1guestfs-building(1) Virtualization Support guestfs-building(1)
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6 guestfs-building - How to build libguestfs from source
7
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 ≥ 4.04
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 curl
205 Optional. Used by virt-builder for downloads.
206 GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG, gpg) v1 or v2
208 Optional. Used by virt-builder for checking digital signatures.
209 liblzma
211 Optional. If available, virt-builder will use this library for
212 fast, parallel uncompression of templates.
213 python-evtx
215 Optional. Used by virt-log(1) to parse Windows Event Log files.
216 OCaml gettext
218 Optional. For localizing OCaml virt tools.
219 ocaml-ounit ≥ 2.0.0
221 Optional. For testing the common OCaml modules.
222 Perl "Module::Build" ≥ 0.19
224 Perl "Test::More"
225 Optional. Used to build and test the Perl bindings.
226 Python ≥ 3.6
228 Optional. Used to build the Python bindings. Python 2 support was
229 removed in libguestfs 1.42.1.
230 Python "unittest"
232 Optional. Used to run the Python testsuite.
233 Ruby
235 rake
236 rubygem-minitest
237 rubygem-rdoc
238 Optional. Used to build the Ruby bindings.
239 Java ≥ 1.6
241 Optional. Java, JNI and jpackage-utils are needed for building
242 Java bindings.
243 GHC Optional. Used to build the Haskell bindings.
245 PHP
247 phpize
248 Optional. Used to build the PHP bindings.
249 glib2
251 gobject-introspection
252 gjs Optional. Used to build and test the GObject bindings.
253 vala
255 Optional. Used to build the Vala bindings.
256 LUA Optional. Used to build the LUA bindings.
258 Erlang ≥ 23
260 ei Optional. Used to build the Erlang bindings. Note that Erlang ≤
261 22 will not work unless you use libguestfs ≤ 1.42.
262 golang ≥ 1.1.1
264 Optional. Used to build the Go bindings.
265 valgrind
267 Optional. For testing memory problems.
268 libvirt-python
270 Optional. For testing Python libvirt/libguestfs interactions.
271 Perl "libintl"
273 Optional.
274 bash-completion
276 Optional. For tab-completion of commands in bash.
277 libtsk
279 Optional. Library for filesystem forensics analysis.
280 yara ≥ 4.0.0
282 Optional. Tool for categorizing files based on their content.
283
285 You will need to install additional dependencies "autoconf",
286 "automake", "gettext", OCaml findlib and po4a when building from git.
287 git clone https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs
289 cd libguestfs
290 git submodule update --init
291 autoreconf -i
292 ./configure CFLAGS=-fPIC
293 make
294
296 Tarballs are downloaded from http://download.libguestfs.org/. Stable
297 tarballs are signed with the GnuPG key for "rich@annexia.org", see
298 https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x91738F73E1B768A0.
299 The fingerprint is "F777 4FB1 AD07 4A7E 8C87 67EA 9173 8F73 E1B7 68A0".
300 Download and unpack the tarball.
302 cd libguestfs-1.xx.yy
304 ./configure
305 make
306
308 DO NOT run the tests as root! Libguestfs can be built and tested as
309 non-root. Running the tests as root could even be dangerous, don't do
310 it.
311 To sanity check that the build worked, do:
313 make quickcheck
315 To run the basic tests, do:
317 make check
319 There are many more tests you can run. See guestfs-hacking(1) for
321 details.
322
324 DO NOT use "make install"! You'll end up with conflicting versions of
325 libguestfs installed, and this causes constant headaches for users.
326 See the next section for how to use the ./run script instead.
327 Distro packagers can use:
329 make INSTALLDIRS=vendor DESTDIR=[temp-build-dir] install
331
333 You can run guestfish(1), guestmount(1) and the virt tools without
334 needing to install them by using the ./run script in the top directory.
335 This script works by setting several environment variables.
336 For example:
338 ./run guestfish [usual guestfish args ...]
340 ./run virt-inspector [usual virt-inspector args ...]
342 The ./run script adds every libguestfs binary to the $PATH, so the
344 above examples run guestfish and virt-inspector from the build
345 directory (not the globally installed guestfish if there is one).
346 You can use the script from any directory. If you wanted to run your
348 own libguestfs-using program, then the following command will also
349 work:
350 /path/to/libguestfs/run ./my_program [...]
352 You can also run the C programs under valgrind like this:
354 ./run valgrind [valgrind opts...] virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
356 or under gdb:
358 ./run gdb --args virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
360 This also works with sudo (eg. if you need root access for libvirt or
362 to access a block device):
363 sudo ./run virt-cat -d LinuxGuest /etc/passwd
365 To set environment variables, you can either do:
367 LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu ./run guestfish
369 or:
371 ./run env LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu guestfish
373
375 Files in the top source directory that begin with the prefix local* are
376 ignored by git. These files can contain local configuration or scripts
377 that you need to build libguestfs.
378 I have a file called localconfigure which is a simple wrapper around
380 configure containing local configure customizations that I need. It
381 looks like this:
382 . localenv
384 ./configure.sh \
385 -C \
386 --enable-werror \
387 "$@"
388 So I can use this to build libguestfs:
390 ./localconfigure && make
392 If there is a file in the top build directory called localenv, then it
394 will be sourced by "make". This file can contain any local environment
395 variables needed, eg. for skipping tests:
396 # Skip this test, it is broken.
398 export SKIP_TEST_BTRFS_FSCK=1
399 Note that localenv is included by the top Makefile (so it’s a Makefile
401 fragment). But if it is also sourced by your localconfigure script
402 then it is used as a shell script.
403
405 There are many "./configure" options. Use:
406 ./configure --help
408 to list them all. This section covers some of the more important ones.
410 --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
412 See "USING A PREBUILT BINARY APPLIANCE" below.
413 --disable-erlang
415 --disable-gobject
416 --disable-golang
417 --disable-haskell
418 --disable-lua
419 --disable-ocaml
420 --disable-perl
421 --disable-php
422 --disable-python
423 --disable-ruby
424 Disable specific language bindings, even if "./configure" finds all
425 the necessary libraries are installed so that they could be
426 compiled.
427 Note that disabling OCaml (bindings) or Perl will have the knock-on
429 effect of disabling parts of the test suite and some tools.
430 OCaml is required to build libguestfs and this requirement cannot
432 be removed. Using --disable-ocaml only disables the bindings and
433 OCaml tools.
434 --disable-fuse
436 Disable FUSE support in the API and the guestmount(1) tool.
437 --disable-static
439 Don’t build a static linked version of the libguestfs library.
440 --enable-install-daemon
442 Normally guestfsd(8) is not installed by "make install", since that
443 wouldn't be useful (instead it is "installed" inside the supermin
444 appliance). However if packagers are building "libguestfs live"
445 then they should use this option.
446 --enable-werror
448 This turns compiler warnings into errors (ie. "-Werror"). Use this
449 for development, especially when submitting patches. It should
450 generally not be used for production or distro builds.
451 --with-default-backend=libvirt
453 This controls the default method that libguestfs uses to run qemu
454 (see "BACKEND" in guestfs(3)). If not specified, the default
455 backend is "direct", which means libguestfs runs qemu directly.
456 Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ≥ 7 use this flag to
458 change the default backend to "libvirt", because (especially in
459 RHEL) the policy is not to allow any program to run qemu except via
460 libvirt.
461 Note that despite this setting, all backends are built into
463 libguestfs, and you can override the backend at runtime by setting
464 the $LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND environment variable (or using API
465 methods).
466 --with-distro=REDHAT|DEBIAN|...
468 Libguestfs needs to know which Linux distro is in use so it can
469 choose package names for the appliance correctly (see for example
470 appliance/packagelist.in). It normally does this automatically.
471 However if you can building or packaging libguestfs on a new distro
473 then you can use --with-distro to specify that the distro is
474 similar to an existing one (eg. --with-distro=REDHAT if the distro
475 is a new Red Hat or CentOS derivative).
476 Note that if your distro is completely new then it may still
478 require upstream modifications.
479 --with-extra="distroname=version,libvirt,..."
481 --with-extra="local"
482 This option controls the "extra" field returned by
483 "guestfs_version" in guestfs(3) and also printed by virt tools'
484 --version option. It is a free text field, but a good idea is to
485 encode a comma-separated list of facts such as the distro name and
486 version, whether libvirt is the default backend, and anything else
487 that may help with debugging problems raised by users.
488 For custom and/or local builds, this can be set to "local" to
490 indicate this is not a distro build.
491 --without-libvirt
493 Compile libguestfs without libvirt support, even if libvirt
494 development libraries are installed.
495 --with-qemu="bin1 bin2 ..."
497 Provide an alternate qemu binary (or list of binaries). This can
498 be overridden at runtime by setting the "LIBGUESTFS_HV" environment
499 variable.
500 --with-supermin-packager-config=yum.conf
502 This passes the --packager-config option to supermin(1).
503 The most common use for this is to build the appliance using an
505 alternate repository (instead of using the installed
506 yum/dnf/apt/etc configuration to find and download packages). You
507 might need to use this if you want to build libguestfs without
508 having a network connection. Examples of using this can be found
509 in the Fedora "libguestfs.spec" file (see "BUILDING A PACKAGE FOR
510 FEDORA" below for resources).
511 --with-supermin-extra-options="--opt1 --opt2 ..."
513 Pass additional options to supermin(1). See appliance/make.sh.in
514 to understand precisely what this does.
515 PYTHON
517 This environment variable may be set to point to a python binary
518 (eg. "python3"). When "./configure" runs, it inspects this python
519 binary to find the version of Python, the location of Python
520 libraries and so on.
521 SUPERMIN
523 This environment variable can be set to choose an alternative
524 supermin(1) binary. This might be used, for example, if you want
525 to use a newer upstream version of supermin than is packaged for
526 your distro, or if supermin is not packaged at all. On RHEL 7, you
527 must set "SUPERMIN=/usr/bin/supermin5" when compiling libguestfs.
528
530 A common problem is with broken or incompatible qemu releases.
531 Different versions of qemu have problems booting the appliance for
533 different reasons. This varies between versions of qemu, and Linux
534 distributions which add their own patches.
535 If you find a problem, you could try using your own qemu built from
537 source (qemu is very easy to build from source), with a "qemu wrapper".
538 See "QEMU WRAPPERS" in guestfs(3).
539 By default the configure script will look for qemu-kvm (KVM support).
541 KVM is much faster than using plain qemu.
542 You may also need to enable KVM support for non-root users, by
544 following these instructions:
545 http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/FAQ#How_can_I_use_kvm_with_a_non-privileged_user.3F
546 On some systems, this will work too:
548 chmod 0666 /dev/kvm
550 On some systems, the chmod will not survive a reboot, and you will need
552 to make edits to the udev configuration.
553
555 export CC=clang
556 ./configure
557 make
558
560 To understand what the libguestfs appliance means, see
561 guestfs-internals(1).
562 If you are using non-Linux, or a Linux distribution that does not have
564 supermin(1) support, or simply if you don't want to build your own
565 libguestfs appliance, then you can use one of the prebuilt binary
566 appliances that we supply:
567 http://libguestfs.org/download/binaries/appliance
568 Build libguestfs like this:
570 ./configure --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
572 make
573 Set $LIBGUESTFS_PATH to the path where you unpacked the appliance
575 tarball, eg:
576 export LIBGUESTFS_PATH=/usr/local/lib/guestfs/appliance
578 and run the libguestfs programs and virt tools in the normal way, eg.
580 using the ./run script (see above).
581
583 The Fedora spec file is stored under:
584 http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/libguestfs.git/
585 Libguestfs is built in Fedora using the ordinary Fedora build system
587 (Koji).
588
590 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) builds of libguestfs are heavily
591 patched. There are broadly two types of patches we apply:
592 • We disable many features that we do not wish to support for RHEL
594 customers. For example, the "libguestfs live" feature is disabled.
595 • We backport upstream features.
597 The patches we apply to RHEL releases are available publically in the
599 upstream git repository, in a branch called "rhel-x.y"
600 For example, the RHEL 7.3 patches are available here:
602 https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/commits/rhel-7.3
603 The sources and spec files for RHEL versions of libguestfs are
605 available on https://git.centos.org/project/rpms, and see also
606 https://wiki.centos.org/Sources.
607
609 guestfs(3), guestfs-examples(3), guestfs-hacking(1),
610 guestfs-internals(1), guestfs-performance(1), guestfs-release-notes(1),
611 guestfs-testing(1), libguestfs-test-tool(1),
612 libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance(1), http://libguestfs.org/.
613
615 Richard W.M. Jones ("rjones at redhat dot com")
616
618 Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Red Hat Inc.
619
621 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
622 under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
623 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
624 (at your option) any later version.
625 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
627 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
628 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
629 Lesser General Public License for more details.
630 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
632 License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
633 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
634 02110-1301 USA
635
637 To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
638 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
639 To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
641 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
642 When reporting a bug, please supply:
644 • The version of libguestfs.
646 • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
648 source, etc)
649 • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
651 • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
653 into the bug report.
654libguestfs-1.48.3 2022-05-26 guestfs-building(1)