user_VBoxManage.xml@ 43986

Last change on this file since 43986 was 43973, checked in by vboxsync, 12 years ago
Mods to user manual reflecting mods in 4.2.x 6417
File size: 155.2 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
686	<listitem>
687	<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
688	<size></computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
689	memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
690	Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
691	hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. <size> must
692	be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
693	details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
694	</listitem>
695
696	<listitem>
697	<para><computeroutput>--lptmode
698	<Device> </computeroutput>
699	Specifies the Device Name of the lpt/parallel port that
700	the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this BEFORE --lpt. This feature is Host specific and unrelated to Guest OS.</para>
701	</listitem>
702
703	<listitem>
704	<para><computeroutput>--lpt
705	<IOAddress IRQNumber> </computeroutput>
706	Specifies the I/O address of the lpt/parallel port and the IRQ number that
707	the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this AFTER --lptmod. This feature is Host specific and unrelated to Guest OS.</para>
708	</listitem>
709	</itemizedlist></para>
710	</sect2>
711
712	<sect2>
713	<title>Networking settings</title>
714
715	<para>The following networking settings are available through
716	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
717	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
718	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
719	should be changed.<itemizedlist>
720	<listitem>
721	<para><computeroutput>--nic<1-N>
722	none\|null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic
723	</computeroutput>: With
724	this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
725	what type of networking should be available. They can be not
726	present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
727	the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
728	address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
729	bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
730	communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
731	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
732	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
733	sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
734	These options correspond
735	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
736	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
737	</listitem>
738
739	<listitem>
740	<para><computeroutput>--nictype<1-N>
741	Am79C970A\|Am79C973\|82540EM\|82543GC\|82545EM\|virtio</computeroutput>:
742	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
743	specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
744	guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
745	</listitem>
746
747	<listitem>
748	<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected<1-N>
749	on\|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
750	a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
751	from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
752	certain software components in the VM.</para>
753	</listitem>
754
755	<listitem>
756	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
757	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
758	purposes.</para>
759
760	<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace<1-N>
761	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
762	particular virtual network card.</para>
763
764	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
765	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
766	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
767	logged to.</para>
768	</listitem>
769
770	<listitem>
771	<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter<1-N>
772	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If bridged networking
773	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
774	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
775	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
776	interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
777	details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
778	</listitem>
779
780	<listitem>
781	<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
782	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If host-only networking
783	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
784	above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
785	specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
786	network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
787	linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
788	</listitem>
789
790	<listitem>
791	<para><computeroutput>--intnet<1-N>
792	network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
793	for a virtual network card (see the
794	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
795	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
796	of the internal network (see <xref
797	linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
798	</listitem>
799
800	<listitem>
801	<para><computeroutput>--macaddress<1-N>
802	auto\|<mac></computeroutput>: With this option you can set
803	the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
804	virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
805	VM creation.</para>
806	</listitem>
807
808	<listitem>
809	<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv<1-N>
810	<backend driver></computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
811	enabled for a virtual network card (see the
812	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
813	this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
814	rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
815	</para>
816	</listitem>
817
818	<listitem>
819	<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty<1-N>
820	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
821	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
822	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
823	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
824	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
825	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
826	</para>
827	</listitem>
828	</itemizedlist></para>
829
830	<sect3>
831	<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
832
833	<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
834	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
835	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
836	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
837	settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
838	<listitem>
839	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N>
840	[<name>],tcp\|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
841	<guestport></computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
842	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
843	for details).</para>
844	</listitem>
845
846	<listitem>
847	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N> delete
848	<name></computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
849	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
850	for details).</para>
851	</listitem>
852
853	<listitem>
854	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix<1-N>
855	<prefix></computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
856	for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
857	located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
858	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
859	</listitem>
860
861	<listitem>
862	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile<1-N>
863	<bootfile></computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
864	boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
865	details).</para>
866	</listitem>
867
868	<listitem>
869	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver<1-N>
870	<tftpserver></computeroutput>: This option defines the
871	TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
872	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
873	</listitem>
874
875	<listitem>
876	<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
877	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
878	built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
879	resolution.</para>
880	</listitem>
881
882	<listitem>
883	<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy<1-N>
884	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
885	all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
886	<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
887	</listitem>
888
889	<listitem>
890	<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
891	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
892	the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
893	see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
894	</listitem>
895
896	<listitem>
897	<para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings<1-N>
898	[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
899	[<tcprcv>]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
900	NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
901	details).</para>
902	</listitem>
903
904	<listitem>
905	<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode<1-N>
906	default\|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
907	option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
908	logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
909	transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
910	the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
911	mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
912	linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
913	</listitem>
914	</itemizedlist></para>
915	</sect3>
916	</sect2>
917
918	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
919	<title>Serial port, audio, clipboard, remote desktop and USB
920	settings</title>
921
922	<para>The following other hardware settings are available through
923	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
924	<listitem>
925	<para><computeroutput>--uart<1-N> off\|<I/O base>
926	<IRQ></computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
927	virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
928	linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
929	</listitem>
930
931	<listitem>
932	<para><computeroutput>--uartmode<1-N>
933	<arg></computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
934	connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
935	the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
936	to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
937	in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
938	you can specify <computeroutput><arg></computeroutput> as
939	one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
940	<listitem>
941	<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
942	though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
943	"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
944	</listitem>
945
946	<listitem>
947	<para><computeroutput>server
948	<pipename></computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
949	tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
950	<computeroutput><pipename></computeroutput> and
951	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
952	requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
953	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
954
955	<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
956	domain socket is used.</para>
957	</listitem>
958
959	<listitem>
960	<para><computeroutput>client
961	<pipename></computeroutput>: This operates just like
962	<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
963	pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
964	but assumed to exist already.</para>
965	</listitem>
966
967	<listitem>
968	<para><computeroutput><devicename></computeroutput>:
969	If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
970	hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
971	serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
972	host, the device name will be a COM port such as
973	<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
974	device name will look like
975	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
976	to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
977	</listitem>
978	</itemizedlist></para>
979	</listitem>
980
981	<listitem>
982	<para><computeroutput>--audio none\|null\|oss</computeroutput>: With
983	this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
984	support.</para>
985	</listitem>
986
987	<listitem>
988	<para><computeroutput>--clipboard
989	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
990	With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
991	system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
992	linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
993	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
994	</listitem>
995
996	<listitem>
997	<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
998	<count></computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
999	support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
1000	</listitem>
1001
1002	<listitem>
1003	<para><computeroutput>--usb on\|off</computeroutput>: This option
1004	enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
1005	linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1006	</listitem>
1007
1008	<listitem>
1009	<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1010	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
1011	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1012	</listitem>
1013	</itemizedlist></para>
1014	</sect2>
1015
1016	<sect2>
1017	<title>Remote machine settings</title>
1018
1019	<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
1020	available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1021	modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1022	<listitem>
1023	<para><computeroutput>--vrde on\|off</computeroutput>: With the
1024	VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
1025	VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
1026	you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
1027	<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
1028	default.</para>
1029	</listitem>
1030
1031	<listitem>
1032	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
1033	default\|<ports></computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
1034	the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
1035	standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
1036	ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
1037	specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
1038	role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
1039	list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
1040	example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
1041	5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
1042	one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
1043	</listitem>
1044
1045	<listitem>
1046	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress <IP
1047	address></computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1048	interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1049	will accept connections only on the specified host network
1050	interface.</para>
1051	</listitem>
1052
1053	<listitem>
1054	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1055	null\|external\|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1056	whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1057	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1058	</listitem>
1059
1060	<listitem>
1061	<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1062	enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1063	server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1064	linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1065	</listitem>
1066
1067	<listitem>
1068	<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1069	specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1070	disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1071	client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1072	option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1073	will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1074	server.</para>
1075	</listitem>
1076
1077	<listitem>
1078	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on\|off</computeroutput>:
1079	This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1080	server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1081	</listitem>
1082
1083	<listitem>
1084	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1085	<percent></computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1086	redirection; see <xref lang=""
1087	linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1088	</listitem>
1089	</itemizedlist></para>
1090	</sect2>
1091
1092	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1093	<title>Teleporting settings</title>
1094
1095	<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1096	modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1097	teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1098	introduction.<itemizedlist>
1099	<listitem>
1100	<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on\|off</computeroutput>: With
1101	this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1102	teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1103	If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1104	machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1105	teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1106	the next two parameters.</para>
1107	</listitem>
1108
1109	<listitem>
1110	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1111	<port></computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1112	<address></computeroutput>: these must be used with
1113	--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1114	address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1115	virtual machine. <computeroutput><port></computeroutput> can
1116	be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1117	<computeroutput><address></computeroutput> can be any IP
1118	address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1119	The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1120	</listitem>
1121
1122	<listitem>
1123	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1124	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1125	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1126	source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1127	this command.</para>
1128	</listitem>
1129
1130	<listitem>
1131	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1132	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1133	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1134	source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1135	in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1136	to read the password from stdin.</para>
1137	</listitem>
1138
1139	<listitem>
1140	<para><computeroutput>--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
1141	<ecx> <edx></computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1142	this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1143	virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1144	operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1145	target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1146	what the guest sees when it executes the
1147	<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1148	might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1149	certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1150	parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1151	processor manuals.</para>
1152	</listitem>
1153	</itemizedlist></para>
1154	</sect2>
1155	</sect1>
1156
1157	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1158	<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1159
1160	<para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1161	machine.</para>
1162
1163	<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1164	least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1165	additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1166	operation:</para>
1167
1168	<itemizedlist>
1169	<listitem>
1170	<para><computeroutput>--snapshot <uuid>\|<name></computeroutput>:
1171	Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1172	to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1173	</listitem>
1174	<listitem>
1175	<para><computeroutput>--mode machine\|machineandchildren\|all</computeroutput>:
1176	Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1177	<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1178	the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1179	<computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1180	provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1181	child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1182	is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1183	</para>
1184	</listitem>
1185	<listitem>
1186	<para><computeroutput>--options link\|keepallmacs\|keepnatmacs\|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1187	Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1188	option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1189	only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1190	options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1191	network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1192	(the default), left unchanged
1193	(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1194	when the network type is NAT
1195	(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1196	<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1197	are called like the original once, otherwise they are
1198	renamed.</para>
1199	</listitem>
1200	<listitem>
1201	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: Select a
1202	new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1203	Clone".</para>
1204	</listitem>
1205	<listitem>
1206	<para><computeroutput>--basefolder <basefolder></computeroutput>:
1207	Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1208	be saved in.</para>
1209	</listitem>
1210	<listitem>
1211	<para><computeroutput>--uuid <uuid></computeroutput>:
1212	Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1213	the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1214	creating a new UUID.</para>
1215	</listitem>
1216	<listitem>
1217	<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1218	Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1219	installation. If you manually want register the new VM later, see
1220	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1221	so.</para>
1222	</listitem>
1223	</itemizedlist>
1224	</sect1>
1225
1226	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1227	<title>VBoxManage import</title>
1228
1229	<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1230	the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1231	<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1232
1233	<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1234	least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1235	if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1236	command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1237	imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1238	content of the OVF file.</para>
1239
1240	<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1241	the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1242	<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1243	description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1244	imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1245	to influence the import behavior.</para>
1246
1247	<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1248	containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1249	Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1250	OK.
1251	Virtual system 0:
1252	0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1253	(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1254	1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1255	(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
1256	3: Number of CPUs: 1
1257	(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
1258	4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
1259	5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1260	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1261	6: USB controller
1262	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1263	7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1264	8: Floppy
1265	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1266	9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1267	(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic\|LsiLogic}";
1268	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
1269	10: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1270	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
1271	11: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1272	target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1273	(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
1274	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1275
1276	<para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1277	depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1278	subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1279	<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1280	X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1281	virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1282	printed on the screen.</para>
1283
1284	<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1285	machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1286	respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1287	additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1288	which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1289	from the OVF file.</para>
1290
1291	<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1292	same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1293	import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1294	without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1295	controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1296	--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1297	</sect1>
1298
1299	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1300	<title>VBoxManage export</title>
1301
1302	<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1303	into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1304	disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1305	introduction to appliances.</para>
1306
1307	<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1308	use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1309	the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1310	<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1311	<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1312	target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1313	compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1314	enough disk space left for them.</para>
1315
1316	<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1317	several product information to the appliance file. Use
1318	<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1319	<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1320	<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1321	<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1322	<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1323	information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1324	of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1325	<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1326	OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1327	option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1328	machine.</para>
1329
1330	<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1331	OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1332	<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1333	</sect1>
1334
1335	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1336	<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1337
1338	<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1339	"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1340
1341	<note>
1342	<para>This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to
1343	start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as
1344	you might otherwise miss important error and state information that
1345	VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for
1346	front-ends other than <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, our
1347	graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in
1348	a popup window. See <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1349	information.</para>
1350	</note>
1351
1352	<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1353	determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode,
1354	which is the default) or whether the output should go through
1355	<computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, with VRDE enabled or not;
1356	see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more information. The list of
1357	types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are
1358	accepted by any product variant.</para>
1359
1360	<para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1361
1362	<glosslist>
1363	<glossentry>
1364	<glossterm>gui</glossterm>
1365
1366	<glossdef>
1367	<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1368	</glossdef>
1369	</glossentry>
1370
1371	<glossentry>
1372	<glossterm>headless</glossterm>
1373
1374	<glossdef>
1375	<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1376	</glossdef>
1377	</glossentry>
1378	</glosslist>
1379	</sect1>
1380
1381	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1382	<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1383
1384	<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1385	to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1386	following can be specified:</para>
1387
1388	<para><itemizedlist>
1389	<listitem>
1390	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1391	pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1392	without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1393	in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1394	equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1395	the GUI.)</para>
1396	</listitem>
1397
1398	<listitem>
1399	<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1400	resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1401	<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1402	to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1403	GUI.)</para>
1404	</listitem>
1405
1406	<listitem>
1407	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1408	reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1409	pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1410	virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1411	system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1412	beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1413	the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1414	</listitem>
1415
1416	<listitem>
1417	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1418	poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1419	as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1420	the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1421	equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1422	the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1423	"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1424
1425	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1426	it can be started again; see <xref
1427	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1428	</listitem>
1429
1430	<listitem>
1431	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1432	savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1433	disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1434	"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1435	window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1436	in the dialog.)</para>
1437
1438	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1439	be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1440	</listitem>
1441
1442	<listitem>
1443	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm> teleport
1444	--hostname <name> --port <port> [--passwordfile
1445	<file> \| --password <password>]</computeroutput> makes
1446	the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a
1447	teleport to the given target. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for
1448	an introduction. If the optional password is specified, it must match
1449	the password that was given to the
1450	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for the target
1451	machine; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for
1452	details.</para>
1453	</listitem>
1454	</itemizedlist></para>
1455
1456	<para>A few extra options are available with
1457	<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1458	VM's running state:</para>
1459
1460	<itemizedlist>
1461	<listitem>
1462	<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate<1-N></computeroutput>
1463	operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1464	network interfaces.</para>
1465	</listitem>
1466
1467	<listitem>
1468	<para><computeroutput>nic<1-N>
1469	null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1470	set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1471	networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1472	(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1473	translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1474	(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1475	virtual machines using internal networking
1476	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1477	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1478	sub-modes
1479	(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1480	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1481	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1482	</listitem>
1483
1484	<listitem>
1485	<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1486	<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1487	visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1488	creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1489	(unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1490
1491	<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1492	usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1493	</listitem>
1494
1495	<listitem>
1496	<para><computeroutput>vrde on\|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1497	disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1498	</listitem>
1499
1500	<listitem>
1501	<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default\|<ports></computeroutput>
1502	changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1503	"default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1504	details, see the description for the
1505	<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1506	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1507	</listitem>
1508
1509	<listitem>
1510	<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1511	the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1512	the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1513	systems.</para>
1514	</listitem>
1515
1516	<listitem>
1517	<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1518	of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1519	</listitem>
1520
1521	<listitem>
1522	<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1523	used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1524	<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1525	</listitem>
1526
1527	<listitem>
1528	<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1529	operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1530	memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1531	operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1532	virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1533	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1534	</listitem>
1535
1536	<listitem>
1537	<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1538	<1-100></computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1539	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1540	can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1541	</listitem>
1542	</itemizedlist>
1543	</sect1>
1544
1545	<sect1>
1546	<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1547
1548	<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1549	not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1550	next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1551	cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1552	</sect1>
1553
1554	<sect1>
1555	<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1556
1557	<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1558	that is seperate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1559	"adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1560	start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1561	you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1562	</sect1>
1563
1564	<sect1>
1565	<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1566
1567	<para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1568	snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1569	copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1570	machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1571	running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1572	hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1573	when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1574	hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1575	differencing files.</para>
1576
1577	<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1578	of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1579	the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1580	inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1581	then becomes the new current snapshot.</para>
1582
1583	<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1584	snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1585	since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1586	be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1587
1588	<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1589	the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1590	machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1591	current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1592	becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1593	inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1594
1595	<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1596	shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1597	current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1598	"restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1599	that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1600
1601	<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1602	change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1603
1604	<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1605	can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1606	snapshot.</para>
1607	</sect1>
1608
1609	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1610	<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1611
1612	<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1613	VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1614	<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1615	openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1616	that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1617	registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1618	added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1619	been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1620	a registry.</para>
1621	</footnote></para>
1622
1623	<para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1624	appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1625	become unregistered in any case.</para>
1626	</sect1>
1627
1628	<sect1>
1629	<title id="vboxmanage-storageattach">VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1630
1631	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1632	a storage controller that was previously added with the
1633	<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1634	section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1635
1636	<screen>VBoxManage storageattach <uuid\|vmname>
1637	--storagectl <name>
1638	[--port <number>]
1639	[--device <number>]
1640	[--type dvddrive\|hdd\|fdd]
1641	[--medium none\|emptydrive\|
1642	<uuid>\|<filename>\|host:<drive>\|iscsi]
1643	[--mtype normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable]
1644	[--comment <text>]
1645	[--setuuid <uuid>]
1646	[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
1647	[--passthrough on\|off]
1648	[--tempeject on\|off]
1649	[--nonrotational on\|off]
1650	[--discard on\|off]
1651	[--bandwidthgroup name\|none]
1652	[--forceunmount]
1653	[--server <name>\|<ip>]
1654	[--target <target>]
1655	[--tport <port>]
1656	[--lun <lun>]
1657	[--encodedlun <lun>]
1658	[--username <username>]
1659	[--password <password>]
1660	[--initiator <initiator>]
1661	[--intnet]
1662	</screen>
1663
1664	<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1665	the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1666
1667	<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1668	<glossentry>
1669	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1670
1671	<glossdef>
1672	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1673	</glossdef>
1674	</glossentry>
1675
1676	<glossentry>
1677	<glossterm>storagectl</glossterm>
1678
1679	<glossdef>
1680	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1681	storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1682	with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1683	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1684	</glossdef>
1685	</glossentry>
1686
1687	<glossentry>
1688	<glossterm>port</glossterm>
1689
1690	<glossdef>
1691	<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1692	modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1693	single port.</para>
1694	</glossdef>
1695	</glossentry>
1696
1697	<glossentry>
1698	<glossterm>device</glossterm>
1699
1700	<glossdef>
1701	<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1702	Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1703	per port.</para>
1704	</glossdef>
1705	</glossentry>
1706
1707	<glossentry>
1708	<glossterm>type</glossterm>
1709
1710	<glossdef>
1711	<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1712	attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1713	the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1714	with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1715	from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1716	</glossdef>
1717	</glossentry>
1718
1719	<glossentry>
1720	<glossterm>medium</glossterm>
1721
1722	<glossdef>
1723	<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1724	supported:<itemizedlist>
1725	<listitem>
1726	<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1727	given slot.</para>
1728	</listitem>
1729
1730	<listitem>
1731	<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1732	this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1733	into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1734	</listitem>
1735
1736	<listitem>
1737	<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1738	storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1739	because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1740	See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1741	media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1742	slot.</para>
1743	</listitem>
1744
1745	<listitem>
1746	<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1747	of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1748	which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1749	</listitem>
1750
1751	<listitem>
1752	<para>"host:<drive>": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1753	drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1754	specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1755	</listitem>
1756
1757	<listitem>
1758	<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1759	specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1760	must be given; see below.</para>
1761	</listitem>
1762	</itemizedlist></para>
1763
1764	<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1765	media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1766	running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1767	slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1768	</glossdef>
1769	</glossentry>
1770
1771	<glossentry>
1772	<glossterm>mtype</glossterm>
1773
1774	<glossdef>
1775	<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1776	and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1777	details.</para>
1778	</glossdef>
1779	</glossentry>
1780
1781	<glossentry>
1782	<glossterm>comment</glossterm>
1783
1784	<glossdef>
1785	<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1786	medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1787	server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1788	the medium to function correctly.</para>
1789	</glossdef>
1790	</glossentry>
1791
1792	<glossentry>
1793	<glossterm>setuuid, setparentuuid</glossterm>
1794
1795	<glossdef>
1796	<para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1797	attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1798	can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1799	if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1800	frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1801	a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1802	duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1803	utilities.</para>
1804	</glossdef>
1805	</glossentry>
1806
1807	<glossentry>
1808	<glossterm>passthrough</glossterm>
1809
1810	<glossdef>
1811	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1812	support (currently experimental; see <xref
1813	linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1814	</glossdef>
1815	</glossentry>
1816
1817	<glossentry>
1818	<glossterm>tempeject</glossterm>
1819
1820	<glossdef>
1821	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1822	for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1823	has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1824	the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1825	</glossdef>
1826	</glossentry>
1827
1828	<glossentry>
1829	<glossterm>nonrotational</glossterm>
1830
1831	<glossdef>
1832	<para>This switch allows to enable the non-rotational flag for virtual
1833	hard disks. Some guests (i.e. Windows 7+) treat such disks like SSDs
1834	and don't perform disk fragmentation on such media.
1835	</para>
1836	</glossdef>
1837	</glossentry>
1838
1839	<glossentry>
1840	<glossterm>bandwidthgroup</glossterm>
1841
1842	<glossdef>
1843	<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1844	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1845	</glossdef>
1846	</glossentry>
1847
1848	<glossentry>
1849	<glossterm>forceunmount</glossterm>
1850
1851	<glossdef>
1852	<para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1853	unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1854	the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1855	see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1856	</glossdef>
1857	</glossentry>
1858	</glosslist></para>
1859
1860	<para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1861	<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1862	see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1863	be used:<glosslist>
1864	<glossentry>
1865	<glossterm>server</glossterm>
1866
1867	<glossdef>
1868	<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1869	required.</para>
1870	</glossdef>
1871	</glossentry>
1872
1873	<glossentry>
1874	<glossterm>target</glossterm>
1875
1876	<glossdef>
1877	<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1878	and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1879	</glossdef>
1880	</glossentry>
1881
1882	<glossentry>
1883	<glossterm>tport</glossterm>
1884
1885	<glossdef>
1886	<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1887	(optional).</para>
1888	</glossdef>
1889	</glossentry>
1890
1891	<glossentry>
1892	<glossterm>lun</glossterm>
1893
1894	<glossdef>
1895	<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1896	Often, this value is zero.</para>
1897	</glossdef>
1898	</glossentry>
1899
1900	<glossentry>
1901	<glossterm>username, password</glossterm>
1902
1903	<glossdef>
1904	<para>Username and password (initiator secret) for target
1905	authentication, if required (optional).<note>
1906	<para>Username and password are stored without
1907	encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1908	configuration file if no settings password is provided.
1909	When a settings password was specified the first time,
1910	the password is stored encrypted.</para>
1911	</note></para>
1912	</glossdef>
1913	</glossentry>
1914
1915	<glossentry>
1916	<glossterm>intnet</glossterm>
1917
1918	<glossdef>
1919	<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1920	Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1921	<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1922	</glossdef>
1923	</glossentry>
1924	</glosslist></para>
1925	</sect1>
1926
1927	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1928	<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1929
1930	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1931	this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1932	<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1933	section).</para>
1934
1935	<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1936
1937	<screen>VBoxManage storagectl <uuid\|vmname>
1938	--name <name>
1939	[--add <ide/sata/scsi/floppy>]
1940	[--controller <LsiLogic\|LSILogicSAS\|BusLogic\|
1941	IntelAhci\|PIIX3\|PIIX4\|ICH6\|I82078>]
1942	[--sataportcount <1-30>]
1943	[--hostiocache on\|off]
1944	[--bootable on\|off]
1945	[--remove]</screen>
1946
1947	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
1948	<glossentry>
1949	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
1950
1951	<glossdef>
1952	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1953	</glossdef>
1954	</glossentry>
1955
1956	<glossentry>
1957	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
1958
1959	<glossdef>
1960	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
1961	</glossdef>
1962	</glossentry>
1963
1964	<glossentry>
1965	<glossterm>add</glossterm>
1966
1967	<glossdef>
1968	<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
1969	controller must be connected.</para>
1970	</glossdef>
1971	</glossentry>
1972
1973	<glossentry>
1974	<glossterm>controller</glossterm>
1975
1976	<glossdef>
1977	<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
1978	given storage controller.</para>
1979	</glossdef>
1980	</glossentry>
1981
1982	<glossentry>
1983	<glossterm>sataportcount</glossterm>
1984
1985	<glossdef>
1986	<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
1987	support.</para>
1988	</glossdef>
1989	</glossentry>
1990
1991	<glossentry>
1992	<glossterm>hostiocache</glossterm>
1993
1994	<glossdef>
1995	<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
1996	attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
1997	linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
1998	</glossdef>
1999	</glossentry>
2000
2001	<glossentry>
2002	<glossterm>bootable</glossterm>
2003
2004	<glossdef>
2005	<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
2006	</glossdef>
2007	</glossentry>
2008
2009	<glossentry>
2010	<glossterm>remove</glossterm>
2011
2012	<glossdef>
2013	<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
2014	</glossdef>
2015	</glossentry>
2016	</glosslist></para>
2017	</sect1>
2018
2019	<sect1>
2020	<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
2021
2022	<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies/shows bandwidth groups of the given
2023	virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid\|vmname>
2024	add <name> --type disk\|network --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2025	set <name> --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2026	remove <name> \|
2027	list [--machinereadable]</screen></para>
2028
2029	<para>The following subcommands are available:<itemizedlist>
2030	<listitem>
2031	<para><computeroutput>add</computeroutput>, creates a new bandwidth
2032	group of given type.</para>
2033	</listitem>
2034	<listitem>
2035	<para><computeroutput>set</computeroutput>, modifies the limit for an
2036	existing bandwidth group.</para>
2037	</listitem>
2038	<listitem>
2039	<para><computeroutput>remove</computeroutput>, destroys a bandwidth
2040	group.</para>
2041	</listitem>
2042	<listitem>
2043	<para><computeroutput>list</computeroutput>, shows all bandwidth groups
2044	defined for the given VM.</para>
2045	</listitem>
2046	</itemizedlist>
2047	</para>
2048	<para>The parameters mean:<glosslist>
2049	<glossentry>
2050	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2051
2052	<glossdef>
2053	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2054	</glossdef>
2055	</glossentry>
2056
2057	<glossentry>
2058	<glossterm>name</glossterm>
2059
2060	<glossdef>
2061	<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
2062	</glossdef>
2063	</glossentry>
2064
2065	<glossentry>
2066	<glossterm>type</glossterm>
2067
2068	<glossdef>
2069	<para>Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
2070	supported: <computeroutput>disk</computeroutput> and
2071	<computeroutput>network</computeroutput>. See
2072	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> or
2073	<xref linkend="network_bandwidth_limit" /> for a description of a
2074	particular type.</para>
2075	</glossdef>
2076	</glossentry>
2077
2078	<glossentry>
2079	<glossterm>limit</glossterm>
2080
2081	<glossdef>
2082	<para>Specifies the limit for the given group. Can be changed
2083	while the VM is running. The default unit is megabytes per
2084	second. The unit can be changed by specifying one of the
2085	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>
2086	</glossdef>
2087	</glossentry>
2088	</glosslist>
2089	<note>
2090	<para>The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by
2091	virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.</para>
2092	</note>
2093	<note>
2094	<para>To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks
2095	or adapters in running VM.</para>
2096	</note>
2097	</para>
2098	</sect1>
2099
2100	<sect1>
2101	<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2102
2103	<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2104	notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2105	which use it.<note>
2106	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2107	"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2108	"showhdinfo" command.</para>
2109	</note></para>
2110	<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2111	is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2112	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2113	for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2114	as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2115	directory.</para>
2116	</sect1>
2117
2118	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2119	<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2120
2121	<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2122	follows:</para>
2123
2124	<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
2125	--size <megabytes>
2126	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD] (default: VDI)
2127	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2128
2129	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2130	<glossentry>
2131	<glossterm>filename</glossterm>
2132
2133	<glossdef>
2134	<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2135	</glossdef>
2136	</glossentry>
2137
2138	<glossentry>
2139	<glossterm>size</glossterm>
2140
2141	<glossdef>
2142	<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2143	Mandatory.</para>
2144	</glossdef>
2145	</glossentry>
2146
2147	<glossentry>
2148	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2149
2150	<glossdef>
2151	<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2152	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2153	</glossdef>
2154	</glossentry>
2155
2156	<glossentry>
2157	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2158
2159	<glossdef>
2160	<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2161	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2162	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2163	result in an error message.</para>
2164	</glossdef>
2165	</glossentry>
2166	</glosslist> <note>
2167	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2168	"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2169	"createhd" command.</para>
2170	</note></para>
2171	</sect1>
2172
2173	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2174	<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2175
2176	<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2177	change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2178	created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd <uuid>\|<filename>
2179	[--type normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable\|
2180	readonly\|multiattach]
2181	[--autoreset on\|off]
2182	[--compact]
2183	[--resize <megabytes>\|--resizebyte <bytes>]</screen><note>
2184	<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2185	all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2186	versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2187	mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2188	</note></para>
2189
2190	<para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2191	(if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2192	can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2193	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2194	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2195	or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2196	<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2197	<listitem>
2198	<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2199	can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2200	immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2201	linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2202	</listitem>
2203
2204	<listitem>
2205	<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2206	<computeroutput>--autoreset on\|off</computeroutput> option
2207	determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2208	startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2209	is "on".</para>
2210	</listitem>
2211
2212	<listitem>
2213	<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2214	can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2215	contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2216	again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2217	image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2218	Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2219	part of a snapshot.</para>
2220
2221	<para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2222	space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2223	software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2224	<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2225	Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2226	zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2227	image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2228	supports ext2/ext3 filesystems.</para>
2229
2230	<para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2231	VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2232	blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2233	format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2234	supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2235	</listitem>
2236
2237	<listitem>
2238	<para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2239	is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2240	allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2241	<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2242	the physical size much.<footnote>
2243	<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2244	</footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2245	for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2246	(not shrink) the capacity.
2247	For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2248	you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2249	command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2250	image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2251	this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2252	a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2253	to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2254	option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2255	instead of megabytes.</para>
2256	</listitem>
2257	</itemizedlist></para>
2258	</sect1>
2259
2260	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2261	<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2262
2263	<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2264	new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2265	transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2266	the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2267	linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2268
2269	<screen>VBoxManage clonehd <uuid>\|<filename> <outputfile>
2270	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD\|RAW\|<other>]
2271	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2272	[--existing]</screen>
2273
2274	<para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2275	either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2276	Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2277	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2278	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2279	as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2280	<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2281	<glossentry>
2282	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2283
2284	<glossdef>
2285	<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2286	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2287	</glossdef>
2288	</glossentry>
2289
2290	<glossentry>
2291	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2292
2293	<glossdef>
2294	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2295	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2296	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2297	result in an error message.</para>
2298	</glossdef>
2299	</glossentry>
2300
2301	<glossentry>
2302	<glossterm>existing</glossterm>
2303
2304	<glossdef>
2305	<para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2306	destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2307	fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2308	destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2309	copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2310	the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2311	</glossdef>
2312	</glossentry>
2313	</glosslist> <note>
2314	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2315	"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2316	"clonehd" command.</para>
2317	</note></para>
2318	</sect1>
2319
2320	<sect1>
2321	<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2322
2323	<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2324	(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2325
2326	<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
2327	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2328	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2329	[--uuid <uuid>]
2330	VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
2331	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2332	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2333	[--uuid <uuid>]</screen>
2334
2335	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2336	<glossentry>
2337	<glossterm>bytes</glossterm>
2338
2339	<glossdef>
2340	<para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2341	stdin.</para>
2342	</glossdef>
2343	</glossentry>
2344
2345	<glossentry>
2346	<glossterm>format</glossterm>
2347
2348	<glossdef>
2349	<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2350	VDI.</para>
2351	</glossdef>
2352	</glossentry>
2353
2354	<glossentry>
2355	<glossterm>variant</glossterm>
2356
2357	<glossdef>
2358	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2359	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2360	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2361	result in an error message.</para>
2362	</glossdef>
2363	</glossentry>
2364
2365	<glossentry>
2366	<glossterm>uuid</glossterm>
2367
2368	<glossdef>
2369	<para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2370	</glossdef>
2371	</glossentry>
2372	</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2373	the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2374	pipe).</para>
2375
2376	<para><note>
2377	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2378	"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2379	"convertfromraw" command.</para>
2380	</note></para>
2381	</sect1>
2382
2383	<sect1>
2384	<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2385
2386	<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2387	machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2388	<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2389	name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2390	with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2391
2392	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2393	VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2394
2395	<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2396	the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2397	could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2398
2399	<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2400
2401	<para>which would return</para>
2402
2403	<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2404	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2405	All rights reserved.
2406
2407	Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2408	<para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2409	command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2410	</para>
2411
2412	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2413
2414	</sect1>
2415
2416	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2417	<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2418
2419	<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2420	entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2421	in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2422	following properties are available:<glosslist>
2423	<glossentry>
2424	<glossterm>machinefolder</glossterm>
2425
2426	<glossdef>
2427	<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2428	definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2429	details.</para>
2430	</glossdef>
2431	</glossentry>
2432
2433	<glossentry>
2434	<glossterm>vrdeauthlibrary</glossterm>
2435
2436	<glossdef>
2437	<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2438	authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2439	see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2440	</glossdef>
2441	</glossentry>
2442
2443	<glossentry>
2444	<glossterm>websrvauthlibrary</glossterm>
2445
2446	<glossdef>
2447	<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2448	authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2449	please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2450	linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2451	</glossdef>
2452	</glossentry>
2453
2454	<glossentry>
2455	<glossterm>vrdelibrary</glossterm>
2456
2457	<glossdef>
2458	<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2459	Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2460	</glossdef>
2461	</glossentry>
2462
2463	<glossentry>
2464	<glossterm>hwvirtexenabled</glossterm>
2465
2466	<glossdef>
2467	<para>This selects whether or not hardware virtualization support
2468	is enabled by default.</para>
2469	</glossdef>
2470	</glossentry>
2471	</glosslist></para>
2472	</sect1>
2473
2474	<sect1>
2475	<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2476
2477	<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2478	working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2479	affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2480	machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2481	captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2482	particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2483	applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2484	available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2485	ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2486	machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2487	will.</para>
2488
2489	<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2490	add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2491	The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2492	placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2493	following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2494	will be added onto the end of the list. The
2495	<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2496	machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2497	to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2498	for the new filter and for global filters,
2499	<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2500	access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2501	them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2502	filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2503	using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2504	you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2505	filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2506	connection) or either.</para>
2507
2508	<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2509	modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2510	output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2511	find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2512	showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2513	by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2514	which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2515	add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2516	remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2517	</sect1>
2518
2519	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2520	<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2521
2522	<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2523	guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2524	of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2525	functionality.</para>
2526
2527	<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2528	linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2529	</sect1>
2530
2531	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2532	<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2533
2534	<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2535	running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2536	for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2537	key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2538	guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2539	channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2540	Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2541	"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2542	Additions.</para>
2543
2544	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2545	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2546	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2547	<listitem>
2548	<para><computeroutput>enumerate <vm> [--patterns
2549	<pattern>]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2550	properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2551	This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2552	be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2553	Additions are not installed.</para>
2554
2555	<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns <pattern></computeroutput>
2556	is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2557	the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2558	characters:<itemizedlist>
2559	<listitem>
2560	<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2561	represents any number of characters; for example,
2562	"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2563	all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2564	</listitem>
2565
2566	<listitem>
2567	<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2568	represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2569	"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2570	and "for".</para>
2571	</listitem>
2572
2573	<listitem>
2574	<para><computeroutput>\|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2575	used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2576	"<computeroutput>s\|t</computeroutput>" would match anything
2577	starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2578	</listitem>
2579	</itemizedlist></para>
2580	</listitem>
2581
2582	<listitem>
2583	<para><computeroutput>get <vm></computeroutput>: This
2584	retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2585	cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2586	print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2587	</listitem>
2588
2589	<listitem>
2590	<para><computeroutput>set <vm> <property> [<value>
2591	[--flags <flags>]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2592	guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2593	<computeroutput><value></computeroutput> is omitted, the
2594	property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2595	you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2596	several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2597	<listitem>
2598	<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2599	will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2600	</listitem>
2601
2602	<listitem>
2603	<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2604	will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2605	</listitem>
2606
2607	<listitem>
2608	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2609	can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2610	it;</para>
2611	</listitem>
2612
2613	<listitem>
2614	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2615	the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2616	only read it;</para>
2617	</listitem>
2618
2619	<listitem>
2620	<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2621	of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2622	</listitem>
2623	</itemizedlist></para>
2624	</listitem>
2625
2626	<listitem>
2627	<para><computeroutput>wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
2628	<timeout></computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2629	described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2630	pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2631	above.</para>
2632	</listitem>
2633	</itemizedlist></para>
2634	</sect1>
2635
2636	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2637	<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2638
2639	<para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2640	inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2641	linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2642
2643	<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2644
2645	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <command></screen>
2646
2647	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2648	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2649	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2650	<listitem>
2651	<para><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput>, which allows for
2652	executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2653	runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2654	running and has the following syntax:</para>
2655
2656	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> exec[ute]
2657	--image <path to program> --username <name>
2658	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2659	[--environment "<NAME>=<VALUE> [<NAME>=<VALUE>]"]
2660	[--verbose] [--timeout <msec>]
2661	[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2662	[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
2663	-- [[<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
2664
2665	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2666	<glossentry>
2667	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2668
2669	<glossdef>
2670	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2671	</glossdef>
2672	</glossentry>
2673
2674	<glossentry>
2675	<glossterm>--image "<path to program>"</glossterm>
2676
2677	<glossdef>
2678	<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2679	in the guest, e.g.
2680	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2681	</glossdef>
2682	</glossentry>
2683
2684	<glossentry>
2685	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2686
2687	<glossdef>
2688	<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2689	user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2690	</glossdef>
2691	</glossentry>
2692
2693	<glossentry>
2694	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
2695
2696	<glossdef>
2697	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2698	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2699	assumed.</para>
2700	</glossdef>
2701	</glossentry>
2702
2703	<glossentry>
2704	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2705
2706	<glossdef>
2707	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2708	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2709	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2710	</glossdef>
2711	</glossentry>
2712
2713	<glossentry>
2714	<glossterm>--dos2unix</glossterm>
2715
2716	<glossdef>
2717	Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2718	line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2719	</glossdef>
2720	</glossentry>
2721
2722	<glossentry>
2723	<glossterm>--environment
2724	"<NAME>=<VALUE>"</glossterm>
2725
2726	<glossdef>
2727	<para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2728	unset.</para>
2729
2730	<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2731	created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2732	option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2733	a variable, a pair of
2734	<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2735	specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2736	value must set, e.g.
2737	<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2738
2739	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2740	quotation marks. More than one
2741	<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2742	be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2743	</glossdef>
2744	</glossentry>
2745
2746	<glossentry>
2747	<glossterm>--timeout <msec></glossterm>
2748
2749	<glossdef>
2750	<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2751	long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2752	VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2753	timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2754	started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2755	</glossdef>
2756	</glossentry>
2757
2758	<glossentry>
2759	<glossterm>--unix2dos</glossterm>
2760
2761	<glossdef>
2762	Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2763	line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2764	</glossdef>
2765	</glossentry>
2766
2767	<glossentry>
2768	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2769
2770	<glossdef>
2771	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2772	</glossdef>
2773	</glossentry>
2774
2775	<glossentry>
2776	<glossterm>--wait-exit</glossterm>
2777
2778	<glossdef>
2779	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2780	exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2781	</glossdef>
2782	</glossentry>
2783
2784	<glossentry>
2785	<glossterm>--wait-stdout</glossterm>
2786
2787	<glossdef>
2788	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2789	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2790	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2791	</glossdef>
2792	</glossentry>
2793
2794	<glossentry>
2795	<glossterm>--wait-stderr</glossterm>
2796
2797	<glossdef>
2798	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2799	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2800	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2801	</glossdef>
2802	</glossentry>
2803
2804	<glossentry>
2805	<glossterm>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</glossterm>
2806
2807	<glossdef>
2808	<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2809	executed.</para>
2810	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2811	quotation marks.</para>
2812	</glossdef>
2813	</glossentry>
2814
2815	</glosslist></para>
2816
2817	<para><note>
2818	<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2819	applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2820	information.</para>
2821	</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2822	--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"
2823	--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2824	the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2825	Unix hosts.</para>
2826
2827	<para><note>
2828	<para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2829	must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2830	user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2831	policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2832	will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2833	in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2834	apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2835	</note></para>
2836
2837	<para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2838	to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2839	which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2840	in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2841	old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2842	are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2843	appropriate error message.</para>
2844
2845	<para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2846	property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2847	or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2848	needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2849	guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2850	</listitem>
2851
2852	<listitem>
2853	<para><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2854	files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2855	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2856
2857	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> copyto\|cp
2858	<guest source> <host dest> --username <name>
2859	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2860	[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2861
2862	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2863	<glossentry>
2864	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2865
2866	<glossdef>
2867	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2868	</glossdef>
2869	</glossentry>
2870
2871	<glossentry>
2872	<glossterm>source on host</glossterm>
2873
2874	<glossdef>
2875	<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2876	to the guest, e.g.
2877	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2878	This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2879	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2880	</glossdef>
2881	</glossentry>
2882
2883	<glossentry>
2884	<glossterm>destination on guest</glossterm>
2885
2886	<glossdef>
2887	<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2888	<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2889	</glossdef>
2890	</glossentry>
2891
2892	<glossentry>
2893	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
2894
2895	<glossdef>
2896	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2897	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2898	</glossdef>
2899	</glossentry>
2900
2901	<glossentry>
2902	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
2903
2904	<glossdef>
2905	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2906	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2907	assumed.</para>
2908	</glossdef>
2909	</glossentry>
2910
2911	<glossentry>
2912	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
2913
2914	<glossdef>
2915	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2916	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2917	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2918	</glossdef>
2919	</glossentry>
2920
2921	<glossentry>
2922	<glossterm>--dryrun</glossterm>
2923
2924	<glossdef>
2925	<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
2926	really copying files to the guest.</para>
2927	</glossdef>
2928	</glossentry>
2929
2930	<glossentry>
2931	<glossterm>--follow</glossterm>
2932
2933	<glossdef>
2934	<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
2935	source.</para>
2936	</glossdef>
2937	</glossentry>
2938
2939	<glossentry>
2940	<glossterm>--recursive</glossterm>
2941
2942	<glossdef>
2943	<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
2944	source.</para>
2945	</glossdef>
2946	</glossentry>
2947
2948	<glossentry>
2949	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
2950
2951	<glossdef>
2952	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2953	</glossdef>
2954	</glossentry>
2955
2956	<glossentry>
2957	<glossterm>--flags <flags></glossterm>
2958
2959	<glossdef>
2960	<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
2961	moment.</para>
2962	</glossdef>
2963	</glossentry>
2964	</glosslist></para>
2965	</listitem>
2966
2967	<listitem>
2968	<para><computeroutput>copyfrom</computeroutput>, which allows copying
2969	files from the guest to the host (only with installed Guest
2970	Additions 4.0 and later). It has the same parameters as
2971	<computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput> above.</para>
2972	</listitem>
2973
2974	<listitem>
2975	<para><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput>, which allows
2976	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2977	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2978
2979	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> createdir[ectory]\|mkdir\|md
2980	<guest directory>... --username <name>
2981	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2982	[--parents] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
2983
2984	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2985	<glossentry>
2986	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
2987
2988	<glossdef>
2989	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2990	</glossdef>
2991	</glossentry>
2992
2993	<glossentry>
2994	<glossterm>directory to create on guest</glossterm>
2995
2996	<glossdef>
2997	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
2998	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
2999	Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
3000	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
3001	<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
3002	specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
3003	specified directory.</para>
3004	</glossdef>
3005	</glossentry>
3006
3007	<glossentry>
3008	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
3009
3010	<glossdef>
3011	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3012	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3013	</glossdef>
3014	</glossentry>
3015
3016	<glossentry>
3017	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
3018
3019	<glossdef>
3020	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3021	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3022	assumed.</para>
3023	</glossdef>
3024	</glossentry>
3025
3026	<glossentry>
3027	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
3028
3029	<glossdef>
3030	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3031	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3032	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3033	</glossdef>
3034	</glossentry>
3035
3036	<glossentry>
3037	<glossterm>--parents</glossterm>
3038
3039	<glossdef>
3040	<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
3041	the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
3042	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
3043	<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
3044	yet it will be created. Without specifying
3045	<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
3046	have failed.</para>
3047	</glossdef>
3048	</glossentry>
3049
3050	<glossentry>
3051	<glossterm>--mode <mode></glossterm>
3052
3053	<glossdef>
3054	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3055	Only octal modes (e.g.
3056	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3057	now.</para>
3058	</glossdef>
3059	</glossentry>
3060
3061	<glossentry>
3062	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3063
3064	<glossdef>
3065	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3066	</glossdef>
3067	</glossentry>
3068	</glosslist></para>
3069	</listitem>
3070
3071	<listitem>
3072	<para><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput>, which displays file
3073	or file system status on the guest.</para>
3074
3075	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> stat
3076	<file>... --username <name>
3077	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3078	[--verbose]</screen>
3079
3080	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3081	<glossentry>
3082	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
3083
3084	<glossdef>
3085	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3086	</glossdef>
3087	</glossentry>
3088
3089	<glossentry>
3090	<glossterm>file element(s) to check on guest</glossterm>
3091
3092	<glossdef>
3093	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
3094	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
3095	The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
3096	the given file element(s).</para>
3097	</glossdef>
3098	</glossentry>
3099
3100	<glossentry>
3101	<glossterm>--username <name></glossterm>
3102
3103	<glossdef>
3104	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3105	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3106	</glossdef>
3107	</glossentry>
3108
3109	<glossentry>
3110	<glossterm>--passwordfile <file></glossterm>
3111
3112	<glossdef>
3113	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3114	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3115	assumed.</para>
3116	</glossdef>
3117	</glossentry>
3118
3119	<glossentry>
3120	<glossterm>--password <password></glossterm>
3121
3122	<glossdef>
3123	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3124	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3125	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3126	</glossdef>
3127	</glossentry>
3128
3129	<glossentry>
3130	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3131
3132	<glossdef>
3133	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3134	</glossdef>
3135	</glossentry>
3136	</glosslist></para>
3137	</listitem>
3138
3139	<listitem>
3140	<para><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput>, which allows
3141	for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
3142	guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3143
3144	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <vmname>\|<uuid> updateadditions
3145	[--source "<guest additions .ISO file to use>"] [--verbose]
3146	[--wait-start]</screen>
3147
3148	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3149	<glossentry>
3150	<glossterm>uuid\|vmname</glossterm>
3151
3152	<glossdef>
3153	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3154	</glossdef>
3155	</glossentry>
3156
3157	<glossentry>
3158	<glossterm>--source "<guest additions .ISO file to
3159	use>"</glossterm>
3160
3161	<glossdef>
3162	<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3163	.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3164	</glossdef>
3165	</glossentry>
3166
3167	<glossentry>
3168	<glossterm>--verbose</glossterm>
3169
3170	<glossdef>
3171	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3172	</glossdef>
3173	</glossentry>
3174
3175	<glossentry>
3176	<glossterm>--wait-start</glossterm>
3177	<glossdef>
3178	<para>Starts the regular updating process and waits until the
3179	actual Guest Additions update inside the guest was started.
3180	This can be necessary due to needed interaction with the
3181	guest OS during the installation phase.</para>
3182	<para>When omitting this flag VBoxManage will wait for the
3183	whole Guest Additions update to complete.</para>
3184	</glossdef>
3185	</glossentry>
3186	</glosslist></para>
3187	</listitem>
3188	</itemizedlist></para>
3189	</sect1>
3190
3191	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3192	<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3193
3194	<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3195	exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3196	in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3197	very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3198	software.</para>
3199
3200	<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3201	machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3202	<listitem>
3203	<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3204	<name></computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3205	running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3206	will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3207	<xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3208
3209	<para>This corresponds to the
3210	<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3211	</para>
3212	</listitem>
3213
3214	<listitem>
3215	<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3216	display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3217	associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3218	name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3219	arguments specific to the info item.
3220	The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3221	listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3222	arguments.</para>
3223
3224	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3225	command in the debugger.</para>
3226	</listitem>
3227
3228	<listitem>
3229	<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3230	a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3231	for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3232	on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3233	operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3234	doing.</para>
3235	</listitem>
3236
3237	<listitem>
3238	<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3239	VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3240	system.</para>
3241
3242	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3243	command in the debugger.</para>
3244	</listitem>
3245
3246	<listitem>
3247	<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3248	display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3249	debugger facility.</para>
3250	</listitem>
3251
3252	<listitem>
3253	<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3254	used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3255	of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3256	<itemizedlist>
3257	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3258	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3259	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3260	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3261	<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3262	</itemizedlist>
3263	The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3264	registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3265	case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3266	can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3267	<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3268	</para>
3269	</listitem>
3270
3271	<listitem>
3272	<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3273	used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3274	of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3275	<itemizedlist>
3276	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3277	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3278	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3279	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3280	</itemizedlist>
3281	The value format should be in the same style as what
3282	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3283	exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3284	hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3285	are handled the same way as with the
3286	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3287	</listitem>
3288
3289	<listitem>
3290	<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3291	used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3292	<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3293	statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3294	<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3295	DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3296	<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3297	</listitem>
3298	</itemizedlist></para>
3299	</sect1>
3300
3301	<sect1>
3302	<title id="metrics">VBoxManage metrics</title>
3303
3304	<para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3305	Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3306	system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3307	<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3308	percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3309	sampling period.</para>
3310
3311	<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3312	retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3313	query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3314	background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3315	process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3316	closed.</para>
3317
3318	<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3319	not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
3320	is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
3321	retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
3322	collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
3323	keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
3324	used:</para>
3325
3326	<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
3327
3328	<para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
3329	data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
3330	it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
3331	</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
3332	You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
3333	subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
3334	affected.</para>
3335
3336	<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3337	setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
3338	previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
3339
3340	<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
3341	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
3342	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
3343	can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
3344	like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
3345	other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
3346	<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
3347
3348	<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
3349	Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3350	list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
3351
3352	<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
3353	has the following form:
3354	<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
3355	For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
3356	for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
3357	applied to the host object.</para>
3358
3359	<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
3360	to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
3361	in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
3362	all objects. You may use an asterisk
3363	("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
3364	command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
3365	object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
3366	limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
3367	separated by commas.</para>
3368
3369	<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
3370	kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
3371	following command:</para>
3372
3373	<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
3374
3375	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
3376
3377	<glosslist>
3378	<glossentry>
3379	<glossterm>list</glossterm>
3380
3381	<glossdef>
3382	<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
3383	metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
3384	particular VM is running.</para>
3385	</glossdef>
3386	</glossentry>
3387
3388	<glossentry>
3389	<glossterm>setup</glossterm>
3390
3391	<glossdef>
3392	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3393	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3394	retained data is available for displaying with the
3395	<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
3396	</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
3397	the result of the command execution.</para>
3398	</glossdef>
3399	</glossentry>
3400
3401	<glossentry>
3402	<glossterm>enable</glossterm>
3403
3404	<glossdef>
3405	<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
3406	stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
3407	submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
3408	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3409	did what was expected.</para>
3410	</glossdef>
3411	</glossentry>
3412
3413	<glossentry>
3414	<glossterm>disable</glossterm>
3415
3416	<glossdef>
3417	<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
3418	collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
3419	submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
3420	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
3421	did what was expected.</para>
3422	</glossdef>
3423	</glossentry>
3424
3425	<glossentry>
3426	<glossterm>query</glossterm>
3427
3428	<glossdef>
3429	<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
3430	metric data.<note>
3431	<para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
3432	"flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
3433	how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
3434	samples.</para>
3435	</note></para>
3436	</glossdef>
3437	</glossentry>
3438
3439	<glossentry>
3440	<glossterm>collect</glossterm>
3441
3442	<glossdef>
3443	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
3444	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
3445	collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
3446	unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
3447	specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
3448	option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
3449	does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
3450	metrics match the specified filter.</para>
3451	</glossdef>
3452	</glossentry>
3453	</glosslist>
3454	</sect1>
3455
3456	<sect1>
3457	<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
3458
3459	<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
3460	network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
3461	refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
3462	identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
3463	manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
3464	</sect1>
3465
3466	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
3467	<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
3468
3469	<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
3470	is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
3471	host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
3472	network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
3473	servers in your physical network.)</para>
3474
3475	<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
3476	<listitem>
3477	<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
3478	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3479	--netname <network_name></computeroutput>, where
3480	<computeroutput><network_name></computeroutput> is the same
3481	network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
3482	<vmname> --intnet<X>
3483	<network_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3484	</listitem>
3485
3486	<listitem>
3487	<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
3488	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
3489	--ifname <hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> instead, where
3490	<computeroutput><hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> is the
3491	same host-only interface name you used with
3492	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
3493	--hostonlyadapter<X>
3494	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput>.</para>
3495
3496	<para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
3497	internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
3498	see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
3499	hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
3500	above).</para>
3501	</listitem>
3502	</itemizedlist></para>
3503
3504	<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
3505	DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
3506	<listitem>
3507	<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
3508	address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
3509	</listitem>
3510
3511	<listitem>
3512	<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
3513	netmask of the network.</para>
3514	</listitem>
3515
3516	<listitem>
3517	<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
3518	<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
3519	lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
3520	will hand out to clients.</para>
3521	</listitem>
3522	</itemizedlist></para>
3523
3524	<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
3525	or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
3526	nothing.</para>
3527
3528	<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
3529	given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
3530	which uses that network is started.</para>
3531
3532	<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
3533	remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
3534	<network_name></computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
3535	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
3536	for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
3537
3538	<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
3539	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
3540	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
3541	network or host-only interface name.</para>
3542	</sect1>
3543
3544	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
3545	<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
3546
3547	<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
3548	extension packs, as described in <xref
3549	linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
3550	<listitem>
3551	<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
3552	extpack install <tarball></computeroutput>. This command
3553	will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
3554	installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
3555	parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
3556	package is installed.</para>
3557	</listitem>
3558
3559	<listitem>
3560	<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
3561	<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
3562	<name></computeroutput>. You can use
3563	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
3564	the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
3565	please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
3566	<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
3567	override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
3568	</listitem>
3569
3570	<listitem>
3571	<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
3572	cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
3573	files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
3574	install or uninstall command failed.</para>
3575	</listitem>
3576	</itemizedlist></para>
3577	<para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
3578	remove one:<screen>
3579	$ VBoxManage list extpacks
3580	Extension Packs: 1
3581	Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
3582	Version: 4.1.12
3583	Revision: 77218
3584	Edition:
3585	Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
3586	VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
3587	Usable: true
3588	Why unusable:
3589	$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
3590	0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
3591	Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
3592	</sect1>
3593	</chapter>

Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.

source: vbox/trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml@ 43986

Download in other formats: