user_VBoxManage.xml@ 40714

Last change on this file since 40714 was 40714, checked in by vboxsync, 13 years ago
VBoxManage modifyvm: added --teleporterpasswordfrom
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1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3	"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
4	<chapter id="vboxmanage">
5	<title>VBoxManage</title>
6
7	<sect1>
8	<title>Introduction</title>
9
10	<para>As briefly mentioned in <xref linkend="frontends" />, VBoxManage is
11	the command-line interface to VirtualBox. With it, you can completely
12	control VirtualBox from the command line of your host operating system.
13	VBoxManage supports all the features that the graphical user interface
14	gives you access to, but it supports a lot more than that. It exposes
15	really all the features of the virtualization engine, even those that
16	cannot (yet) be accessed from the GUI.</para>
17
18	<para>You will need to use the command line if you want to</para>
19
20	<para><itemizedlist>
21	<listitem>
22	<para>use a different user interface than the main GUI (for example,
23	VBoxSDL or the VBoxHeadless server);</para>
24	</listitem>
25
26	<listitem>
27	<para>control some of the more advanced and experimental
28	configuration settings for a VM.</para>
29	</listitem>
30	</itemizedlist></para>
31
32	<para>There are two main things to keep in mind when using
33	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>: First,
34	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> must always be used with a
35	specific "subcommand", such as "list" or "createvm" or "startvm". All the
36	subcommands that <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> supports are
37	described in detail in <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>
38
39	<para>Second, most of these subcommands require that you specify a
40	particular virtual machine after the subcommand. There are two ways you
41	can do this:</para>
42
43	<itemizedlist>
44	<listitem>
45	<para>You can specify the VM name, as it is shown in the VirtualBox
46	GUI. Note that if that name contains spaces, then you must enclose the
47	entire name in double quotes (as it is always required with command
48	line arguments that contain spaces).</para>
49
50	<para>For example:<screen>VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"</screen></para>
51	</listitem>
52
53	<listitem>
54	<para>You can specify the UUID, which is the internal unique
55	identifier that VirtualBox uses to refer to the virtual machine.
56	Assuming that the aforementioned VM called "Windows XP" has the UUID
57	shown below, the following command has the same effect as the
58	previous:<screen>VBoxManage startvm 670e746d-abea-4ba6-ad02-2a3b043810a5</screen></para>
59	</listitem>
60	</itemizedlist>
61
62	<para>You can type <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms</computeroutput> to
63	have all currently registered VMs listed with all their settings,
64	including their respective names and UUIDs.</para>
65
66	<para>Some typical examples of how to control VirtualBox from the command
67	line are listed below:</para>
68
69	<itemizedlist>
70	<listitem>
71	<para>To create a new virtual machine from the command line and
72	immediately register it with VirtualBox, use
73	<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> with the
74	<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option,<footnote>
75	<para>For details, see <xref
76	linkend="vboxmanage-createvm" />.</para>
77	</footnote> like this:</para>
78
79	<screen>$ VBoxManage createvm --name "SUSE 10.2" --register
80	VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
81	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
82	All rights reserved.
83
84	Virtual machine 'SUSE 10.2' is created.
85	UUID: c89fc351-8ec6-4f02-a048-57f4d25288e5
86	Settings file: '/home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/SUSE 10.2/SUSE 10.2.xml'
87	</screen>
88
89	<para>As can be seen from the above output, a new virtual machine has
90	been created with a new UUID and a new XML settings file.</para>
91	</listitem>
92
93	<listitem>
94	<para>To show the configuration of a particular VM, use
95	<computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see <xref
96	linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" /> for details and an example.</para>
97	</listitem>
98
99	<listitem>
100	<para>To change settings while a VM is powered off, use
101	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>, e.g. as
102	follows:<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows XP" --memory "512MB"</screen></para>
103
104	<para>For details, see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
105	</listitem>
106
107	<listitem>
108	<para>To change the storage configuration (e.g. to add a storage
109	controller and then a virtual disk), use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
110	storagectl</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>VBoxManage
111	storageattach</computeroutput>; see <xref
112	linkend="vboxmanage-storagectl" /> and <xref
113	linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details.</para>
114	</listitem>
115
116	<listitem>
117	<para>To control VM operation, use one of the following:<itemizedlist>
118	<listitem>
119	<para>To start a VM that is currently powered off, use
120	<computeroutput>VBoxManage startvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
121	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
122	</listitem>
123
124	<listitem>
125	<para>To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change
126	some of its settings, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
127	controlvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
128	linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" /> for details.</para>
129	</listitem>
130	</itemizedlist></para>
131	</listitem>
132	</itemizedlist>
133	</sect1>
134
135	<sect1>
136	<title>Commands overview</title>
137
138	<para>When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an
139	invalid command line, the below syntax diagram will be shown. Note that
140	the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform; when
141	in doubt, check the output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>
142	for the commands available on your particular host.</para>
143
144	<screen>$VBOX_MANAGE_OUTPUT</screen>
145
146	<para>Each time VBoxManage is invoked, only one command can be executed.
147	However, a command might support several subcommands which then can be
148	invoked in one single call. The following sections provide detailed
149	reference information on the different commands.</para>
150	</sect1>
151
152	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
153	<title>VBoxManage list</title>
154
155	<para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
156	information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
157	settings.</para>
158
159	<para>The following subcommands are available with
160	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
161	<listitem>
162	<para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
163	machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
164	displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
165	specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
166	<computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
167	with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
168	below).</para>
169	</listitem>
170
171	<listitem>
172	<para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
173	currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
174	(UUIDs) in the same format as with
175	<computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
176	</listitem>
177
178	<listitem>
179	<para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
180	operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
181	identifiers used to refer to them with the
182	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
183	</listitem>
184
185	<listitem>
186	<para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
187	<computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list
188	DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces
189	on the host, along with the name used to access them from within
190	VirtualBox.</para>
191	</listitem>
192
193	<listitem>
194	<para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,
195	<computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and
196	<computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list
197	bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP
198	servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref
199	linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>
200	</listitem>
201
202	<listitem>
203	<para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information
204	about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating
205	system version.</para>
206	</listitem>
207
208	<listitem>
209	<para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID
210	parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine
211	grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>
212	</listitem>
213
214	<listitem>
215	<para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
216	virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as
217	VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and
218	configuration.</para>
219	</listitem>
220
221	<listitem>
222	<para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
223	<computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
224	<computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
225	about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including
226	all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with
227	them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the
228	command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
229	linkend="vdis" />.</para>
230	</listitem>
231
232	<listitem>
233	<para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information
234	about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
235	for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
236	by the host.</para>
237	</listitem>
238
239	<listitem>
240	<para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
241	USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
242	devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
243	the filter parameters.</para>
244	</listitem>
245
246	<listitem>
247	<para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
248	some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
249	RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
250	authentication library in use.</para>
251	</listitem>
252
253	<listitem>
254	<para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all
255	VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref
256	linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref
257	linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>
258	</listitem>
259	</itemizedlist></para>
260	</sect1>
261
262	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
263	<title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
264
265	<para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
266	information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
267	information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
268	would show for all virtual machines.</para>
269
270	<para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
271
272	<para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
273	VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
274	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
275	All rights reserved.
276
277	Name: Windows XP
278	Guest OS: Other/Unknown
279	UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
280	Config file: /home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
281	Memory size: 512MB
282	VRAM size: 12MB
283	Number of CPUs: 2
284	Synthetic Cpu: off
285	Boot menu mode: message and menu
286	Boot Device (1): DVD
287	Boot Device (2): HardDisk
288	Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
289	Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
290	ACPI: on
291	IOAPIC: on
292	PAE: on
293	Time offset: 0 ms
294	Hardw. virt.ext: on
295	Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
296	Nested Paging: on
297	VT-x VPID: off
298	State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
299	Monitor count: 1
300	3D Acceleration: off
301	2D Video Acceleration: off
302	Teleporter Enabled: off
303	Teleporter Port: 0
304	Teleporter Address:
305	Teleporter Password:
306	Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
307	Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
308	Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
309	Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
310	IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
311	IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
312	Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
313	NIC 1: disabled
314	NIC 2: disabled
315	NIC 3: disabled
316	NIC 4: disabled
317	NIC 5: disabled
318	NIC 6: disabled
319	NIC 7: disabled
320	NIC 8: disabled
321	UART 1: disabled
322	UART 2: disabled
323	Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
324	Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
325	VRDE: disabled
326	USB: disabled
327
328	USB Device Filters:
329	<none>
330
331	Shared folders:
332	<none>
333
334	Statistics update: disabled
335	</screen></para>
336	</sect1>
337
338	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">
339	<title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
340
341	<para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
342	to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
343	machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
344	may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
345	place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
346	it.<note>
347	<para>When creating a new virtual machine with
348	<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
349	can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
350	option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
351	</note></para>
352
353	<para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
354	unregisters a virtual machine. If
355	<computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
356	files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
357	<listitem>
358	<para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
359	are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
360	</listitem>
361
362	<listitem>
363	<para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
364	machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
365	snapshot);</para>
366	</listitem>
367
368	<listitem>
369	<para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
370	</listitem>
371
372	<listitem>
373	<para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
374	</listitem>
375
376	<listitem>
377	<para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
378	the above.</para>
379	</listitem>
380	</orderedlist></para>
381	</sect1>
382
383	<sect1>
384	<title id="vboxmanage-createvm">VBoxManage createvm</title>
385
386	<para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
387	file.</para>
388
389	<para>The <computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput> parameter
390	is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
391	used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
392	<computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
393	of the <computeroutput>.VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder), it
394	must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
395	specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
396	change automatically.</para>
397
398	<para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
399	<path></computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
400	named <computeroutput><path></computeroutput>. In this case, the
401	names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
402	renamed.</para>
403
404	<para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
405	automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
406	register the VM instantly, use the optional
407	<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
408	<computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
409	afterwards.</para>
410	</sect1>
411
412	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
413	<title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
414
415	<para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
416	which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
417	available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
418	interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
419	<xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
420	however, are only available through the
421	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
422
423	<para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
424	running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
425	while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
426	subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
427	subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
428
429	<sect2>
430	<title>General settings</title>
431
432	<para>The following general settings are available through
433	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
434	<listitem>
435	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: This
436	changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
437	machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
438	createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
439	</listitem>
440
441	<listitem>
442	<para><computeroutput>--ostype <ostype></computeroutput>:
443	This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
444	the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
445	here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
446	ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
447	</listitem>
448
449	<listitem>
450	<para><computeroutput>--memory
451	<memorysize></computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
452	in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
453	the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
454	more information.</para>
455	</listitem>
456
457	<listitem>
458	<para><computeroutput>--vram <vramsize></computeroutput>:
459	This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
460	have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
461	</listitem>
462
463	<listitem>
464	<para><computeroutput>--acpi on\|off</computeroutput>;
465	<computeroutput>--ioapic on\|off</computeroutput>: These two
466	determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
467	respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
468	details.</para>
469	</listitem>
470
471	<listitem>
472	<para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
473	<uuid></computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
474	memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
475	default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
476	Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
477	</listitem>
478
479	<listitem>
480	<para><computeroutput>--cpus <cpucount></computeroutput>:
481	This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
482	<xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
483	enabled (see below), this then sets the
484	<emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
485	plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
486	</listitem>
487
488	<listitem>
489	<para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on\|off</computeroutput>: This
490	option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
491	<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
492	</listitem>
493
494	<listitem>
495	<para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on\|off</computeroutput>: This
496	enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
497	to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
498	<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
499	</listitem>
500
501	<listitem>
502	<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu\|unplugcpu
503	<id></computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
504	above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
505	removes one). <computeroutput><id></computeroutput>
506	specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
507	must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
508	the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
509	never be removed.</para>
510	</listitem>
511
512	<listitem>
513	<para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
514	<1-100></computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
515	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
516	CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
517	</listitem>
518
519	<listitem>
520	<para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on\|off</computeroutput>: This
521	setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
522	to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
523	differ significantly.</para>
524	</listitem>
525
526	<listitem>
527	<para><computeroutput>--pae on\|off</computeroutput>: This
528	enables/disables PAE (see <xref
529	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
530	</listitem>
531
532	<listitem>
533	<para><computeroutput>--hpet on\|off</computeroutput>: This
534	enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
535	replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
536	Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
537	</listitem>
538
539	<listitem>
540	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on\|off</computeroutput>: This
541	enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
542	(Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
543	<xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
544	</listitem>
545
546	<listitem>
547	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on\|off</computeroutput>: This
548	specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the
549	hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the
550	processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If
551	you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other
552	hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has
553	negative performance implications.</para>
554	</listitem>
555
556	<listitem>
557	<para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on\|off</computeroutput>: If
558	hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
559	enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
560	processor of your host system; see <xref
561	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
562	</listitem>
563
564	<listitem>
565	<para><computeroutput>--largepages on\|off</computeroutput>: If
566	hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
567	enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
568	improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
569	This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
570	and overhead.</para>
571	</listitem>
572
573	<listitem>
574	<para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on\|off</computeroutput>: If
575	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
576	additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
577	(VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
578	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
579	</listitem>
580
581	<listitem>
582	<para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on\|off</computeroutput>: This
583	enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
584	acceleration should be available; see <xref
585	linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
586	</listitem>
587
588	<listitem>
589	<para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
590	virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
591	a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
592
593	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
594	on\|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
595	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
596	fade in and out, respectively.</para>
597
598	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
599	<msec></computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
600	be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
601
602	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
603	<imagepath></computeroutput> you can, if you are so
604	inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
605	image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file.</para>
606	</listitem>
607
608	<listitem>
609	<para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
610	disabled\|menuonly\|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
611	whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
612	device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
613	message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
614	boot device.</para>
615	</listitem>
616
617	<listitem>
618	<para><computeroutput>--boot<1-4>
619	none\|floppy\|dvd\|disk\|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
620	order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
621	VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
622	set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
623	</listitem>
624
625	<listitem>
626	<para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
627	default\|<path></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
628	the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
629	machine.</para>
630	</listitem>
631
632	<listitem>
633	<para><computeroutput>--firmware efi\|bios</computeroutput>:
634	Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
635	machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
636	you're doing.</para>
637	</listitem>
638
639	<listitem>
640	<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
641	<size></computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
642	memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
643	Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
644	hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. <size> must
645	be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
646	details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
647	</listitem>
648	</itemizedlist></para>
649	</sect2>
650
651	<sect2>
652	<title>Networking settings</title>
653
654	<para>The following networking settings are available through
655	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
656	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
657	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
658	should be changed.<itemizedlist>
659	<listitem>
660	<para><computeroutput>--nic<1-N>
661	none\|null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic
662	</computeroutput>: With
663	this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
664	what type of networking should be available. They can be not
665	present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
666	the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
667	address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
668	bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
669	communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
670	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
671	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
672	sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
673	These options correspond
674	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
675	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
676	</listitem>
677
678	<listitem>
679	<para><computeroutput>--nictype<1-N>
680	Am79C970A\|Am79C973\|82540EM\|82543GC\|82545EM\|virtio</computeroutput>:
681	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
682	specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
683	guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
684	</listitem>
685
686	<listitem>
687	<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected<1-N>
688	on\|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
689	a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
690	from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
691	certain software components in the VM.</para>
692	</listitem>
693
694	<listitem>
695	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
696	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
697	purposes.</para>
698
699	<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace<1-N>
700	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
701	particular virtual network card.</para>
702
703	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
704	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
705	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
706	logged to.</para>
707	</listitem>
708
709	<listitem>
710	<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter<1-N>
711	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If bridged networking
712	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
713	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
714	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
715	interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
716	details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
717	</listitem>
718
719	<listitem>
720	<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
721	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If host-only networking
722	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
723	above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
724	specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
725	network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
726	linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
727	</listitem>
728
729	<listitem>
730	<para><computeroutput>--intnet<1-N>
731	network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
732	for a virtual network card (see the
733	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
734	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
735	of the internal network (see <xref
736	linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
737	</listitem>
738
739	<listitem>
740	<para><computeroutput>--macaddress<1-N>
741	auto\|<mac></computeroutput>: With this option you can set
742	the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
743	virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
744	VM creation.</para>
745	</listitem>
746
747	<listitem>
748	<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv<1-N>
749	<backend driver></computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
750	enabled for a virtual network card (see the
751	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
752	this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
753	rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
754	</para>
755	</listitem>
756
757	<listitem>
758	<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty<1-N>
759	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
760	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
761	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
762	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
763	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
764	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
765	</para>
766	</listitem>
767	</itemizedlist></para>
768
769	<sect3>
770	<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
771
772	<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
773	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
774	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
775	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
776	settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
777	<listitem>
778	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N>
779	[<name>],tcp\|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
780	<guestport></computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
781	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
782	for details).</para>
783	</listitem>
784
785	<listitem>
786	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N> delete
787	<name></computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
788	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
789	for details).</para>
790	</listitem>
791
792	<listitem>
793	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix<1-N>
794	<prefix></computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
795	for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
796	located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
797	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
798	</listitem>
799
800	<listitem>
801	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile<1-N>
802	<bootfile></computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
803	boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
804	details).</para>
805	</listitem>
806
807	<listitem>
808	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver<1-N>
809	<tftpserver></computeroutput>: This option defines the
810	TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
811	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
812	</listitem>
813
814	<listitem>
815	<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
816	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
817	built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
818	resolution.</para>
819	</listitem>
820
821	<listitem>
822	<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy<1-N>
823	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
824	all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
825	<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
826	</listitem>
827
828	<listitem>
829	<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
830	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
831	the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
832	see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
833	</listitem>
834
835	<listitem>
836	<para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings<1-N>
837	[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
838	[<tcprcv>]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
839	NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
840	details).</para>
841	</listitem>
842
843	<listitem>
844	<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode<1-N>
845	default\|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
846	option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
847	logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
848	transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
849	the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
850	mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
851	linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
852	</listitem>
853	</itemizedlist></para>
854	</sect3>
855	</sect2>
856
857	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
858	<title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB
859	settings</title>
860
861	<para>The following other hardware settings are available through
862	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
863	<listitem>
864	<para><computeroutput>--uart<1-N> off\|<I/O base>
865	<IRQ></computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
866	virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
867	linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
868	</listitem>
869
870	<listitem>
871	<para><computeroutput>--uartmode<1-N>
872	<arg></computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
873	connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
874	the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
875	to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
876	in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
877	you can specify <computeroutput><arg></computeroutput> as
878	one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
879	<listitem>
880	<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
881	though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
882	"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
883	</listitem>
884
885	<listitem>
886	<para><computeroutput>server
887	<pipename></computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
888	tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
889	<computeroutput><pipename></computeroutput> and
890	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
891	requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
892	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
893
894	<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
895	domain socket is used.</para>
896	</listitem>
897
898	<listitem>
899	<para><computeroutput>client
900	<pipename></computeroutput>: This operates just like
901	<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
902	pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
903	but assumed to exist already.</para>
904	</listitem>
905
906	<listitem>
907	<para><computeroutput><devicename></computeroutput>:
908	If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
909	hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
910	serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
911	host, the device name will be a COM port such as
912	<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
913	device name will look like
914	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
915	to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
916	</listitem>
917	</itemizedlist></para>
918	</listitem>
919
920	<listitem>
921	<para><computeroutput>--audio none\|null\|oss</computeroutput>: With
922	this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
923	support.</para>
924	</listitem>
925
926	<listitem>
927	<para><computeroutput>--clipboard
928	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
929	With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
930	system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
931	linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
932	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
933	</listitem>
934
935	<listitem>
936	<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
937	<count></computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
938	support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
939	</listitem>
940
941	<listitem>
942	<para><computeroutput>--usb on\|off</computeroutput>: This option
943	enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
944	linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
945	</listitem>
946
947	<listitem>
948	<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
949	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
950	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
951	</listitem>
952	</itemizedlist></para>
953	</sect2>
954
955	<sect2>
956	<title>Remote machine settings</title>
957
958	<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
959	available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
960	modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
961	<listitem>
962	<para><computeroutput>--vrde on\|off</computeroutput>: With the
963	VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
964	VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
965	you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
966	<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
967	default.</para>
968	</listitem>
969
970	<listitem>
971	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
972	default\|<ports></computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
973	the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
974	standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
975	ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
976	specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
977	role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
978	list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
979	example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
980	5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
981	one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
982	</listitem>
983
984	<listitem>
985	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress <IP
986	address></computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
987	interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
988	will accept connections only on the specified host network
989	interface.</para>
990	</listitem>
991
992	<listitem>
993	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
994	null\|external\|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
995	whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
996	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
997	</listitem>
998
999	<listitem>
1000	<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1001	enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1002	server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1003	linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1004	</listitem>
1005
1006	<listitem>
1007	<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1008	specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1009	disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1010	client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1011	option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1012	will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1013	server.</para>
1014	</listitem>
1015
1016	<listitem>
1017	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on\|off</computeroutput>:
1018	This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1019	server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1020	</listitem>
1021
1022	<listitem>
1023	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1024	<percent></computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1025	redirection; see <xref lang=""
1026	linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1027	</listitem>
1028	</itemizedlist></para>
1029	</sect2>
1030
1031	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1032	<title>Teleporting settings</title>
1033
1034	<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1035	modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1036	teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1037	introduction.<itemizedlist>
1038	<listitem>
1039	<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on\|off</computeroutput>: With
1040	this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1041	teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1042	If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1043	machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1044	teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1045	the next two parameters.</para>
1046	</listitem>
1047
1048	<listitem>
1049	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1050	<port></computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1051	<address></computeroutput>: these must be used with
1052	--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1053	address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1054	virtual machine. <computeroutput><port></computeroutput> can
1055	be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1056	<computeroutput><address></computeroutput> can be any IP
1057	address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1058	The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1059	</listitem>
1060
1061	<listitem>
1062	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1063	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1064	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1065	source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1066	this command.</para>
1067	</listitem>
1068
1069	<listitem>
1070	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfrom
1071	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1072	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1073	source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1074	in the file give with this command.</para>
1075	</listitem>
1076
1077	<listitem>
1078	<para><computeroutput>--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
1079	<ecx> <edx></computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1080	this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1081	virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1082	operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1083	target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1084	what the guest sees when it executes the
1085	<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1086	might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1087	certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1088	parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1089	processor manuals.</para>
1090	</listitem>
1091	</itemizedlist></para>
1092	</sect2>
1093	</sect1>
1094
1095	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1096	<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1097
1098	<para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1099	machine.</para>
1100
1101	<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1102	least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1103	additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1104	operation:</para>
1105
1106	<itemizedlist>
1107	<listitem>
1108	<para><computeroutput>--snapshot <uuid>\|<name></computeroutput>:
1109	Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1110	to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1111	</listitem>
1112	<listitem>
1113	<para><computeroutput>--mode machine\|machineandchildren\|all</computeroutput>:
1114	Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1115	<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1116	the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1117	<computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1118	provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1119	child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1120	is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1121	</para>
1122	</listitem>
1123	<listitem>
1124	<para><computeroutput>--options link\|keepallmacs\|keepnatmacs\|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1125	Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1126	option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1127	only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1128	options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1129	network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1130	(the default), left unchanged
1131	(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1132	when the network type is NAT
1133	(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1134	<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1135	are called like the original once, otherwise they are
1136	renamed.</para>
1137	</listitem>
1138	<listitem>
1139	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: Select a
1140	new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1141	Clone".</para>
1142	</listitem>
1143	<listitem>
1144	<para><computeroutput>--basefolder <basefolder></computeroutput>:
1145	Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1146	be saved in.</para>
1147	</listitem>
1148	<listitem>
1149	<para><computeroutput>--uuid <uuid></computeroutput>:
1150	Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1151	the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1152	creating a new UUID.</para>
1153	</listitem>
1154	<listitem>
1155	<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1156	Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1157	installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see
1158	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1159	so.</para>
1160	</listitem>
1161	</itemizedlist>
1162	</sect1>
1163
1164	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1165	<title>VBoxManage import</title>
1166
1167	<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1168	the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1169	<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1170
1171	<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1172	least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1173	if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1174	command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1175	imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1176	content of the OVF file.</para>
1177
1178	<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1179	the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1180	<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1181	description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1182	imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1183	to influence the import behavior.</para>
1184
1185	<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1186	containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1187	Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1188	OK.
1189	Virtual system 0:
1190	0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1191	(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1192	1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1193	(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
1194	3: Number of CPUs: 1
1195	(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
1196	4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
1197	5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1198	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1199	6: USB controller
1200	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1201	7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1202	8: Floppy
1203	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1204	9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1205	(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic\|LsiLogic}";
1206	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
1207	10: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1208	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
1209	11: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1210	target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1211	(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
1212	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1213
1214	<para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1215	depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1216	subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1217	<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1218	X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1219	virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1220	printed on the screen.</para>
1221
1222	<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1223	machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1224	respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1225	additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1226	which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1227	from the OVF file.</para>
1228
1229	<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1230	same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1231	import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1232	without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1233	controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1234	--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1235	</sect1>
1236
1237	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1238	<title>VBoxManage export</title>
1239
1240	<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1241	into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1242	disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1243	introduction to appliances.</para>
1244
1245	<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1246	use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1247	the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1248	<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1249	<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1250	target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1251	compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1252	enough disk space left for them.</para>
1253
1254	<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1255	several product information to the appliance file. Use
1256	<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1257	<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1258	<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1259	<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1260	<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1261	information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1262	of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1263	<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1264	OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1265	option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1266	machine.</para>
1267
1268	<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1269	OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1270	<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1271	</sect1>
1272
1273	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1274	<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1275
1276	<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1277	"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1278
1279	<note>
1280	<para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to
1281	start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as
1282	you might otherwise miss important error and state information that
1283	VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for
1284	front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our
1285	graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in
1286	a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1287	information.</para>
1288	</note>
1289
1290	<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1291	determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,
1292	which is the default) or whether the output should go through
1293	<computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDE enabled or not;
1294	see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of
1295	types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are
1296	accepted by any product variant.</para>
1297
1298	<para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1299
1300	<glosslist>
1301	<glossentry>
1302	<glossterm>gui</glossterm>
1303
1304	<glossdef>
1305	<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1306	</glossdef>
1307	</glossentry>
1308
1309	<glossentry>
1310	<glossterm>headless</glossterm>
1311
1312	<glossdef>
1313	<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1314	</glossdef>
1315	</glossentry>
1316	</glosslist>
1317	</sect1>
1318
1319	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1320	<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1321
1322	<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1323	to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1324	following can be specified:</para>
1325
1326	<para><itemizedlist>
1327	<listitem>
1328	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1329	pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1330	without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1331	in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1332	equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1333	the GUI.)</para>
1334	</listitem>
1335
1336	<listitem>
1337	<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1338	resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1339	<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1340	to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1341	GUI.)</para>
1342	</listitem>
1343
1344	<listitem>
1345	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1346	reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1347	pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1348	virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1349	system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1350	beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1351	the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1352	</listitem>
1353
1354	<listitem>
1355	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1356	poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1357	as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1358	the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1359	equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1360	the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1361	"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1362
1363	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1364	it can be started again; see <xref
1365	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1366	</listitem>
1367
1368	<listitem>
1369	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1370	savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1371	disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1372	"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1373	window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1374	in the dialog.)</para>
1375
1376	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1377	be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1378	</listitem>
1379
1380	<listitem>
1381	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm> teleport
1382	--hostname <name> --port <port> [--password
1383	<password>]</computeroutput> makes the machine the source of a
1384	teleporting operation and initiates a teleport to the given target.
1385	See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an introduction. If the
1386	optional password is specified, it must match the password that was
1387	given to the <computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for
1388	the target machine; see <xref
1389	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for details.</para>
1390	</listitem>
1391	</itemizedlist></para>
1392
1393	<para>A few extra options are available with
1394	<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1395	VM's running state:</para>
1396
1397	<itemizedlist>
1398	<listitem>
1399	<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate<1-N></computeroutput>
1400	operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1401	network interfaces.</para>
1402	</listitem>
1403
1404	<listitem>
1405	<para><computeroutput>nic<1-N>
1406	null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1407	set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1408	networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1409	(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1410	translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1411	(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1412	virtual machines using internal networking
1413	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1414	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1415	sub-modes
1416	(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1417	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1418	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1419	</listitem>
1420
1421	<listitem>
1422	<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1423	<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1424	visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1425	creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1426	(unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1427
1428	<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1429	usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1430	</listitem>
1431
1432	<listitem>
1433	<para><computeroutput>vrde on\|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1434	disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1435	</listitem>
1436
1437	<listitem>
1438	<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default\|<ports></computeroutput>
1439	changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1440	"default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1441	details, see the description for the
1442	<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1443	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1444	</listitem>
1445
1446	<listitem>
1447	<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1448	the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1449	the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1450	systems.</para>
1451	</listitem>
1452
1453	<listitem>
1454	<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1455	of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1456	</listitem>
1457
1458	<listitem>
1459	<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1460	used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1461	<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1462	</listitem>
1463
1464	<listitem>
1465	<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1466	operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1467	memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1468	operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1469	virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1470	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1471	</listitem>
1472
1473	<listitem>
1474	<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1475	<1-100></computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1476	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1477	can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1478	</listitem>
1479	</itemizedlist>
1480	</sect1>
1481
1482	<sect1>
1483	<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1484
1485	<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1486	not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1487	next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1488	cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1489	</sect1>
1490
1491	<sect1>
1492	<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1493
1494	<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1495	that is seperate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1496	"adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1497	start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1498	you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1499	</sect1>
1500
1501	<sect1>
1502	<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1503
1504	<para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1505	snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1506	copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1507	machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1508	running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1509	hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1510	when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1511	hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1512	differencing files.</para>
1513
1514	<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1515	of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1516	the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1517	inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1518	then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1519
1520	<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1521	snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1522	since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1523	be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1524
1525	<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1526	the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1527	machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1528	current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1529	becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1530	inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1531
1532	<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1533	shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1534	current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1535	"restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1536	that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1537
1538	<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1539	change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1540
1541	<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1542	can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1543	snapshot.</para>
1544	</sect1>
1545
1546	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1547	<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1548
1549	<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1550	VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1551	<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1552	openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1553	that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1554	registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1555	added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1556	been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1557	a registry.</para>
1558	</footnote></para>
1559
1560	<para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1561	appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1562	become unregistered in any case.</para>
1563	</sect1>
1564
1565	<sect1>
1566	<title id="vboxmanage-storageattach">VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1567
1568	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1569	a storage controller that was previously added with the
1570	<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1571	section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1572
1573	<screen>VBoxManage storageattach <uuid\|vmname>
1574	--storagectl <name>
1575	[--port <number>]
1576	[--device <number>]
1577	[--type dvddrive\|hdd\|fdd]
1578	[--medium none\|emptydrive\|
1579	<uuid>\|<filename>\|host:<drive>\|iscsi]
1580	[--mtype normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable]
1581	[--comment <text>]
1582	[--setuuid <uuid>]
1583	[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
1584	[--passthrough on\|off]
1585	[--tempeject on\|off]
1586	[--bandwidthgroup name\|none]
1587	[--forceunmount]
1588	[--server <name>\|<ip>]
1589	[--target <target>]
1590	[--tport <port>]
1591	[--lun <lun>]
1592	[--encodedlun <lun>]
1593	[--username <username>]
1594	[--password <password>]
1595	[--intnet]
1596	</screen>
1597
1598	<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1599	the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1600
1601	<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1602	<glossentry>
1603	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1604
1605	<glossdef>
1606	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1607	</glossdef>
1608	</glossentry>
1609
1610	<glossentry>
1611	<glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>
1612
1613	<glossdef>
1614	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1615	storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1616	with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1617	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1618	</glossdef>
1619	</glossentry>
1620
1621	<glossentry>
1622	<glossterm>port</glossterm>
1623
1624	<glossdef>
1625	<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1626	modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1627	single port.</para>
1628	</glossdef>
1629	</glossentry>
1630
1631	<glossentry>
1632	<glossterm>device</glossterm>
1633
1634	<glossdef>
1635	<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1636	Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1637	per port.</para>
1638	</glossdef>
1639	</glossentry>
1640
1641	<glossentry>
1642	<glossterm>type</glossterm>
1643
1644	<glossdef>
1645	<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1646	attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1647	the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1648	with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1649	from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1650	</glossdef>
1651	</glossentry>
1652
1653	<glossentry>
1654	<glossterm>medium</glossterm>
1655
1656	<glossdef>
1657	<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1658	supported:<itemizedlist>
1659	<listitem>
1660	<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1661	given slot.</para>
1662	</listitem>
1663
1664	<listitem>
1665	<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1666	this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1667	into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1668	</listitem>
1669
1670	<listitem>
1671	<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1672	storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1673	because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1674	See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1675	media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1676	slot.</para>
1677	</listitem>
1678
1679	<listitem>
1680	<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1681	of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1682	which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1683	</listitem>
1684
1685	<listitem>
1686	<para>"host:<drive>": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1687	drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1688	specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1689	</listitem>
1690
1691	<listitem>
1692	<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1693	specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1694	must be given; see below.</para>
1695	</listitem>
1696	</itemizedlist></para>
1697
1698	<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1699	media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1700	running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1701	slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1702	</glossdef>
1703	</glossentry>
1704
1705	<glossentry>
1706	<glossterm>mtype</glossterm>
1707
1708	<glossdef>
1709	<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1710	and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1711	details.</para>
1712	</glossdef>
1713	</glossentry>
1714
1715	<glossentry>
1716	<glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1717
1718	<glossdef>
1719	<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1720	medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1721	server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1722	the medium to function correctly.</para>
1723	</glossdef>
1724	</glossentry>
1725
1726	<glossentry>
1727	<glossterm>setuuid, setparentuuid</glossterm>
1728
1729	<glossdef>
1730	<para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1731	attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1732	can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1733	if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1734	frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1735	a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1736	duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1737	utilities.</para>
1738	</glossdef>
1739	</glossentry>
1740
1741	<glossentry>
1742	<glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>
1743
1744	<glossdef>
1745	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1746	support (currently experimental; see <xref
1747	linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1748	</glossdef>
1749	</glossentry>
1750
1751	<glossentry>
1752	<glossterm>tempeject</glossterm>
1753
1754	<glossdef>
1755	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1756	for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1757	has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1758	the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1759	</glossdef>
1760	</glossentry>
1761
1762	<glossentry>
1763	<glossterm>bandwidthgroup</glossterm>
1764
1765	<glossdef>
1766	<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1767	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1768	</glossdef>
1769	</glossentry>
1770
1771	<glossentry>
1772	<glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>
1773
1774	<glossdef>
1775	<para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1776	unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1777	the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1778	see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1779	</glossdef>
1780	</glossentry>
1781	</glosslist></para>
1782
1783	<para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1784	<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1785	see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1786	be used:<glosslist>
1787	<glossentry>
1788	<glossterm>server</glossterm>
1789
1790	<glossdef>
1791	<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1792	required.</para>
1793	</glossdef>
1794	</glossentry>
1795
1796	<glossentry>
1797	<glossterm>target</glossterm>
1798
1799	<glossdef>
1800	<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1801	and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1802	</glossdef>
1803	</glossentry>
1804
1805	<glossentry>
1806	<glossterm>tport</glossterm>
1807
1808	<glossdef>
1809	<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1810	(optional).</para>
1811	</glossdef>
1812	</glossentry>
1813
1814	<glossentry>
1815	<glossterm>lun</glossterm>
1816
1817	<glossdef>
1818	<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1819	Often, this value is zero.</para>
1820	</glossdef>
1821	</glossentry>
1822
1823	<glossentry>
1824	<glossterm>username, password</glossterm>
1825
1826	<glossdef>
1827	<para>Username and password for target authentication, if required
1828	(optional).<note>
1829	<para>Currently, username and password are stored without
1830	encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1831	configuration file.</para>
1832	</note></para>
1833	</glossdef>
1834	</glossentry>
1835
1836	<glossentry>
1837	<glossterm>intnet</glossterm>
1838
1839	<glossdef>
1840	<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1841	Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1842	<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1843	</glossdef>
1844	</glossentry>
1845	</glosslist></para>
1846	</sect1>
1847
1848	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1849	<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1850
1851	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1852	this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1853	<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1854	section).</para>
1855
1856	<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1857
1858	<screen>VBoxManage storagectl <uuid\|vmname>
1859	--name <name>
1860	[--add <ide/sata/scsi/floppy>]
1861	[--controller <LsiLogic\|LSILogicSAS\|BusLogic\|
1862	IntelAhci\|PIIX3\|PIIX4\|ICH6\|I82078>]
1863	[--sataideemulation<1-4> <1-30>]
1864	[--sataportcount <1-30>]
1865	[--hostiocache on\|off]
1866	[--bootable on\|off]
1867	[--remove]</screen>
1868
1869	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1870	<glossentry>
1871	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1872
1873	<glossdef>
1874	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1875	</glossdef>
1876	</glossentry>
1877
1878	<glossentry>
1879	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
1880
1881	<glossdef>
1882	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1883	</glossdef>
1884	</glossentry>
1885
1886	<glossentry>
1887	<glossterm>add</glossterm>
1888
1889	<glossdef>
1890	<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
1891	controller must be connected.</para>
1892	</glossdef>
1893	</glossentry>
1894
1895	<glossentry>
1896	<glossterm>controller</glossterm>
1897
1898	<glossdef>
1899	<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
1900	given storage controller.</para>
1901	</glossdef>
1902	</glossentry>
1903
1904	<glossentry>
1905	<glossterm>sataideemulation</glossterm>
1906
1907	<glossdef>
1908	<para>This specifies which SATA ports should operate in IDE
1909	emulation mode. As explained in <xref
1910	linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />, by default, this is the case for
1911	SATA ports 1-4; with this command, you can map four IDE channels
1912	to any of the 30 supported SATA ports.</para>
1913	</glossdef>
1914	</glossentry>
1915
1916	<glossentry>
1917	<glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>
1918
1919	<glossdef>
1920	<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
1921	support.</para>
1922	</glossdef>
1923	</glossentry>
1924
1925	<glossentry>
1926	<glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>
1927
1928	<glossdef>
1929	<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
1930	attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
1931	linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
1932	</glossdef>
1933	</glossentry>
1934
1935	<glossentry>
1936	<glossterm>bootable</glossterm>
1937
1938	<glossdef>
1939	<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
1940	</glossdef>
1941	</glossentry>
1942
1943	<glossentry>
1944	<glossterm>remove</glossterm>
1945
1946	<glossdef>
1947	<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
1948	</glossdef>
1949	</glossentry>
1950	</glosslist></para>
1951	</sect1>
1952
1953	<sect1>
1954	<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
1955
1956	<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies bandwidth groups of the given
1957	virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid\|vmname>
1958	--name <name>
1959	[--add disk
1960	[--delete]
1961	[--limit MB/s]</screen></para>
1962
1963	<para>See <xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> for an introduction
1964	to bandwidth limits. The parameters mean:<glosslist>
1965	<glossentry>
1966	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1967
1968	<glossdef>
1969	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1970	</glossdef>
1971	</glossentry>
1972
1973	<glossentry>
1974	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
1975
1976	<glossdef>
1977	<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
1978	</glossdef>
1979	</glossentry>
1980
1981	<glossentry>
1982	<glossterm>add</glossterm>
1983
1984	<glossdef>
1985	<para>Creates a new bandwdith group with the given type.</para>
1986	</glossdef>
1987	</glossentry>
1988
1989	<glossentry>
1990	<glossterm>delete</glossterm>
1991
1992	<glossdef>
1993	<para>Deletes a bandwdith group if it isn't used anymore.</para>
1994	</glossdef>
1995	</glossentry>
1996
1997	<glossentry>
1998	<glossterm>limit</glossterm>
1999
2000	<glossdef>
2001	<para>Sets the limit for the given group to the specified amount.
2002	Can be changed while the VM is running.</para>
2003	</glossdef>
2004	</glossentry>
2005	</glosslist></para>
2006	</sect1>
2007
2008	<sect1>
2009	<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2010
2011	<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2012	notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2013	which use it.<note>
2014	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2015	"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2016	"showhdinfo" command.</para>
2017	</note></para>
2018	<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2019	is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2020	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2021	for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2022	as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2023	directory.</para>
2024	</sect1>
2025
2026	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2027	<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2028
2029	<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2030	follows:</para>
2031
2032	<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
2033	--size <megabytes>
2034	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD] (default: VDI)
2035	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2036
2037	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2038	<glossentry>
2039	<glossterm>filename</glossterm>
2040
2041	<glossdef>
2042	<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2043	</glossdef>
2044	</glossentry>
2045
2046	<glossentry>
2047	<glossterm>size</glossterm>
2048
2049	<glossdef>
2050	<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2051	Mandatory.</para>
2052	</glossdef>
2053	</glossentry>
2054
2055	<glossentry>
2056	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2057
2058	<glossdef>
2059	<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2060	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2061	</glossdef>
2062	</glossentry>
2063
2064	<glossentry>
2065	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2066
2067	<glossdef>
2068	<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2069	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2070	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2071	result in an error message.</para>
2072	</glossdef>
2073	</glossentry>
2074	</glosslist> <note>
2075	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2076	"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2077	"createhd" command.</para>
2078	</note></para>
2079	</sect1>
2080
2081	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2082	<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2083
2084	<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2085	change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2086	created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd <uuid>\|<filename>
2087	[--type normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable\|
2088	readonly\|multiattach]
2089	[--autoreset on\|off]
2090	[--compact]
2091	[--resize <megabytes>\|--resizebyte <bytes>]</screen><note>
2092	<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2093	all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2094	versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2095	mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2096	</note></para>
2097
2098	<para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2099	(if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2100	can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2101	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2102	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2103	or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2104	<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2105	<listitem>
2106	<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2107	can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2108	immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2109	linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2110	</listitem>
2111
2112	<listitem>
2113	<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2114	<computeroutput>--autoreset on\|off</computeroutput> option
2115	determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2116	startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2117	is "on".</para>
2118	</listitem>
2119
2120	<listitem>
2121	<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2122	can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2123	contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2124	again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2125	image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2126	Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2127	part of a snapshot.</para>
2128
2129	<para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2130	space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2131	software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2132	<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2133	Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -c</computeroutput> in the guest to
2134	zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2135	image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2136	supports ext2/ext3 filesystems.</para>
2137
2138	<para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2139	VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2140	blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2141	format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2142	supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2143	</listitem>
2144
2145	<listitem>
2146	<para>The <computeroutput>--resize</computeroutput> option allows you
2147	to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2148	<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2149	the physical size much.<footnote>
2150	<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2151	</footnote> This currently works only for expanding the capacity of
2152	VDI and VHD formats, and only for the dynamically allocated variants.
2153	For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2154	you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2155	command to add 5 GByte more space to the virtual disk without
2156	having to create a new image and copy all data from within a virtual
2157	machine.</para>
2158	</listitem>
2159	</itemizedlist></para>
2160	</sect1>
2161
2162	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2163	<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2164
2165	<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2166	new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2167	transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2168	the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2169	linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2170
2171	<screen>VBoxManage clonehd <uuid>\|<filename> <outputfile>
2172	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD\|RAW\|<other>]
2173	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2174	[--existing]</screen>
2175
2176	<para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2177	either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2178	Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2179	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2180	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2181	as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2182	<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2183	<glossentry>
2184	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2185
2186	<glossdef>
2187	<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2188	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2189	</glossdef>
2190	</glossentry>
2191
2192	<glossentry>
2193	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2194
2195	<glossdef>
2196	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2197	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2198	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2199	result in an error message.</para>
2200	</glossdef>
2201	</glossentry>
2202
2203	<glossentry>
2204	<glossterm>existing</glossterm>
2205
2206	<glossdef>
2207	<para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2208	destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2209	fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2210	destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2211	copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2212	the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2213	</glossdef>
2214	</glossentry>
2215	</glosslist> <note>
2216	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2217	"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2218	"clonehd" command.</para>
2219	</note></para>
2220	</sect1>
2221
2222	<sect1>
2223	<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2224
2225	<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2226	(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2227
2228	<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
2229	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2230	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2231	[--uuid <uuid>]
2232	VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
2233	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2234	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2235	[--uuid <uuid>]</screen>
2236
2237	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2238	<glossentry>
2239	<glossterm>bytes</glossterm>
2240
2241	<glossdef>
2242	<para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2243	stdin.</para>
2244	</glossdef>
2245	</glossentry>
2246
2247	<glossentry>
2248	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2249
2250	<glossdef>
2251	<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2252	VDI.</para>
2253	</glossdef>
2254	</glossentry>
2255
2256	<glossentry>
2257	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2258
2259	<glossdef>
2260	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2261	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2262	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2263	result in an error message.</para>
2264	</glossdef>
2265	</glossentry>
2266
2267	<glossentry>
2268	<glossterm>uuid</glossterm>
2269
2270	<glossdef>
2271	<para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2272	</glossdef>
2273	</glossentry>
2274	</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2275	the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2276	pipe).</para>
2277
2278	<para><note>
2279	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2280	"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2281	"convertfromraw" command.</para>
2282	</note></para>
2283	</sect1>
2284
2285	<sect1>
2286	<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2287
2288	<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2289	machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2290	<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2291	name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2292	with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2293
2294	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2295	VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2296
2297	<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2298	the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2299	could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2300
2301	<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2302
2303	<para>which would return</para>
2304
2305	<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2306	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2307	All rights reserved.
2308
2309	Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2310	<para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2311	command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2312	</para>
2313
2314	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2315
2316	</sect1>
2317
2318	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2319	<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2320
2321	<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2322	entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2323	in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2324	following properties are available:<glosslist>
2325	<glossentry>
2326	<glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>
2327
2328	<glossdef>
2329	<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2330	definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2331	details.</para>
2332	</glossdef>
2333	</glossentry>
2334
2335	<glossentry>
2336	<glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>
2337
2338	<glossdef>
2339	<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2340	authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2341	see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2342	</glossdef>
2343	</glossentry>
2344
2345	<glossentry>
2346	<glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>
2347
2348	<glossdef>
2349	<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2350	authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2351	please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2352	linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2353	</glossdef>
2354	</glossentry>
2355
2356	<glossentry>
2357	<glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>
2358
2359	<glossdef>
2360	<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2361	Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2362	</glossdef>
2363	</glossentry>
2364
2365	<glossentry>
2366	<glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>
2367
2368	<glossdef>
2369	<para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support
2370	is enabled by default.</para>
2371	</glossdef>
2372	</glossentry>
2373	</glosslist></para>
2374	</sect1>
2375
2376	<sect1>
2377	<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2378
2379	<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2380	working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2381	affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2382	machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2383	captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2384	particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2385	applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2386	available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2387	ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2388	machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2389	will.</para>
2390
2391	<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2392	add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2393	The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2394	placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2395	following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2396	will be added onto the end of the list. The
2397	<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2398	machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2399	to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2400	for the new filter and for global filters,
2401	<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2402	access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2403	them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2404	filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2405	using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2406	you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2407	filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2408	connection) or either.</para>
2409
2410	<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2411	modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2412	output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2413	find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2414	showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2415	by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2416	which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2417	add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2418	remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2419	</sect1>
2420
2421	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2422	<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2423
2424	<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2425	guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2426	of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2427	functionality.</para>
2428
2429	<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2430	linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2431	</sect1>
2432
2433	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2434	<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2435
2436	<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2437	running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2438	for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2439	key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2440	guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2441	channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2442	Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2443	"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2444	Additions.</para>
2445
2446	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2447	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2448	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2449	<listitem>
2450	<para><computeroutput>enumerate <vm> [--patterns
2451	<pattern>]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2452	properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2453	This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2454	be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2455	Additions are not installed.</para>
2456
2457	<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns <pattern></computeroutput>
2458	is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2459	the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2460	characters:<itemizedlist>
2461	<listitem>
2462	<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2463	represents any number of characters; for example,
2464	"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2465	all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2466	</listitem>
2467
2468	<listitem>
2469	<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2470	represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2471	"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2472	and "for".</para>
2473	</listitem>
2474
2475	<listitem>
2476	<para><computeroutput>\|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2477	used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2478	"<computeroutput>s\|t</computeroutput>" would match anything
2479	starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2480	</listitem>
2481	</itemizedlist></para>
2482	</listitem>
2483
2484	<listitem>
2485	<para><computeroutput>get <vm></computeroutput>: This
2486	retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2487	cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2488	print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2489	</listitem>
2490
2491	<listitem>
2492	<para><computeroutput>set <vm> <property> [<value>
2493	[--flags <flags>]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2494	guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2495	<computeroutput><value></computeroutput> is omitted, the
2496	property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2497	you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2498	several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2499	<listitem>
2500	<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2501	will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2502	</listitem>
2503
2504	<listitem>
2505	<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2506	will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2507	</listitem>
2508
2509	<listitem>
2510	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2511	can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2512	it;</para>
2513	</listitem>
2514
2515	<listitem>
2516	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2517	the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2518	only read it;</para>
2519	</listitem>
2520
2521	<listitem>
2522	<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2523	of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2524	</listitem>
2525	</itemizedlist></para>
2526	</listitem>
2527
2528	<listitem>
2529	<para><computeroutput>wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
2530	<timeout></computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2531	described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2532	pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2533	above.</para>
2534	</listitem>
2535	</itemizedlist></para>
2536	</sect1>
2537
2538	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2539	<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2540
2541	<para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2542	inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2543	linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2544
2545	<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2546
2547	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <command></screen>
2548
2549	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2550	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2551	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2552	<listitem>
2553	<para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which allows for
2554	executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2555	runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2556	running and has the following syntax:</para>
2557
2558	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> exec[ute]
2559	--image <path to program>
2560	--username <name> [--password <password>]
2561	[--dos2unix]
2562	[--environment "<NAME>=<VALUE> [<NAME>=<VALUE>]"]
2563	[--timeout <msec>] [--unix2dos] [--verbose]
2564	[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2565	-- [[<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
2566
2567	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2568	<glossentry>
2569	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2570
2571	<glossdef>
2572	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2573	</glossdef>
2574	</glossentry>
2575
2576	<glossentry>
2577	<glossterm>--image "<path to program>"</glossterm>
2578
2579	<glossdef>
2580	<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2581	in the guest, e.g.
2582	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2583	</glossdef>
2584	</glossentry>
2585
2586	<glossentry>
2587	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2588
2589	<glossdef>
2590	<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2591	user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2592	</glossdef>
2593	</glossentry>
2594
2595	<glossentry>
2596	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2597
2598	<glossdef>
2599	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2600	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2601	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2602	</glossdef>
2603	</glossentry>
2604
2605	<glossentry>
2606	<glossterm>--dos2unix</glossterm>
2607
2608	<glossdef>
2609	Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2610	line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2611	</glossdef>
2612	</glossentry>
2613
2614	<glossentry>
2615	<glossterm>--environment
2616	"<NAME>=<VALUE>"</glossterm>
2617
2618	<glossdef>
2619	<para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2620	unset.</para>
2621
2622	<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2623	created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2624	option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2625	a variable, a pair of
2626	<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2627	specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2628	value must set, e.g.
2629	<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2630
2631	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2632	quotation marks. More than one
2633	<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2634	be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2635	</glossdef>
2636	</glossentry>
2637
2638	<glossentry>
2639	<glossterm>--timeout <msec></glossterm>
2640
2641	<glossdef>
2642	<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2643	long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2644	VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2645	timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2646	started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2647	</glossdef>
2648	</glossentry>
2649
2650	<glossentry>
2651	<glossterm>--unix2dos</glossterm>
2652
2653	<glossdef>
2654	Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2655	line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2656	</glossdef>
2657	</glossentry>
2658
2659	<glossentry>
2660	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2661
2662	<glossdef>
2663	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2664	</glossdef>
2665	</glossentry>
2666
2667	<glossentry>
2668	<glossterm>--wait-exit</glossterm>
2669
2670	<glossdef>
2671	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2672	exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2673	</glossdef>
2674	</glossentry>
2675
2676	<glossentry>
2677	<glossterm>--wait-stdout</glossterm>
2678
2679	<glossdef>
2680	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2681	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2682	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2683	</glossdef>
2684	</glossentry>
2685
2686	<glossentry>
2687	<glossterm>--wait-stderr</glossterm>
2688
2689	<glossdef>
2690	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2691	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2692	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2693	</glossdef>
2694	</glossentry>
2695
2696	<glossentry>
2697	<glossterm>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</glossterm>
2698
2699	<glossdef>
2700	<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2701	executed.</para>
2702	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2703	quotation marks.</para>
2704	</glossdef>
2705	</glossentry>
2706
2707	</glosslist></para>
2708
2709	<para><note>
2710	<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2711	applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2712	information.</para>
2713	</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2714	--username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usr</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
2715	--username foo --password bar --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2716	the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2717	Unix hosts.</para>
2718
2719	<para><note>
2720	<para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2721	must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2722	user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2723	policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2724	will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2725	in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2726	apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2727	</note></para>
2728
2729	<para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2730	to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2731	which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2732	in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2733	old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2734	are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2735	appropriate error message.</para>
2736
2737	<para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2738	property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2739	or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2740	needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2741	guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2742	</listitem>
2743
2744	<listitem>
2745	<para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2746	files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2747	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2748
2749	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> copyto\|cp
2750	<source on host> <destination on guest>
2751	--username <name> [--password <password>]
2752	[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2753
2754	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2755	<glossentry>
2756	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2757
2758	<glossdef>
2759	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2760	</glossdef>
2761	</glossentry>
2762
2763	<glossentry>
2764	<glossterm>source on host</glossterm>
2765
2766	<glossdef>
2767	<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2768	to the guest, e.g.
2769	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2770	This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2771	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2772	</glossdef>
2773	</glossentry>
2774
2775	<glossentry>
2776	<glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>
2777
2778	<glossdef>
2779	<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2780	<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2781	</glossdef>
2782	</glossentry>
2783
2784	<glossentry>
2785	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2786
2787	<glossdef>
2788	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2789	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2790	</glossdef>
2791	</glossentry>
2792
2793	<glossentry>
2794	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2795
2796	<glossdef>
2797	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2798	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2799	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2800	</glossdef>
2801	</glossentry>
2802
2803	<glossentry>
2804	<glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>
2805
2806	<glossdef>
2807	<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
2808	really copying files to the guest.</para>
2809	</glossdef>
2810	</glossentry>
2811
2812	<glossentry>
2813	<glossterm>--follow</glossterm>
2814
2815	<glossdef>
2816	<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
2817	source.</para>
2818	</glossdef>
2819	</glossentry>
2820
2821	<glossentry>
2822	<glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>
2823
2824	<glossdef>
2825	<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
2826	source.</para>
2827	</glossdef>
2828	</glossentry>
2829
2830	<glossentry>
2831	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2832
2833	<glossdef>
2834	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2835	</glossdef>
2836	</glossentry>
2837
2838	<glossentry>
2839	<glossterm>--flags <flags></glossterm>
2840
2841	<glossdef>
2842	<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2843	moment.</para>
2844	</glossdef>
2845	</glossentry>
2846	</glosslist></para>
2847	</listitem>
2848
2849	<listitem>
2850	<para><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput>, which allows
2851	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2852	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2853
2854	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> createdir[ectory]\|mkdir\|md
2855	<directory to create on guest>
2856	[--username "<name>"] [--password "<password>"]
2857	[--parents] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
2858
2859	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2860	<glossentry>
2861	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2862
2863	<glossdef>
2864	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2865	</glossdef>
2866	</glossentry>
2867
2868	<glossentry>
2869	<glossterm>directory to create on guest</glossterm>
2870
2871	<glossdef>
2872	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
2873	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
2874	Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
2875	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
2876	<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
2877	specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
2878	specified directory.</para>
2879	</glossdef>
2880	</glossentry>
2881
2882	<glossentry>
2883	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2884
2885	<glossdef>
2886	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2887	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2888	</glossdef>
2889	</glossentry>
2890
2891	<glossentry>
2892	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2893
2894	<glossdef>
2895	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2896	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2897	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2898	</glossdef>
2899	</glossentry>
2900
2901	<glossentry>
2902	<glossterm>--parents</glossterm>
2903
2904	<glossdef>
2905	<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
2906	the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
2907	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
2908	<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
2909	yet it will be created. Without specifying
2910	<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
2911	have failed.</para>
2912	</glossdef>
2913	</glossentry>
2914
2915	<glossentry>
2916	<glossterm>--mode <mode></glossterm>
2917
2918	<glossdef>
2919	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
2920	Only octal modes (e.g.
2921	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
2922	now.</para>
2923	</glossdef>
2924	</glossentry>
2925
2926	<glossentry>
2927	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2928
2929	<glossdef>
2930	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2931	</glossdef>
2932	</glossentry>
2933	</glosslist></para>
2934	</listitem>
2935
2936	<listitem>
2937	<para><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput>, which displays file
2938	or file system status on the guest.</para>
2939
2940	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> stat
2941	<file element(s) to check on guest>
2942	[--username "<name>"] [--password "<password>"]
2943	[--verbose]</screen>
2944
2945	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2946	<glossentry>
2947	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2948
2949	<glossdef>
2950	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2951	</glossdef>
2952	</glossentry>
2953
2954	<glossentry>
2955	<glossterm>file element(s) to check on guest</glossterm>
2956
2957	<glossdef>
2958	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
2959	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
2960	The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
2961	the given file element(s).</para>
2962	</glossdef>
2963	</glossentry>
2964
2965	<glossentry>
2966	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2967
2968	<glossdef>
2969	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2970	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2971	</glossdef>
2972	</glossentry>
2973
2974	<glossentry>
2975	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2976
2977	<glossdef>
2978	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2979	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2980	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2981	</glossdef>
2982	</glossentry>
2983
2984	<glossentry>
2985	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2986
2987	<glossdef>
2988	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2989	</glossdef>
2990	</glossentry>
2991	</glosslist></para>
2992	</listitem>
2993
2994	<listitem>
2995	<para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which allows
2996	for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
2997	guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2998
2999	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> updateadditions
3000	[--source "<guest additions .ISO file to use>"] [--verbose]</screen>
3001
3002	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3003	<glossentry>
3004	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
3005
3006	<glossdef>
3007	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3008	</glossdef>
3009	</glossentry>
3010
3011	<glossentry>
3012	<glossterm>--source "<guest additions .ISO file to
3013	use>"</glossterm>
3014
3015	<glossdef>
3016	<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3017	.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3018	</glossdef>
3019	</glossentry>
3020
3021	<glossentry>
3022	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3023
3024	<glossdef>
3025	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3026	</glossdef>
3027	</glossentry>
3028	</glosslist></para>
3029	</listitem>
3030	</itemizedlist></para>
3031	</sect1>
3032
3033	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3034	<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3035
3036	<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3037	exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3038	in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3039	very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3040	software.</para>
3041
3042	<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3043	machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3044	<listitem>
3045	<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3046	<name></computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3047	running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3048	will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3049	<xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3050
3051	<para>This corresponds to the
3052	<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3053	</para>
3054	</listitem>
3055
3056	<listitem>
3057	<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3058	display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3059	associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3060	name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3061	arguments specific to the info item.
3062	The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3063	listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3064	arguments.</para>
3065
3066	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3067	command in the debugger.</para>
3068	</listitem>
3069
3070	<listitem>
3071	<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3072	a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3073	for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3074	on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3075	operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3076	doing.</para>
3077	</listitem>
3078
3079	<listitem>
3080	<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3081	VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3082	system.</para>
3083
3084	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3085	command in the debugger.</para>
3086	</listitem>
3087
3088	<listitem>
3089	<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3090	display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3091	debugger facility.</para>
3092	</listitem>
3093
3094	<listitem>
3095	<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3096	used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3097	of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3098	<itemizedlist>
3099	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3100	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3101	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3102	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3103	<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3104	</itemizedlist>
3105	The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3106	registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3107	case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3108	can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3109	<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3110	</para>
3111	</listitem>
3112
3113	<listitem>
3114	<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3115	used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3116	of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3117	<itemizedlist>
3118	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3119	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3120	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3121	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3122	</itemizedlist>
3123	The value format should be in the same style as what
3124	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3125	exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3126	hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3127	are handled the same way as with the
3128	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3129	</listitem>
3130
3131	<listitem>
3132	<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3133	used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3134	<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3135	statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3136	<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3137	DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3138	<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3139	</listitem>
3140	</itemizedlist></para>
3141	</sect1>
3142
3143	<sect1>
3144	<title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>
3145
3146	<para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3147	Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3148	system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3149	<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3150	percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3151	sampling period.</para>
3152
3153	<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3154	retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3155	query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3156	background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3157	process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3158	closed.</para>
3159
3160	<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3161	not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
3162	is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
3163	retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
3164	collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
3165	keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
3166	used:</para>
3167
3168	<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
3169
3170	<para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
3171	data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
3172	it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
3173	</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
3174	You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
3175	subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
3176	affected.</para>
3177
3178	<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3179	setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
3180	previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
3181
3182	<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
3183	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
3184	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
3185	can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
3186	like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
3187	other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
3188	<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
3189
3190	<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
3191	Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3192	list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
3193
3194	<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
3195	has the following form:
3196	<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
3197	For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
3198	for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
3199	applied to the host object.</para>
3200
3201	<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
3202	to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
3203	in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
3204	all objects. You may use an asterisk
3205	("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
3206	command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
3207	object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
3208	limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
3209	separated by commas.</para>
3210
3211	<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
3212	kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
3213	following command:</para>
3214
3215	<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
3216
3217	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
3218
3219	<glosslist>
3220	<glossentry>
3221	<glossterm>list</glossterm>
3222
3223	<glossdef>
3224	<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
3225	metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
3226	particular VM is running.</para>
3227	</glossdef>
3228	</glossentry>
3229
3230	<glossentry>
3231	<glossterm>setup</glossterm>
3232
3233	<glossdef>
3234	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3235	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3236	retained data is available for displaying with the
3237	<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
3238	</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
3239	the result of the command execution.</para>
3240	</glossdef>
3241	</glossentry>
3242
3243	<glossentry>
3244	<glossterm>enable</glossterm>
3245
3246	<glossdef>
3247	<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
3248	stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
3249	submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
3250	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3251	did what was expected.</para>
3252	</glossdef>
3253	</glossentry>
3254
3255	<glossentry>
3256	<glossterm>disable</glossterm>
3257
3258	<glossdef>
3259	<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
3260	collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
3261	submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
3262	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3263	did what was expected.</para>
3264	</glossdef>
3265	</glossentry>
3266
3267	<glossentry>
3268	<glossterm>query</glossterm>
3269
3270	<glossdef>
3271	<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
3272	metric data.<note>
3273	<para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
3274	"flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
3275	how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
3276	samples.</para>
3277	</note></para>
3278	</glossdef>
3279	</glossentry>
3280
3281	<glossentry>
3282	<glossterm>collect</glossterm>
3283
3284	<glossdef>
3285	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3286	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3287	collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
3288	unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
3289	specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
3290	option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
3291	does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
3292	metrics match the specified filter.</para>
3293	</glossdef>
3294	</glossentry>
3295	</glosslist>
3296	</sect1>
3297
3298	<sect1>
3299	<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
3300
3301	<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
3302	network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
3303	refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
3304	identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
3305	manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
3306	</sect1>
3307
3308	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
3309	<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
3310
3311	<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
3312	is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
3313	host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
3314	network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
3315	servers in your physical network.)</para>
3316
3317	<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
3318	<listitem>
3319	<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
3320	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3321	--netname <network_name></computeroutput>, where
3322	<computeroutput><network_name></computeroutput> is the same
3323	network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
3324	<vmname> --intnet<X>
3325	<network_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3326	</listitem>
3327
3328	<listitem>
3329	<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
3330	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3331	--ifname <hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> instead, where
3332	<computeroutput><hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> is the
3333	same host-only interface name you used with
3334	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
3335	--hostonlyadapter<X>
3336	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3337
3338	<para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
3339	internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
3340	see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
3341	hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
3342	above).</para>
3343	</listitem>
3344	</itemizedlist></para>
3345
3346	<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
3347	DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
3348	<listitem>
3349	<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
3350	address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
3351	</listitem>
3352
3353	<listitem>
3354	<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
3355	netmask of the network.</para>
3356	</listitem>
3357
3358	<listitem>
3359	<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
3360	<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
3361	lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
3362	will hand out to clients.</para>
3363	</listitem>
3364	</itemizedlist></para>
3365
3366	<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
3367	or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
3368	nothing.</para>
3369
3370	<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
3371	given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
3372	which uses that network is started.</para>
3373
3374	<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
3375	remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
3376	<network_name></computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
3377	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
3378	for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
3379
3380	<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
3381	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
3382	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
3383	network or host-only interface name.</para>
3384	</sect1>
3385
3386	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
3387	<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
3388
3389	<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
3390	extension packs, as described in <xref
3391	linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
3392	<listitem>
3393	<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
3394	extpack install <tarball></computeroutput>. This command
3395	will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
3396	installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
3397	parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
3398	package is installed.</para>
3399	</listitem>
3400
3401	<listitem>
3402	<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
3403	<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
3404	<name></computeroutput>. You can use
3405	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
3406	the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
3407	please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
3408	<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
3409	override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
3410	</listitem>
3411
3412	<listitem>
3413	<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
3414	cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
3415	files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
3416	install or uninstall command failed.</para>
3417	</listitem>
3418	</itemizedlist></para>
3419	</sect1>
3420	</chapter>

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