1virt-cat(1)                 Virtualization Support                 virt-cat(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       virt-cat - Display files in a virtual machine
7

SYNOPSIS

9        virt-cat [--options] -d domname file [file ...]
10
11        virt-cat [--options] -a disk.img [-a disk.img ...] file [file ...]
12
13       Old-style:
14
15        virt-cat domname file
16
17        virt-cat disk.img file
18

DESCRIPTION

20       "virt-cat" is a command line tool to display the contents of "file"
21       where "file" exists in the named virtual machine (or disk image).
22
23       Multiple filenames can be given, in which case they are concatenated
24       together.  Each filename must be a full path, starting at the root
25       directory (starting with '/').
26
27       "virt-cat" can be used to quickly view a file.  To edit a file, use
28       "virt-edit".  For more complex cases you should look at the
29       guestfish(1) tool (see "USING GUESTFISH" below).
30

EXAMPLES

32       Display /etc/fstab file from inside the libvirt VM called "mydomain":
33
34        virt-cat -d mydomain /etc/fstab
35
36       Find out what packages were recently installed:
37
38        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/log/yum.log | tail
39
40       Find out who is logged on inside a virtual machine:
41
42        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/run/utmp > /tmp/utmp
43        who /tmp/utmp
44
45       or who was logged on:
46
47        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/log/wtmp > /tmp/wtmp
48        last -f /tmp/wtmp
49

OPTIONS

51       --help
52           Display brief help.
53
54       -a file
55       --add file
56           Add file which should be a disk image from a virtual machine.  If
57           the virtual machine has multiple block devices, you must supply all
58           of them with separate -a options.
59
60           The format of the disk image is auto-detected.  To override this
61           and force a particular format use the --format=.. option.
62
63       -a URI
64       --add URI
65           Add a remote disk.  See "ADDING REMOTE STORAGE" in guestfish(1).
66
67       -c URI
68       --connect URI
69           If using libvirt, connect to the given URI.  If omitted, then we
70           connect to the default libvirt hypervisor.
71
72           If you specify guest block devices directly (-a), then libvirt is
73           not used at all.
74
75       -d guest
76       --domain guest
77           Add all the disks from the named libvirt guest.  Domain UUIDs can
78           be used instead of names.
79
80       --echo-keys
81           When prompting for keys and passphrases, virt-cat normally turns
82           echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing.  If you are not
83           worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
84           you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
85
86       --format=raw|qcow2|..
87       --format
88           The default for the -a option is to auto-detect the format of the
89           disk image.  Using this forces the disk format for -a options which
90           follow on the command line.  Using --format with no argument
91           switches back to auto-detection for subsequent -a options.
92
93           For example:
94
95            virt-cat --format=raw -a disk.img file
96
97           forces raw format (no auto-detection) for disk.img.
98
99            virt-cat --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img file
100
101           forces raw format (no auto-detection) for disk.img and reverts to
102           auto-detection for another.img.
103
104           If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
105           this option to specify the disk format.  This avoids a possible
106           security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851).
107
108       --key SELECTOR
109           Specify a key for LUKS, to automatically open a LUKS device when
110           using the inspection.  "SELECTOR" can be in one of the following
111           formats:
112
113           --key "DEVICE":key:KEY_STRING
114               Use the specified "KEY_STRING" as passphrase.
115
116           --key "DEVICE":file:FILENAME
117               Read the passphrase from FILENAME.
118
119       --keys-from-stdin
120           Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin.  The default is to
121           try to read passphrases from the user by opening /dev/tty.
122
123       -m dev[:mountpoint[:options[:fstype]]]
124       --mount dev[:mountpoint[:options[:fstype]]]
125           Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given
126           mountpoint.
127
128           If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to /.
129
130           Specifying any mountpoint disables the inspection of the guest and
131           the mount of its root and all of its mountpoints, so make sure to
132           mount all the mountpoints needed to work with the filenames given
133           as arguments.
134
135           If you don’t know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
136           either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
137           filesystems and LVs available (see "list-partitions", "list-
138           filesystems" and "lvs" commands), or you can use the
139           virt-filesystems(1) program.
140
141           The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list
142           of mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem.  If this
143           is not given, then the mount options are either the empty string or
144           "ro" (the latter if the --ro flag is used).  By specifying the
145           mount options, you override this default choice.  Probably the only
146           time you would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended
147           attributes if the filesystem can support them:
148
149            -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
150
151           Using this flag is equivalent to using the "mount-options" command.
152
153           The fourth part of the parameter is the filesystem driver to use,
154           such as "ext3" or "ntfs". This is rarely needed, but can be useful
155           if multiple drivers are valid for a filesystem (eg: "ext2" and
156           "ext3"), or if libguestfs misidentifies a filesystem.
157
158       -v
159       --verbose
160           Enable verbose messages for debugging.
161
162       -V
163       --version
164           Display version number and exit.
165
166       -x  Enable tracing of libguestfs API calls.
167

OLD-STYLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

169       Previous versions of virt-cat allowed you to write either:
170
171        virt-cat disk.img [disk.img ...] file
172
173       or
174
175        virt-cat guestname file
176
177       whereas in this version you should use -a or -d respectively to avoid
178       the confusing case where a disk image might have the same name as a
179       guest.
180
181       For compatibility the old style is still supported.
182

LOG FILES

184       To list out the log files from guests, see the related tool
185       virt-log(1).  It understands binary log formats such as the systemd
186       journal.
187
188       To follow (tail) text log files, use virt-tail(1).
189

WINDOWS PATHS

191       "virt-cat" has a limited ability to understand Windows drive letters
192       and paths (eg. E:\foo\bar.txt).
193
194       If and only if the guest is running Windows then:
195
196       ·   Drive letter prefixes like "C:" are resolved against the Windows
197           Registry to the correct filesystem.
198
199       ·   Any backslash ("\") characters in the path are replaced with
200           forward slashes so that libguestfs can process it.
201
202       ·   The path is resolved case insensitively to locate the file that
203           should be displayed.
204
205       There are some known shortcomings:
206
207       ·   Some NTFS symbolic links may not be followed correctly.
208
209       ·   NTFS junction points that cross filesystems are not followed.
210

USING GUESTFISH

212       guestfish(1) is a more powerful, lower level tool which you can use
213       when "virt-cat" doesn't work.
214
215       Using "virt-cat" is approximately equivalent to doing:
216
217        guestfish --ro -i -d domname download file -
218
219       where "domname" is the name of the libvirt guest, and "file" is the
220       full path to the file.  Note the final "-" (meaning "output to
221       stdout").
222
223       The command above uses libguestfs’s guest inspection feature and so
224       does not work on guests that libguestfs cannot inspect, or on things
225       like arbitrary disk images that don't contain guests.  To display a
226       file from a disk image directly, use:
227
228        guestfish --ro -a disk.img -m /dev/sda1 download file -
229
230       where disk.img is the disk image, /dev/sda1 is the filesystem within
231       the disk image, and "file" is the full path to the file.
232

EXIT STATUS

234       This program returns 0 if successful, or non-zero if there was an
235       error.
236

SEE ALSO

238       guestfs(3), guestfish(1), virt-copy-out(1), virt-edit(1), virt-log(1),
239       virt-tail(1), virt-tar-out(1), http://libguestfs.org/.
240

AUTHOR

242       Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/
243
245       Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Red Hat Inc.
246

LICENSE

248       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
249       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
250       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
251       option) any later version.
252
253       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
254       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
255       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
256       General Public License for more details.
257
258       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
259       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
260       51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
261

BUGS

263       To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
264       https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
265
266       To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
267       https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
268
269       When reporting a bug, please supply:
270
271       ·   The version of libguestfs.
272
273       ·   Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
274           source, etc)
275
276       ·   Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
277
278       ·   Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
279           into the bug report.
280
281
282
283libguestfs-1.40.2                 2019-02-07                       virt-cat(1)
Impressum