source: vbox/trunk/doc/manual/en_US/man_VBoxManage-createmedium.xml@ 86692

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  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
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<refentry id="vboxmanage-createmedium" lang="en">
  <refentryinfo>
    <pubdate>August 2019</pubdate>
    <title>VBoxManage createmedium</title>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>VBoxManage-createmedium</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>VBoxManage-createmedium</refname>
    <refpurpose>create a new medium</refpurpose>
    <refclass>Oracle VM VirtualBox</refclass>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-createmedium">
<!-- The 'id' is mandatory and must start with 'synopsis-'. -->
      <command>VBoxManage createmedium</command>
      <group>
        <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>disk</replaceable></arg>
        <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>dvd</replaceable></arg>
        <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>floppy</replaceable></arg>
      </group>
      <arg choice="req">--filename=<replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
      <group choice="opt">
        <arg choice="plain">--size=<replaceable>megabytes</replaceable></arg>
        <arg choice="plain">--sizebyte=<replaceable>bytes</replaceable></arg>
      </group>
      <arg>--diffparent=<group choice="plain">
          <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>UUID</replaceable></arg>
          <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
        </group></arg>
      <arg>--format=<group choice="plain">
          <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>VDI</replaceable></arg>
          <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>VMDK</replaceable></arg>
          <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>VHD</replaceable></arg>
        </group></arg>
      <arg>--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX,Formatted</arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>
    <para>
      The <command>VBoxManage createmedium</command> command creates a
      new medium, such as a disk image file.
    </para>
    <note>
      <para>
        For compatibility with earlier versions of &product-name;, you
        can use the <command>createvdi</command> and
        <command>createhd</command> commands instead of the
        <command>createmedium</command> command.
      </para>
    </note>
    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>disk | dvd | floppy</term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the media type. The default value is
            <literal>disk</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--filename=<replaceable>filename</replaceable></option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the absolute path name to a file on the host file
            system.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--size=<replaceable>megabytes</replaceable></option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the image capacity in one megabyte units.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--sizebyte=<replaceable>bytes</replaceable></option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the image capacity in one byte units.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--diffparent=<replaceable>UUID</replaceable> | <replaceable>filename</replaceable></option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or
            absolute path name of a differencing image parent file on
            the host file system.
          </para><para>
            Use this file to share a base box disk image among VMs.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--format=VDI | VMDK | VHD</option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the file format of the output file. Valid formats
            are <literal>VDI</literal>, <literal>VMDK</literal>, and
            <literal>VHD</literal>. The default format is
            <literal>VDI</literal>.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--variant=Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX, Formatted</option></term>
        <listitem><para>
            Specifies the file format variant for the target medium,
            which is a comma-separated list of variants. Following are
            the valid values:
          </para><itemizedlist>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>Standard</literal> is the default disk image
                type, which has a dynamically allocated file size.
              </para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>Fixed</literal> uses a disk image that has a
                fixed file size.
              </para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>Split2G</literal> indicates that the disk image
                is split into 2GB segments. This value is for VMDK only.
              </para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>Stream</literal> optimizes the disk image for
                downloading. This value is for VMDK only.
              </para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>ESX</literal> is used for some VMWare products.
                This value is for VMDK only.
              </para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>
                <literal>Formatted</literal>
              </para><para>
                For floppy images only. Formats the medium
                automatically.
              </para></listitem>
          </itemizedlist><para>
            Note that not all variant combinations are valid. Specifying
            incompatible variant values in the list will produce an
            error message.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Examples</title>
    <remark role="help-scope" condition="GLOBAL" />
    <para>
      The following command creates a new disk image file called
      <filename>disk01.vdi</filename>. The file size is 1024 megabytes.
    </para>
<screen>$ VBoxManage createmedium --filename disk01.vdi --size 1024</screen>
    <para>
      The following command creates a new floppy disk image file called
      <filename>floppy01.vdi</filename>. The file size is 1 megabyte.
    </para>
<screen>$ VBoxManage createmedium floppy --filename floppy01.img --size 1</screen>
  </refsect1>
</refentry>