_release"
The release string of the application or package, for package
managers that use this. If unavailable this is returned as an
empty string "".
"app_install_path"
The installation path of the application (on operating systems such
as Windows which use installation paths). This path is in the
format used by the guest operating system, it is not a libguestfs
path.
If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app_trans_path"
The install path translated into a libguestfs path. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
"app_publisher"
The name of the publisher of the application, for package managers
that use this. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string
"".
"app_url"
The URL (eg. upstream URL) of the application. If unavailable this
is returned as an empty string "".
"app_source_package"
For packaging systems which support this, the name of the source
package. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app_summary"
A short (usually one line) description of the application or
package. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app_description"
A longer description of the application or package. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the
"inspect-list-applications2" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
inspect-list-applications2
inspect-list-applications2 root
Return the list of applications installed in the operating system.
Note: This call works differently from other parts of the inspection
API. You have to call "inspect-os", then "inspect-get-mountpoints",
then mount up the disks, before calling this. Listing applications is
a significantly more difficult operation which requires access to the
full filesystem. Also note that unlike the other "inspect-get-*" calls
which are just returning data cached in the libguestfs handle, this
call actually reads parts of the mounted filesystems during the call.
This returns an empty list if the inspection code was not able to
determine the list of applications.
The application structure contains the following fields:
"app2_name"
The name of the application. For Red Hat-derived and Debian-
derived Linux guests, this is the package name.
"app2_display_name"
The display name of the application, sometimes localized to the
install language of the guest operating system.
If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "". Callers
needing to display something can use "app2_name" instead.
"app2_epoch"
For package managers which use epochs, this contains the epoch of
the package (an integer). If unavailable, this is returned as 0.
"app2_version"
The version string of the application or package. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_release"
The release string of the application or package, for package
managers that use this. If unavailable this is returned as an
empty string "".
"app2_arch"
The architecture string of the application or package, for package
managers that use this. If unavailable this is returned as an
empty string "".
"app2_install_path"
The installation path of the application (on operating systems such
as Windows which use installation paths). This path is in the
format used by the guest operating system, it is not a libguestfs
path.
If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_trans_path"
The install path translated into a libguestfs path. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_publisher"
The name of the publisher of the application, for package managers
that use this. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string
"".
"app2_url"
The URL (eg. upstream URL) of the application. If unavailable this
is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_source_package"
For packaging systems which support this, the name of the source
package. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_summary"
A short (usually one line) description of the application or
package. If unavailable this is returned as an empty string "".
"app2_description"
A longer description of the application or package. If unavailable
this is returned as an empty string "".
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
inspect-os
inspect-os
This function uses other libguestfs functions and certain heuristics to
inspect the disk(s) (usually disks belonging to a virtual machine),
looking for operating systems.
The list returned is empty if no operating systems were found.
If one operating system was found, then this returns a list with a
single element, which is the name of the root filesystem of this
operating system. It is also possible for this function to return a
list containing more than one element, indicating a dual-boot or multi-
boot virtual machine, with each element being the root filesystem of
one of the operating systems.
You can pass the root string(s) returned to other "inspect-get-*"
functions in order to query further information about each operating
system, such as the name and version.
This function uses other libguestfs features such as "mount-ro" and
"umount-all" in order to mount and unmount filesystems and look at the
contents. This should be called with no disks currently mounted. The
function may also use Augeas, so any existing Augeas handle will be
closed.
This function cannot decrypt encrypted disks. The caller must do that
first (supplying the necessary keys) if the disk is encrypted.
Please read "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3) for more details.
See also "list-filesystems".
is-blockdev
is-blockdev path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a block device with the
given "path" name.
See also "stat".
is-chardev
is-chardev path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a character device with the
given "path" name.
See also "stat".
is-config
is-config
This returns true iff this handle is being configured (in the "CONFIG"
state).
For more information on states, see guestfs(3).
is-dir
is-dir path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a directory with the given
"path" name. Note that it returns false for other objects like files.
See also "stat".
is-fifo
is-fifo path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a FIFO (named pipe) with
the given "path" name.
See also "stat".
is-file
is-file path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a regular file with the
given "path" name. Note that it returns false for other objects like
directories.
See also "stat".
is-lv
is-lv device
This command tests whether "device" is a logical volume, and returns
true iff this is the case.
is-socket
is-socket path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a Unix domain socket with
the given "path" name.
See also "stat".
is-symlink
is-symlink path
This returns "true" if and only if there is a symbolic link with the
given "path" name.
See also "stat".
is-zero
is-zero path
This returns true iff the file exists and the file is empty or it
contains all zero bytes.
is-zero-device
is-zero-device device
This returns true iff the device exists and contains all zero bytes.
Note that for large devices this can take a long time to run.
isoinfo
isoinfo isofile
This is the same as "isoinfo-device" except that it works for an ISO
file located inside some other mounted filesystem. Note that in the
common case where you have added an ISO file as a libguestfs device,
you would not call this. Instead you would call "isoinfo-device".
isoinfo-device
isoinfo-device device
"device" is an ISO device. This returns a struct of information read
from the primary volume descriptor (the ISO equivalent of the
superblock) of the device.
Usually it is more efficient to use the isoinfo(1) command with the -d
option on the host to analyze ISO files, instead of going through
libguestfs.
For information on the primary volume descriptor fields, see
http://wiki.osdev.org/ISO_9660#The_Primary_Volume_Descriptor
kill-subprocess
kill-subprocess
This kills the qemu subprocess.
Do not call this. See: "shutdown" instead.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "shutdown" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
launch
run
launch
Internally libguestfs is implemented by running a virtual machine using
qemu(1).
You should call this after configuring the handle (eg. adding drives)
but before performing any actions.
Do not call "launch" twice on the same handle. Although it will not
give an error (for historical reasons), the precise behaviour when you
do this is not well defined. Handles are very cheap to create, so
create a new one for each launch.
lchown
lchown owner group path
Change the file owner to "owner" and group to "group". This is like
"chown" but if "path" is a symlink then the link itself is changed, not
the target.
Only numeric uid and gid are supported. If you want to use names, you
will need to locate and parse the password file yourself (Augeas
support makes this relatively easy).
ldmtool-create-all
ldmtool-create-all
This function scans all block devices looking for Windows dynamic disk
volumes and partitions, and creates devices for any that were found.
Call "list-ldm-volumes" and "list-ldm-partitions" to return all
devices.
Note that you don't normally need to call this explicitly, since it is
done automatically at "launch" time. However you might want to call
this function if you have hotplugged disks or have just created a
Windows dynamic disk.
ldmtool-diskgroup-disks
ldmtool-diskgroup-disks diskgroup
Return the disks in a Windows dynamic disk group. The "diskgroup"
parameter should be the GUID of a disk group, one element from the list
returned by "ldmtool-scan".
ldmtool-diskgroup-name
ldmtool-diskgroup-name diskgroup
Return the name of a Windows dynamic disk group. The "diskgroup"
parameter should be the GUID of a disk group, one element from the list
returned by "ldmtool-scan".
ldmtool-diskgroup-volumes
ldmtool-diskgroup-volumes diskgroup
Return the volumes in a Windows dynamic disk group. The "diskgroup"
parameter should be the GUID of a disk group, one element from the list
returned by "ldmtool-scan".
ldmtool-remove-all
ldmtool-remove-all
This is essentially the opposite of "ldmtool-create-all". It removes
the device mapper mappings for all Windows dynamic disk volumes
ldmtool-scan
ldmtool-scan
This function scans for Windows dynamic disks. It returns a list of
identifiers (GUIDs) for all disk groups that were found. These
identifiers can be passed to other "ldmtool-*" functions.
This function scans all block devices. To scan a subset of block
devices, call "ldmtool-scan-devices" instead.
ldmtool-scan-devices
ldmtool-scan-devices 'devices ...'
This function scans for Windows dynamic disks. It returns a list of
identifiers (GUIDs) for all disk groups that were found. These
identifiers can be passed to other "ldmtool-*" functions.
The parameter "devices" is a list of block devices which are scanned.
If this list is empty, all block devices are scanned.
ldmtool-volume-hint
ldmtool-volume-hint diskgroup volume
Return the hint field of the volume named "volume" in the disk group
with GUID "diskgroup". This may not be defined, in which case the
empty string is returned. The hint field is often, though not always,
the name of a Windows drive, eg. "E:".
ldmtool-volume-partitions
ldmtool-volume-partitions diskgroup volume
Return the list of partitions in the volume named "volume" in the disk
group with GUID "diskgroup".
ldmtool-volume-type
ldmtool-volume-type diskgroup volume
Return the type of the volume named "volume" in the disk group with
GUID "diskgroup".
Possible volume types that can be returned here include: "simple",
"spanned", "striped", "mirrored", "raid5". Other types may also be
returned.
lgetxattr
lgetxattr path name
Get a single extended attribute from file "path" named "name". If
"path" is a symlink, then this call returns an extended attribute from
the symlink.
Normally it is better to get all extended attributes from a file in one
go by calling "getxattrs". However some Linux filesystem
implementations are buggy and do not provide a way to list out
attributes. For these filesystems (notably ntfs-3g) you have to know
the names of the extended attributes you want in advance and call this
function.
Extended attribute values are blobs of binary data. If there is no
extended attribute named "name", this returns an error.
See also: "lgetxattrs", "getxattr", attr(5).
lgetxattrs
lgetxattrs path
This is the same as "getxattrs", but if "path" is a symbolic link, then
it returns the extended attributes of the link itself.
list-9p
list-9p
List all 9p filesystems attached to the guest. A list of mount tags is
returned.
list-devices
list-devices
List all the block devices.
The full block device names are returned, eg. "/dev/sda".
See also "list-filesystems".
list-disk-labels
list-disk-labels
If you add drives using the optional "label" parameter of "add-drive-
opts", you can use this call to map between disk labels, and raw block
device and partition names (like "/dev/sda" and "/dev/sda1").
This returns a hashtable, where keys are the disk labels (without the
"/dev/disk/guestfs" prefix), and the values are the full raw block
device and partition names (eg. "/dev/sda" and "/dev/sda1").
list-dm-devices
list-dm-devices
List all device mapper devices.
The returned list contains "/dev/mapper/*" devices, eg. ones created by
a previous call to "luks-open".
Device mapper devices which correspond to logical volumes are not
returned in this list. Call "lvs" if you want to list logical volumes.
list-filesystems
list-filesystems
This inspection command looks for filesystems on partitions, block
devices and logical volumes, returning a list of devices containing
filesystems and their type.
The return value is a hash, where the keys are the devices containing
filesystems, and the values are the filesystem types. For example:
"/dev/sda1" => "ntfs"
"/dev/sda2" => "ext2"
"/dev/vg_guest/lv_root" => "ext4"
"/dev/vg_guest/lv_swap" => "swap"
The value can have the special value "unknown", meaning the content of
the device is undetermined or empty. "swap" means a Linux swap
partition.
This command runs other libguestfs commands, which might include
"mount" and "umount", and therefore you should use this soon after
launch and only when nothing is mounted.
Not all of the filesystems returned will be mountable. In particular,
swap partitions are returned in the list. Also this command does not
check that each filesystem found is valid and mountable, and some
filesystems might be mountable but require special options.
Filesystems may not all belong to a single logical operating system
(use "inspect-os" to look for OSes).
list-ldm-partitions
list-ldm-partitions
This function returns all Windows dynamic disk partitions that were
found at launch time. It returns a list of device names.
list-ldm-volumes
list-ldm-volumes
This function returns all Windows dynamic disk volumes that were found
at launch time. It returns a list of device names.
list-md-devices
list-md-devices
List all Linux md devices.
list-partitions
list-partitions
List all the partitions detected on all block devices.
The full partition device names are returned, eg. "/dev/sda1"
This does not return logical volumes. For that you will need to call
"lvs".
See also "list-filesystems".
ll
ll directory
List the files in "directory" (relative to the root directory, there is
no cwd) in the format of 'ls -la'.
This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It is not
intended that you try to parse the output string.
llz
llz directory
List the files in "directory" in the format of 'ls -laZ'.
This command is mostly useful for interactive sessions. It is not
intended that you try to parse the output string.
ln
ln target linkname
This command creates a hard link using the "ln" command.
ln-f
ln-f target linkname
This command creates a hard link using the "ln -f" command. The -f
option removes the link ("linkname") if it exists already.
ln-s
ln-s target linkname
This command creates a symbolic link using the "ln -s" command.
ln-sf
ln-sf target linkname
This command creates a symbolic link using the "ln -sf" command, The -f
option removes the link ("linkname") if it exists already.
lremovexattr
lremovexattr xattr path
This is the same as "removexattr", but if "path" is a symbolic link,
then it removes an extended attribute of the link itself.
ls
ls directory
List the files in "directory" (relative to the root directory, there is
no cwd). The '.' and '..' entries are not returned, but hidden files
are shown.
ls0
ls0 dir (filenames|-)
This specialized command is used to get a listing of the filenames in
the directory "dir". The list of filenames is written to the local
file "filenames" (on the host).
In the output file, the filenames are separated by "\0" characters.
"." and ".." are not returned. The filenames are not sorted.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
lsetxattr
lsetxattr xattr val vallen path
This is the same as "setxattr", but if "path" is a symbolic link, then
it sets an extended attribute of the link itself.
lstat
lstat path
Returns file information for the given "path".
This is the same as "stat" except that if "path" is a symbolic link,
then the link is stat-ed, not the file it refers to.
This is the same as the lstat(2) system call.
lstatlist
lstatlist path 'names ...'
This call allows you to perform the "lstat" operation on multiple
files, where all files are in the directory "path". "names" is the
list of files from this directory.
On return you get a list of stat structs, with a one-to-one
correspondence to the "names" list. If any name did not exist or could
not be lstat'd, then the "ino" field of that structure is set to "-1".
This call is intended for programs that want to efficiently list a
directory contents without making many round-trips. See also
"lxattrlist" for a similarly efficient call for getting extended
attributes.
luks-add-key
luks-add-key device keyslot
This command adds a new key on LUKS device "device". "key" is any
existing key, and is used to access the device. "newkey" is the new
key to add. "keyslot" is the key slot that will be replaced.
Note that if "keyslot" already contains a key, then this command will
fail. You have to use "luks-kill-slot" first to remove that key.
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
luks-close
luks-close device
This closes a LUKS device that was created earlier by "luks-open" or
"luks-open-ro". The "device" parameter must be the name of the LUKS
mapping device (ie. "/dev/mapper/mapname") and not the name of the
underlying block device.
luks-format
luks-format device keyslot
This command erases existing data on "device" and formats the device as
a LUKS encrypted device. "key" is the initial key, which is added to
key slot "slot". (LUKS supports 8 key slots, numbered 0-7).
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
luks-format-cipher
luks-format-cipher device keyslot cipher
This command is the same as "luks-format" but it also allows you to set
the "cipher" used.
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
luks-kill-slot
luks-kill-slot device keyslot
This command deletes the key in key slot "keyslot" from the encrypted
LUKS device "device". "key" must be one of the other keys.
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
luks-open
luks-open device mapname
This command opens a block device which has been encrypted according to
the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard.
"device" is the encrypted block device or partition.
The caller must supply one of the keys associated with the LUKS block
device, in the "key" parameter.
This creates a new block device called "/dev/mapper/mapname". Reads
and writes to this block device are decrypted from and encrypted to the
underlying "device" respectively.
If this block device contains LVM volume groups, then calling "vgscan"
followed by "vg-activate-all" will make them visible.
Use "list-dm-devices" to list all device mapper devices.
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
luks-open-ro
luks-open-ro device mapname
This is the same as "luks-open" except that a read-only mapping is
created.
This command has one or more key or passphrase parameters. Guestfish
will prompt for these separately.
lvcreate
lvcreate logvol volgroup mbytes
This creates an LVM logical volume called "logvol" on the volume group
"volgroup", with "size" megabytes.
lvcreate-free
lvcreate-free logvol volgroup percent
Create an LVM logical volume called "/dev/volgroup/logvol", using
approximately "percent" % of the free space remaining in the volume
group. Most usefully, when "percent" is 100 this will create the
largest possible LV.
lvm-canonical-lv-name
lvm-canonical-lv-name lvname
This converts alternative naming schemes for LVs that you might find to
the canonical name. For example, "/dev/mapper/VG-LV" is converted to
"/dev/VG/LV".
This command returns an error if the "lvname" parameter does not refer
to a logical volume.
See also "is-lv", "canonical-device-name".
lvm-clear-filter
lvm-clear-filter
This undoes the effect of "lvm-set-filter". LVM will be able to see
every block device.
This command also clears the LVM cache and performs a volume group
scan.
lvm-remove-all
lvm-remove-all
This command removes all LVM logical volumes, volume groups and
physical volumes.
lvm-set-filter
lvm-set-filter 'devices ...'
This sets the LVM device filter so that LVM will only be able to "see"
the block devices in the list "devices", and will ignore all other
attached block devices.
Where disk image(s) contain duplicate PVs or VGs, this command is
useful to get LVM to ignore the duplicates, otherwise LVM can get
confused. Note also there are two types of duplication possible:
either cloned PVs/VGs which have identical UUIDs; or VGs that are not
cloned but just happen to have the same name. In normal operation you
cannot create this situation, but you can do it outside LVM, eg. by
cloning disk images or by bit twiddling inside the LVM metadata.
This command also clears the LVM cache and performs a volume group
scan.
You can filter whole block devices or individual partitions.
You cannot use this if any VG is currently in use (eg. contains a
mounted filesystem), even if you are not filtering out that VG.
lvremove
lvremove device
Remove an LVM logical volume "device", where "device" is the path to
the LV, such as "/dev/VG/LV".
You can also remove all LVs in a volume group by specifying the VG
name, "/dev/VG".
lvrename
lvrename logvol newlogvol
Rename a logical volume "logvol" with the new name "newlogvol".
lvresize
lvresize device mbytes
This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM logical volume to
"mbytes". When reducing, data in the reduced part is lost.
lvresize-free
lvresize-free lv percent
This expands an existing logical volume "lv" so that it fills "pc"% of
the remaining free space in the volume group. Commonly you would call
this with pc = 100 which expands the logical volume as much as
possible, using all remaining free space in the volume group.
lvs
lvs
List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent of the
lvs(8) command.
This returns a list of the logical volume device names (eg.
"/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00").
See also "lvs-full", "list-filesystems".
lvs-full
lvs-full
List all the logical volumes detected. This is the equivalent of the
lvs(8) command. The "full" version includes all fields.
lvuuid
lvuuid device
This command returns the UUID of the LVM LV "device".
lxattrlist
lxattrlist path 'names ...'
This call allows you to get the extended attributes of multiple files,
where all files are in the directory "path". "names" is the list of
files from this directory.
On return you get a flat list of xattr structs which must be
interpreted sequentially. The first xattr struct always has a zero-
length "attrname". "attrval" in this struct is zero-length to indicate
there was an error doing "lgetxattr" for this file, or is a C string
which is a decimal number (the number of following attributes for this
file, which could be "0"). Then after the first xattr struct are the
zero or more attributes for the first named file. This repeats for the
second and subsequent files.
This call is intended for programs that want to efficiently list a
directory contents without making many round-trips. See also
"lstatlist" for a similarly efficient call for getting standard stats.
max-disks
max-disks
Return the maximum number of disks that may be added to a handle (eg.
by "add-drive-opts" and similar calls).
This function was added in libguestfs 1.19.7. In previous versions of
libguestfs the limit was 25.
See "MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DISKS" in guestfs(3) for additional information
on this topic.
md-create
md-create name 'devices ...' [missingbitmap:N] [nrdevices:N] [spare:N] [chunk:N] [level:..]
Create a Linux md (RAID) device named "name" on the devices in the list
"devices".
The optional parameters are:
"missingbitmap"
A bitmap of missing devices. If a bit is set it means that a
missing device is added to the array. The least significant bit
corresponds to the first device in the array.
As examples:
If "devices = ["/dev/sda"]" and "missingbitmap = 0x1" then the
resulting array would be "[<missing>, "/dev/sda"]".
If "devices = ["/dev/sda"]" and "missingbitmap = 0x2" then the
resulting array would be "["/dev/sda", <missing>]".
This defaults to 0 (no missing devices).
The length of "devices" + the number of bits set in "missingbitmap"
must equal "nrdevices" + "spare".
"nrdevices"
The number of active RAID devices.
If not set, this defaults to the length of "devices" plus the
number of bits set in "missingbitmap".
"spare"
The number of spare devices.
If not set, this defaults to 0.
"chunk"
The chunk size in bytes.
"level"
The RAID level, which can be one of: linear, raid0, 0, stripe,
raid1, 1, mirror, raid4, 4, raid5, 5, raid6, 6, raid10, 10. Some
of these are synonymous, and more levels may be added in future.
If not set, this defaults to "raid1".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
md-detail
md-detail md
This command exposes the output of 'mdadm -DY <md>'. The following
fields are usually present in the returned hash. Other fields may also
be present.
"level"
The raid level of the MD device.
"devices"
The number of underlying devices in the MD device.
"metadata"
The metadata version used.
"uuid"
The UUID of the MD device.
"name"
The name of the MD device.
md-stat
md-stat md
This call returns a list of the underlying devices which make up the
single software RAID array device "md".
To get a list of software RAID devices, call "list-md-devices".
Each structure returned corresponds to one device along with additional
status information:
"mdstat_device"
The name of the underlying device.
"mdstat_index"
The index of this device within the array.
"mdstat_flags"
Flags associated with this device. This is a string containing (in
no specific order) zero or more of the following flags:
"W" write-mostly
"F" device is faulty
"S" device is a RAID spare
"R" replacement
md-stop
md-stop md
This command deactivates the MD array named "md". The device is
stopped, but it is not destroyed or zeroed.
mkdir
mkdir path
Create a directory named "path".
mkdir-mode
mkdir-mode path mode
This command creates a directory, setting the initial permissions of
the directory to "mode".
For common Linux filesystems, the actual mode which is set will be
"mode & ~umask & 01777". Non-native-Linux filesystems may interpret
the mode in other ways.
See also "mkdir", "umask"
mkdir-p
mkdir-p path
Create a directory named "path", creating any parent directories as
necessary. This is like the "mkdir -p" shell command.
mkdtemp
mkdtemp tmpl
This command creates a temporary directory. The "tmpl" parameter
should be a full pathname for the temporary directory name with the
final six characters being "XXXXXX".
For example: "/tmp/myprogXXXXXX" or "/Temp/myprogXXXXXX", the second
one being suitable for Windows filesystems.
The name of the temporary directory that was created is returned.
The temporary directory is created with mode 0700 and is owned by root.
The caller is responsible for deleting the temporary directory and its
contents after use.
See also: mkdtemp(3)
mke2fs
mke2fs device [blockscount:N] [blocksize:N] [fragsize:N] [blockspergroup:N] [numberofgroups:N] [bytesperinode:N] [inodesize:N] [journalsize:N] [numberofinodes:N] [stridesize:N] [stripewidth:N] [maxonlineresize:N] [reservedblockspercentage:N] [mmpupdateinterval:N] [journaldevice:..] [label:..] [lastmounteddir:..] [creatoros:..] [fstype:..] [usagetype:..] [uuid:..] [forcecreate:true|false] [writesbandgrouponly:true|false] [lazyitableinit:true|false] [lazyjournalinit:true|false] [testfs:true|false] [discard:true|false] [quotatype:true|false] [extent:true|false] [filetype:true|false] [flexbg:true|false] [hasjournal:true|false] [journaldev:true|false] [largefile:true|false] [quota:true|false] [resizeinode:true|false] [sparsesuper:true|false] [uninitbg:true|false]
"mke2fs" is used to create an ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystem on
"device". The optional "blockscount" is the size of the filesystem in
blocks. If omitted it defaults to the size of "device".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mke2fs-J
mke2fs-J fstype blocksize device journal
This creates an ext2/3/4 filesystem on "device" with an external
journal on "journal". It is equivalent to the command:
mke2fs -t fstype -b blocksize -J device=<journal> <device>
See also "mke2journal".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mke2fs-JL
mke2fs-JL fstype blocksize device label
This creates an ext2/3/4 filesystem on "device" with an external
journal on the journal labeled "label".
See also "mke2journal-L".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mke2fs-JU
mke2fs-JU fstype blocksize device uuid
This creates an ext2/3/4 filesystem on "device" with an external
journal on the journal with UUID "uuid".
See also "mke2journal-U".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mke2journal
mke2journal blocksize device
This creates an ext2 external journal on "device". It is equivalent to
the command:
mke2fs -O journal_dev -b blocksize device
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mke2journal-L
mke2journal-L blocksize label device
This creates an ext2 external journal on "device" with label "label".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mke2journal-U
mke2journal-U blocksize uuid device
This creates an ext2 external journal on "device" with UUID "uuid".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mke2fs" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mkfifo
mkfifo mode path
This call creates a FIFO (named pipe) called "path" with mode "mode".
It is just a convenient wrapper around "mknod".
The mode actually set is affected by the umask.
mkfs
mkfs-opts
mkfs fstype device [blocksize:N] [features:..] [inode:N] [sectorsize:N]
This function creates a filesystem on "device". The filesystem type is
"fstype", for example "ext3".
The optional arguments are:
"blocksize"
The filesystem block size. Supported block sizes depend on the
filesystem type, but typically they are 1024, 2048 or 4096 for
Linux ext2/3 filesystems.
For VFAT and NTFS the "blocksize" parameter is treated as the
requested cluster size.
For UFS block sizes, please see mkfs.ufs(8).
"features"
This passes the -O parameter to the external mkfs program.
For certain filesystem types, this allows extra filesystem features
to be selected. See mke2fs(8) and mkfs.ufs(8) for more details.
You cannot use this optional parameter with the "gfs" or "gfs2"
filesystem type.
"inode"
This passes the -I parameter to the external mke2fs(8) program
which sets the inode size (only for ext2/3/4 filesystems at
present).
"sectorsize"
This passes the -S parameter to external mkfs.ufs(8) program, which
sets sector size for ufs filesystem.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mkfs-b
mkfs-b fstype blocksize device
This call is similar to "mkfs", but it allows you to control the block
size of the resulting filesystem. Supported block sizes depend on the
filesystem type, but typically they are 1024, 2048 or 4096 only.
For VFAT and NTFS the "blocksize" parameter is treated as the requested
cluster size.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mkfs" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mkfs-btrfs
mkfs-btrfs 'devices ...' [allocstart:N] [bytecount:N] [datatype:..] [leafsize:N] [label:..] [metadata:..] [nodesize:N] [sectorsize:N]
Create a btrfs filesystem, allowing all configurables to be set. For
more information on the optional arguments, see mkfs.btrfs(8).
Since btrfs filesystems can span multiple devices, this takes a non-
empty list of devices.
To create general filesystems, use "mkfs".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mklost-and-found
mklost-and-found mountpoint
Make the "lost+found" directory, normally in the root directory of an
ext2/3/4 filesystem. "mountpoint" is the directory under which we try
to create the "lost+found" directory.
mkmountpoint
mkmountpoint exemptpath
"mkmountpoint" and "rmmountpoint" are specialized calls that can be
used to create extra mountpoints before mounting the first filesystem.
These calls are only necessary in some very limited circumstances,
mainly the case where you want to mount a mix of unrelated and/or read-
only filesystems together.
For example, live CDs often contain a "Russian doll" nest of
filesystems, an ISO outer layer, with a squashfs image inside, with an
ext2/3 image inside that. You can unpack this as follows in guestfish:
add-ro Fedora-11-i686-Live.iso
run
mkmountpoint /cd
mkmountpoint /sqsh
mkmountpoint /ext3fs
mount /dev/sda /cd
mount-loop /cd/LiveOS/squashfs.img /sqsh
mount-loop /sqsh/LiveOS/ext3fs.img /ext3fs
The inner filesystem is now unpacked under the /ext3fs mountpoint.
"mkmountpoint" is not compatible with "umount-all". You may get
unexpected errors if you try to mix these calls. It is safest to
manually unmount filesystems and remove mountpoints after use.
"umount-all" unmounts filesystems by sorting the paths longest first,
so for this to work for manual mountpoints, you must ensure that the
innermost mountpoints have the longest pathnames, as in the example
code above.
For more details see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=599503
Autosync [see "set-autosync", this is set by default on handles] can
cause "umount-all" to be called when the handle is closed which can
also trigger these issues.
mknod
mknod mode devmajor devminor path
This call creates block or character special devices, or named pipes
(FIFOs).
The "mode" parameter should be the mode, using the standard constants.
"devmajor" and "devminor" are the device major and minor numbers, only
used when creating block and character special devices.
Note that, just like mknod(2), the mode must be bitwise OR'd with
S_IFBLK, S_IFCHR, S_IFIFO or S_IFSOCK (otherwise this call just creates
a regular file). These constants are available in the standard Linux
header files, or you can use "mknod-b", "mknod-c" or "mkfifo" which are
wrappers around this command which bitwise OR in the appropriate
constant for you.
The mode actually set is affected by the umask.
mknod-b
mknod-b mode devmajor devminor path
This call creates a block device node called "path" with mode "mode"
and device major/minor "devmajor" and "devminor". It is just a
convenient wrapper around "mknod".
The mode actually set is affected by the umask.
mknod-c
mknod-c mode devmajor devminor path
This call creates a char device node called "path" with mode "mode" and
device major/minor "devmajor" and "devminor". It is just a convenient
wrapper around "mknod".
The mode actually set is affected by the umask.
mkswap
mkswap-opts
mkswap device [label:..] [uuid:..]
Create a Linux swap partition on "device".
The option arguments "label" and "uuid" allow you to set the label
and/or UUID of the new swap partition.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mkswap-L
mkswap-L label device
Create a swap partition on "device" with label "label".
Note that you cannot attach a swap label to a block device (eg.
"/dev/sda"), just to a partition. This appears to be a limitation of
the kernel or swap tools.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mkswap" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mkswap-U
mkswap-U uuid device
Create a swap partition on "device" with UUID "uuid".
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "mkswap" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
mkswap-file
mkswap-file path
Create a swap file.
This command just writes a swap file signature to an existing file. To
create the file itself, use something like "fallocate".
mktemp
mktemp tmpl [suffix:..]
This command creates a temporary file. The "tmpl" parameter should be
a full pathname for the temporary directory name with the final six
characters being "XXXXXX".
For example: "/tmp/myprogXXXXXX" or "/Temp/myprogXXXXXX", the second
one being suitable for Windows filesystems.
The name of the temporary file that was created is returned.
The temporary file is created with mode 0600 and is owned by root.
The caller is responsible for deleting the temporary file after use.
If the optional "suffix" parameter is given, then the suffix (eg.
".txt") is appended to the temporary name.
See also: "mkdtemp".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
modprobe
modprobe modulename
This loads a kernel module in the appliance.
The kernel module must have been whitelisted when libguestfs was built
(see "appliance/kmod.whitelist.in" in the source).
mount
mount device mountpoint
Mount a guest disk at a position in the filesystem. Block devices are
named "/dev/sda", "/dev/sdb" and so on, as they were added to the
guest. If those block devices contain partitions, they will have the
usual names (eg. "/dev/sda1"). Also LVM "/dev/VG/LV"-style names can
be used.
The rules are the same as for mount(2): A filesystem must first be
mounted on "/" before others can be mounted. Other filesystems can
only be mounted on directories which already exist.
The mounted filesystem is writable, if we have sufficient permissions
on the underlying device.
Before libguestfs 1.13.16, this call implicitly added the options
"sync" and "noatime". The "sync" option greatly slowed writes and
caused many problems for users. If your program might need to work
with older versions of libguestfs, use "mount-options" instead (using
an empty string for the first parameter if you don't want any options).
mount-9p
mount-9p mounttag mountpoint [options:..]
Mount the virtio-9p filesystem with the tag "mounttag" on the directory
"mountpoint".
If required, "trans=virtio" will be automatically added to the options.
Any other options required can be passed in the optional "options"
parameter.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mount-local
mount-local localmountpoint [readonly:true|false] [options:..] [cachetimeout:N] [debugcalls:true|false]
This call exports the libguestfs-accessible filesystem to a local
mountpoint (directory) called "localmountpoint". Ordinary reads and
writes to files and directories under "localmountpoint" are redirected
through libguestfs.
If the optional "readonly" flag is set to true, then writes to the
filesystem return error "EROFS".
"options" is a comma-separated list of mount options. See
guestmount(1) for some useful options.
"cachetimeout" sets the timeout (in seconds) for cached directory
entries. The default is 60 seconds. See guestmount(1) for further
information.
If "debugcalls" is set to true, then additional debugging information
is generated for every FUSE call.
When "mount-local" returns, the filesystem is ready, but is not
processing requests (access to it will block). You have to call
"mount-local-run" to run the main loop.
See "MOUNT LOCAL" in guestfs(3) for full documentation.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
mount-local-run
mount-local-run
Run the main loop which translates kernel calls to libguestfs calls.
This should only be called after "mount-local" returns successfully.
The call will not return until the filesystem is unmounted.
Note you must not make concurrent libguestfs calls on the same handle
from another thread.
You may call this from a different thread than the one which called
"mount-local", subject to the usual rules for threads and libguestfs
(see "MULTIPLE HANDLES AND MULTIPLE THREADS" in guestfs(3)).
See "MOUNT LOCAL" in guestfs(3) for full documentation.
mount-loop
mount-loop file mountpoint
This command lets you mount "file" (a filesystem image in a file) on a
mount point. It is entirely equivalent to the command "mount -o loop
file mountpoint".
mount-options
mount-options options device mountpoint
This is the same as the "mount" command, but it allows you to set the
mount options as for the mount(8)-o flag.
If the "options" parameter is an empty string, then no options are
passed (all options default to whatever the filesystem uses).
mount-ro
mount-ro device mountpoint
This is the same as the "mount" command, but it mounts the filesystem
with the read-only (-o ro) flag.
mount-vfs
mount-vfs options vfstype device mountpoint
This is the same as the "mount" command, but it allows you to set both
the mount options and the vfstype as for the mount(8)-o and -t flags.
mountpoints
mountpoints
This call is similar to "mounts". That call returns a list of devices.
This one returns a hash table (map) of device name to directory where
the device is mounted.
mounts
mounts
This returns the list of currently mounted filesystems. It returns the
list of devices (eg. "/dev/sda1", "/dev/VG/LV").
Some internal mounts are not shown.
See also: "mountpoints"
mv
mv src dest
This moves a file from "src" to "dest" where "dest" is either a
destination filename or destination directory.
See also: "rename".
nr-devices
nr-devices
This returns the number of whole block devices that were added. This
is the same as the number of devices that would be returned if you
called "list-devices".
To find out the maximum number of devices that could be added, call
"max-disks".
ntfs-3g-probe
ntfs-3g-probe true|false device
This command runs the ntfs-3g.probe(8) command which probes an NTFS
"device" for mountability. (Not all NTFS volumes can be mounted read-
write, and some cannot be mounted at all).
"rw" is a boolean flag. Set it to true if you want to test if the
volume can be mounted read-write. Set it to false if you want to test
if the volume can be mounted read-only.
The return value is an integer which 0 if the operation would succeed,
or some non-zero value documented in the ntfs-3g.probe(8) manual page.
ntfsclone-in
ntfsclone-in (backupfile|-) device
Restore the "backupfile" (from a previous call to "ntfsclone-out") to
"device", overwriting any existing contents of this device.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
ntfsclone-out
ntfsclone-out device (backupfile|-) [metadataonly:true|false] [rescue:true|false] [ignorefscheck:true|false] [preservetimestamps:true|false] [force:true|false]
Stream the NTFS filesystem "device" to the local file "backupfile".
The format used for the backup file is a special format used by the
ntfsclone(8) tool.
If the optional "metadataonly" flag is true, then only the metadata is
saved, losing all the user data (this is useful for diagnosing some
filesystem problems).
The optional "rescue", "ignorefscheck", "preservetimestamps" and
"force" flags have precise meanings detailed in the ntfsclone(8) man
page.
Use "ntfsclone-in" to restore the file back to a libguestfs device.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
ntfsfix
ntfsfix device [clearbadsectors:true|false]
This command repairs some fundamental NTFS inconsistencies, resets the
NTFS journal file, and schedules an NTFS consistency check for the
first boot into Windows.
This is not an equivalent of Windows "chkdsk". It does not scan the
filesystem for inconsistencies.
The optional "clearbadsectors" flag clears the list of bad sectors.
This is useful after cloning a disk with bad sectors to a new disk.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
ntfsresize
ntfsresize-opts
ntfsresize device [size:N] [force:true|false]
This command resizes an NTFS filesystem, expanding or shrinking it to
the size of the underlying device.
The optional parameters are:
"size"
The new size (in bytes) of the filesystem. If omitted, the
filesystem is resized to fit the container (eg. partition).
"force"
If this option is true, then force the resize of the filesystem
even if the filesystem is marked as requiring a consistency check.
After the resize operation, the filesystem is always marked as
requiring a consistency check (for safety). You have to boot into
Windows to perform this check and clear this condition. If you
don't set the "force" option then it is not possible to call
"ntfsresize" multiple times on a single filesystem without booting
into Windows between each resize.
See also ntfsresize(8).
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
ntfsresize-size
ntfsresize-size device size
This command is the same as "ntfsresize" except that it allows you to
specify the new size (in bytes) explicitly.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "ntfsresize" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
parse-environment
parse-environment
Parse the program's environment and set flags in the handle
accordingly. For example if "LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1" then the 'verbose'
flag is set in the handle.
Most programs do not need to call this. It is done implicitly when you
call "create".
See "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" in guestfs(3) for a list of environment
variables that can affect libguestfs handles. See also
"guestfs_create_flags" in guestfs(3), and "parse-environment-list".
parse-environment-list
parse-environment-list 'environment ...'
Parse the list of strings in the argument "environment" and set flags
in the handle accordingly. For example if "LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1" is a
string in the list, then the 'verbose' flag is set in the handle.
This is the same as "parse-environment" except that it parses an
explicit list of strings instead of the program's environment.
part-add
part-add device prlogex startsect endsect
This command adds a partition to "device". If there is no partition
table on the device, call "part-init" first.
The "prlogex" parameter is the type of partition. Normally you should
pass "p" or "primary" here, but MBR partition tables also support "l"
(or "logical") and "e" (or "extended") partition types.
"startsect" and "endsect" are the start and end of the partition in
sectors. "endsect" may be negative, which means it counts backwards
from the end of the disk ("-1" is the last sector).
Creating a partition which covers the whole disk is not so easy. Use
"part-disk" to do that.
part-del
part-del device partnum
This command deletes the partition numbered "partnum" on "device".
Note that in the case of MBR partitioning, deleting an extended
partition also deletes any logical partitions it contains.
part-disk
part-disk device parttype
This command is simply a combination of "part-init" followed by "part-
add" to create a single primary partition covering the whole disk.
"parttype" is the partition table type, usually "mbr" or "gpt", but
other possible values are described in "part-init".
part-get-bootable
part-get-bootable device partnum
This command returns true if the partition "partnum" on "device" has
the bootable flag set.
See also "part-set-bootable".
part-get-mbr-id
part-get-mbr-id device partnum
Returns the MBR type byte (also known as the ID byte) from the numbered
partition "partnum".
Note that only MBR (old DOS-style) partitions have type bytes. You
will get undefined results for other partition table types (see "part-
get-parttype").
part-get-parttype
part-get-parttype device
This command examines the partition table on "device" and returns the
partition table type (format) being used.
Common return values include: "msdos" (a DOS/Windows style MBR
partition table), "gpt" (a GPT/EFI-style partition table). Other
values are possible, although unusual. See "part-init" for a full
list.
part-init
part-init device parttype
This creates an empty partition table on "device" of one of the
partition types listed below. Usually "parttype" should be either
"msdos" or "gpt" (for large disks).
Initially there are no partitions. Following this, you should call
"part-add" for each partition required.
Possible values for "parttype" are:
efi
gpt Intel EFI / GPT partition table.
This is recommended for >= 2 TB partitions that will be accessed
from Linux and Intel-based Mac OS X. It also has limited backwards
compatibility with the "mbr" format.
mbr
msdos
The standard PC "Master Boot Record" (MBR) format used by MS-DOS
and Windows. This partition type will only work for device sizes
up to 2 TB. For large disks we recommend using "gpt".
Other partition table types that may work but are not supported
include:
aix AIX disk labels.
amiga
rdb Amiga "Rigid Disk Block" format.
bsd BSD disk labels.
dasd
DASD, used on IBM mainframes.
dvh MIPS/SGI volumes.
mac Old Mac partition format. Modern Macs use "gpt".
pc98
NEC PC-98 format, common in Japan apparently.
sun Sun disk labels.
part-list
part-list device
This command parses the partition table on "device" and returns the
list of partitions found.
The fields in the returned structure are:
part_num
Partition number, counting from 1.
part_start
Start of the partition in bytes. To get sectors you have to divide
by the device's sector size, see "blockdev-getss".
part_end
End of the partition in bytes.
part_size
Size of the partition in bytes.
part-set-bootable
part-set-bootable device partnum true|false
This sets the bootable flag on partition numbered "partnum" on device
"device". Note that partitions are numbered from 1.
The bootable flag is used by some operating systems (notably Windows)
to determine which partition to boot from. It is by no means
universally recognized.
part-set-mbr-id
part-set-mbr-id device partnum idbyte
Sets the MBR type byte (also known as the ID byte) of the numbered
partition "partnum" to "idbyte". Note that the type bytes quoted in
most documentation are in fact hexadecimal numbers, but usually
documented without any leading "0x" which might be confusing.
Note that only MBR (old DOS-style) partitions have type bytes. You
will get undefined results for other partition table types (see "part-
get-parttype").
part-set-name
part-set-name device partnum name
This sets the partition name on partition numbered "partnum" on device
"device". Note that partitions are numbered from 1.
The partition name can only be set on certain types of partition table.
This works on "gpt" but not on "mbr" partitions.
part-to-dev
part-to-dev partition
This function takes a partition name (eg. "/dev/sdb1") and removes the
partition number, returning the device name (eg. "/dev/sdb").
The named partition must exist, for example as a string returned from
"list-partitions".
See also "part-to-partnum", "device-index".
part-to-partnum
part-to-partnum partition
This function takes a partition name (eg. "/dev/sdb1") and returns the
partition number (eg. 1).
The named partition must exist, for example as a string returned from
"list-partitions".
See also "part-to-dev".
ping-daemon
ping-daemon
This is a test probe into the guestfs daemon running inside the qemu
subprocess. Calling this function checks that the daemon responds to
the ping message, without affecting the daemon or attached block
device(s) in any other way.
pread
pread path count offset
This command lets you read part of a file. It reads "count" bytes of
the file, starting at "offset", from file "path".
This may read fewer bytes than requested. For further details see the
pread(2) system call.
See also "pwrite", "pread-device".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
pread-device
pread-device device count offset
This command lets you read part of a block device. It reads "count"
bytes of "device", starting at "offset".
This may read fewer bytes than requested. For further details see the
pread(2) system call.
See also "pread".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
pvchange-uuid
pvchange-uuid device
Generate a new random UUID for the physical volume "device".
pvchange-uuid-all
pvchange-uuid-all
Generate new random UUIDs for all physical volumes.
pvcreate
pvcreate device
This creates an LVM physical volume on the named "device", where
"device" should usually be a partition name such as "/dev/sda1".
pvremove
pvremove device
This wipes a physical volume "device" so that LVM will no longer
recognise it.
The implementation uses the "pvremove" command which refuses to wipe
physical volumes that contain any volume groups, so you have to remove
those first.
pvresize
pvresize device
This resizes (expands or shrinks) an existing LVM physical volume to
match the new size of the underlying device.
pvresize-size
pvresize-size device size
This command is the same as "pvresize" except that it allows you to
specify the new size (in bytes) explicitly.
pvs
pvs
List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent of the
pvs(8) command.
This returns a list of just the device names that contain PVs (eg.
"/dev/sda2").
See also "pvs-full".
pvs-full
pvs-full
List all the physical volumes detected. This is the equivalent of the
pvs(8) command. The "full" version includes all fields.
pvuuid
pvuuid device
This command returns the UUID of the LVM PV "device".
pwrite
pwrite path content offset
This command writes to part of a file. It writes the data buffer
"content" to the file "path" starting at offset "offset".
This command implements the pwrite(2) system call, and like that system
call it may not write the full data requested. The return value is the
number of bytes that were actually written to the file. This could
even be 0, although short writes are unlikely for regular files in
ordinary circumstances.
See also "pread", "pwrite-device".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
pwrite-device
pwrite-device device content offset
This command writes to part of a device. It writes the data buffer
"content" to "device" starting at offset "offset".
This command implements the pwrite(2) system call, and like that system
call it may not write the full data requested (although short writes to
disk devices and partitions are probably impossible with standard Linux
kernels).
See also "pwrite".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
read-file
read-file path
This calls returns the contents of the file "path" as a buffer.
Unlike "cat", this function can correctly handle files that contain
embedded ASCII NUL characters.
read-lines
read-lines path
Return the contents of the file named "path".
The file contents are returned as a list of lines. Trailing "LF" and
"CRLF" character sequences are not returned.
Note that this function cannot correctly handle binary files
(specifically, files containing "\0" character which is treated as end
of string). For those you need to use the "read-file" function and
split the buffer into lines yourself.
readdir
readdir dir
This returns the list of directory entries in directory "dir".
All entries in the directory are returned, including "." and "..". The
entries are not sorted, but returned in the same order as the
underlying filesystem.
Also this call returns basic file type information about each file.
The "ftyp" field will contain one of the following characters:
'b' Block special
'c' Char special
'd' Directory
'f' FIFO (named pipe)
'l' Symbolic link
'r' Regular file
's' Socket
'u' Unknown file type
'?' The readdir(3) call returned a "d_type" field with an unexpected
value
This function is primarily intended for use by programs. To get a
simple list of names, use "ls". To get a printable directory for human
consumption, use "ll".
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
readlink
readlink path
This command reads the target of a symbolic link.
readlinklist
readlinklist path 'names ...'
This call allows you to do a "readlink" operation on multiple files,
where all files are in the directory "path". "names" is the list of
files from this directory.
On return you get a list of strings, with a one-to-one correspondence
to the "names" list. Each string is the value of the symbolic link.
If the readlink(2) operation fails on any name, then the corresponding
result string is the empty string "". However the whole operation is
completed even if there were readlink(2) errors, and so you can call
this function with names where you don't know if they are symbolic
links already (albeit slightly less efficient).
This call is intended for programs that want to efficiently list a
directory contents without making many round-trips.
realpath
realpath path
Return the canonicalized absolute pathname of "path". The returned
path has no ".", ".." or symbolic link path elements.
remove-drive
remove-drive label
This function is conceptually the opposite of "add-drive-opts". It
removes the drive that was previously added with label "label".
Note that in order to remove drives, you have to add them with labels
(see the optional "label" argument to "add-drive-opts"). If you didn't
use a label, then they cannot be removed.
You can call this function before or after launching the handle. If
called after launch, if the attach-method supports it, we try to hot
unplug the drive: see "HOTPLUGGING" in guestfs(3). The disk must not
be in use (eg. mounted) when you do this. We try to detect if the disk
is in use and stop you from doing this.
removexattr
removexattr xattr path
This call removes the extended attribute named "xattr" of the file
"path".
See also: "lremovexattr", attr(5).
rename
rename oldpath newpath
Rename a file to a new place on the same filesystem. This is the same
as the Linux rename(2) system call. In most cases you are better to
use "mv" instead.
resize2fs
resize2fs device
This resizes an ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem to match the size of the
underlying device.
See also "RESIZE2FS ERRORS" in guestfs(3).
resize2fs-M
resize2fs-M device
This command is the same as "resize2fs", but the filesystem is resized
to its minimum size. This works like the -M option to the "resize2fs"
command.
To get the resulting size of the filesystem you should call "tune2fs-l"
and read the "Block size" and "Block count" values. These two numbers,
multiplied together, give the resulting size of the minimal filesystem
in bytes.
See also "RESIZE2FS ERRORS" in guestfs(3).
resize2fs-size
resize2fs-size device size
This command is the same as "resize2fs" except that it allows you to
specify the new size (in bytes) explicitly.
See also "RESIZE2FS ERRORS" in guestfs(3).
rm
rm path
Remove the single file "path".
rm-f
rm-f path
Remove the file "path".
If the file doesn't exist, that error is ignored. (Other errors, eg.
I/O errors or bad paths, are not ignored)
This call cannot remove directories. Use "rmdir" to remove an empty
directory, or "rm-rf" to remove directories recursively.
rm-rf
rm-rf path
Remove the file or directory "path", recursively removing the contents
if its a directory. This is like the "rm -rf" shell command.
rmdir
rmdir path
Remove the single directory "path".
rmmountpoint
rmmountpoint exemptpath
This calls removes a mountpoint that was previously created with
"mkmountpoint". See "mkmountpoint" for full details.
rsync
rsync src dest [archive:true|false] [deletedest:true|false]
This call may be used to copy or synchronize two directories under the
same libguestfs handle. This uses the rsync(1) program which uses a
fast algorithm that avoids copying files unnecessarily.
"src" and "dest" are the source and destination directories. Files are
copied from "src" to "dest".
The optional arguments are:
"archive"
Turns on archive mode. This is the same as passing the --archive
flag to "rsync".
"deletedest"
Delete files at the destination that do not exist at the source.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
rsync-in
rsync-in remote dest [archive:true|false] [deletedest:true|false]
This call may be used to copy or synchronize the filesystem on the host
or on a remote computer with the filesystem within libguestfs. This
uses the rsync(1) program which uses a fast algorithm that avoids
copying files unnecessarily.
This call only works if the network is enabled. See "set-network" or
the --network option to various tools like guestfish(1).
Files are copied from the remote server and directory specified by
"remote" to the destination directory "dest".
The format of the remote server string is defined by rsync(1). Note
that there is no way to supply a password or passphrase so the target
must be set up not to require one.
The optional arguments are the same as those of "rsync".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
rsync-out
rsync-out src remote [archive:true|false] [deletedest:true|false]
This call may be used to copy or synchronize the filesystem within
libguestfs with a filesystem on the host or on a remote computer. This
uses the rsync(1) program which uses a fast algorithm that avoids
copying files unnecessarily.
This call only works if the network is enabled. See "set-network" or
the --network option to various tools like guestfish(1).
Files are copied from the source directory "src" to the remote server
and directory specified by "remote".
The format of the remote server string is defined by rsync(1). Note
that there is no way to supply a password or passphrase so the target
must be set up not to require one.
The optional arguments are the same as those of "rsync".
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
scrub-device
scrub-device device
This command writes patterns over "device" to make data retrieval more
difficult.
It is an interface to the scrub(1) program. See that manual page for
more details.
scrub-file
scrub-file file
This command writes patterns over a file to make data retrieval more
difficult.
The file is removed after scrubbing.
It is an interface to the scrub(1) program. See that manual page for
more details.
scrub-freespace
scrub-freespace dir
This command creates the directory "dir" and then fills it with files
until the filesystem is full, and scrubs the files as for "scrub-file",
and deletes them. The intention is to scrub any free space on the
partition containing "dir".
It is an interface to the scrub(1) program. See that manual page for
more details.
set-append
append
set-append append
This function is used to add additional options to the guest kernel
command line.
The default is "NULL" unless overridden by setting "LIBGUESTFS_APPEND"
environment variable.
Setting "append" to "NULL" means no additional options are passed
(libguestfs always adds a few of its own).
set-attach-method
attach-method
set-attach-method attachmethod
Set the method that libguestfs uses to connect to the back end guestfsd
daemon.
See "ATTACH METHOD" in guestfs(3).
set-autosync
autosync
set-autosync true|false
If "autosync" is true, this enables autosync. Libguestfs will make a
best effort attempt to make filesystems consistent and synchronized
when the handle is closed (also if the program exits without closing
handles).
This is enabled by default (since libguestfs 1.5.24, previously it was
disabled by default).
set-cachedir
cachedir
set-cachedir cachedir
Set the directory used by the handle to store the appliance cache, when
using a supermin appliance. The appliance is cached and shared between
all handles which have the same effective user ID.
The environment variables "LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR" and "TMPDIR" control
the default value: If "LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR" is set, then that is the
default. Else if "TMPDIR" is set, then that is the default. Else
"/var/tmp" is the default.
set-direct
direct
set-direct true|false
If the direct appliance mode flag is enabled, then stdin and stdout are
passed directly through to the appliance once it is launched.
One consequence of this is that log messages aren't caught by the
library and handled by "set-log-message-callback", but go straight to
stdout.
You probably don't want to use this unless you know what you are doing.
The default is disabled.
set-e2attrs
set-e2attrs file attrs [clear:true|false]
This sets or clears the file attributes "attrs" associated with the
inode "file".
"attrs" is a string of characters representing file attributes. See
"get-e2attrs" for a list of possible attributes. Not all attributes
can be changed.
If optional boolean "clear" is not present or false, then the "attrs"
listed are set in the inode.
If "clear" is true, then the "attrs" listed are cleared in the inode.
In both cases, other attributes not present in the "attrs" string are
left unchanged.
These attributes are only present when the file is located on an
ext2/3/4 filesystem. Using this call on other filesystem types will
result in an error.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
set-e2generation
set-e2generation file generation
This sets the ext2 file generation of a file.
See "get-e2generation".
set-e2label
set-e2label device label
This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem label of the filesystem on "device"
to "label". Filesystem labels are limited to 16 characters.
You can use either "tune2fs-l" or "get-e2label" to return the existing
label on a filesystem.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "set-label" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
set-e2uuid
set-e2uuid device uuid
This sets the ext2/3/4 filesystem UUID of the filesystem on "device" to
"uuid". The format of the UUID and alternatives such as "clear",
"random" and "time" are described in the tune2fs(8) manpage.
You can use either "tune2fs-l" or "get-e2uuid" to return the existing
UUID of a filesystem.
set-label
set-label device label
Set the filesystem label on "device" to "label".
Only some filesystem types support labels, and libguestfs supports
setting labels on only a subset of these.
On ext2/3/4 filesystems, labels are limited to 16 bytes.
On NTFS filesystems, labels are limited to 128 unicode characters.
To read the label on a filesystem, call "vfs-label".
set-libvirt-requested-credential
set-libvirt-requested-credential index cred
After requesting the "index"'th credential from the user, call this
function to pass the answer back to libvirt.
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
set-libvirt-supported-credentials
set-libvirt-supported-credentials 'creds ...'
Call this function before setting an event handler for
"GUESTFS_EVENT_LIBVIRT_AUTH", to supply the list of credential types
that the program knows how to process.
The "creds" list must be a non-empty list of strings. Possible strings
are:
"username"
"authname"
"language"
"cnonce"
"passphrase"
"echoprompt"
"noechoprompt"
"realm"
"external"
See libvirt documentation for the meaning of these credential types.
See "LIBVIRT AUTHENTICATION" in guestfs(3) for documentation and
example code.
set-memsize
memsize
set-memsize memsize
This sets the memory size in megabytes allocated to the qemu
subprocess. This only has any effect if called before "launch".
You can also change this by setting the environment variable
"LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE" before the handle is created.
For more information on the architecture of libguestfs, see guestfs(3).
set-network
network
set-network true|false
If "network" is true, then the network is enabled in the libguestfs
appliance. The default is false.
This affects whether commands are able to access the network (see
"RUNNING COMMANDS" in guestfs(3)).
You must call this before calling "launch", otherwise it has no effect.
set-path
path
set-path searchpath
Set the path that libguestfs searches for kernel and initrd.img.
The default is "$libdir/guestfs" unless overridden by setting
"LIBGUESTFS_PATH" environment variable.
Setting "path" to "NULL" restores the default path.
set-pgroup
pgroup
set-pgroup true|false
If "pgroup" is true, child processes are placed into their own process
group.
The practical upshot of this is that signals like "SIGINT" (from users
pressing "^C") won't be received by the child process.
The default for this flag is false, because usually you want "^C" to
kill the subprocess. Guestfish sets this flag to true when used
interactively, so that "^C" can cancel long-running commands gracefully
(see "user-cancel").
set-qemu
qemu
set-qemu qemu
Set the qemu binary that we will use.
The default is chosen when the library was compiled by the configure
script.
You can also override this by setting the "LIBGUESTFS_QEMU" environment
variable.
Setting "qemu" to "NULL" restores the default qemu binary.
Note that you should call this function as early as possible after
creating the handle. This is because some pre-launch operations depend
on testing qemu features (by running "qemu -help"). If the qemu binary
changes, we don't retest features, and so you might see inconsistent
results. Using the environment variable "LIBGUESTFS_QEMU" is safest of
all since that picks the qemu binary at the same time as the handle is
created.
set-recovery-proc
recovery-proc
set-recovery-proc true|false
If this is called with the parameter "false" then "launch" does not
create a recovery process. The purpose of the recovery process is to
stop runaway qemu processes in the case where the main program aborts
abruptly.
This only has any effect if called before "launch", and the default is
true.
About the only time when you would want to disable this is if the main
process will fork itself into the background ("daemonize" itself). In
this case the recovery process thinks that the main program has
disappeared and so kills qemu, which is not very helpful.
set-selinux
selinux
set-selinux true|false
This sets the selinux flag that is passed to the appliance at boot
time. The default is "selinux=0" (disabled).
Note that if SELinux is enabled, it is always in Permissive mode
("enforcing=0").
For more information on the architecture of libguestfs, see guestfs(3).
set-smp
smp
set-smp smp
Change the number of virtual CPUs assigned to the appliance. The
default is 1. Increasing this may improve performance, though often it
has no effect.
This function must be called before "launch".
set-tmpdir
tmpdir
set-tmpdir tmpdir
Set the directory used by the handle to store temporary files.
The environment variables "LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR" and "TMPDIR" control the
default value: If "LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR" is set, then that is the default.
Else if "TMPDIR" is set, then that is the default. Else "/tmp" is the
default.
set-trace
trace
set-trace true|false
If the command trace flag is set to 1, then libguestfs calls,
parameters and return values are traced.
If you want to trace C API calls into libguestfs (and other libraries)
then possibly a better way is to use the external ltrace(1) command.
Command traces are disabled unless the environment variable
"LIBGUESTFS_TRACE" is defined and set to 1.
Trace messages are normally sent to "stderr", unless you register a
callback to send them somewhere else (see "set-event-callback").
set-verbose
verbose
set-verbose true|false
If "verbose" is true, this turns on verbose messages.
Verbose messages are disabled unless the environment variable
"LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG" is defined and set to 1.
Verbose messages are normally sent to "stderr", unless you register a
callback to send them somewhere else (see "set-event-callback").
setcon
setcon context
This sets the SELinux security context of the daemon to the string
"context".
See the documentation about SELINUX in guestfs(3).
setxattr
setxattr xattr val vallen path
This call sets the extended attribute named "xattr" of the file "path"
to the value "val" (of length "vallen"). The value is arbitrary 8 bit
data.
See also: "lsetxattr", attr(5).
sfdisk
sfdisk device cyls heads sectors 'lines ...'
This is a direct interface to the sfdisk(8) program for creating
partitions on block devices.
"device" should be a block device, for example "/dev/sda".
"cyls", "heads" and "sectors" are the number of cylinders, heads and
sectors on the device, which are passed directly to sfdisk as the -C,
-H and -S parameters. If you pass 0 for any of these, then the
corresponding parameter is omitted. Usually for 'large' disks, you can
just pass 0 for these, but for small (floppy-sized) disks, sfdisk (or
rather, the kernel) cannot work out the right geometry and you will
need to tell it.
"lines" is a list of lines that we feed to "sfdisk". For more
information refer to the sfdisk(8) manpage.
To create a single partition occupying the whole disk, you would pass
"lines" as a single element list, when the single element being the
string "," (comma).
See also: "sfdisk-l", "sfdisk-N", "part-init"
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "part-add" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
sfdiskM
sfdiskM device 'lines ...'
This is a simplified interface to the "sfdisk" command, where partition
sizes are specified in megabytes only (rounded to the nearest cylinder)
and you don't need to specify the cyls, heads and sectors parameters
which were rarely if ever used anyway.
See also: "sfdisk", the sfdisk(8) manpage and "part-disk"
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "part-add" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
sfdisk-N
sfdisk-N device partnum cyls heads sectors line
This runs sfdisk(8) option to modify just the single partition "n"
(note: "n" counts from 1).
For other parameters, see "sfdisk". You should usually pass 0 for the
cyls/heads/sectors parameters.
See also: "part-add"
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "part-add" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
sfdisk-disk-geometry
sfdisk-disk-geometry device
This displays the disk geometry of "device" read from the partition
table. Especially in the case where the underlying block device has
been resized, this can be different from the kernel's idea of the
geometry (see "sfdisk-kernel-geometry").
The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to be parsed.
sfdisk-kernel-geometry
sfdisk-kernel-geometry device
This displays the kernel's idea of the geometry of "device".
The result is in human-readable format, and not designed to be parsed.
sfdisk-l
sfdisk-l device
This displays the partition table on "device", in the human-readable
output of the sfdisk(8) command. It is not intended to be parsed.
See also: "part-list"
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "part-list" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
sh
sh command
This call runs a command from the guest filesystem via the guest's
"/bin/sh".
This is like "command", but passes the command to:
/bin/sh -c "command"
Depending on the guest's shell, this usually results in wildcards being
expanded, shell expressions being interpolated and so on.
All the provisos about "command" apply to this call.
sh-lines
sh-lines command
This is the same as "sh", but splits the result into a list of lines.
See also: "command-lines"
shutdown
shutdown
This is the opposite of "launch". It performs an orderly shutdown of
the backend process(es). If the autosync flag is set (which is the
default) then the disk image is synchronized.
If the subprocess exits with an error then this function will return an
error, which should not be ignored (it may indicate that the disk image
could not be written out properly).
It is safe to call this multiple times. Extra calls are ignored.
This call does not close or free up the handle. You still need to call
"close" afterwards.
"close" will call this if you don't do it explicitly, but note that any
errors are ignored in that case.
sleep
sleep secs
Sleep for "secs" seconds.
stat
stat path
Returns file information for the given "path".
This is the same as the stat(2) system call.
statvfs
statvfs path
Returns file system statistics for any mounted file system. "path"
should be a file or directory in the mounted file system (typically it
is the mount point itself, but it doesn't need to be).
This is the same as the statvfs(2) system call.
strings
strings path
This runs the strings(1) command on a file and returns the list of
printable strings found.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
strings-e
strings-e encoding path
This is like the "strings" command, but allows you to specify the
encoding of strings that are looked for in the source file "path".
Allowed encodings are:
s Single 7-bit-byte characters like ASCII and the ASCII-compatible
parts of ISO-8859-X (this is what "strings" uses).
S Single 8-bit-byte characters.
b 16-bit big endian strings such as those encoded in UTF-16BE or
UCS-2BE.
l (lower case letter L)
16-bit little endian such as UTF-16LE and UCS-2LE. This is useful
for examining binaries in Windows guests.
B 32-bit big endian such as UCS-4BE.
L 32-bit little endian such as UCS-4LE.
The returned strings are transcoded to UTF-8.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
swapoff-device
swapoff-device device
This command disables the libguestfs appliance swap device or partition
named "device". See "swapon-device".
swapoff-file
swapoff-file file
This command disables the libguestfs appliance swap on file.
swapoff-label
swapoff-label label
This command disables the libguestfs appliance swap on labeled swap
partition.
swapoff-uuid
swapoff-uuid uuid
This command disables the libguestfs appliance swap partition with the
given UUID.
swapon-device
swapon-device device
This command enables the libguestfs appliance to use the swap device or
partition named "device". The increased memory is made available for
all commands, for example those run using "command" or "sh".
Note that you should not swap to existing guest swap partitions unless
you know what you are doing. They may contain hibernation information,
or other information that the guest doesn't want you to trash. You
also risk leaking information about the host to the guest this way.
Instead, attach a new host device to the guest and swap on that.
swapon-file
swapon-file file
This command enables swap to a file. See "swapon-device" for other
notes.
swapon-label
swapon-label label
This command enables swap to a labeled swap partition. See "swapon-
device" for other notes.
swapon-uuid
swapon-uuid uuid
This command enables swap to a swap partition with the given UUID. See
"swapon-device" for other notes.
sync
sync
This syncs the disk, so that any writes are flushed through to the
underlying disk image.
You should always call this if you have modified a disk image, before
closing the handle.
tail
tail path
This command returns up to the last 10 lines of a file as a list of
strings.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
tail-n
tail-n nrlines path
If the parameter "nrlines" is a positive number, this returns the last
"nrlines" lines of the file "path".
If the parameter "nrlines" is a negative number, this returns lines
from the file "path", starting with the "-nrlines"th line.
If the parameter "nrlines" is zero, this returns an empty list.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
tar-in
tar-in-opts
tar-in (tarfile|-) directory [compress:..]
This command uploads and unpacks local file "tarfile" into "directory".
The optional "compress" flag controls compression. If not given, then
the input should be an uncompressed tar file. Otherwise one of the
following strings may be given to select the compression type of the
input file: "compress", "gzip", "bzip2", "xz", "lzop". (Note that not
all builds of libguestfs will support all of these compression types).
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
tar-out
tar-out-opts
tar-out directory (tarfile|-) [compress:..] [numericowner:true|false] [excludes:..]
This command packs the contents of "directory" and downloads it to
local file "tarfile".
The optional "compress" flag controls compression. If not given, then
the output will be an uncompressed tar file. Otherwise one of the
following strings may be given to select the compression type of the
output file: "compress", "gzip", "bzip2", "xz", "lzop". (Note that not
all builds of libguestfs will support all of these compression types).
The other optional arguments are:
"excludes"
A list of wildcards. Files are excluded if they match any of the
wildcards.
"numericowner"
If set to true, the output tar file will contain UID/GID numbers
instead of user/group names.
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
tgz-in
tgz-in (tarball|-) directory
This command uploads and unpacks local file "tarball" (a gzip
compressed tar file) into "directory".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "tar-in" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
tgz-out
tgz-out directory (tarball|-)
This command packs the contents of "directory" and downloads it to
local file "tarball".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "tar-out" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
touch
touch path
Touch acts like the touch(1) command. It can be used to update the
timestamps on a file, or, if the file does not exist, to create a new
zero-length file.
This command only works on regular files, and will fail on other file
types such as directories, symbolic links, block special etc.
truncate
truncate path
This command truncates "path" to a zero-length file. The file must
exist already.
truncate-size
truncate-size path size
This command truncates "path" to size "size" bytes. The file must
exist already.
If the current file size is less than "size" then the file is extended
to the required size with zero bytes. This creates a sparse file (ie.
disk blocks are not allocated for the file until you write to it). To
create a non-sparse file of zeroes, use "fallocate64" instead.
tune2fs
tune2fs device [force:true|false] [maxmountcount:N] [mountcount:N] [errorbehavior:..] [group:N] [intervalbetweenchecks:N] [reservedblockspercentage:N] [lastmounteddirectory:..] [reservedblockscount:N] [user:N]
This call allows you to adjust various filesystem parameters of an
ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem called "device".
The optional parameters are:
"force"
Force tune2fs to complete the operation even in the face of errors.
This is the same as the tune2fs "-f" option.
"maxmountcount"
Set the number of mounts after which the filesystem is checked by
e2fsck(8). If this is 0 then the number of mounts is disregarded.
This is the same as the tune2fs "-c" option.
"mountcount"
Set the number of times the filesystem has been mounted. This is
the same as the tune2fs "-C" option.
"errorbehavior"
Change the behavior of the kernel code when errors are detected.
Possible values currently are: "continue", "remount-ro", "panic".
In practice these options don't really make any difference,
particularly for write errors.
This is the same as the tune2fs "-e" option.
"group"
Set the group which can use reserved filesystem blocks. This is
the same as the tune2fs "-g" option except that it can only be
specified as a number.
"intervalbetweenchecks"
Adjust the maximal time between two filesystem checks (in seconds).
If the option is passed as 0 then time-dependent checking is
disabled.
This is the same as the tune2fs "-i" option.
"reservedblockspercentage"
Set the percentage of the filesystem which may only be allocated by
privileged processes. This is the same as the tune2fs "-m" option.
"lastmounteddirectory"
Set the last mounted directory. This is the same as the tune2fs
"-M" option.
"reservedblockscount" Set the number of reserved filesystem blocks.
This is the same as the tune2fs "-r" option.
"user"
Set the user who can use the reserved filesystem blocks. This is
the same as the tune2fs "-u" option except that it can only be
specified as a number.
To get the current values of filesystem parameters, see "tune2fs-l".
For precise details of how tune2fs works, see the tune2fs(8) man page.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
tune2fs-l
tune2fs-l device
This returns the contents of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem
superblock on "device".
It is the same as running "tune2fs -l device". See tune2fs(8) manpage
for more details. The list of fields returned isn't clearly defined,
and depends on both the version of "tune2fs" that libguestfs was built
against, and the filesystem itself.
txz-in
txz-in (tarball|-) directory
This command uploads and unpacks local file "tarball" (an xz compressed
tar file) into "directory".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "tar-in" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
txz-out
txz-out directory (tarball|-)
This command packs the contents of "directory" and downloads it to
local file "tarball" (as an xz compressed tar archive).
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "tar-out" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
umask
umask mask
This function sets the mask used for creating new files and device
nodes to "mask & 0777".
Typical umask values would be 022 which creates new files with
permissions like "-rw-r--r--" or "-rwxr-xr-x", and 002 which creates
new files with permissions like "-rw-rw-r--" or "-rwxrwxr-x".
The default umask is 022. This is important because it means that
directories and device nodes will be created with 0644 or 0755 mode
even if you specify 0777.
See also "get-umask", umask(2), "mknod", "mkdir".
This call returns the previous umask.
umount
unmount
umount-opts
umount pathordevice [force:true|false] [lazyunmount:true|false]
This unmounts the given filesystem. The filesystem may be specified
either by its mountpoint (path) or the device which contains the
filesystem.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
umount-all
unmount-all
umount-all
This unmounts all mounted filesystems.
Some internal mounts are not unmounted by this call.
umount-local
umount-local [retry:true|false]
If libguestfs is exporting the filesystem on a local mountpoint, then
this unmounts it.
See "MOUNT LOCAL" in guestfs(3) for full documentation.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
upload
upload (filename|-) remotefilename
Upload local file "filename" to "remotefilename" on the filesystem.
"filename" can also be a named pipe.
See also "download".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
upload-offset
upload-offset (filename|-) remotefilename offset
Upload local file "filename" to "remotefilename" on the filesystem.
"remotefilename" is overwritten starting at the byte "offset"
specified. The intention is to overwrite parts of existing files or
devices, although if a non-existant file is specified then it is
created with a "hole" before "offset". The size of the data written is
implicit in the size of the source "filename".
Note that there is no limit on the amount of data that can be uploaded
with this call, unlike with "pwrite", and this call always writes the
full amount unless an error occurs.
See also "upload", "pwrite".
Use "-" instead of a filename to read/write from stdin/stdout.
utimens
utimens path atsecs atnsecs mtsecs mtnsecs
This command sets the timestamps of a file with nanosecond precision.
"atsecs, atnsecs" are the last access time (atime) in secs and
nanoseconds from the epoch.
"mtsecs, mtnsecs" are the last modification time (mtime) in secs and
nanoseconds from the epoch.
If the *nsecs field contains the special value "-1" then the
corresponding timestamp is set to the current time. (The *secs field
is ignored in this case).
If the *nsecs field contains the special value "-2" then the
corresponding timestamp is left unchanged. (The *secs field is ignored
in this case).
utsname
utsname
This returns the kernel version of the appliance, where this is
available. This information is only useful for debugging. Nothing in
the returned structure is defined by the API.
version
version
Return the libguestfs version number that the program is linked
against.
Note that because of dynamic linking this is not necessarily the
version of libguestfs that you compiled against. You can compile the
program, and then at runtime dynamically link against a completely
different "libguestfs.so" library.
This call was added in version 1.0.58. In previous versions of
libguestfs there was no way to get the version number. From C code you
can use dynamic linker functions to find out if this symbol exists (if
it doesn't, then it's an earlier version).
The call returns a structure with four elements. The first three
("major", "minor" and "release") are numbers and correspond to the
usual version triplet. The fourth element ("extra") is a string and is
normally empty, but may be used for distro-specific information.
To construct the original version string:
"$major.$minor.$release$extra"
See also: "LIBGUESTFS VERSION NUMBERS" in guestfs(3).
Note: Don't use this call to test for availability of features. In
enterprise distributions we backport features from later versions into
earlier versions, making this an unreliable way to test for features.
Use "available" instead.
vfs-label
vfs-label device
This returns the filesystem label of the filesystem on "device".
If the filesystem is unlabeled, this returns the empty string.
To find a filesystem from the label, use "findfs-label".
vfs-type
vfs-type device
This command gets the filesystem type corresponding to the filesystem
on "device".
For most filesystems, the result is the name of the Linux VFS module
which would be used to mount this filesystem if you mounted it without
specifying the filesystem type. For example a string such as "ext3" or
"ntfs".
vfs-uuid
vfs-uuid device
This returns the filesystem UUID of the filesystem on "device".
If the filesystem does not have a UUID, this returns the empty string.
To find a filesystem from the UUID, use "findfs-uuid".
vg-activate
vg-activate true|false 'volgroups ...'
This command activates or (if "activate" is false) deactivates all
logical volumes in the listed volume groups "volgroups".
This command is the same as running "vgchange -a y|n volgroups..."
Note that if "volgroups" is an empty list then all volume groups are
activated or deactivated.
vg-activate-all
vg-activate-all true|false
This command activates or (if "activate" is false) deactivates all
logical volumes in all volume groups.
This command is the same as running "vgchange -a y|n"
vgchange-uuid
vgchange-uuid vg
Generate a new random UUID for the volume group "vg".
vgchange-uuid-all
vgchange-uuid-all
Generate new random UUIDs for all volume groups.
vgcreate
vgcreate volgroup 'physvols ...'
This creates an LVM volume group called "volgroup" from the non-empty
list of physical volumes "physvols".
vglvuuids
vglvuuids vgname
Given a VG called "vgname", this returns the UUIDs of all the logical
volumes created in this volume group.
You can use this along with "lvs" and "lvuuid" calls to associate
logical volumes and volume groups.
See also "vgpvuuids".
vgmeta
vgmeta vgname
"vgname" is an LVM volume group. This command examines the volume
group and returns its metadata.
Note that the metadata is an internal structure used by LVM, subject to
change at any time, and is provided for information only.
vgpvuuids
vgpvuuids vgname
Given a VG called "vgname", this returns the UUIDs of all the physical
volumes that this volume group resides on.
You can use this along with "pvs" and "pvuuid" calls to associate
physical volumes and volume groups.
See also "vglvuuids".
vgremove
vgremove vgname
Remove an LVM volume group "vgname", (for example "VG").
This also forcibly removes all logical volumes in the volume group (if
any).
vgrename
vgrename volgroup newvolgroup
Rename a volume group "volgroup" with the new name "newvolgroup".
vgs
vgs
List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent of the
vgs(8) command.
This returns a list of just the volume group names that were detected
(eg. "VolGroup00").
See also "vgs-full".
vgs-full
vgs-full
List all the volumes groups detected. This is the equivalent of the
vgs(8) command. The "full" version includes all fields.
vgscan
vgscan
This rescans all block devices and rebuilds the list of LVM physical
volumes, volume groups and logical volumes.
vguuid
vguuid vgname
This command returns the UUID of the LVM VG named "vgname".
wc-c
wc-c path
This command counts the characters in a file, using the "wc -c"
external command.
wc-l
wc-l path
This command counts the lines in a file, using the "wc -l" external
command.
wc-w
wc-w path
This command counts the words in a file, using the "wc -w" external
command.
wipefs
wipefs device
This command erases filesystem or RAID signatures from the specified
"device" to make the filesystem invisible to libblkid.
This does not erase the filesystem itself nor any other data from the
"device".
Compare with "zero" which zeroes the first few blocks of a device.
write
write path content
This call creates a file called "path". The content of the file is the
string "content" (which can contain any 8 bit data).
See also "write-append".
write-append
write-append path content
This call appends "content" to the end of file "path". If "path" does
not exist, then a new file is created.
See also "write".
write-file
write-file path content size
This call creates a file called "path". The contents of the file is
the string "content" (which can contain any 8 bit data), with length
"size".
As a special case, if "size" is 0 then the length is calculated using
"strlen" (so in this case the content cannot contain embedded ASCII
NULs).
NB. Owing to a bug, writing content containing ASCII NUL characters
does not work, even if the length is specified.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "write" call
instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
xfs-admin
xfs-admin device [extunwritten:true|false] [imgfile:true|false] [v2log:true|false] [projid32bit:true|false] [lazycounter:true|false] [label:..] [uuid:..]
Change the parameters of the XFS filesystem on "device".
Devices that are mounted cannot be modified. Administrators must
unmount filesystems before this call can modify parameters.
Some of the parameters of a mounted filesystem can be examined and
modified using the "xfs-info" and "xfs-growfs" calls.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
xfs-growfs
xfs-growfs path [datasec:true|false] [logsec:true|false] [rtsec:true|false] [datasize:N] [logsize:N] [rtsize:N] [rtextsize:N] [maxpct:N]
Grow the XFS filesystem mounted at "path".
The returned struct contains geometry information. Missing fields are
returned as "-1" (for numeric fields) or empty string.
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
xfs-info
xfs-info pathordevice
"pathordevice" is a mounted XFS filesystem or a device containing an
XFS filesystem. This command returns the geometry of the filesystem.
The returned struct contains geometry information. Missing fields are
returned as "-1" (for numeric fields) or empty string.
xfs-repair
xfs-repair device [forcelogzero:true|false] [nomodify:true|false] [noprefetch:true|false] [forcegeometry:true|false] [maxmem:N] [ihashsize:N] [bhashsize:N] [agstride:N] [logdev:..] [rtdev:..]
Repair corrupt or damaged XFS filesystem on "device".
The filesystem is specified using the "device" argument which should be
the device name of the disk partition or volume containing the
filesystem. If given the name of a block device, "xfs_repair" will
attempt to find the raw device associated with the specified block
device and will use the raw device instead.
Regardless, the filesystem to be repaired must be unmounted, otherwise,
the resulting filesystem may be inconsistent or corrupt.
The returned status indicates whether filesystem corruption was
detected (returns 1) or was not detected (returns 0).
This command has one or more optional arguments. See "OPTIONAL
ARGUMENTS".
zegrep
zegrep regex path
This calls the external "zegrep" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zegrepi
zegrepi regex path
This calls the external "zegrep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zero
zero device
This command writes zeroes over the first few blocks of "device".
How many blocks are zeroed isn't specified (but it's not enough to
securely wipe the device). It should be sufficient to remove any
partition tables, filesystem superblocks and so on.
If blocks are already zero, then this command avoids writing zeroes.
This prevents the underlying device from becoming non-sparse or growing
unnecessarily.
See also: "zero-device", "scrub-device", "is-zero-device"
zero-device
zero-device device
This command writes zeroes over the entire "device". Compare with
"zero" which just zeroes the first few blocks of a device.
If blocks are already zero, then this command avoids writing zeroes.
This prevents the underlying device from becoming non-sparse or growing
unnecessarily.
zero-free-space
zero-free-space directory
Zero the free space in the filesystem mounted on "directory". The
filesystem must be mounted read-write.
The filesystem contents are not affected, but any free space in the
filesystem is freed.
Free space is not "trimmed". You may want to call "fstrim" either as
an alternative to this, or after calling this, depending on your
requirements.
zerofree
zerofree device
This runs the zerofree program on "device". This program claims to
zero unused inodes and disk blocks on an ext2/3 filesystem, thus making
it possible to compress the filesystem more effectively.
You should not run this program if the filesystem is mounted.
It is possible that using this program can damage the filesystem or
data on the filesystem.
zfgrep
zfgrep pattern path
This calls the external "zfgrep" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zfgrepi
zfgrepi pattern path
This calls the external "zfgrep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zfile
zfile meth path
This command runs "file" after first decompressing "path" using
"method".
"method" must be one of "gzip", "compress" or "bzip2".
Since 1.0.63, use "file" instead which can now process compressed
files.
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "file" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zgrep
zgrep regex path
This calls the external "zgrep" program and returns the matching lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
zgrepi
zgrepi regex path
This calls the external "zgrep -i" program and returns the matching
lines.
Because of the message protocol, there is a transfer limit of somewhere
between 2MB and 4MB. See "PROTOCOL LIMITS" in guestfs(3).
This function is deprecated. In new code, use the "grep" call instead.
Deprecated functions will not be removed from the API, but the fact
that they are deprecated indicates that there are problems with correct
use of these functions.
EXIT STATUSguestfish returns 0 if the commands completed without error, or 1 if
there was an error.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
EDITOR
The "edit" command uses $EDITOR as the editor. If not set, it uses
"vi".
FEBOOTSTRAP_KERNEL
FEBOOTSTRAP_MODULES
When using supermin X 4.1.0, these have been renamed
"SUPERMIN_KERNEL" and "SUPERMIN_MODULES".
GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE
The "display" command uses $GUESTFISH_DISPLAY_IMAGE to display
images. If not set, it uses display(1).
GUESTFISH_PID
Used with the --remote option to specify the remote guestfish
process to control. See section "REMOTE CONTROL GUESTFISH OVER A
SOCKET".
GUESTFISH_PS1
Set the command prompt. See "PROMPT".
HEXEDITOR
The "hexedit" command uses $HEXEDITOR as the external hex editor.
If not specified, the external hexedit(1) program is used.
HOME
If compiled with GNU readline support, various files in the home
directory can be used. See "FILES".
LIBGUESTFS_APPEND
Pass additional options to the guest kernel.
LIBGUESTFS_ATTACH_METHOD
Choose the default way to create the appliance. See
"guestfs_set_attach_method" in guestfs(3).
LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR
The location where libguestfs will cache its appliance, when using
a supermin appliance. The appliance is cached and shared between
all handles which have the same effective user ID.
If "LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR" is not set, then "TMPDIR" is used. If
"TMPDIR" is not set, then "/var/tmp" is used.
See also "LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR", "set-cachedir".
LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG
Set "LIBGUESTFS_DEBUG=1" to enable verbose messages. This has the
same effect as using the -v option.
LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE
Set the memory allocated to the qemu process, in megabytes. For
example:
LIBGUESTFS_MEMSIZE=700
LIBGUESTFS_PATH
Set the path that guestfish uses to search for kernel and
initrd.img. See the discussion of paths in guestfs(3).
LIBGUESTFS_QEMU
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.
LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR
The location where libguestfs will store temporary files used by
each handle.
If "LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR" is not set, then "TMPDIR" is used. If
"TMPDIR" is not set, then "/tmp" is used.
See also "LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR", "set-tmpdir".
LIBGUESTFS_TRACE
Set "LIBGUESTFS_TRACE=1" to enable command traces.
PAGER
The "more" command uses $PAGER as the pager. If not set, it uses
"more".
PATH
Libguestfs and guestfish may run some external programs, and rely
on $PATH being set to a reasonable value. If using the libvirt
attach-method, libvirt will not work at all unless $PATH contains
the path of qemu/KVM.
SUPERMIN_KERNEL
SUPERMIN_MODULES
These two environment variables allow the kernel that libguestfs
uses in the appliance to be selected. If $SUPERMIN_KERNEL is not
set, then the most recent host kernel is chosen. For more
information about kernel selection, see supermin-helper(8). This
feature is only available in supermin / febootstrap X 3.8.
TMPDIR
See "LIBGUESTFS_CACHEDIR", "LIBGUESTFS_TMPDIR".
FILES
$HOME/.libguestfs-tools.rc
/etc/libguestfs-tools.conf
This configuration file controls the default read-only or read-
write mode (--ro or --rw).
See "OPENING DISKS FOR READ AND WRITE".
$HOME/.guestfish
If compiled with GNU readline support, then the command history is
saved in this file.
$HOME/.inputrc
/etc/inputrc
If compiled with GNU readline support, then these files can be used
to configure readline. For further information, please see
"INITIALIZATION FILE" in readline(3).
To write rules which only apply to guestfish, use:
$if guestfish
...
$endif
Variables that you can set in inputrc that change the behaviour of
guestfish in useful ways include:
completion-ignore-case (default: on)
By default, guestfish will ignore case when tab-completing
paths on the disk. Use:
set completion-ignore-case off
to make guestfish case sensitive.
test1.img
test2.img (etc)
When using the -N or --new option, the prepared disk or filesystem
will be created in the file "test1.img" in the current directory.
The second use of -N will use "test2.img" and so on. Any existing
file with the same name will be overwritten.
SEE ALSOguestfs(3), http://libguestfs.org/, virt-alignment-scan(1),
virt-cat(1), virt-copy-in(1), virt-copy-out(1), virt-df(1),
virt-edit(1), virt-filesystems(1), virt-inspector(1),
virt-list-filesystems(1), virt-list-partitions(1), virt-ls(1),
virt-make-fs(1), virt-rescue(1), virt-resize(1), virt-sparsify(1),
virt-sysprep(1), virt-tar(1), virt-tar-in(1), virt-tar-out(1),
virt-win-reg(1), display(1), hexedit(1), supermin-helper(8).
AUTHORS
Richard W.M. Jones ("rjones at redhat dot com")
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2009-2013 Red Hat Inc.
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
BUGS
To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
When reporting a bug, please supply:
· The version of libguestfs.
· Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
source, etc)
· Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
· Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
into the bug report.
libguestfs-1.20.4 2013-03-12 guestfish(1)
