| 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic
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| 3 | PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 4 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="sharedfolders">
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| 5 | <title>Shared Folders</title>
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| 6 |
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| 7 | <body>
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| 8 | <p>
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| 9 | With the <i>shared folders</i> feature of
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| 10 | Oracle VM VirtualBox, you can access files of your host system from
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| 11 | within the guest system. This is similar to how you would use
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| 12 | network shares in Windows networks, except that shared folders do
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| 13 | not require networking, only the Guest Additions. Shared folders
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| 14 | are supported with Windows 2000 or later, Linux, and Oracle
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| 15 | Solaris guests. Oracle VM VirtualBox includes experimental support for
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| 16 | Mac OS X and OS/2 guests.
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| 17 | </p>
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| 18 | <p>
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| 19 | Shared folders physically reside on the <i>host</i>
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| 20 | and are then shared with the guest, which uses a special file
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| 21 | system driver in the Guest Additions to talk to the host. For
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| 22 | Windows guests, shared folders are implemented as a pseudo-network
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| 23 | redirector. For Linux and Oracle Solaris guests, the Guest
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| 24 | Additions provide a virtual file system.
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| 25 | </p>
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| 26 | <p>
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| 27 | To share a host folder with a virtual machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox,
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| 28 | you must specify the path of the folder and choose a
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| 29 | <i>share name</i> that the guest can use to access
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| 30 | the shared folder. This happens on the host. In the guest you can
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| 31 | then use the share name to connect to it and access files.
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| 32 | </p>
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| 33 | <p>
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| 34 | There are several ways in which shared folders can be set up for a
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| 35 | virtual machine:
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| 36 | </p>
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| 37 | <ul>
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| 38 | <li>
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| 39 | <p>
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| 40 | In the window of a running VM, you select
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| 41 | <b outputclass="bold">Shared Folders</b> from the
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| 42 | <b outputclass="bold">Devices</b> menu, or click on the
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| 43 | folder icon on the status bar in the bottom right corner.
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| 44 | </p>
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| 45 | </li>
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| 46 | <li>
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| 47 | <p>
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| 48 | If a VM is not currently running, you can configure shared
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| 49 | folders in the virtual machine's
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| 50 | <b outputclass="bold">Settings</b> window.
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| 51 | </p>
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| 52 | </li>
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| 53 | <li>
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| 54 | <p>
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| 55 | From the command line, you can create shared folders using
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| 56 | <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput>, as follows:
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| 57 | </p>
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| 58 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage sharedfolder add "VM name" --name "sharename" --hostpath "C:\test"</pre>
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| 59 | <p>
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| 60 | See <xref href="man_VBoxManage-sharedfolder.dita#vboxmanage-sharedfolder"/>.
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| 61 | </p>
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| 62 | </li>
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| 63 | </ul>
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| 64 | <p>
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| 65 | There are two types of shares:
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| 66 | </p>
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| 67 | <ul>
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| 68 | <li>
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| 69 | <p>
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| 70 | Permanent shares, that are saved with the VM settings.
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| 71 | </p>
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| 72 | </li>
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| 73 | <li>
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| 74 | <p>
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| 75 | Transient shares, that are added at runtime and disappear when
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| 76 | the VM is powered off. These can be created using a check box
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| 77 | in VirtualBox Manager, or by using the <codeph>--transient</codeph>
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| 78 | option of the <userinput>VBoxManage sharedfolder add</userinput>
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| 79 | command.
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| 80 | </p>
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| 81 | </li>
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| 82 | </ul>
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| 83 | <p>
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| 84 | Shared folders can either be read-write or read-only. This means
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| 85 | that the guest is either allowed to both read and write, or just
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| 86 | read files on the host. By default, shared folders are read-write.
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| 87 | Read-only folders can be created using a check box in the
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| 88 | VirtualBox Manager, or with the <codeph>--readonly option</codeph> of the
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| 89 | <userinput>VBoxManage sharedfolder add</userinput> command.
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| 90 | </p>
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| 91 | <p>
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| 92 | Oracle VM VirtualBox shared folders also support symbolic links, also
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| 93 | called <i>symlinks</i>, under the following
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| 94 | conditions:
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| 95 | </p>
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| 96 | <ul>
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| 97 | <li>
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| 98 | <p>
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| 99 | The host operating system must support symlinks. For example,
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| 100 | a macOS, Linux, or Oracle Solaris host is required.
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| 101 | </p>
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| 102 | </li>
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| 103 | <li>
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| 104 | <p>
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| 105 | Currently only Linux and Oracle Solaris Guest Additions
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| 106 | support symlinks.
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| 107 | </p>
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| 108 | </li>
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| 109 | <li>
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| 110 | <p>
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| 111 | For security reasons the guest OS is not allowed to create
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| 112 | symlinks by default. If you trust the guest OS to not abuse
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| 113 | the functionality, you can enable creation of symlinks for a
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| 114 | shared folder as follows:
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| 115 | </p>
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| 116 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/<varname>sharename</varname> 1</pre>
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| 117 | </li>
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| 118 | </ul>
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| 119 | </body>
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| 120 |
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| 121 |
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| 122 | </topic>
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