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 ≥ 4.07
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 realpath
111 Required.
112 flex
114 bison
115 Required.
116 Perl-compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE2) library
118 Required.
119 xorriso, genisoimage or mkisofs
121 One of these is Required.
122 libxml2
124 Required.
125 ncurses
127 Required.
128 augeas ≥ 1.2.0
130 Required.
131 ocaml-augeas
133 Required. These are the OCaml bindings for Augeas, found at:
134 http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/augeas/
135 xz Required.
137 zstd
139 Required.
140 Jansson ≥ 2.7
142 Required.
143 po4a
145 Required if compiling from git. Optional if compiling from
146 tarball.
147 hivex ≥ 1.2.7
149 ocaml-hivex
150 Required. ocaml-hivex is the OCaml binding for hivex, which is
151 required when building the daemon.
152 libmagic
154 Required. This is the library used by the file(1) command.
155 libvirt ≥ 0.10.2
157 Optional. Always use the latest possible version of libvirt.
158 xmllint
160 Optional. Used only for tests.
161 libconfig
163 Optional. Used to parse libguestfs’s own config files, eg.
164 /etc/libguestfs-tools.conf.
165 libselinux
167 Optional. Used by the libvirt backend to securely confine the
168 appliance (sVirt).
169 readline
171 Optional. For nicer command line editing in guestfish(1).
172 acl Optional. Library and programs for handling POSIX ACLs.
174 libcap
176 Optional. Library and programs for handling Linux capabilities.
177 libldm
179 Optional. Library and ldmtool(1) for handling Windows Dynamic
180 Disks.
181 sd-journal
183 Optional. Library for accessing systemd journals.
184 gdisk
186 Optional. GPT disk support.
187 netpbm
189 Optional. Render icons from guests.
190 icoutils
192 Optional. Render icons from Windows guests.
193 librpm
195 Optional. To parse the list of applications from RPM-based guests.
196 Perl "Expect"
198 Optional. Perl module used to test virt-rescue(1).
199 FUSE
201 Optional. fusermount(1), libfuse and kernel module are all needed
202 if you want guestmount(1) and/or mount-local support.
203 static glibc
205 Optional. Used only for testing.
206 qemu-nbd
208 nbdkit ≥ 1.12
209 Optional. qemu-nbd is used for testing.
210 curl
212 Optional. Used by virt-builder for downloads.
213 GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG, gpg) v1 or v2
215 Optional. Used by virt-builder for checking digital signatures.
216 liblzma
218 Optional. If available, virt-builder will use this library for
219 fast, parallel uncompression of templates.
220 python-evtx
222 Optional. Used by virt-log(1) to parse Windows Event Log files.
223 OCaml gettext
225 Optional. For localizing OCaml virt tools.
226 ocaml-ounit ≥ 2.0.0
228 Optional. For testing the common OCaml modules.
229 Perl "Module::Build" ≥ 0.19
231 Perl "Test::More"
232 Optional. Used to build and test the Perl bindings.
233 Python ≥ 3.6
235 Optional. Used to build the Python bindings. Python 2 support was
236 removed in libguestfs 1.42.1.
237 Python "unittest"
239 Optional. Used to run the Python testsuite.
240 Ruby
242 rake
243 rubygem-minitest
244 rubygem-rdoc
245 Optional. Used to build the Ruby bindings.
246 Java ≥ 1.6
248 Optional. Java, JNI and jpackage-utils are needed for building
249 Java bindings.
250 GHC Optional. Used to build the Haskell bindings.
252 PHP
254 phpize
255 Optional. Used to build the PHP bindings.
256 glib2
258 gobject-introspection
259 gjs Optional. Used to build and test the GObject bindings.
260 vala
262 Optional. Used to build the Vala bindings.
263 LUA Optional. Used to build the LUA bindings.
265 Erlang ≥ 23
267 ei Optional. Used to build the Erlang bindings. Note that Erlang ≤
268 22 will not work unless you use libguestfs ≤ 1.42.
269 golang ≥ 1.1.1
271 Optional. Used to build the Go bindings.
272 valgrind
274 Optional. For testing memory problems.
275 libvirt-python
277 Optional. For testing Python libvirt/libguestfs interactions.
278 Perl "libintl"
280 Optional.
281 bash-completion
283 Optional. For tab-completion of commands in bash.
284 libtsk
286 Optional. Library for filesystem forensics analysis.
287 yara ≥ 4.0.0
289 Optional. Tool for categorizing files based on their content.
290
292 You will need to install additional dependencies "autoconf",
293 "automake", "gettext", OCaml findlib and po4a when building from git.
294 git clone https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs
296 cd libguestfs
297 git submodule update --init
298 autoreconf -i
299 ./configure CFLAGS=-fPIC
300 make
301
303 Tarballs are downloaded from http://download.libguestfs.org/. Stable
304 tarballs are signed with the GnuPG key for "rich@annexia.org", see
305 https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x91738F73E1B768A0.
306 The fingerprint is "F777 4FB1 AD07 4A7E 8C87 67EA 9173 8F73 E1B7 68A0".
307 Download and unpack the tarball.
309 cd libguestfs-1.xx.yy
311 ./configure
312 make
313
315 DO NOT run the tests as root! Libguestfs can be built and tested as
316 non-root. Running the tests as root could even be dangerous, don't do
317 it.
318 To sanity check that the build worked, do:
320 make quickcheck
322 To run the basic tests, do:
324 make check
326 There are many more tests you can run. See guestfs-hacking(1) for
328 details.
329
331 DO NOT use "make install"! You'll end up with conflicting versions of
332 libguestfs installed, and this causes constant headaches for users.
333 See the next section for how to use the ./run script instead.
334 Distro packagers can use:
336 make INSTALLDIRS=vendor DESTDIR=[temp-build-dir] install
338
340 You can run guestfish(1), guestmount(1) and the virt tools without
341 needing to install them by using the ./run script in the top directory.
342 This script works by setting several environment variables.
343 For example:
345 ./run guestfish [usual guestfish args ...]
347 ./run virt-inspector [usual virt-inspector args ...]
349 The ./run script adds every libguestfs binary to the $PATH, so the
351 above examples run guestfish and virt-inspector from the build
352 directory (not the globally installed guestfish if there is one).
353 You can use the script from any directory. If you wanted to run your
355 own libguestfs-using program, then the following command will also
356 work:
357 /path/to/libguestfs/run ./my_program [...]
359 You can also run the C programs under valgrind like this:
361 ./run valgrind [valgrind opts...] virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
363 or under gdb:
365 ./run gdb --args virt-cat [virt-cat opts...]
367 This also works with sudo (eg. if you need root access for libvirt or
369 to access a block device):
370 sudo ./run virt-cat -d LinuxGuest /etc/passwd
372 To set environment variables, you can either do:
374 LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu ./run guestfish
376 or:
378 ./run env LIBGUESTFS_HV=/my/qemu guestfish
380
382 Files in the top source directory that begin with the prefix local* are
383 ignored by git. These files can contain local configuration or scripts
384 that you need to build libguestfs.
385 I have a file called localconfigure which is a simple wrapper around
387 configure containing local configure customizations that I need. It
388 looks like this:
389 . localenv
391 ./configure.sh \
392 -C \
393 --enable-werror \
394 "$@"
395 So I can use this to build libguestfs:
397 ./localconfigure && make
399 If there is a file in the top build directory called localenv, then it
401 will be sourced by "make". This file can contain any local environment
402 variables needed, eg. for skipping tests:
403 # Skip this test, it is broken.
405 export SKIP_TEST_BTRFS_FSCK=1
406 Note that localenv is included by the top Makefile (so it’s a Makefile
408 fragment). But if it is also sourced by your localconfigure script
409 then it is used as a shell script.
410
412 There are many "./configure" options. Use:
413 ./configure --help
415 to list them all. This section covers some of the more important ones.
417 --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
419 See "USING A PREBUILT BINARY APPLIANCE" below.
420 --disable-erlang
422 --disable-gobject
423 --disable-golang
424 --disable-haskell
425 --disable-lua
426 --disable-ocaml
427 --disable-perl
428 --disable-php
429 --disable-python
430 --disable-ruby
431 Disable specific language bindings, even if "./configure" finds all
432 the necessary libraries are installed so that they could be
433 compiled.
434 Note that disabling OCaml (bindings) or Perl will have the knock-on
436 effect of disabling parts of the test suite and some tools.
437 OCaml is required to build libguestfs and this requirement cannot
439 be removed. Using --disable-ocaml only disables the bindings.
440 --disable-fuse
442 Disable FUSE support in the API and the guestmount(1) tool.
443 --disable-static
445 Don’t build a static linked version of the libguestfs library.
446 --enable-install-daemon
448 Normally guestfsd(8) is not installed by "make install", since that
449 wouldn't be useful (instead it is "installed" inside the supermin
450 appliance). However if packagers are building "libguestfs live"
451 then they should use this option.
452 --enable-werror
454 This turns compiler warnings into errors (ie. "-Werror"). Use this
455 for development, especially when submitting patches. It should
456 generally not be used for production or distro builds.
457 --with-default-backend=libvirt
459 This controls the default method that libguestfs uses to run qemu
460 (see "BACKEND" in guestfs(3)). If not specified, the default
461 backend is "direct", which means libguestfs runs qemu directly.
462 Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ≥ 7 use this flag to
464 change the default backend to "libvirt", because (especially in
465 RHEL) the policy is not to allow any program to run qemu except via
466 libvirt.
467 Note that despite this setting, all backends are built into
469 libguestfs, and you can override the backend at runtime by setting
470 the $LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND environment variable (or using API
471 methods).
472 --with-distro=REDHAT|DEBIAN|...
474 Libguestfs needs to know which Linux distro is in use so it can
475 choose package names for the appliance correctly (see for example
476 appliance/packagelist.in). It normally does this automatically.
477 However if you can building or packaging libguestfs on a new distro
479 then you can use --with-distro to specify that the distro is
480 similar to an existing one (eg. --with-distro=REDHAT if the distro
481 is a new Red Hat or CentOS derivative).
482 Note that if your distro is completely new then it may still
484 require upstream modifications.
485 --with-extra="distroname=version,libvirt,..."
487 --with-extra="local"
488 This option controls the "extra" field returned by
489 "guestfs_version" in guestfs(3) and also printed by virt tools'
490 --version option. It is a free text field, but a good idea is to
491 encode a comma-separated list of facts such as the distro name and
492 version, whether libvirt is the default backend, and anything else
493 that may help with debugging problems raised by users.
494 For custom and/or local builds, this can be set to "local" to
496 indicate this is not a distro build.
497 --without-libvirt
499 Compile libguestfs without libvirt support, even if libvirt
500 development libraries are installed.
501 --with-qemu="bin1 bin2 ..."
503 Provide an alternate qemu binary (or list of binaries). This can
504 be overridden at runtime by setting the "LIBGUESTFS_HV" environment
505 variable.
506 --with-supermin-packager-config=yum.conf
508 This passes the --packager-config option to supermin(1).
509 The most common use for this is to build the appliance using an
511 alternate repository (instead of using the installed
512 yum/dnf/apt/etc configuration to find and download packages). You
513 might need to use this if you want to build libguestfs without
514 having a network connection. Examples of using this can be found
515 in the Fedora "libguestfs.spec" file (see "BUILDING A PACKAGE FOR
516 FEDORA" below for resources).
517 --with-supermin-extra-options="--opt1 --opt2 ..."
519 Pass additional options to supermin(1). See appliance/make.sh.in
520 to understand precisely what this does.
521 PYTHON
523 This environment variable may be set to point to a python binary
524 (eg. "python3"). When "./configure" runs, it inspects this python
525 binary to find the version of Python, the location of Python
526 libraries and so on.
527 SUPERMIN
529 This environment variable can be set to choose an alternative
530 supermin(1) binary. This might be used, for example, if you want
531 to use a newer upstream version of supermin than is packaged for
532 your distro, or if supermin is not packaged at all. On RHEL 7, you
533 must set "SUPERMIN=/usr/bin/supermin5" when compiling libguestfs.
534
536 A common problem is with broken or incompatible qemu releases.
537 Different versions of qemu have problems booting the appliance for
539 different reasons. This varies between versions of qemu, and Linux
540 distributions which add their own patches.
541 If you find a problem, you could try using your own qemu built from
543 source (qemu is very easy to build from source), with a "qemu wrapper".
544 See "QEMU WRAPPERS" in guestfs(3).
545 By default the configure script will look for qemu-kvm (KVM support).
547 KVM is much faster than using plain qemu.
548 You may also need to enable KVM support for non-root users, by
550 following these instructions:
551 http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/FAQ#How_can_I_use_kvm_with_a_non-privileged_user.3F
552 On some systems, this will work too:
554 chmod 0666 /dev/kvm
556 On some systems, the chmod will not survive a reboot, and you will need
558 to make edits to the udev configuration.
559
561 export CC=clang
562 ./configure
563 make
564
566 To understand what the libguestfs appliance means, see
567 guestfs-internals(1).
568 If you are using non-Linux, or a Linux distribution that does not have
570 supermin(1) support, or simply if you don't want to build your own
571 libguestfs appliance, then you can use one of the prebuilt binary
572 appliances that we supply:
573 http://libguestfs.org/download/binaries/appliance
574 Build libguestfs like this:
576 ./configure --disable-appliance --disable-daemon
578 make
579 Set $LIBGUESTFS_PATH to the path where you unpacked the appliance
581 tarball, eg:
582 export LIBGUESTFS_PATH=/usr/local/lib/guestfs/appliance
584 and run the libguestfs programs and virt tools in the normal way, eg.
586 using the ./run script (see above).
587
589 The Fedora spec file is stored under:
590 http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/libguestfs.git/
591 Libguestfs is built in Fedora using the ordinary Fedora build system
593 (Koji).
594
596 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) builds of libguestfs are heavily
597 patched. There are broadly two types of patches we apply:
598 • We disable many features that we do not wish to support for RHEL
600 customers. For example, the "libguestfs live" feature is disabled.
601 • We backport upstream features.
603 The patches we apply to RHEL releases are available publically in the
605 upstream git repository, in a branch called "rhel-x.y"
606 For example, the RHEL 7.3 patches are available here:
608 https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/commits/rhel-7.3
609 The sources and spec files for RHEL versions of libguestfs are
611 available on https://git.centos.org/project/rpms, and see also
612 https://wiki.centos.org/Sources.
613
615 guestfs(3), guestfs-examples(3), guestfs-hacking(1),
616 guestfs-internals(1), guestfs-performance(1), guestfs-release-notes(1),
617 guestfs-testing(1), libguestfs-test-tool(1),
618 libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance(1), http://libguestfs.org/.
619
621 Richard W.M. Jones ("rjones at redhat dot com")
622
624 Copyright (C) 2009-2023 Red Hat Inc.
625
627 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
628 under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
629 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
630 (at your option) any later version.
631 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
633 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
634 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
635 Lesser General Public License for more details.
636 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
638 License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
639 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
640 02110-1301 USA
641
643 To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
644 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
645 To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
647 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
648 When reporting a bug, please supply:
650 • The version of libguestfs.
652 • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
654 source, etc)
655 • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
657 • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
659 into the bug report.
660libguestfs-1.51.9 2023-12-09 guestfs-building(1)