1virt-ls(1) Virtualization Support virt-ls(1)
2
6 virt-ls - List files in a virtual machine
7
9 virt-ls [--options] -d domname directory [directory ...]
10 virt-ls [--options] -a disk.img [-a disk.img ...] directory [directory ...]
12 Old style:
14 virt-ls [--options] domname directory
16 virt-ls [--options] disk.img [disk.img ...] directory
18
20 "virt-ls" lists filenames, file sizes, checksums, extended attributes
21 and more from a virtual machine or disk image.
22 Multiple directory names can be given, in which case the output from
24 each is concatenated.
25 To list directories from a libvirt guest use the -d option to specify
27 the name of the guest. For a disk image, use the -a option.
28 "virt-ls" can do many simple file listings. For more complicated cases
30 you may need to use guestfish(1), or write a program directly to the
31 guestfs(3) API.
32
34 Get a list of all files and directories in a virtual machine:
35 virt-ls -R -d guest /
37 List all setuid or setgid programs in a Linux virtual machine:
39 virt-ls -lR -d guest / | grep '^- [42]'
41 List all public-writable directories in a Linux virtual machine:
43 virt-ls -lR -d guest / | grep '^d ...7'
45 List all Unix domain sockets in a Linux virtual machine:
47 virt-ls -lR -d guest / | grep '^s'
49 List all regular files with filenames ending in ‘.png’:
51 virt-ls -lR -d guest / | grep -i '^-.*\.png$'
53 To display files larger than 10MB in home directories:
55 virt-ls -lR -d guest /home | awk '$3 > 10*1024*1024'
57 Find everything modified in the last 7 days:
59 virt-ls -lR -d guest --time-days / | awk '$6 <= 7'
61 Find regular files modified in the last 24 hours:
63 virt-ls -lR -d guest --time-days / | grep '^-' | awk '$6 < 1'
65 DIFFERENCES IN SNAPSHOTS AND BACKING FILES
67 Although it is possible to use virt-ls to look for differences, since
68 libguestfs ≥ 1.26 a new tool is available called virt-diff(1).
69
71 "virt-ls" has four output modes, controlled by different combinations
72 of the -l and -R options.
73 SIMPLE LISTING
75 A simple listing is like the ordinary ls(1) command:
76 $ virt-ls -d guest /
78 bin
79 boot
80 [etc.]
81 LONG LISTING
83 With the -l (--long) option, the output is like the "ls -l" command
84 (more specifically, like the "guestfs_ll" function).
85 $ virt-ls -l -d guest /
87 total 204
88 dr-xr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2009-08-25 19:06 bin
89 dr-xr-xr-x. 5 root root 3072 2009-08-25 19:06 boot
90 [etc.]
91 Note that while this is useful for displaying a directory, do not try
93 parsing this output in another program. Use "RECURSIVE LONG LISTING"
94 instead.
95 RECURSIVE LISTING
97 With the -R (--recursive) option, "virt-ls" lists the names of files
98 and directories recursively:
99 $ virt-ls -R -d guest /tmp
101 foo
102 foo/bar
103 [etc.]
104 To generate this output, "virt-ls" runs the "guestfs_find0" function
106 and converts "\0" characters to "\n".
107 RECURSIVE LONG LISTING
109 Using -lR options together changes the output to display directories
110 recursively, with file stats, and optionally other features such as
111 checksums and extended attributes.
112 Most of the interesting features of "virt-ls" are only available when
114 using -lR mode.
115 The fields are normally space-separated. Filenames are not quoted, so
117 you cannot use the output in another program (because filenames can
118 contain spaces and other unsafe characters). If the guest was
119 untrusted and someone knew you were using "virt-ls" to analyze the
120 guest, they could play tricks on you by creating filenames with
121 embedded newline characters. To safely parse the output in another
122 program, use the --csv (Comma-Separated Values) option.
123 Note that this output format is completely unrelated to the "ls -lR"
125 command.
126 $ virt-ls -lR -d guest /bin
128 d 0555 4096 /bin
129 - 0755 123 /bin/alsaunmute
130 - 0755 28328 /bin/arch
131 l 0777 4 /bin/awk -> gawk
132 - 0755 27216 /bin/basename
133 - 0755 943360 /bin/bash
134 [etc.]
135 These basic fields are always shown:
137 type
139 The file type, one of: "-" (regular file), "d" (directory), "c"
140 (character device), "b" (block device), "p" (named pipe), "l"
141 (symbolic link), "s" (socket) or "u" (unknown).
142 permissions
144 The Unix permissions, displayed as a 4 digit octal number.
145 size
147 The size of the file. This is shown in bytes unless -h or
148 --human-readable option is given, in which case this is shown as a
149 human-readable number.
150 path
152 The full path of the file or directory.
153 link
155 For symbolic links only, the link target.
156 In -lR mode, additional command line options enable the display of more
158 fields.
159 With the --uids flag, these additional fields are displayed before the
161 path:
162 uid
164 gid The UID and GID of the owner of the file (displayed numerically).
165 Note these only make sense in the context of a Unix-like guest.
166 With the --times flag, these additional fields are displayed:
168 atime
170 The time of last access.
171 mtime
173 The time of last modification.
174 ctime
176 The time of last status change.
177 The time fields are displayed as string dates and times, unless one of
179 the --time-t, --time-relative or --time-days flags is given.
180 With the --extra-stats flag, these additional fields are displayed:
182 device
184 The device containing the file (displayed as major:minor). This
185 may not match devices as known to the guest.
186 inode
188 The inode number.
189 nlink
191 The number of hard links.
192 rdev
194 For block and char special files, the device (displayed as
195 major:minor).
196 blocks
198 The number of 512 byte blocks allocated to the file.
199 With the --checksum flag, the checksum of the file contents is shown
201 (only for regular files). Computing file checksums can take a
202 considerable amount of time.
203
205 --help
206 Display brief help.
207 -a file
209 --add file
210 Add file which should be a disk image from a virtual machine. If
211 the virtual machine has multiple block devices, you must supply all
212 of them with separate -a options.
213 The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this
215 and force a particular format use the --format=.. option.
216 -a URI
218 --add URI
219 Add a remote disk. See "ADDING REMOTE STORAGE" in guestfish(1).
220 --blocksize=512
222 --blocksize=4096
223 --blocksize
224 This parameter sets the sector size of the disk image. It affects
225 all explicitly added subsequent disks after this parameter. Using
226 --blocksize with no argument switches the disk sector size to the
227 default value which is usually 512 bytes. See also
228 "guestfs_add_drive_opts" in guestfs(3).
229 --checksum
231 --checksum=crc|md5|sha1|sha224|sha256|sha384|sha512
232 Display checksum over file contents for regular files. With no
233 argument, this defaults to using md5. Using an argument, you can
234 select the checksum type to use.
235 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
237 LONG LISTING" above.
238 -c URI
240 --connect URI
241 If using libvirt, connect to the given URI. If omitted, then we
242 connect to the default libvirt hypervisor.
243 If you specify guest block devices directly (-a), then libvirt is
245 not used at all.
246 --csv
248 Write out the results in CSV format (comma-separated values). This
249 format can be imported easily into databases and spreadsheets, but
250 read "NOTE ABOUT CSV FORMAT" below.
251 -d guest
253 --domain guest
254 Add all the disks from the named libvirt guest. Domain UUIDs can
255 be used instead of names.
256 --echo-keys
258 When prompting for keys and passphrases, virt-ls normally turns
259 echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not
260 worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
261 you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.
262 --extra-stats
264 Display extra stats.
265 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
267 LONG LISTING" above.
268 --format=raw|qcow2|..
270 --format
271 The default for the -a option is to auto-detect the format of the
272 disk image. Using this forces the disk format for -a options which
273 follow on the command line. Using --format with no argument
274 switches back to auto-detection for subsequent -a options.
275 For example:
277 virt-ls --format=raw -a disk.img /dir
279 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for disk.img.
281 virt-ls --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img /dir
283 forces raw format (no auto-detection) for disk.img and reverts to
285 auto-detection for another.img.
286 If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use
288 this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible
289 security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851).
290 -h
292 --human-readable
293 Display file sizes in human-readable format.
294 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
296 LONG LISTING" above.
297 --key SELECTOR
299 Specify a key for LUKS, to automatically open a LUKS device when
300 using the inspection. "ID" can be either the libguestfs device
301 name, or the UUID of the LUKS device.
302 --key "ID":key:KEY_STRING
304 Use the specified "KEY_STRING" as passphrase.
305 --key "ID":file:FILENAME
307 Read the passphrase from FILENAME.
308 --key "ID":clevis
310 Attempt passphrase-less unlocking for "ID" with Clevis, over
311 the network. Please refer to "ENCRYPTED DISKS" in guestfs(3)
312 for more information on network-bound disk encryption (NBDE).
313 Note that if any such option is present on the command line,
315 QEMU user networking will be automatically enabled for the
316 libguestfs appliance.
317 --keys-from-stdin
319 Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is to
320 try to read passphrases from the user by opening /dev/tty.
321 If there are multiple encrypted devices then you may need to supply
323 multiple keys on stdin, one per line.
324 -m dev[:mountpoint[:options[:fstype]]]
326 --mount dev[:mountpoint[:options[:fstype]]]
327 Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given
328 mountpoint.
329 If the mountpoint is omitted, it defaults to /.
331 Specifying any mountpoint disables the inspection of the guest and
333 the mount of its root and all of its mountpoints, so make sure to
334 mount all the mountpoints needed to work with the filenames given
335 as arguments.
336 If you don’t know what filesystems a disk image contains, you can
338 either run guestfish without this option, then list the partitions,
339 filesystems and LVs available (see "list-partitions", "list-
340 filesystems" and "lvs" commands), or you can use the
341 virt-filesystems(1) program.
342 The third (and rarely used) part of the mount parameter is the list
344 of mount options used to mount the underlying filesystem. If this
345 is not given, then the mount options are either the empty string or
346 "ro" (the latter if the --ro flag is used). By specifying the
347 mount options, you override this default choice. Probably the only
348 time you would use this is to enable ACLs and/or extended
349 attributes if the filesystem can support them:
350 -m /dev/sda1:/:acl,user_xattr
352 Using this flag is equivalent to using the "mount-options" command.
354 The fourth part of the parameter is the filesystem driver to use,
356 such as "ext3" or "ntfs". This is rarely needed, but can be useful
357 if multiple drivers are valid for a filesystem (eg: "ext2" and
358 "ext3"), or if libguestfs misidentifies a filesystem.
359 -l
361 --long
362 -R
363 --recursive
364 Select the mode. With neither of these options, "virt-ls" produces
365 a simple, flat list of the files in the named directory. See
366 "SIMPLE LISTING".
367 "virt-ls -l" produces a "long listing", which shows more detail.
369 See "LONG LISTING".
370 "virt-ls -R" produces a recursive list of files starting at the
372 named directory. See "RECURSIVE LISTING".
373 "virt-ls -lR" produces a recursive long listing which can be more
375 easily parsed. See "RECURSIVE LONG LISTING".
376 --times
378 Display time fields.
379 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
381 LONG LISTING" above.
382 --time-days
384 Display time fields as days before now (negative if in the future).
385 Note that 0 in output means "up to 1 day before now", or that the
387 age of the file is between 0 and 86399 seconds.
388 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
390 LONG LISTING" above.
391 --time-relative
393 Display time fields as seconds before now (negative if in the
394 future).
395 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
397 LONG LISTING" above.
398 --time-t
400 Display time fields as seconds since the Unix epoch.
401 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
403 LONG LISTING" above.
404 --uids
406 Display UID and GID fields.
407 This option only has effect in -lR output mode. See "RECURSIVE
409 LONG LISTING" above.
410 -v
412 --verbose
413 Enable verbose messages for debugging.
414 -V
416 --version
417 Display version number and exit.
418 -x Enable tracing of libguestfs API calls.
420
422 Previous versions of virt-ls allowed you to write either:
423 virt-ls disk.img [disk.img ...] /dir
425 or
427 virt-ls guestname /dir
429 whereas in this version you should use -a or -d respectively to avoid
431 the confusing case where a disk image might have the same name as a
432 guest.
433 For compatibility the old style is still supported.
435
437 Comma-separated values (CSV) is a deceptive format. It seems like it
438 should be easy to parse, but it is definitely not easy to parse.
439 Myth: Just split fields at commas. Reality: This does not work
441 reliably. This example has two columns:
442 "foo,bar",baz
444 Myth: Read the file one line at a time. Reality: This does not work
446 reliably. This example has one row:
447 "foo
449 bar",baz
450 For shell scripts, use "csvtool" (https://github.com/Chris00/ocaml-csv
452 also packaged in major Linux distributions).
453 For other languages, use a CSV processing library (eg. "Text::CSV" for
455 Perl or Python’s built-in csv library).
456 Most spreadsheets and databases can import CSV directly.
458
460 This program returns 0 if successful, or non-zero if there was an
461 error.
462
464 guestfs(3), guestfish(1), virt-cat(1), virt-copy-out(1), virt-diff(1),
465 virt-tar-out(1), http://libguestfs.org/.
466
468 Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/
469
471 Copyright (C) 2009-2023 Red Hat Inc.
472
474 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
475 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
476 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
477 option) any later version.
478 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
480 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
481 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
482 General Public License for more details.
483 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
485 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
486 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
487
489 To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
490 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
491 To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
493 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
494 When reporting a bug, please supply:
496 • The version of libguestfs.
498 • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
500 source, etc)
501 • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
503 • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
505 into the bug report.
506guestfs-tools-1.50.1 2023-04-06 virt-ls(1)