1guestfs-building(1) Virtualization Support guestfs-building(1)
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6 guestfs-building - How to build libguestfs from source
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9 This manual page describes how to build libguestfs from source.
10 The main steps are:
12 • Install the requirements.
14 • Build, either from the git repository or from a tarball.
16 • Run the tests.
18 • Run the tools from the source directory, or install.
20
22 Short cut for Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) users
23 On Fedora, use dnf(8) to install all the requirements:
24 dnf builddep libguestfs
26 dnf install autoconf automake libtool gettext-devel
27 On systems still using yum(8), do:
29 yum-builddep libguestfs
31 yum install autoconf automake libtool gettext-devel
32 Short cut for Debian or Ubuntu users
34 Use APT to install all the requirements:
35 apt-get build-dep libguestfs
37 apt-get install autoconf automake libtool-bin gettext
38 If that command doesn't work, take a look at the Debian source package
40 http://packages.debian.org/source/libguestfs, at the list of
41 "build-depends" and "build-depends-indep", and install everything
42 listed there.
43 Full list of requirements
45 appliance/packagelist.in
46 Install as many package names found in this file as possible. (It
47 is not strictly required to install all of them).
48 Note: If you build libguestfs followed by installing appliance
50 packages, the build will not pick them up automatically, even if
51 you do "make clean". You have to do this command to clean the old
52 supermin appliance and force a new one to be prepared:
53 make -C appliance clean-supermin-appliance
55 qemu ≥ 1.3.0
57 Required.
58 qemu-img ≥ 1.3.0
60 Required.
61 kernel ≥ 2.6.34
63 Required. The following features must be enabled: "virtio-pci",
64 "virtio-serial", "virtio-block", "virtio-net".
65 supermin ≥ 5.1.18
67 Required. For alternatives, see "USING A PREBUILT BINARY
68 APPLIANCE" below.
69 glibc
71 Required. We use the custom printf formatters extension of glibc
72 (see "DAEMON CUSTOM PRINTF FORMATTERS" in guestfs-hacking(1)).
73 XDR (tirpc, glibc or other)
75 Required. We use the XDR implementation from "<rpc/xdr.h>", which
76 may come from glibc, tirpc or another library.
77 The "rpcgen" tool is optional, except if you want to compile from
79 git and/or patch libguestfs with new APIs.
80 Gcc or Clang
82 Required. We use "__attribute__((cleanup))" which is a GCC
83 extension also supported by Clang.
84 Perl
86 Required. Various build steps and tests are written in Perl. Perl
87 is not needed at runtime except if you need to run a small number
88 of virt tools which are still written in Perl.
89 Perl "Pod::Man"
91 Perl "Pod::Simple"
92 Required. Part of Perl core.
93 OCaml ≥ 4.01
95 OCaml findlib
96 Required.
97 autoconf
99 automake
100 gettext
101 Required if compiling from git. Optional if compiling from
102 tarball.
103 cpio
105 Required.
106 gperf
108 Required.
109 flex
111 bison
112 Required.
113 Perl-compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE2) library
115 Required.
116 xorriso, genisoimage or mkisofs
118 One of these is Required.
119 libxml2
121 Required.
122 ncurses
124 Required.
125 augeas ≥ 1.2.0
127 Required.
128 xz Required.
130 Jansson ≥ 2.7
132 Required.
133 po4a
135 Required if compiling from git. Optional if compiling from
136 tarball.
137 hivex ≥ 1.2.7
139 ocaml-hivex
140 Required. ocaml-hivex is the OCaml binding for hivex, which is
141 required when building the daemon.
142 libmagic
144 Required. This is the library used by the file(1) command.
145 libvirt ≥ 0.10.2
147 Optional. Always use the latest possible version of libvirt.
148 xmllint
150 Optional. Used only for tests.
151 libconfig
153 Optional. Used to parse libguestfs’s own config files, eg.
154 /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf.
155 libselinux
157 Optional. Used by the libvirt backend to securely confine the
158 appliance (sVirt).
159 systemtap
161 Optional. For userspace probes.
162 readline
164 Optional. For nicer command line editing in guestfish(1).
165 acl Optional. Library and programs for handling POSIX ACLs.
167 libcap
169 Optional. Library and programs for handling Linux capabilities.
170 libldm
172 Optional. Library and ldmtool(1) for handling Windows Dynamic
173 Disks.
174 sd-journal
176 Optional. Library for accessing systemd journals.
177 gdisk
179 Optional. GPT disk support.
180 netpbm
182 Optional. Render icons from guests.
183 icoutils
185 Optional. Render icons from Windows guests.
186 librpm
188 Optional. To parse the list of applications from RPM-based guests.
189 Perl "Expect"
191 Optional. Perl module used to test virt-rescue(1).
192 FUSE
194 Optional. fusermount(1), libfuse and kernel module are all needed
195 if you want guestmount(1) and/or mount-local support.
196 static glibc
198 Optional. Used only for testing.
199 qemu-nbd
201 nbdkit ≥ 1.12
202 Optional. qemu-nbd is used for testing.
203 uml_mkcow
205 Optional. For the UML backend.
206 curl
208 Optional. Used by virt-builder for downloads.
209 GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG, gpg) v1 or v2
211 Optional. Used by virt-builder for checking digital signatures.
212 liblzma
214 Optional. If available, virt-builder will use this library for
215 fast, parallel uncompression of templates.
216 python-evtx
218 Optional. Used by virt-log(1) to parse Windows Event Log files.
219 OCaml gettext
221 Optional. For localizing OCaml virt tools.
222 ocaml-ounit ≥ 2.0.0
224 Optional. For testing the common OCaml modules.
225 Perl "Module::Build" ≥ 0.19
227 Perl "Test::More"
228 Optional. Used to build and test the Perl bindings.
229 Python ≥ 3.6
231 Optional. Used to build the Python bindings. Python 2 support was
232 removed in libguestfs 1.42.1.
233 Python "unittest"
235 Optional. Used to run the Python testsuite.
236 Ruby
238 rake
239 rubygem-minitest
240 rubygem-rdoc
241 Optional. Used to build the Ruby bindings.
242 Java ≥ 1.6
244 Optional. Java, JNI and jpackage-utils are needed for building
245 Java bindings.
246 GHC Optional. Used to build the Haskell bindings.
248 PHP
250 phpize
251 Optional. Used to build the PHP bindings.
252 glib2
254 gobject-introspection
255 gjs Optional. Used to build and test the GObject bindings.
256 vala
258 Optional. Used to build the Vala bindings.
259 LUA Optional. Used to build the LUA bindings.
261 Erlang ≥ 23
263 ei Optional. Used to build the Erlang bindings. Note that Erlang ≤
264 22 will not work unless you use libguestfs ≤ 1.42.
265 golang ≥ 1.1.1
267 Optional. Used to build the Go bindings.
268 valgrind
270 Optional. For testing memory problems.
271 libvirt-python
273 Optional. For testing Python libvirt/libguestfs interactions.
274 Perl "libintl"
276 Optional.
277 bash-completion
279 Optional. For tab-completion of commands in bash.
280 libtsk
282 Optional. Library for filesystem forensics analysis.
283 yara
285 Optional. Tool for categorizing files based on their content.
286
288 You will need to install additional dependencies "autoconf",
289 "automake", "gettext", OCaml findlib and po4a when building from git.
290 git clone https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs
292 cd libguestfs
293 git submodule update --init
294 CFLAGS=-fPIC ./autogen.sh
295 make
296
298 Tarballs are downloaded from http://download.libguestfs.org/. Stable
299 tarballs are signed with the GnuPG key for "rich@annexia.org", see
300 https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x91738F73E1B768A0.
301 The fingerprint is "F777 4FB1 AD07 4A7E 8C87 67EA 9173 8F73 E1B7 68A0".
302 Download and unpack the tarball.
304 cd libguestfs-1.xx.yy
306 ./configure
307 make
308
310 DO NOT run the tests as root! Libguestfs can be built and tested as
311 non-root. Running the tests as root could even be dangerous, don't do
312 it.
313 To sanity check that the build worked, do:
315 make quickcheck
317 To run the basic tests, do:
319 make check
321 There are many more tests you can run. See guestfs-hacking(1) for
323 details.
324
326 DO NOT use "make install"! You'll end up with conflicting versions of
327 libguestfs installed, and this causes constant headaches for users.
328 See the next section for how to use the ./run script instead.
329 Distro packagers can use:
331 make INSTALLDIRS=vendor DESTDIR=[temp-build-dir] install
333
335 You can run guestfish(1), guestmount(1) and the virt tools without
336 needing to install them by using the ./run script in the top directory.
337 This script works by setting several environment variables.
338 For example:
340 ./run guestfish [usual guestfish args ...]
342 ./run virt-inspector [usual virt-inspector args ...]
344 The ./run script adds every libguestfs binary to the $PATH, so the
346 above examples run guestfish and virt-inspector from the build
347 directory (not the globally installed guestfish if there is one).
348 You can use the script from any directory. If you wanted to run your
350 own libguestfs-using program, then the following command will also
351 work:
352 /path/to/libguestfs/run ./my_program [...]
354 You can also run the C programs under valgrind like this:
356 ./run valgrind [valgrind opts...] virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
358 or under gdb:
360 ./run gdb --args virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
362 This also works with sudo (eg. if you need root access for libvirt or
364 to access a block device):
365 sudo ./run virt-cat -d LinuxGuest /etc/passwd
367 To set environment variables, you can either do:
369 LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu ./run guestfish
371 or:
373 ./run env LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu guestfish
375
377 Files in the top source directory that begin with the prefix local* are
378 ignored by git. These files can contain local configuration or scripts
379 that you need to build libguestfs.
380 I have a file called localconfigure which is a simple wrapper around
382 autogen.sh containing local configure customizations that I need. It
383 looks like this:
384 . localenv
386 ./autogen.sh \
387 -C \
388 --enable-werror \
389 "$@"
390 So I can use this to build libguestfs:
392 ./localconfigure && make
394 If there is a file in the top build directory called localenv, then it
396 will be sourced by "make". This file can contain any local environment
397 variables needed, eg. for skipping tests:
398 # Skip this test, it is broken.
400 export SKIP_TEST_BTRFS_FSCK=1
401 Note that localenv is included by the top Makefile (so it’s a Makefile
403 fragment). But if it is also sourced by your localconfigure script
404 then it is used as a shell script.
405
407 There are many "./configure" options. Use:
408 ./configure --help
410 to list them all. This section covers some of the more important ones.
412 --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
414 See "USING A PREBUILT BINARY APPLIANCE" below.
415 --disable-erlang
417 --disable-gobject
418 --disable-golang
419 --disable-haskell
420 --disable-lua
421 --disable-ocaml
422 --disable-perl
423 --disable-php
424 --disable-python
425 --disable-ruby
426 Disable specific language bindings, even if "./configure" finds all
427 the necessary libraries are installed so that they could be
428 compiled.
429 Note that disabling OCaml (bindings) or Perl will have the knock-on
431 effect of disabling parts of the test suite and some tools.
432 OCaml is required to build libguestfs and this requirement cannot
434 be removed. Using --disable-ocaml only disables the bindings and
435 OCaml tools.
436 --disable-fuse
438 Disable FUSE support in the API and the guestmount(1) tool.
439 --disable-gnulib-tests
441 On some platforms the GNUlib test suite can be flaky. This
442 disables it, since errors in the GNUlib test suite are often not
443 important.
444 --disable-static
446 Don’t build a static linked version of the libguestfs library.
447 --enable-install-daemon
449 Normally guestfsd(8) is not installed by "make install", since that
450 wouldn't be useful (instead it is "installed" inside the supermin
451 appliance). However if packagers are building "libguestfs live"
452 then they should use this option.
453 --enable-werror
455 This turns compiler warnings into errors (ie. "-Werror"). Use this
456 for development, especially when submitting patches. It should
457 generally not be used for production or distro builds.
458 --with-default-backend=libvirt
460 This controls the default method that libguestfs uses to run qemu
461 (see "BACKEND" in guestfs(3)). If not specified, the default
462 backend is "direct", which means libguestfs runs qemu directly.
463 Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ≥ 7 use this flag to
465 change the default backend to "libvirt", because (especially in
466 RHEL) the policy is not to allow any program to run qemu except via
467 libvirt.
468 Note that despite this setting, all backends are built into
470 libguestfs, and you can override the backend at runtime by setting
471 the $LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND environment variable (or using API
472 methods).
473 --with-distro=REDHAT|DEBIAN|...
475 Libguestfs needs to know which Linux distro is in use so it can
476 choose package names for the appliance correctly (see for example
477 appliance/packagelist.in). It normally does this automatically.
478 However if you can building or packaging libguestfs on a new distro
480 then you can use --with-distro to specify that the distro is
481 similar to an existing one (eg. --with-distro=REDHAT if the distro
482 is a new Red Hat or CentOS derivative).
483 Note that if your distro is completely new then it may still
485 require upstream modifications.
486 --with-extra="distroname=version,libvirt,..."
488 --with-extra="local"
489 This option controls the "extra" field returned by
490 "guestfs_version" in guestfs(3) and also printed by virt tools'
491 --version option. It is a free text field, but a good idea is to
492 encode a comma-separated list of facts such as the distro name and
493 version, whether libvirt is the default backend, and anything else
494 that may help with debugging problems raised by users.
495 For custom and/or local builds, this can be set to "local" to
497 indicate this is not a distro build.
498 --without-libvirt
500 Compile libguestfs without libvirt support, even if libvirt
501 development libraries are installed.
502 --with-qemu="bin1 bin2 ..."
504 Provide an alternate qemu binary (or list of binaries). This can
505 be overridden at runtime by setting the "LIBGUESTFS_HV" environment
506 variable.
507 --with-supermin-packager-config=yum.conf
509 This passes the --packager-config option to supermin(1).
510 The most common use for this is to build the appliance using an
512 alternate repository (instead of using the installed
513 yum/dnf/apt/etc configuration to find and download packages). You
514 might need to use this if you want to build libguestfs without
515 having a network connection. Examples of using this can be found
516 in the Fedora "libguestfs.spec" file (see "BUILDING A PACKAGE FOR
517 FEDORA" below for resources).
518 --with-supermin-extra-options="--opt1 --opt2 ..."
520 Pass additional options to supermin(1). See appliance/make.sh.in
521 to understand precisely what this does.
522 PYTHON
524 This environment variable may be set to point to a python binary
525 (eg. "python3"). When "./configure" runs, it inspects this python
526 binary to find the version of Python, the location of Python
527 libraries and so on.
528 SUPERMIN
530 This environment variable can be set to choose an alternative
531 supermin(1) binary. This might be used, for example, if you want
532 to use a newer upstream version of supermin than is packaged for
533 your distro, or if supermin is not packaged at all. On RHEL 7, you
534 must set "SUPERMIN=/usr/bin/supermin5" when compiling libguestfs.
535
537 A common problem is with broken or incompatible qemu releases.
538 Different versions of qemu have problems booting the appliance for
540 different reasons. This varies between versions of qemu, and Linux
541 distributions which add their own patches.
542 If you find a problem, you could try using your own qemu built from
544 source (qemu is very easy to build from source), with a "qemu wrapper".
545 See "QEMU WRAPPERS" in guestfs(3).
546 By default the configure script will look for qemu-kvm (KVM support).
548 KVM is much faster than using plain qemu.
549 You may also need to enable KVM support for non-root users, by
551 following these instructions:
552 http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/FAQ#How_can_I_use_kvm_with_a_non-privileged_user.3F
553 On some systems, this will work too:
555 chmod 0666 /dev/kvm
557 On some systems, the chmod will not survive a reboot, and you will need
559 to make edits to the udev configuration.
560
562 export CC=clang
563 ./configure
564 make
565
567 To understand what the libguestfs appliance means, see
568 guestfs-internals(1).
569 If you are using non-Linux, or a Linux distribution that does not have
571 supermin(1) support, or simply if you don't want to build your own
572 libguestfs appliance, then you can use one of the prebuilt binary
573 appliances that we supply:
574 http://libguestfs.org/download/binaries/appliance
575 Build libguestfs like this:
577 ./configure --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
579 make
580 Set $LIBGUESTFS_PATH to the path where you unpacked the appliance
582 tarball, eg:
583 export LIBGUESTFS_PATH=/usr/local/lib/guestfs/appliance
585 and run the libguestfs programs and virt tools in the normal way, eg.
587 using the ./run script (see above).
588
590 The Fedora spec file is stored under:
591 http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/libguestfs.git/
592 Libguestfs is built in Fedora using the ordinary Fedora build system
594 (Koji).
595
597 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) builds of libguestfs are heavily
598 patched. There are broadly two types of patches we apply:
599 • We disable many features that we do not wish to support for RHEL
601 customers. For example, the "libguestfs live" feature is disabled.
602 • We backport upstream features.
604 The patches we apply to RHEL releases are available publically in the
606 upstream git repository, in a branch called "rhel-x.y"
607 For example, the RHEL 7.3 patches are available here:
609 https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/commits/rhel-7.3
610 The sources and spec files for RHEL versions of libguestfs are
612 available on https://git.centos.org/project/rpms, and see also
613 https://wiki.centos.org/Sources.
614
616 guestfs(3), guestfs-examples(3), guestfs-hacking(1),
617 guestfs-internals(1), guestfs-performance(1), guestfs-release-notes(1),
618 guestfs-testing(1), libguestfs-test-tool(1),
619 libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance(1), http://libguestfs.org/.
620
622 Richard W.M. Jones ("rjones at redhat dot com")
623
625 Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Red Hat Inc.
626
628 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
629 under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
630 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
631 (at your option) any later version.
632 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
634 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
635 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
636 Lesser General Public License for more details.
637 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
639 License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
640 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
641 02110-1301 USA
642
644 To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
645 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
646 To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
648 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
649 When reporting a bug, please supply:
651 • The version of libguestfs.
653 • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
655 source, etc)
656 • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
658 • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
660 into the bug report.
661libguestfs-1.45.4 2021-04-03 guestfs-building(1)