user_VBoxManage.xml@ 43261

Last change on this file since 43261 was 43058, checked in by vboxsync, 12 years ago
VBoxManage/UpdateAdditions: Implemented --wait-start to only wait for the actual Guest Additions updater being started.
File size: 154.5 KB

Line
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-general">
153	<title>General options</title>
154	<para>
155	<itemizedlist>
156	<listitem>
157	<para><computeroutput>--version</computeroutput>: show the version of
158	this tool and exit.</para>
159	</listitem>
160	<listitem>
161	<para><computeroutput>--nologo</computeroutput>: suppress the output
162	of the logo information (useful for scripts)</para>
163	</listitem>
164	<listitem>
165	<para><computeroutput>--settingspw</computeroutput>: specifiy a settings
166	password</para>
167	</listitem>
168	<listitem>
169	<para><computeroutput>--settingspwfile</computeroutput>: specify a file
170	containing the settings password.</para>
171	</listitem>
172	</itemizedlist>
173	The settings password is used for certain settings which need to be
174	stored encrypted for security reasons. At the moment, the only encrypted
175	setting is the iSCSI initiator secret (see
176	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details). As long as no
177	settings password is specified, this information is stored in
178	<emphasis role="bold">plain text</emphasis>. After using the
179	<computeroutput>--settingspw\|--settingspwfile</computeroutput> option
180	once, it must be always used, otherwise the encrypted setting cannot
181	be unencrypted.
182	</para>
183	</sect1>
184
185	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
186	<title>VBoxManage list</title>
187
188	<para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
189	information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
190	settings.</para>
191
192	<para>The following subcommands are available with
193	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
194	<listitem>
195	<para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
196	machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
197	displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
198	specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
199	<computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
200	with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
201	below).</para>
202	</listitem>
203
204	<listitem>
205	<para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
206	currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
207	(UUIDs) in the same format as with
208	<computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
209	</listitem>
210
211	<listitem>
212	<para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
213	operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
214	identifiers used to refer to them with the
215	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
216	</listitem>
217
218	<listitem>
219	<para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
220	<computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list
221	DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces
222	on the host, along with the name used to access them from within
223	VirtualBox.</para>
224	</listitem>
225
226	<listitem>
227	<para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,
228	<computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and
229	<computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list
230	bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP
231	servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref
232	linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>
233	</listitem>
234
235	<listitem>
236	<para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information
237	about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating
238	system version.</para>
239	</listitem>
240
241	<listitem>
242	<para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID
243	parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine
244	grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>
245	</listitem>
246
247	<listitem>
248	<para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
249	virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as
250	VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and
251	configuration.</para>
252	</listitem>
253
254	<listitem>
255	<para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
256	<computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
257	<computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
258	about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including
259	all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with
260	them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the
261	command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
262	linkend="vdis" />.</para>
263	</listitem>
264
265	<listitem>
266	<para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information
267	about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
268	for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
269	by the host.</para>
270	</listitem>
271
272	<listitem>
273	<para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
274	USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
275	devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
276	the filter parameters.</para>
277	</listitem>
278
279	<listitem>
280	<para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
281	some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
282	RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
283	authentication library in use.</para>
284	</listitem>
285
286	<listitem>
287	<para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all
288	VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref
289	linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref
290	linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>
291	</listitem>
292	</itemizedlist></para>
293	</sect1>
294
295	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
296	<title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
297
298	<para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
299	information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
300	information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
301	would show for all virtual machines.</para>
302
303	<para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
304
305	<para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
306	VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
307	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
308	All rights reserved.
309
310	Name: Windows XP
311	Guest OS: Other/Unknown
312	UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
313	Config file: /home/username/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
314	Memory size: 512MB
315	VRAM size: 12MB
316	Number of CPUs: 2
317	Synthetic Cpu: off
318	Boot menu mode: message and menu
319	Boot Device (1): DVD
320	Boot Device (2): HardDisk
321	Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
322	Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
323	ACPI: on
324	IOAPIC: on
325	PAE: on
326	Time offset: 0 ms
327	Hardw. virt.ext: on
328	Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
329	Nested Paging: on
330	VT-x VPID: off
331	State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
332	Monitor count: 1
333	3D Acceleration: off
334	2D Video Acceleration: off
335	Teleporter Enabled: off
336	Teleporter Port: 0
337	Teleporter Address:
338	Teleporter Password:
339	Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
340	Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
341	Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
342	Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
343	IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
344	IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
345	Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
346	NIC 1: disabled
347	NIC 2: disabled
348	NIC 3: disabled
349	NIC 4: disabled
350	NIC 5: disabled
351	NIC 6: disabled
352	NIC 7: disabled
353	NIC 8: disabled
354	UART 1: disabled
355	UART 2: disabled
356	Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
357	Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
358	VRDE: disabled
359	USB: disabled
360
361	USB Device Filters:
362	<none>
363
364	Shared folders:
365	<none>
366
367	Statistics update: disabled
368	</screen></para>
369	</sect1>
370
371	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">
372	<title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
373
374	<para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
375	to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
376	machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
377	may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
378	place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
379	it.<note>
380	<para>When creating a new virtual machine with
381	<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
382	can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
383	option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
384	</note></para>
385
386	<para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
387	unregisters a virtual machine. If
388	<computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
389	files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
390	<listitem>
391	<para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
392	are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
393	</listitem>
394
395	<listitem>
396	<para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
397	machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
398	snapshot);</para>
399	</listitem>
400
401	<listitem>
402	<para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
403	</listitem>
404
405	<listitem>
406	<para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
407	</listitem>
408
409	<listitem>
410	<para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
411	the above.</para>
412	</listitem>
413	</orderedlist></para>
414	</sect1>
415
416	<sect1>
417	<title id="vboxmanage-createvm">VBoxManage createvm</title>
418
419	<para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
420	file.</para>
421
422	<para>The <computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput> parameter
423	is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
424	used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
425	<computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
426	of the <computeroutput>.VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder), it
427	must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
428	specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
429	change automatically.</para>
430
431	<para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
432	<path></computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
433	named <computeroutput><path></computeroutput>. In this case, the
434	names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
435	renamed.</para>
436
437	<para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
438	automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
439	register the VM instantly, use the optional
440	<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
441	<computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
442	afterwards.</para>
443	</sect1>
444
445	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
446	<title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
447
448	<para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
449	which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
450	available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
451	interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
452	<xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
453	however, are only available through the
454	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
455
456	<para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
457	running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
458	while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
459	subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
460	subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
461
462	<sect2>
463	<title>General settings</title>
464
465	<para>The following general settings are available through
466	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
467	<listitem>
468	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: This
469	changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
470	machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
471	createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
472	</listitem>
473
474	<listitem>
475	<para><computeroutput>--ostype <ostype></computeroutput>:
476	This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
477	the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
478	here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
479	ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
480	</listitem>
481
482	<listitem>
483	<para><computeroutput>--memory
484	<memorysize></computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
485	in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
486	the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
487	more information.</para>
488	</listitem>
489
490	<listitem>
491	<para><computeroutput>--vram <vramsize></computeroutput>:
492	This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
493	have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
494	</listitem>
495
496	<listitem>
497	<para><computeroutput>--acpi on\|off</computeroutput>;
498	<computeroutput>--ioapic on\|off</computeroutput>: These two
499	determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
500	respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
501	details.</para>
502	</listitem>
503
504	<listitem>
505	<para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
506	<uuid></computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
507	memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
508	default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
509	Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
510	</listitem>
511
512	<listitem>
513	<para><computeroutput>--cpus <cpucount></computeroutput>:
514	This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
515	<xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
516	enabled (see below), this then sets the
517	<emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
518	plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
519	</listitem>
520
521	<listitem>
522	<para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on\|off</computeroutput>: This
523	option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
524	<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
525	</listitem>
526
527	<listitem>
528	<para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on\|off</computeroutput>: This
529	enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
530	to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
531	<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
532	</listitem>
533
534	<listitem>
535	<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu\|unplugcpu
536	<id></computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
537	above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
538	removes one). <computeroutput><id></computeroutput>
539	specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
540	must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
541	the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
542	never be removed.</para>
543	</listitem>
544
545	<listitem>
546	<para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
547	<1-100></computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
548	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
549	CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
550	</listitem>
551
552	<listitem>
553	<para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on\|off</computeroutput>: This
554	setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
555	to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
556	differ significantly.</para>
557	</listitem>
558
559	<listitem>
560	<para><computeroutput>--pae on\|off</computeroutput>: This
561	enables/disables PAE (see <xref
562	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
563	</listitem>
564
565	<listitem>
566	<para><computeroutput>--hpet on\|off</computeroutput>: This
567	enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
568	replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
569	Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
570	</listitem>
571
572	<listitem>
573	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on\|off</computeroutput>: This
574	enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
575	(Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
576	<xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
577	</listitem>
578
579	<listitem>
580	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtexexcl on\|off</computeroutput>: This
581	specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of the
582	hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the
583	processor of your host system; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If
584	you wish to simultaneously share these extensions with other
585	hypervisors, then you must disable this setting. Doing so has
586	negative performance implications.</para>
587	</listitem>
588
589	<listitem>
590	<para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on\|off</computeroutput>: If
591	hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
592	enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
593	processor of your host system; see <xref
594	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
595	</listitem>
596
597	<listitem>
598	<para><computeroutput>--largepages on\|off</computeroutput>: If
599	hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
600	enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
601	improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
602	This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
603	and overhead.</para>
604	</listitem>
605
606	<listitem>
607	<para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on\|off</computeroutput>: If
608	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
609	additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
610	(VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
611	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
612	</listitem>
613
614	<listitem>
615	<para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on\|off</computeroutput>: This
616	enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
617	acceleration should be available; see <xref
618	linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
619	</listitem>
620
621	<listitem>
622	<para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
623	virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
624	a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
625
626	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
627	on\|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
628	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
629	fade in and out, respectively.</para>
630
631	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
632	<msec></computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
633	be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
634
635	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
636	<imagepath></computeroutput> you can, if you are so
637	inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
638	image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file.</para>
639	</listitem>
640
641	<listitem>
642	<para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
643	disabled\|menuonly\|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
644	whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
645	device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
646	message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
647	boot device.</para>
648	</listitem>
649
650	<listitem>
651	<para><computeroutput>--nicbootprio<1-N>
652	<priority></computeroutput>: This specifies the order in which
653	NICs are tried for booting over the network (using PXE). The
654	priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range. Priority 1 is the
655	highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0, which is the default unless
656	otherwise specified, is the lowest.
657	</para>
658	<para> Note that this option only has effect when the Intel PXE boot
659	ROM is used.
660	</para>
661	</listitem>
662
663	<listitem>
664	<para><computeroutput>--boot<1-4>
665	none\|floppy\|dvd\|disk\|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
666	order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
667	VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
668	set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
669	</listitem>
670
671	<listitem>
672	<para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
673	default\|<path></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
674	the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
675	machine.</para>
676	</listitem>
677
678	<listitem>
679	<para><computeroutput>--firmware efi\|bios</computeroutput>:
680	Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
681	machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
682	you're doing.</para>
683	</listitem>
684
685	<listitem>
686	<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
687	<size></computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
688	memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
689	Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
690	hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. <size> must
691	be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
692	details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
693	</listitem>
694	</itemizedlist></para>
695	</sect2>
696
697	<sect2>
698	<title>Networking settings</title>
699
700	<para>The following networking settings are available through
701	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
702	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
703	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
704	should be changed.<itemizedlist>
705	<listitem>
706	<para><computeroutput>--nic<1-N>
707	none\|null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic
708	</computeroutput>: With
709	this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
710	what type of networking should be available. They can be not
711	present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
712	the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
713	address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
714	bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
715	communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
716	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
717	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
718	sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
719	These options correspond
720	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
721	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
722	</listitem>
723
724	<listitem>
725	<para><computeroutput>--nictype<1-N>
726	Am79C970A\|Am79C973\|82540EM\|82543GC\|82545EM\|virtio</computeroutput>:
727	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
728	specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
729	guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
730	</listitem>
731
732	<listitem>
733	<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected<1-N>
734	on\|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
735	a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
736	from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
737	certain software components in the VM.</para>
738	</listitem>
739
740	<listitem>
741	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
742	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
743	purposes.</para>
744
745	<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace<1-N>
746	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
747	particular virtual network card.</para>
748
749	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
750	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
751	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
752	logged to.</para>
753	</listitem>
754
755	<listitem>
756	<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter<1-N>
757	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If bridged networking
758	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
759	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
760	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
761	interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
762	details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
763	</listitem>
764
765	<listitem>
766	<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
767	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If host-only networking
768	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
769	above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
770	specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
771	network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
772	linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
773	</listitem>
774
775	<listitem>
776	<para><computeroutput>--intnet<1-N>
777	network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
778	for a virtual network card (see the
779	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
780	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
781	of the internal network (see <xref
782	linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
783	</listitem>
784
785	<listitem>
786	<para><computeroutput>--macaddress<1-N>
787	auto\|<mac></computeroutput>: With this option you can set
788	the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
789	virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
790	VM creation.</para>
791	</listitem>
792
793	<listitem>
794	<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv<1-N>
795	<backend driver></computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
796	enabled for a virtual network card (see the
797	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
798	this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
799	rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
800	</para>
801	</listitem>
802
803	<listitem>
804	<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty<1-N>
805	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
806	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
807	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
808	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
809	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
810	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
811	</para>
812	</listitem>
813	</itemizedlist></para>
814
815	<sect3>
816	<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
817
818	<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
819	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
820	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
821	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
822	settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
823	<listitem>
824	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N>
825	[<name>],tcp\|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
826	<guestport></computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
827	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
828	for details).</para>
829	</listitem>
830
831	<listitem>
832	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N> delete
833	<name></computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
834	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
835	for details).</para>
836	</listitem>
837
838	<listitem>
839	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix<1-N>
840	<prefix></computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
841	for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
842	located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
843	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
844	</listitem>
845
846	<listitem>
847	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile<1-N>
848	<bootfile></computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
849	boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
850	details).</para>
851	</listitem>
852
853	<listitem>
854	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver<1-N>
855	<tftpserver></computeroutput>: This option defines the
856	TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
857	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
858	</listitem>
859
860	<listitem>
861	<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
862	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
863	built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
864	resolution.</para>
865	</listitem>
866
867	<listitem>
868	<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy<1-N>
869	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
870	all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
871	<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
872	</listitem>
873
874	<listitem>
875	<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
876	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
877	the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
878	see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
879	</listitem>
880
881	<listitem>
882	<para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings<1-N>
883	[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
884	[<tcprcv>]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
885	NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
886	details).</para>
887	</listitem>
888
889	<listitem>
890	<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode<1-N>
891	default\|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
892	option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
893	logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
894	transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
895	the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
896	mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
897	linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
898	</listitem>
899	</itemizedlist></para>
900	</sect3>
901	</sect2>
902
903	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
904	<title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB
905	settings</title>
906
907	<para>The following other hardware settings are available through
908	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
909	<listitem>
910	<para><computeroutput>--uart<1-N> off\|<I/O base>
911	<IRQ></computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
912	virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
913	linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
914	</listitem>
915
916	<listitem>
917	<para><computeroutput>--uartmode<1-N>
918	<arg></computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
919	connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
920	the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
921	to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
922	in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
923	you can specify <computeroutput><arg></computeroutput> as
924	one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
925	<listitem>
926	<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
927	though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
928	"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
929	</listitem>
930
931	<listitem>
932	<para><computeroutput>server
933	<pipename></computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
934	tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
935	<computeroutput><pipename></computeroutput> and
936	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
937	requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
938	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
939
940	<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
941	domain socket is used.</para>
942	</listitem>
943
944	<listitem>
945	<para><computeroutput>client
946	<pipename></computeroutput>: This operates just like
947	<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
948	pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
949	but assumed to exist already.</para>
950	</listitem>
951
952	<listitem>
953	<para><computeroutput><devicename></computeroutput>:
954	If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
955	hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
956	serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
957	host, the device name will be a COM port such as
958	<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
959	device name will look like
960	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
961	to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
962	</listitem>
963	</itemizedlist></para>
964	</listitem>
965
966	<listitem>
967	<para><computeroutput>--audio none\|null\|oss</computeroutput>: With
968	this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
969	support.</para>
970	</listitem>
971
972	<listitem>
973	<para><computeroutput>--clipboard
974	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
975	With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
976	system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
977	linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
978	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
979	</listitem>
980
981	<listitem>
982	<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
983	<count></computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
984	support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
985	</listitem>
986
987	<listitem>
988	<para><computeroutput>--usb on\|off</computeroutput>: This option
989	enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
990	linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
991	</listitem>
992
993	<listitem>
994	<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
995	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
996	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
997	</listitem>
998	</itemizedlist></para>
999	</sect2>
1000
1001	<sect2>
1002	<title>Remote machine settings</title>
1003
1004	<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
1005	available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1006	modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1007	<listitem>
1008	<para><computeroutput>--vrde on\|off</computeroutput>: With the
1009	VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
1010	VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
1011	you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
1012	<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
1013	default.</para>
1014	</listitem>
1015
1016	<listitem>
1017	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
1018	default\|<ports></computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
1019	the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
1020	standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
1021	ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
1022	specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
1023	role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
1024	list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
1025	example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
1026	5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
1027	one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
1028	</listitem>
1029
1030	<listitem>
1031	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress <IP
1032	address></computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1033	interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1034	will accept connections only on the specified host network
1035	interface.</para>
1036	</listitem>
1037
1038	<listitem>
1039	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1040	null\|external\|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1041	whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1042	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1043	</listitem>
1044
1045	<listitem>
1046	<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1047	enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1048	server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1049	linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1050	</listitem>
1051
1052	<listitem>
1053	<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1054	specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1055	disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1056	client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1057	option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1058	will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1059	server.</para>
1060	</listitem>
1061
1062	<listitem>
1063	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on\|off</computeroutput>:
1064	This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1065	server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1066	</listitem>
1067
1068	<listitem>
1069	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1070	<percent></computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1071	redirection; see <xref lang=""
1072	linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1073	</listitem>
1074	</itemizedlist></para>
1075	</sect2>
1076
1077	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1078	<title>Teleporting settings</title>
1079
1080	<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1081	modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1082	teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1083	introduction.<itemizedlist>
1084	<listitem>
1085	<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on\|off</computeroutput>: With
1086	this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1087	teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1088	If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1089	machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1090	teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1091	the next two parameters.</para>
1092	</listitem>
1093
1094	<listitem>
1095	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1096	<port></computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1097	<address></computeroutput>: these must be used with
1098	--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1099	address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1100	virtual machine. <computeroutput><port></computeroutput> can
1101	be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1102	<computeroutput><address></computeroutput> can be any IP
1103	address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1104	The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1105	</listitem>
1106
1107	<listitem>
1108	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1109	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1110	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1111	source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1112	this command.</para>
1113	</listitem>
1114
1115	<listitem>
1116	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1117	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1118	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1119	source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1120	in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1121	to read the password from stdin.</para>
1122	</listitem>
1123
1124	<listitem>
1125	<para><computeroutput>--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
1126	<ecx> <edx></computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1127	this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1128	virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1129	operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1130	target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1131	what the guest sees when it executes the
1132	<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1133	might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1134	certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1135	parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1136	processor manuals.</para>
1137	</listitem>
1138	</itemizedlist></para>
1139	</sect2>
1140	</sect1>
1141
1142	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1143	<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1144
1145	<para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1146	machine.</para>
1147
1148	<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1149	least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1150	additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1151	operation:</para>
1152
1153	<itemizedlist>
1154	<listitem>
1155	<para><computeroutput>--snapshot <uuid>\|<name></computeroutput>:
1156	Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1157	to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1158	</listitem>
1159	<listitem>
1160	<para><computeroutput>--mode machine\|machineandchildren\|all</computeroutput>:
1161	Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1162	<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1163	the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1164	<computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1165	provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1166	child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1167	is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1168	</para>
1169	</listitem>
1170	<listitem>
1171	<para><computeroutput>--options link\|keepallmacs\|keepnatmacs\|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1172	Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1173	option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1174	only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1175	options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1176	network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1177	(the default), left unchanged
1178	(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1179	when the network type is NAT
1180	(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1181	<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1182	are called like the original once, otherwise they are
1183	renamed.</para>
1184	</listitem>
1185	<listitem>
1186	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: Select a
1187	new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1188	Clone".</para>
1189	</listitem>
1190	<listitem>
1191	<para><computeroutput>--basefolder <basefolder></computeroutput>:
1192	Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1193	be saved in.</para>
1194	</listitem>
1195	<listitem>
1196	<para><computeroutput>--uuid <uuid></computeroutput>:
1197	Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1198	the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1199	creating a new UUID.</para>
1200	</listitem>
1201	<listitem>
1202	<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1203	Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1204	installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see
1205	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1206	so.</para>
1207	</listitem>
1208	</itemizedlist>
1209	</sect1>
1210
1211	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1212	<title>VBoxManage import</title>
1213
1214	<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1215	the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1216	<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1217
1218	<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1219	least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1220	if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1221	command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1222	imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1223	content of the OVF file.</para>
1224
1225	<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1226	the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1227	<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1228	description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1229	imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1230	to influence the import behavior.</para>
1231
1232	<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1233	containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1234	Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1235	OK.
1236	Virtual system 0:
1237	0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1238	(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1239	1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1240	(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
1241	3: Number of CPUs: 1
1242	(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
1243	4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
1244	5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1245	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1246	6: USB controller
1247	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1248	7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1249	8: Floppy
1250	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1251	9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1252	(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic\|LsiLogic}";
1253	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
1254	10: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1255	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
1256	11: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1257	target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1258	(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
1259	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1260
1261	<para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1262	depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1263	subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1264	<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1265	X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1266	virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1267	printed on the screen.</para>
1268
1269	<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1270	machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1271	respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1272	additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1273	which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1274	from the OVF file.</para>
1275
1276	<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1277	same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1278	import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1279	without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1280	controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1281	--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1282	</sect1>
1283
1284	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1285	<title>VBoxManage export</title>
1286
1287	<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1288	into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1289	disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1290	introduction to appliances.</para>
1291
1292	<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1293	use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1294	the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1295	<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1296	<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1297	target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1298	compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1299	enough disk space left for them.</para>
1300
1301	<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1302	several product information to the appliance file. Use
1303	<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1304	<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1305	<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1306	<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1307	<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1308	information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1309	of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1310	<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1311	OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1312	option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1313	machine.</para>
1314
1315	<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1316	OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1317	<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1318	</sect1>
1319
1320	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1321	<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1322
1323	<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1324	"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1325
1326	<note>
1327	<para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to
1328	start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as
1329	you might otherwise miss important error and state information that
1330	VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for
1331	front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our
1332	graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in
1333	a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1334	information.</para>
1335	</note>
1336
1337	<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1338	determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,
1339	which is the default) or whether the output should go through
1340	<computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDE enabled or not;
1341	see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of
1342	types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are
1343	accepted by any product variant.</para>
1344
1345	<para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1346
1347	<glosslist>
1348	<glossentry>
1349	<glossterm>gui</glossterm>
1350
1351	<glossdef>
1352	<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1353	</glossdef>
1354	</glossentry>
1355
1356	<glossentry>
1357	<glossterm>headless</glossterm>
1358
1359	<glossdef>
1360	<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1361	</glossdef>
1362	</glossentry>
1363	</glosslist>
1364	</sect1>
1365
1366	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1367	<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1368
1369	<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1370	to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1371	following can be specified:</para>
1372
1373	<para><itemizedlist>
1374	<listitem>
1375	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1376	pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1377	without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1378	in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1379	equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1380	the GUI.)</para>
1381	</listitem>
1382
1383	<listitem>
1384	<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1385	resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1386	<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1387	to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1388	GUI.)</para>
1389	</listitem>
1390
1391	<listitem>
1392	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1393	reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1394	pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1395	virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1396	system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1397	beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1398	the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1399	</listitem>
1400
1401	<listitem>
1402	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1403	poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1404	as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1405	the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1406	equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1407	the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1408	"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1409
1410	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1411	it can be started again; see <xref
1412	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1413	</listitem>
1414
1415	<listitem>
1416	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1417	savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1418	disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1419	"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1420	window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1421	in the dialog.)</para>
1422
1423	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1424	be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1425	</listitem>
1426
1427	<listitem>
1428	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm> teleport
1429	--hostname <name> --port <port> [--passwordfile
1430	<file> \| --password <password>]</computeroutput> makes
1431	the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a
1432	teleport to the given target. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for
1433	an introduction. If the optional password is specified, it must match
1434	the password that was given to the
1435	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for the target
1436	machine; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for
1437	details.</para>
1438	</listitem>
1439	</itemizedlist></para>
1440
1441	<para>A few extra options are available with
1442	<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1443	VM's running state:</para>
1444
1445	<itemizedlist>
1446	<listitem>
1447	<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate<1-N></computeroutput>
1448	operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1449	network interfaces.</para>
1450	</listitem>
1451
1452	<listitem>
1453	<para><computeroutput>nic<1-N>
1454	null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1455	set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1456	networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1457	(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1458	translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1459	(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1460	virtual machines using internal networking
1461	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1462	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1463	sub-modes
1464	(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1465	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1466	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1467	</listitem>
1468
1469	<listitem>
1470	<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1471	<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1472	visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1473	creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1474	(unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1475
1476	<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1477	usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1478	</listitem>
1479
1480	<listitem>
1481	<para><computeroutput>vrde on\|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1482	disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1483	</listitem>
1484
1485	<listitem>
1486	<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default\|<ports></computeroutput>
1487	changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1488	"default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1489	details, see the description for the
1490	<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1491	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1492	</listitem>
1493
1494	<listitem>
1495	<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1496	the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1497	the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1498	systems.</para>
1499	</listitem>
1500
1501	<listitem>
1502	<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1503	of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1504	</listitem>
1505
1506	<listitem>
1507	<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1508	used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1509	<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1510	</listitem>
1511
1512	<listitem>
1513	<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1514	operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1515	memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1516	operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1517	virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1518	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1519	</listitem>
1520
1521	<listitem>
1522	<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1523	<1-100></computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1524	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1525	can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1526	</listitem>
1527	</itemizedlist>
1528	</sect1>
1529
1530	<sect1>
1531	<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1532
1533	<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1534	not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1535	next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1536	cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1537	</sect1>
1538
1539	<sect1>
1540	<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1541
1542	<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1543	that is seperate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1544	"adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1545	start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1546	you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1547	</sect1>
1548
1549	<sect1>
1550	<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1551
1552	<para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1553	snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1554	copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1555	machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1556	running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1557	hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1558	when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1559	hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1560	differencing files.</para>
1561
1562	<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1563	of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1564	the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1565	inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1566	then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1567
1568	<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1569	snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1570	since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1571	be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1572
1573	<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1574	the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1575	machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1576	current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1577	becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1578	inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1579
1580	<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1581	shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1582	current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1583	"restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1584	that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1585
1586	<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1587	change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1588
1589	<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1590	can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1591	snapshot.</para>
1592	</sect1>
1593
1594	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1595	<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1596
1597	<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1598	VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1599	<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1600	openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1601	that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1602	registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1603	added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1604	been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1605	a registry.</para>
1606	</footnote></para>
1607
1608	<para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1609	appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1610	become unregistered in any case.</para>
1611	</sect1>
1612
1613	<sect1>
1614	<title id="vboxmanage-storageattach">VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1615
1616	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1617	a storage controller that was previously added with the
1618	<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1619	section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1620
1621	<screen>VBoxManage storageattach <uuid\|vmname>
1622	--storagectl <name>
1623	[--port <number>]
1624	[--device <number>]
1625	[--type dvddrive\|hdd\|fdd]
1626	[--medium none\|emptydrive\|
1627	<uuid>\|<filename>\|host:<drive>\|iscsi]
1628	[--mtype normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable]
1629	[--comment <text>]
1630	[--setuuid <uuid>]
1631	[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
1632	[--passthrough on\|off]
1633	[--tempeject on\|off]
1634	[--bandwidthgroup name\|none]
1635	[--forceunmount]
1636	[--server <name>\|<ip>]
1637	[--target <target>]
1638	[--tport <port>]
1639	[--lun <lun>]
1640	[--encodedlun <lun>]
1641	[--username <username>]
1642	[--password <password>]
1643	[--intnet]
1644	</screen>
1645
1646	<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1647	the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1648
1649	<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1650	<glossentry>
1651	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1652
1653	<glossdef>
1654	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1655	</glossdef>
1656	</glossentry>
1657
1658	<glossentry>
1659	<glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>
1660
1661	<glossdef>
1662	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1663	storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1664	with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1665	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1666	</glossdef>
1667	</glossentry>
1668
1669	<glossentry>
1670	<glossterm>port</glossterm>
1671
1672	<glossdef>
1673	<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1674	modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1675	single port.</para>
1676	</glossdef>
1677	</glossentry>
1678
1679	<glossentry>
1680	<glossterm>device</glossterm>
1681
1682	<glossdef>
1683	<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1684	Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1685	per port.</para>
1686	</glossdef>
1687	</glossentry>
1688
1689	<glossentry>
1690	<glossterm>type</glossterm>
1691
1692	<glossdef>
1693	<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1694	attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1695	the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1696	with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1697	from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1698	</glossdef>
1699	</glossentry>
1700
1701	<glossentry>
1702	<glossterm>medium</glossterm>
1703
1704	<glossdef>
1705	<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1706	supported:<itemizedlist>
1707	<listitem>
1708	<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1709	given slot.</para>
1710	</listitem>
1711
1712	<listitem>
1713	<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1714	this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1715	into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1716	</listitem>
1717
1718	<listitem>
1719	<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1720	storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1721	because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1722	See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1723	media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1724	slot.</para>
1725	</listitem>
1726
1727	<listitem>
1728	<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1729	of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1730	which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1731	</listitem>
1732
1733	<listitem>
1734	<para>"host:<drive>": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1735	drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1736	specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1737	</listitem>
1738
1739	<listitem>
1740	<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1741	specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1742	must be given; see below.</para>
1743	</listitem>
1744	</itemizedlist></para>
1745
1746	<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1747	media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1748	running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1749	slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1750	</glossdef>
1751	</glossentry>
1752
1753	<glossentry>
1754	<glossterm>mtype</glossterm>
1755
1756	<glossdef>
1757	<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1758	and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1759	details.</para>
1760	</glossdef>
1761	</glossentry>
1762
1763	<glossentry>
1764	<glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1765
1766	<glossdef>
1767	<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1768	medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1769	server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1770	the medium to function correctly.</para>
1771	</glossdef>
1772	</glossentry>
1773
1774	<glossentry>
1775	<glossterm>setuuid, setparentuuid</glossterm>
1776
1777	<glossdef>
1778	<para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1779	attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1780	can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1781	if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1782	frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1783	a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1784	duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1785	utilities.</para>
1786	</glossdef>
1787	</glossentry>
1788
1789	<glossentry>
1790	<glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>
1791
1792	<glossdef>
1793	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1794	support (currently experimental; see <xref
1795	linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1796	</glossdef>
1797	</glossentry>
1798
1799	<glossentry>
1800	<glossterm>tempeject</glossterm>
1801
1802	<glossdef>
1803	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1804	for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1805	has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1806	the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1807	</glossdef>
1808	</glossentry>
1809
1810	<glossentry>
1811	<glossterm>bandwidthgroup</glossterm>
1812
1813	<glossdef>
1814	<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1815	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1816	</glossdef>
1817	</glossentry>
1818
1819	<glossentry>
1820	<glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>
1821
1822	<glossdef>
1823	<para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1824	unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1825	the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1826	see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1827	</glossdef>
1828	</glossentry>
1829	</glosslist></para>
1830
1831	<para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1832	<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1833	see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1834	be used:<glosslist>
1835	<glossentry>
1836	<glossterm>server</glossterm>
1837
1838	<glossdef>
1839	<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1840	required.</para>
1841	</glossdef>
1842	</glossentry>
1843
1844	<glossentry>
1845	<glossterm>target</glossterm>
1846
1847	<glossdef>
1848	<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1849	and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1850	</glossdef>
1851	</glossentry>
1852
1853	<glossentry>
1854	<glossterm>tport</glossterm>
1855
1856	<glossdef>
1857	<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1858	(optional).</para>
1859	</glossdef>
1860	</glossentry>
1861
1862	<glossentry>
1863	<glossterm>lun</glossterm>
1864
1865	<glossdef>
1866	<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1867	Often, this value is zero.</para>
1868	</glossdef>
1869	</glossentry>
1870
1871	<glossentry>
1872	<glossterm>username, password</glossterm>
1873
1874	<glossdef>
1875	<para>Username and password (initiator secret) for target
1876	authentication, if required (optional).<note>
1877	<para>Username and password are stored without
1878	encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1879	configuration file if no settings password is provided.
1880	When a settings password was specified the first time,
1881	the password is stored encrypted.</para>
1882	</note></para>
1883	</glossdef>
1884	</glossentry>
1885
1886	<glossentry>
1887	<glossterm>intnet</glossterm>
1888
1889	<glossdef>
1890	<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1891	Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1892	<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1893	</glossdef>
1894	</glossentry>
1895	</glosslist></para>
1896	</sect1>
1897
1898	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1899	<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1900
1901	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1902	this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1903	<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1904	section).</para>
1905
1906	<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1907
1908	<screen>VBoxManage storagectl <uuid\|vmname>
1909	--name <name>
1910	[--add <ide/sata/scsi/floppy>]
1911	[--controller <LsiLogic\|LSILogicSAS\|BusLogic\|
1912	IntelAhci\|PIIX3\|PIIX4\|ICH6\|I82078>]
1913	[--sataideemulation<1-4> <1-30>]
1914	[--sataportcount <1-30>]
1915	[--hostiocache on\|off]
1916	[--bootable on\|off]
1917	[--remove]</screen>
1918
1919	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1920	<glossentry>
1921	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1922
1923	<glossdef>
1924	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1925	</glossdef>
1926	</glossentry>
1927
1928	<glossentry>
1929	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
1930
1931	<glossdef>
1932	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1933	</glossdef>
1934	</glossentry>
1935
1936	<glossentry>
1937	<glossterm>add</glossterm>
1938
1939	<glossdef>
1940	<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
1941	controller must be connected.</para>
1942	</glossdef>
1943	</glossentry>
1944
1945	<glossentry>
1946	<glossterm>controller</glossterm>
1947
1948	<glossdef>
1949	<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
1950	given storage controller.</para>
1951	</glossdef>
1952	</glossentry>
1953
1954	<glossentry>
1955	<glossterm>sataideemulation</glossterm>
1956
1957	<glossdef>
1958	<para>This specifies which SATA ports should operate in IDE
1959	emulation mode. As explained in <xref
1960	linkend="harddiskcontrollers" />, by default, this is the case for
1961	SATA ports 1-4; with this command, you can map four IDE channels
1962	to any of the 30 supported SATA ports.</para>
1963	</glossdef>
1964	</glossentry>
1965
1966	<glossentry>
1967	<glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>
1968
1969	<glossdef>
1970	<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
1971	support.</para>
1972	</glossdef>
1973	</glossentry>
1974
1975	<glossentry>
1976	<glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>
1977
1978	<glossdef>
1979	<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
1980	attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
1981	linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
1982	</glossdef>
1983	</glossentry>
1984
1985	<glossentry>
1986	<glossterm>bootable</glossterm>
1987
1988	<glossdef>
1989	<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
1990	</glossdef>
1991	</glossentry>
1992
1993	<glossentry>
1994	<glossterm>remove</glossterm>
1995
1996	<glossdef>
1997	<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
1998	</glossdef>
1999	</glossentry>
2000	</glosslist></para>
2001	</sect1>
2002
2003	<sect1>
2004	<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
2005
2006	<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies/shows bandwidth groups of the given
2007	virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid\|vmname>
2008	add <name> --type disk\|network --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2009	set <name> --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2010	remove <name> \|
2011	list [--machinereadable]</screen></para>
2012
2013	<para>The following subcommands are available:<itemizedlist>
2014	<listitem>
2015	<para><computeroutput>add</computeroutput>, creates a new bandwidth
2016	group of given type.</para>
2017	</listitem>
2018	<listitem>
2019	<para><computeroutput>set</computeroutput>, modifies the limit for an
2020	existing bandwidth group.</para>
2021	</listitem>
2022	<listitem>
2023	<para><computeroutput>remove</computeroutput>, destroys a bandwidth
2024	group.</para>
2025	</listitem>
2026	<listitem>
2027	<para><computeroutput>list</computeroutput>, shows all bandwidth groups
2028	defined for the given VM.</para>
2029	</listitem>
2030	</itemizedlist>
2031	</para>
2032	<para>The parameters mean:<glosslist>
2033	<glossentry>
2034	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2035
2036	<glossdef>
2037	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2038	</glossdef>
2039	</glossentry>
2040
2041	<glossentry>
2042	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
2043
2044	<glossdef>
2045	<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
2046	</glossdef>
2047	</glossentry>
2048
2049	<glossentry>
2050	<glossterm>type</glossterm>
2051
2052	<glossdef>
2053	<para>Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
2054	supported: <computeroutput>disk</computeroutput> and
2055	<computeroutput>network</computeroutput>. See
2056	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> or
2057	<xref linkend="network_bandwidth_limit" /> for a description of a
2058	particular type.</para>
2059	</glossdef>
2060	</glossentry>
2061
2062	<glossentry>
2063	<glossterm>limit</glossterm>
2064
2065	<glossdef>
2066	<para>Specifies the limit for the given group. Can be changed
2067	while the VM is running. The default unit is megabytes per
2068	second. The unit can be changed by specifying one of the
2069	following suffixes: <computeroutput>k</computeroutput> for kilobits/s, <computeroutput>m</computeroutput> for megabits/s, <computeroutput>g</computeroutput> for gigabits/s, <computeroutput>K</computeroutput> for kilobytes/s, <computeroutput>M</computeroutput> for megabytes/s, <computeroutput>G</computeroutput> for gigabytes/s.</para>
2070	</glossdef>
2071	</glossentry>
2072	</glosslist>
2073	<note>
2074	<para>The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by
2075	virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.</para>
2076	</note>
2077	<note>
2078	<para>To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks
2079	or adapters in running VM.</para>
2080	</note>
2081	</para>
2082	</sect1>
2083
2084	<sect1>
2085	<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2086
2087	<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2088	notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2089	which use it.<note>
2090	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2091	"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2092	"showhdinfo" command.</para>
2093	</note></para>
2094	<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2095	is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2096	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2097	for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2098	as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2099	directory.</para>
2100	</sect1>
2101
2102	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2103	<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2104
2105	<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2106	follows:</para>
2107
2108	<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
2109	--size <megabytes>
2110	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD] (default: VDI)
2111	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2112
2113	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2114	<glossentry>
2115	<glossterm>filename</glossterm>
2116
2117	<glossdef>
2118	<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2119	</glossdef>
2120	</glossentry>
2121
2122	<glossentry>
2123	<glossterm>size</glossterm>
2124
2125	<glossdef>
2126	<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2127	Mandatory.</para>
2128	</glossdef>
2129	</glossentry>
2130
2131	<glossentry>
2132	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2133
2134	<glossdef>
2135	<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2136	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2137	</glossdef>
2138	</glossentry>
2139
2140	<glossentry>
2141	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2142
2143	<glossdef>
2144	<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2145	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2146	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2147	result in an error message.</para>
2148	</glossdef>
2149	</glossentry>
2150	</glosslist> <note>
2151	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2152	"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2153	"createhd" command.</para>
2154	</note></para>
2155	</sect1>
2156
2157	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2158	<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2159
2160	<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2161	change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2162	created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd <uuid>\|<filename>
2163	[--type normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable\|
2164	readonly\|multiattach]
2165	[--autoreset on\|off]
2166	[--compact]
2167	[--resize <megabytes>\|--resizebyte <bytes>]</screen><note>
2168	<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2169	all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2170	versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2171	mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2172	</note></para>
2173
2174	<para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2175	(if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2176	can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2177	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2178	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2179	or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2180	<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2181	<listitem>
2182	<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2183	can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2184	immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2185	linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2186	</listitem>
2187
2188	<listitem>
2189	<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2190	<computeroutput>--autoreset on\|off</computeroutput> option
2191	determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2192	startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2193	is "on".</para>
2194	</listitem>
2195
2196	<listitem>
2197	<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2198	can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2199	contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2200	again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2201	image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2202	Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2203	part of a snapshot.</para>
2204
2205	<para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2206	space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2207	software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2208	<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2209	Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2210	zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2211	image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2212	supports ext2/ext3 filesystems.</para>
2213
2214	<para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2215	VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2216	blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2217	format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2218	supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2219	</listitem>
2220
2221	<listitem>
2222	<para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2223	is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2224	allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2225	<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2226	the physical size much.<footnote>
2227	<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2228	</footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2229	for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2230	(not shrink) the capacity.
2231	For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2232	you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2233	command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2234	image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2235	this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2236	a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2237	to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2238	option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2239	instead of megabytes.</para>
2240	</listitem>
2241	</itemizedlist></para>
2242	</sect1>
2243
2244	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2245	<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2246
2247	<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2248	new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2249	transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2250	the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2251	linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2252
2253	<screen>VBoxManage clonehd <uuid>\|<filename> <outputfile>
2254	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD\|RAW\|<other>]
2255	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2256	[--existing]</screen>
2257
2258	<para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2259	either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2260	Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2261	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2262	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2263	as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2264	<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2265	<glossentry>
2266	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2267
2268	<glossdef>
2269	<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2270	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2271	</glossdef>
2272	</glossentry>
2273
2274	<glossentry>
2275	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2276
2277	<glossdef>
2278	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2279	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2280	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2281	result in an error message.</para>
2282	</glossdef>
2283	</glossentry>
2284
2285	<glossentry>
2286	<glossterm>existing</glossterm>
2287
2288	<glossdef>
2289	<para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2290	destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2291	fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2292	destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2293	copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2294	the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2295	</glossdef>
2296	</glossentry>
2297	</glosslist> <note>
2298	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2299	"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2300	"clonehd" command.</para>
2301	</note></para>
2302	</sect1>
2303
2304	<sect1>
2305	<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2306
2307	<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2308	(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2309
2310	<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
2311	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2312	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2313	[--uuid <uuid>]
2314	VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
2315	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2316	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2317	[--uuid <uuid>]</screen>
2318
2319	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2320	<glossentry>
2321	<glossterm>bytes</glossterm>
2322
2323	<glossdef>
2324	<para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2325	stdin.</para>
2326	</glossdef>
2327	</glossentry>
2328
2329	<glossentry>
2330	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2331
2332	<glossdef>
2333	<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2334	VDI.</para>
2335	</glossdef>
2336	</glossentry>
2337
2338	<glossentry>
2339	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2340
2341	<glossdef>
2342	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2343	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2344	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2345	result in an error message.</para>
2346	</glossdef>
2347	</glossentry>
2348
2349	<glossentry>
2350	<glossterm>uuid</glossterm>
2351
2352	<glossdef>
2353	<para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2354	</glossdef>
2355	</glossentry>
2356	</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2357	the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2358	pipe).</para>
2359
2360	<para><note>
2361	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2362	"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2363	"convertfromraw" command.</para>
2364	</note></para>
2365	</sect1>
2366
2367	<sect1>
2368	<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2369
2370	<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2371	machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2372	<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2373	name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2374	with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2375
2376	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2377	VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2378
2379	<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2380	the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2381	could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2382
2383	<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2384
2385	<para>which would return</para>
2386
2387	<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2388	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2389	All rights reserved.
2390
2391	Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2392	<para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2393	command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2394	</para>
2395
2396	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2397
2398	</sect1>
2399
2400	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2401	<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2402
2403	<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2404	entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2405	in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2406	following properties are available:<glosslist>
2407	<glossentry>
2408	<glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>
2409
2410	<glossdef>
2411	<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2412	definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2413	details.</para>
2414	</glossdef>
2415	</glossentry>
2416
2417	<glossentry>
2418	<glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>
2419
2420	<glossdef>
2421	<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2422	authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2423	see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2424	</glossdef>
2425	</glossentry>
2426
2427	<glossentry>
2428	<glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>
2429
2430	<glossdef>
2431	<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2432	authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2433	please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2434	linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2435	</glossdef>
2436	</glossentry>
2437
2438	<glossentry>
2439	<glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>
2440
2441	<glossdef>
2442	<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2443	Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2444	</glossdef>
2445	</glossentry>
2446
2447	<glossentry>
2448	<glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>
2449
2450	<glossdef>
2451	<para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support
2452	is enabled by default.</para>
2453	</glossdef>
2454	</glossentry>
2455	</glosslist></para>
2456	</sect1>
2457
2458	<sect1>
2459	<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2460
2461	<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2462	working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2463	affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2464	machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2465	captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2466	particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2467	applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2468	available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2469	ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2470	machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2471	will.</para>
2472
2473	<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2474	add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2475	The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2476	placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2477	following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2478	will be added onto the end of the list. The
2479	<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2480	machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2481	to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2482	for the new filter and for global filters,
2483	<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2484	access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2485	them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2486	filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2487	using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2488	you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2489	filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2490	connection) or either.</para>
2491
2492	<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2493	modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2494	output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2495	find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2496	showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2497	by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2498	which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2499	add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2500	remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2501	</sect1>
2502
2503	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2504	<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2505
2506	<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2507	guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2508	of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2509	functionality.</para>
2510
2511	<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2512	linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2513	</sect1>
2514
2515	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2516	<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2517
2518	<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2519	running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2520	for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2521	key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2522	guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2523	channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2524	Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2525	"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2526	Additions.</para>
2527
2528	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2529	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2530	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2531	<listitem>
2532	<para><computeroutput>enumerate <vm> [--patterns
2533	<pattern>]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2534	properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2535	This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2536	be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2537	Additions are not installed.</para>
2538
2539	<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns <pattern></computeroutput>
2540	is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2541	the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2542	characters:<itemizedlist>
2543	<listitem>
2544	<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2545	represents any number of characters; for example,
2546	"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2547	all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2548	</listitem>
2549
2550	<listitem>
2551	<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2552	represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2553	"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2554	and "for".</para>
2555	</listitem>
2556
2557	<listitem>
2558	<para><computeroutput>\|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2559	used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2560	"<computeroutput>s\|t</computeroutput>" would match anything
2561	starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2562	</listitem>
2563	</itemizedlist></para>
2564	</listitem>
2565
2566	<listitem>
2567	<para><computeroutput>get <vm></computeroutput>: This
2568	retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2569	cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2570	print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2571	</listitem>
2572
2573	<listitem>
2574	<para><computeroutput>set <vm> <property> [<value>
2575	[--flags <flags>]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2576	guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2577	<computeroutput><value></computeroutput> is omitted, the
2578	property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2579	you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2580	several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2581	<listitem>
2582	<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2583	will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2584	</listitem>
2585
2586	<listitem>
2587	<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2588	will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2589	</listitem>
2590
2591	<listitem>
2592	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2593	can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2594	it;</para>
2595	</listitem>
2596
2597	<listitem>
2598	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2599	the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2600	only read it;</para>
2601	</listitem>
2602
2603	<listitem>
2604	<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2605	of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2606	</listitem>
2607	</itemizedlist></para>
2608	</listitem>
2609
2610	<listitem>
2611	<para><computeroutput>wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
2612	<timeout></computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2613	described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2614	pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2615	above.</para>
2616	</listitem>
2617	</itemizedlist></para>
2618	</sect1>
2619
2620	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2621	<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2622
2623	<para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2624	inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2625	linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2626
2627	<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2628
2629	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <command></screen>
2630
2631	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2632	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2633	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2634	<listitem>
2635	<para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which allows for
2636	executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2637	runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2638	running and has the following syntax:</para>
2639
2640	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> exec[ute]
2641	--image <path to program> --username <name>
2642	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2643	[--environment "<NAME>=<VALUE> [<NAME>=<VALUE>]"]
2644	[--verbose] [--timeout <msec>]
2645	[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2646	[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
2647	-- [[<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
2648
2649	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2650	<glossentry>
2651	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2652
2653	<glossdef>
2654	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2655	</glossdef>
2656	</glossentry>
2657
2658	<glossentry>
2659	<glossterm>--image "<path to program>"</glossterm>
2660
2661	<glossdef>
2662	<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2663	in the guest, e.g.
2664	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2665	</glossdef>
2666	</glossentry>
2667
2668	<glossentry>
2669	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2670
2671	<glossdef>
2672	<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2673	user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2674	</glossdef>
2675	</glossentry>
2676
2677	<glossentry>
2678	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
2679
2680	<glossdef>
2681	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2682	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2683	assumed.</para>
2684	</glossdef>
2685	</glossentry>
2686
2687	<glossentry>
2688	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2689
2690	<glossdef>
2691	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2692	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2693	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2694	</glossdef>
2695	</glossentry>
2696
2697	<glossentry>
2698	<glossterm>--dos2unix</glossterm>
2699
2700	<glossdef>
2701	Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2702	line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2703	</glossdef>
2704	</glossentry>
2705
2706	<glossentry>
2707	<glossterm>--environment
2708	"<NAME>=<VALUE>"</glossterm>
2709
2710	<glossdef>
2711	<para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2712	unset.</para>
2713
2714	<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2715	created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2716	option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2717	a variable, a pair of
2718	<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2719	specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2720	value must set, e.g.
2721	<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2722
2723	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2724	quotation marks. More than one
2725	<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2726	be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2727	</glossdef>
2728	</glossentry>
2729
2730	<glossentry>
2731	<glossterm>--timeout <msec></glossterm>
2732
2733	<glossdef>
2734	<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2735	long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2736	VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2737	timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2738	started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2739	</glossdef>
2740	</glossentry>
2741
2742	<glossentry>
2743	<glossterm>--unix2dos</glossterm>
2744
2745	<glossdef>
2746	Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2747	line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2748	</glossdef>
2749	</glossentry>
2750
2751	<glossentry>
2752	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2753
2754	<glossdef>
2755	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2756	</glossdef>
2757	</glossentry>
2758
2759	<glossentry>
2760	<glossterm>--wait-exit</glossterm>
2761
2762	<glossdef>
2763	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2764	exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2765	</glossdef>
2766	</glossentry>
2767
2768	<glossentry>
2769	<glossterm>--wait-stdout</glossterm>
2770
2771	<glossdef>
2772	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2773	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2774	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2775	</glossdef>
2776	</glossentry>
2777
2778	<glossentry>
2779	<glossterm>--wait-stderr</glossterm>
2780
2781	<glossdef>
2782	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2783	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2784	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2785	</glossdef>
2786	</glossentry>
2787
2788	<glossentry>
2789	<glossterm>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</glossterm>
2790
2791	<glossdef>
2792	<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2793	executed.</para>
2794	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2795	quotation marks.</para>
2796	</glossdef>
2797	</glossentry>
2798
2799	</glosslist></para>
2800
2801	<para><note>
2802	<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2803	applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2804	information.</para>
2805	</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2806	--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout -- -l /usr</screen> <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\ipconfig.exe"
2807	--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2808	the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2809	Unix hosts.</para>
2810
2811	<para><note>
2812	<para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2813	must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2814	user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2815	policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2816	will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2817	in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2818	apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2819	</note></para>
2820
2821	<para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2822	to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2823	which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2824	in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2825	old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2826	are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2827	appropriate error message.</para>
2828
2829	<para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2830	property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2831	or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2832	needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2833	guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2834	</listitem>
2835
2836	<listitem>
2837	<para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2838	files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2839	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2840
2841	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> copyto\|cp
2842	<guest source> <host dest> --username <name>
2843	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2844	[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2845
2846	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2847	<glossentry>
2848	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2849
2850	<glossdef>
2851	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2852	</glossdef>
2853	</glossentry>
2854
2855	<glossentry>
2856	<glossterm>source on host</glossterm>
2857
2858	<glossdef>
2859	<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2860	to the guest, e.g.
2861	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2862	This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2863	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2864	</glossdef>
2865	</glossentry>
2866
2867	<glossentry>
2868	<glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>
2869
2870	<glossdef>
2871	<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2872	<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2873	</glossdef>
2874	</glossentry>
2875
2876	<glossentry>
2877	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2878
2879	<glossdef>
2880	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2881	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2882	</glossdef>
2883	</glossentry>
2884
2885	<glossentry>
2886	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
2887
2888	<glossdef>
2889	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2890	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2891	assumed.</para>
2892	</glossdef>
2893	</glossentry>
2894
2895	<glossentry>
2896	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2897
2898	<glossdef>
2899	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2900	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2901	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2902	</glossdef>
2903	</glossentry>
2904
2905	<glossentry>
2906	<glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>
2907
2908	<glossdef>
2909	<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
2910	really copying files to the guest.</para>
2911	</glossdef>
2912	</glossentry>
2913
2914	<glossentry>
2915	<glossterm>--follow</glossterm>
2916
2917	<glossdef>
2918	<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
2919	source.</para>
2920	</glossdef>
2921	</glossentry>
2922
2923	<glossentry>
2924	<glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>
2925
2926	<glossdef>
2927	<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
2928	source.</para>
2929	</glossdef>
2930	</glossentry>
2931
2932	<glossentry>
2933	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2934
2935	<glossdef>
2936	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2937	</glossdef>
2938	</glossentry>
2939
2940	<glossentry>
2941	<glossterm>--flags <flags></glossterm>
2942
2943	<glossdef>
2944	<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2945	moment.</para>
2946	</glossdef>
2947	</glossentry>
2948	</glosslist></para>
2949	</listitem>
2950
2951	<listitem>
2952	<para><computeroutput>copyfrom</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2953	files from the guest to the host (only with installed Guest
2954	Additions 4.0 and later). It has the same parameters as
2955	<computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput> above.</para>
2956	</listitem>
2957
2958	<listitem>
2959	<para><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput>, which allows
2960	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2961	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2962
2963	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> createdir[ectory]\|mkdir\|md
2964	<guest directory>... --username <name>
2965	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2966	[--parents] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
2967
2968	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2969	<glossentry>
2970	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2971
2972	<glossdef>
2973	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2974	</glossdef>
2975	</glossentry>
2976
2977	<glossentry>
2978	<glossterm>directory to create on guest</glossterm>
2979
2980	<glossdef>
2981	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
2982	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
2983	Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
2984	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
2985	<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
2986	specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
2987	specified directory.</para>
2988	</glossdef>
2989	</glossentry>
2990
2991	<glossentry>
2992	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2993
2994	<glossdef>
2995	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2996	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2997	</glossdef>
2998	</glossentry>
2999
3000	<glossentry>
3001	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
3002
3003	<glossdef>
3004	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3005	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3006	assumed.</para>
3007	</glossdef>
3008	</glossentry>
3009
3010	<glossentry>
3011	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
3012
3013	<glossdef>
3014	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3015	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3016	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3017	</glossdef>
3018	</glossentry>
3019
3020	<glossentry>
3021	<glossterm>--parents</glossterm>
3022
3023	<glossdef>
3024	<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
3025	the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
3026	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
3027	<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
3028	yet it will be created. Without specifying
3029	<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
3030	have failed.</para>
3031	</glossdef>
3032	</glossentry>
3033
3034	<glossentry>
3035	<glossterm>--mode <mode></glossterm>
3036
3037	<glossdef>
3038	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3039	Only octal modes (e.g.
3040	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3041	now.</para>
3042	</glossdef>
3043	</glossentry>
3044
3045	<glossentry>
3046	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3047
3048	<glossdef>
3049	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3050	</glossdef>
3051	</glossentry>
3052	</glosslist></para>
3053	</listitem>
3054
3055	<listitem>
3056	<para><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput>, which displays file
3057	or file system status on the guest.</para>
3058
3059	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> stat
3060	<file>... --username <name>
3061	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3062	[--verbose]</screen>
3063
3064	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3065	<glossentry>
3066	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
3067
3068	<glossdef>
3069	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3070	</glossdef>
3071	</glossentry>
3072
3073	<glossentry>
3074	<glossterm>file element(s) to check on guest</glossterm>
3075
3076	<glossdef>
3077	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
3078	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
3079	The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
3080	the given file element(s).</para>
3081	</glossdef>
3082	</glossentry>
3083
3084	<glossentry>
3085	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
3086
3087	<glossdef>
3088	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3089	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3090	</glossdef>
3091	</glossentry>
3092
3093	<glossentry>
3094	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
3095
3096	<glossdef>
3097	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3098	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3099	assumed.</para>
3100	</glossdef>
3101	</glossentry>
3102
3103	<glossentry>
3104	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
3105
3106	<glossdef>
3107	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3108	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3109	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3110	</glossdef>
3111	</glossentry>
3112
3113	<glossentry>
3114	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3115
3116	<glossdef>
3117	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3118	</glossdef>
3119	</glossentry>
3120	</glosslist></para>
3121	</listitem>
3122
3123	<listitem>
3124	<para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which allows
3125	for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
3126	guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3127
3128	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> updateadditions
3129	[--source "<guest additions .ISO file to use>"] [--verbose]
3130	[--wait-start]</screen>
3131
3132	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3133	<glossentry>
3134	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
3135
3136	<glossdef>
3137	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3138	</glossdef>
3139	</glossentry>
3140
3141	<glossentry>
3142	<glossterm>--source "<guest additions .ISO file to
3143	use>"</glossterm>
3144
3145	<glossdef>
3146	<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3147	.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3148	</glossdef>
3149	</glossentry>
3150
3151	<glossentry>
3152	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3153
3154	<glossdef>
3155	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3156	</glossdef>
3157	</glossentry>
3158
3159	<glossentry>
3160	<glossterm>--wait-start</glossterm>
3161	<glossdef>
3162	<para>Starts the regular updating process and waits until the
3163	actual Guest Additions update inside the guest was started.
3164	This can be necessary due to needed interaction with the
3165	guest OS during the installation phase.</para>
3166	<para>When omitting this flag VBoxManage will wait for the
3167	whole Guest Additions update to complete.</para>
3168	</glossdef>
3169	</glossentry>
3170	</glosslist></para>
3171	</listitem>
3172	</itemizedlist></para>
3173	</sect1>
3174
3175	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3176	<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3177
3178	<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3179	exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3180	in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3181	very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3182	software.</para>
3183
3184	<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3185	machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3186	<listitem>
3187	<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3188	<name></computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3189	running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3190	will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3191	<xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3192
3193	<para>This corresponds to the
3194	<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3195	</para>
3196	</listitem>
3197
3198	<listitem>
3199	<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3200	display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3201	associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3202	name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3203	arguments specific to the info item.
3204	The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3205	listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3206	arguments.</para>
3207
3208	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3209	command in the debugger.</para>
3210	</listitem>
3211
3212	<listitem>
3213	<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3214	a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3215	for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3216	on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3217	operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3218	doing.</para>
3219	</listitem>
3220
3221	<listitem>
3222	<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3223	VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3224	system.</para>
3225
3226	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3227	command in the debugger.</para>
3228	</listitem>
3229
3230	<listitem>
3231	<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3232	display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3233	debugger facility.</para>
3234	</listitem>
3235
3236	<listitem>
3237	<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3238	used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3239	of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3240	<itemizedlist>
3241	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3242	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3243	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3244	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3245	<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3246	</itemizedlist>
3247	The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3248	registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3249	case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3250	can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3251	<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3252	</para>
3253	</listitem>
3254
3255	<listitem>
3256	<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3257	used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3258	of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3259	<itemizedlist>
3260	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3261	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3262	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3263	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3264	</itemizedlist>
3265	The value format should be in the same style as what
3266	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3267	exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3268	hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3269	are handled the same way as with the
3270	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3271	</listitem>
3272
3273	<listitem>
3274	<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3275	used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3276	<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3277	statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3278	<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3279	DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3280	<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3281	</listitem>
3282	</itemizedlist></para>
3283	</sect1>
3284
3285	<sect1>
3286	<title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>
3287
3288	<para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3289	Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3290	system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3291	<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3292	percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3293	sampling period.</para>
3294
3295	<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3296	retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3297	query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3298	background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3299	process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3300	closed.</para>
3301
3302	<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3303	not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
3304	is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
3305	retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
3306	collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
3307	keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
3308	used:</para>
3309
3310	<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
3311
3312	<para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
3313	data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
3314	it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
3315	</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
3316	You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
3317	subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
3318	affected.</para>
3319
3320	<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3321	setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
3322	previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
3323
3324	<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
3325	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
3326	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
3327	can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
3328	like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
3329	other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
3330	<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
3331
3332	<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
3333	Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3334	list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
3335
3336	<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
3337	has the following form:
3338	<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
3339	For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
3340	for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
3341	applied to the host object.</para>
3342
3343	<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
3344	to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
3345	in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
3346	all objects. You may use an asterisk
3347	("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
3348	command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
3349	object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
3350	limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
3351	separated by commas.</para>
3352
3353	<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
3354	kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
3355	following command:</para>
3356
3357	<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
3358
3359	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
3360
3361	<glosslist>
3362	<glossentry>
3363	<glossterm>list</glossterm>
3364
3365	<glossdef>
3366	<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
3367	metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
3368	particular VM is running.</para>
3369	</glossdef>
3370	</glossentry>
3371
3372	<glossentry>
3373	<glossterm>setup</glossterm>
3374
3375	<glossdef>
3376	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3377	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3378	retained data is available for displaying with the
3379	<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
3380	</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
3381	the result of the command execution.</para>
3382	</glossdef>
3383	</glossentry>
3384
3385	<glossentry>
3386	<glossterm>enable</glossterm>
3387
3388	<glossdef>
3389	<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
3390	stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
3391	submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
3392	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3393	did what was expected.</para>
3394	</glossdef>
3395	</glossentry>
3396
3397	<glossentry>
3398	<glossterm>disable</glossterm>
3399
3400	<glossdef>
3401	<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
3402	collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
3403	submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
3404	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3405	did what was expected.</para>
3406	</glossdef>
3407	</glossentry>
3408
3409	<glossentry>
3410	<glossterm>query</glossterm>
3411
3412	<glossdef>
3413	<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
3414	metric data.<note>
3415	<para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
3416	"flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
3417	how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
3418	samples.</para>
3419	</note></para>
3420	</glossdef>
3421	</glossentry>
3422
3423	<glossentry>
3424	<glossterm>collect</glossterm>
3425
3426	<glossdef>
3427	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3428	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3429	collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
3430	unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
3431	specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
3432	option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
3433	does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
3434	metrics match the specified filter.</para>
3435	</glossdef>
3436	</glossentry>
3437	</glosslist>
3438	</sect1>
3439
3440	<sect1>
3441	<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
3442
3443	<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
3444	network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
3445	refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
3446	identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
3447	manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
3448	</sect1>
3449
3450	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
3451	<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
3452
3453	<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
3454	is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
3455	host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
3456	network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
3457	servers in your physical network.)</para>
3458
3459	<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
3460	<listitem>
3461	<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
3462	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3463	--netname <network_name></computeroutput>, where
3464	<computeroutput><network_name></computeroutput> is the same
3465	network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
3466	<vmname> --intnet<X>
3467	<network_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3468	</listitem>
3469
3470	<listitem>
3471	<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
3472	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3473	--ifname <hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> instead, where
3474	<computeroutput><hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> is the
3475	same host-only interface name you used with
3476	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
3477	--hostonlyadapter<X>
3478	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3479
3480	<para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
3481	internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
3482	see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
3483	hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
3484	above).</para>
3485	</listitem>
3486	</itemizedlist></para>
3487
3488	<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
3489	DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
3490	<listitem>
3491	<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
3492	address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
3493	</listitem>
3494
3495	<listitem>
3496	<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
3497	netmask of the network.</para>
3498	</listitem>
3499
3500	<listitem>
3501	<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
3502	<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
3503	lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
3504	will hand out to clients.</para>
3505	</listitem>
3506	</itemizedlist></para>
3507
3508	<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
3509	or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
3510	nothing.</para>
3511
3512	<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
3513	given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
3514	which uses that network is started.</para>
3515
3516	<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
3517	remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
3518	<network_name></computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
3519	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
3520	for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
3521
3522	<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
3523	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
3524	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
3525	network or host-only interface name.</para>
3526	</sect1>
3527
3528	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
3529	<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
3530
3531	<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
3532	extension packs, as described in <xref
3533	linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
3534	<listitem>
3535	<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
3536	extpack install <tarball></computeroutput>. This command
3537	will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
3538	installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
3539	parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
3540	package is installed.</para>
3541	</listitem>
3542
3543	<listitem>
3544	<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
3545	<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
3546	<name></computeroutput>. You can use
3547	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
3548	the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
3549	please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
3550	<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
3551	override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
3552	</listitem>
3553
3554	<listitem>
3555	<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
3556	cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
3557	files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
3558	install or uninstall command failed.</para>
3559	</listitem>
3560	</itemizedlist></para>
3561	<para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
3562	remove one:<screen>
3563	$ VBoxManage list extpacks
3564	Extension Packs: 1
3565	Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
3566	Version: 4.1.12
3567	Revision: 77218
3568	Edition:
3569	Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
3570	VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
3571	Usable: true
3572	Why unusable:
3573	$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
3574	0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
3575	Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
3576	</sect1>
3577	</chapter>

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source: vbox/trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml@ 43261

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