1virt-inspector(1) Virtualization Support virt-inspector(1)
2
6 virt-inspector - Display operating system version and other information
7 about a virtual machine
8
10 virt-inspector [--options] -d domname
11 virt-inspector [--options] -a disk.img [-a disk.img ...]
13 Old-style:
15 virt-inspector domname
17 virt-inspector disk.img [disk.img ...]
19
21 virt-inspector examines a virtual machine or disk image and tries to
22 determine the version of the operating system and other information
23 about the virtual machine.
24 Virt-inspector produces XML output for feeding into other programs.
26 In the normal usage, use "virt-inspector -d domname" where "domname" is
28 the libvirt domain (see: "virsh list --all").
29 You can also run virt-inspector directly on disk images from a single
31 virtual machine. Use "virt-inspector -a disk.img". In rare cases a
32 domain has several block devices, in which case you should list several
33 -a options one after another, with the first corresponding to the
34 guest's "/dev/sda", the second to the guest's "/dev/sdb" and so on.
35 Virt-inspector can only inspect and report upon one domain at a time.
37 To inspect several virtual machines, you have to run virt-inspector
38 several times (for example, from a shell script for-loop).
39 Because virt-inspector needs direct access to guest images, it won't
41 normally work over remote libvirt connections.
42
44 --help
45 Display brief help.
46 -a file
48 --add file
49 Add file which should be a disk image from a virtual machine. If
50 the virtual machine has multiple block devices, you must supply all
51 of them with separate -a options.
52 The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this
54 and force a particular format use the --format=.. option.
55 -c URI
57 --connect URI
58 If using libvirt, connect to the given URI. If omitted, then we
59 connect to the default libvirt hypervisor.
60 Libvirt is only used if you specify a "domname" on the command
62 line. If you specify guest block devices directly (-a), then
63 libvirt is not used at all.
64 -d guest
66 --domain guest
67 Add all the disks from the named libvirt guest.
68 --echo-keys
70 When prompting for keys and passphrases, virt-inspector normally
71 turns echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you
72 are not worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in
73 the room you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
74 --format=raw|qcow2|..
76 --format
77 Specify the format of disk images given on the command line. If
78 this is omitted then the format is autodetected from the content of
79 the disk image.
80 If disk images are requested from libvirt, then this program asks
82 libvirt for this information. In this case, the value of the
83 format parameter is ignored.
84 If working with untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should
86 ensure the format is always specified.
87 --keys-from-stdin
89 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is to
90 try to read passphrases from the user by opening "/dev/tty".
91 -v
93 --verbose
94 Enable verbose messages for debugging.
95 -V
97 --version
98 Display version number and exit.
99 -x Enable tracing of libguestfs API calls.
101
103 Previous versions of virt-inspector allowed you to write either:
104 virt-inspector disk.img [disk.img ...]
106 or
108 virt-inspector guestname
110 whereas in this version you should use -a or -d respectively to avoid
112 the confusing case where a disk image might have the same name as a
113 guest.
114 For compatibility the old style is still supported.
116
118 The virt-inspector XML is described precisely in a RELAX NG schema
119 which is supplied with libguestfs. This section is just an overview.
120 The top-level element is <operatingsystems>, and it contains one or
122 more <operatingsystem> elements. You would only see more than one
123 <operatingsystem> element if the virtual machine is multi-boot, which
124 is vanishingly rare in real world VMs.
125 <operatingsystem>
127 In the <operatingsystem> tag are various optional fields that describe
128 the operating system, its architecture, the descriptive "product name"
129 string, the type of OS and so on, as in this example:
130 <operatingsystems>
132 <operatingsystem>
133 <root>/dev/sda2</root>
134 <name>windows</name>
135 <arch>i386</arch>
136 <distro>windows</distro>
137 <product_name>Windows 7 Enterprise</product_name>
138 <major_version>6</major_version>
139 <minor_version>1</minor_version>
140 <windows_systemroot>/Windows</windows_systemroot>
141 These fields are derived from the libguestfs inspection API, and you
143 can find more details in "INSPECTION" in guestfs(3).
144 The <root> element is the root filesystem device, but from the point of
146 view of libguestfs (block devices may have completely different names
147 inside the VM itself).
148 <mountpoints>
150 Un*x-like guests typically have multiple filesystems which are mounted
151 at various mountpoints, and these are described in the <mountpoints>
152 element which looks like this:
153 <operatingsystems>
155 <operatingsystem>
156 ...
157 <mountpoints>
158 <mountpoint dev="/dev/vg_f13x64/lv_root">/</mountpoint>
159 <mountpoint dev="/dev/sda1">/boot</mountpoint>
160 </mountpoints>
161 As with <root>, devices are from the point of view of libguestfs, and
163 may have completely different names inside the guest. Only mountable
164 filesystems appear in this list, not things like swap devices.
165 <filesystems>
167 <filesystems> is like <mountpoints> but covers all filesystems
168 belonging to the guest, including swap and empty partitions. (In the
169 rare case of a multi-boot guest, it covers filesystems belonging to
170 this OS or shared by this OS and other OSes).
171 You might see something like this:
173 <operatingsystems>
175 <operatingsystem>
176 ...
177 <filesystems>
178 <filesystem dev="/dev/vg_f13x64/lv_root">
179 <type>ext4</type>
180 <label>Fedora-13-x86_64</label>
181 <uuid>e6a4db1e-15c2-477b-ac2a-699181c396aa</uuid>
182 </filesystem>
183 The optional elements within <filesystem> are the filesystem type, the
185 label, and the UUID.
186 <applications>
188 The related elements <package_format>, <package_management> and
189 <applications> describe applications installed in the virtual machine.
190 <package_format>, if present, describes the packaging system used.
192 Typical values would be "rpm" and "deb".
193 <package_management>, if present, describes the package manager.
195 Typical values include "yum", "up2date" and "apt"
196 <applications> lists the packages or applications installed.
198 <operatingsystems>
200 <operatingsystem>
201 ...
202 <applications>
203 <application>
204 <name>coreutils</name>
205 <version>8.5</version>
206 <release>1</release>
207 </application>
208 The version and release fields may not be available for some types
210 guests. Other fields are possible, see
211 "guestfs_inspect_list_applications" in guestfs(3).
212
214 You can use the XPath query language, and/or the xpath tool, in order
215 to select parts of the XML.
216 For example:
218 $ virt-inspector -d Guest | xpath //filesystems
220 Found 1 nodes:
221 -- NODE --
222 <filesystems>
223 <filesystem dev="/dev/vg_f13x64/lv_root">
224 <type>ext4</type>
225 [etc]
226 $ virt-inspector -d Guest | \
228 xpath "string(//filesystem[@dev='/dev/sda1']/type)"
229 Query didn't return a nodeset. Value: ext4
230
232 Libvirt guest names can contain arbitrary characters, some of which
233 have meaning to the shell such as "#" and space. You may need to quote
234 or escape these characters on the command line. See the shell manual
235 page sh(1) for details.
236
238 guestfs(3), guestfish(1), <http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/>,
239 <http://libguestfs.org/>.
240
242 · Richard W.M. Jones <http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/>
243 · Matthew Booth mbooth@redhat.com
245
247 Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat Inc.
248 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
250 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
251 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
252 option) any later version.
253 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
255 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
256 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
257 General Public License for more details.
258 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
260 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
261 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
262libguestfs-1.8.15 2011-11-10 virt-inspector(1)