user_VBoxManage.xml@ 50601

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1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3	"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
4	<chapter id="vboxmanage">
5	<title>VBoxManage</title>
6
7	<sect1>
8	<title>Introduction</title>
9
10	<para>As briefly mentioned in <xref linkend="frontends" />, VBoxManage is
11	the command-line interface to VirtualBox. With it, you can completely
12	control VirtualBox from the command line of your host operating system.
13	VBoxManage supports all the features that the graphical user interface
14	gives you access to, but it supports a lot more than that. It exposes
15	really all the features of the virtualization engine, even those that
16	cannot (yet) be accessed from the GUI.</para>
17
18	<para>You will need to use the command line if you want to</para>
19
20	<para><itemizedlist>
21	<listitem>
22	<para>use a different user interface than the main GUI (for example,
23	VBoxSDL or the VBoxHeadless server);</para>
24	</listitem>
25
26	<listitem>
27	<para>control some of the more advanced and experimental
28	configuration settings for a VM.</para>
29	</listitem>
30	</itemizedlist></para>
31
32	<para>There are two main things to keep in mind when using
33	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>: First,
34	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> must always be used with a
35	specific "subcommand", such as "list" or "createvm" or "startvm". All the
36	subcommands that <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> supports are
37	described in detail in <xref linkend="vboxmanage" />.</para>
38
39	<para>Second, most of these subcommands require that you specify a
40	particular virtual machine after the subcommand. There are two ways you
41	can do this:</para>
42
43	<itemizedlist>
44	<listitem>
45	<para>You can specify the VM name, as it is shown in the VirtualBox
46	GUI. Note that if that name contains spaces, then you must enclose the
47	entire name in double quotes (as it is always required with command
48	line arguments that contain spaces).</para>
49
50	<para>For example:<screen>VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"</screen></para>
51	</listitem>
52
53	<listitem>
54	<para>You can specify the UUID, which is the internal unique
55	identifier that VirtualBox uses to refer to the virtual machine.
56	Assuming that the aforementioned VM called "Windows XP" has the UUID
57	shown below, the following command has the same effect as the
58	previous:<screen>VBoxManage startvm 670e746d-abea-4ba6-ad02-2a3b043810a5</screen></para>
59	</listitem>
60	</itemizedlist>
61
62	<para>You can type <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms</computeroutput> to
63	have all currently registered VMs listed with all their settings,
64	including their respective names and UUIDs.</para>
65
66	<para>Some typical examples of how to control VirtualBox from the command
67	line are listed below:</para>
68
69	<itemizedlist>
70	<listitem>
71	<para>To create a new virtual machine from the command line and
72	immediately register it with VirtualBox, use
73	<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> with the
74	<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option,<footnote>
75	<para>For details, see <xref
76	linkend="vboxmanage-createvm" />.</para>
77	</footnote> like this:</para>
78
79	<screen>$ VBoxManage createvm --name "SUSE 10.2" --register
80	VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
81	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
82	All rights reserved.
83
84	Virtual machine 'SUSE 10.2' is created.
85	UUID: c89fc351-8ec6-4f02-a048-57f4d25288e5
86	Settings file: '/home/username/.config/VirtualBox/Machines/SUSE 10.2/SUSE 10.2.xml'</screen>
87
88	<para>As can be seen from the above output, a new virtual machine has
89	been created with a new UUID and a new XML settings file.</para>
90	</listitem>
91
92	<listitem>
93	<para>To show the configuration of a particular VM, use
94	<computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see <xref
95	linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" /> for details and an example.</para>
96	</listitem>
97
98	<listitem>
99	<para>To change settings while a VM is powered off, use
100	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>, e.g. as
101	follows:<screen>VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows XP" --memory "512MB"</screen></para>
102
103	<para>For details, see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm" />.</para>
104	</listitem>
105
106	<listitem>
107	<para>To change the storage configuration (e.g. to add a storage
108	controller and then a virtual disk), use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
109	storagectl</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>VBoxManage
110	storageattach</computeroutput>; see <xref
111	linkend="vboxmanage-storagectl" /> and <xref
112	linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details.</para>
113	</listitem>
114
115	<listitem>
116	<para>To control VM operation, use one of the following:<itemizedlist>
117	<listitem>
118	<para>To start a VM that is currently powered off, use
119	<computeroutput>VBoxManage startvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
120	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
121	</listitem>
122
123	<listitem>
124	<para>To pause or save a VM that is currently running or change
125	some of its settings, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
126	controlvm</computeroutput>; see <xref
127	linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" /> for details.</para>
128	</listitem>
129	</itemizedlist></para>
130	</listitem>
131	</itemizedlist>
132	</sect1>
133
134	<sect1>
135	<title>Commands overview</title>
136
137	<para>When running VBoxManage without parameters or when supplying an
138	invalid command line, the below syntax diagram will be shown. Note that
139	the output will be slightly different depending on the host platform; when
140	in doubt, check the output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>
141	for the commands available on your particular host.</para>
142
143	<screen>$VBOX_MANAGE_OUTPUT</screen>
144
145	<para>Each time VBoxManage is invoked, only one command can be executed.
146	However, a command might support several subcommands which then can be
147	invoked in one single call. The following sections provide detailed
148	reference information on the different commands.</para>
149	</sect1>
150
151	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-general">
152	<title>General options</title>
153	<para>
154	<itemizedlist>
155	<listitem>
156	<para><computeroutput>--version</computeroutput>: show the version of
157	this tool and exit.</para>
158	</listitem>
159	<listitem>
160	<para><computeroutput>--nologo</computeroutput>: suppress the output
161	of the logo information (useful for scripts)</para>
162	</listitem>
163	<listitem>
164	<para><computeroutput>--settingspw</computeroutput>: specifiy a settings
165	password</para>
166	</listitem>
167	<listitem>
168	<para><computeroutput>--settingspwfile</computeroutput>: specify a file
169	containing the settings password.</para>
170	</listitem>
171	</itemizedlist>
172	The settings password is used for certain settings which need to be
173	stored encrypted for security reasons. At the moment, the only encrypted
174	setting is the iSCSI initiator secret (see
175	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-storageattach" /> for details). As long as no
176	settings password is specified, this information is stored in
177	<emphasis role="bold">plain text</emphasis>. After using the
178	<computeroutput>--settingspw\|--settingspwfile</computeroutput> option
179	once, it must be always used, otherwise the encrypted setting cannot
180	be unencrypted.
181	</para>
182	</sect1>
183
184	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-list">
185	<title>VBoxManage list</title>
186
187	<para>The <computeroutput>list</computeroutput> command gives relevant
188	information about your system and information about VirtualBox's current
189	settings.</para>
190
191	<para>The following subcommands are available with
192	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list</computeroutput>: <itemizedlist>
193	<listitem>
194	<para><computeroutput>vms</computeroutput> lists all virtual
195	machines currently registered with VirtualBox. By default this
196	displays a compact list with each VM's name and UUID; if you also
197	specify <computeroutput>--long</computeroutput> or
198	<computeroutput>-l</computeroutput>, this will be a detailed list as
199	with the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command (see
200	below).</para>
201	</listitem>
202
203	<listitem>
204	<para><computeroutput>runningvms</computeroutput> lists all
205	currently running virtual machines by their unique identifiers
206	(UUIDs) in the same format as with
207	<computeroutput>vms</computeroutput>.</para>
208	</listitem>
209
210	<listitem>
211	<para><computeroutput>ostypes</computeroutput> lists all guest
212	operating systems presently known to VirtualBox, along with the
213	identifiers used to refer to them with the
214	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command.</para>
215	</listitem>
216
217	<listitem>
218	<para><computeroutput>hostdvds</computeroutput>,
219	<computeroutput>hostfloppies</computeroutput>, respectively, list
220	DVD, floppy, bridged networking and host-only networking interfaces
221	on the host, along with the name used to access them from within
222	VirtualBox.</para>
223	</listitem>
224
225	<listitem>
226	<para><computeroutput>bridgedifs</computeroutput>,
227	<computeroutput>hostonlyifs</computeroutput> and
228	<computeroutput>dhcpservers</computeroutput>, respectively, list
229	bridged network interfaces, host-only network interfaces and DHCP
230	servers currently available on the host. Please see <xref
231	linkend="networkingdetails" /> for details on these.</para>
232	</listitem>
233
234	<listitem>
235	<para><computeroutput>hostinfo</computeroutput> displays information
236	about the host system, such as CPUs, memory size and operating
237	system version.</para>
238	</listitem>
239
240	<listitem>
241	<para><computeroutput>hostcpuids</computeroutput> dumps the CPUID
242	parameters for the host CPUs. This can be used for a more fine
243	grained analyis of the host's virtualization capabilities.</para>
244	</listitem>
245
246	<listitem>
247	<para><computeroutput>hddbackends</computeroutput> lists all known
248	virtual disk back-ends of VirtualBox. For each such format (such as
249	VDI, VMDK or RAW), this lists the back-end's capabilities and
250	configuration.</para>
251	</listitem>
252
253	<listitem>
254	<para><computeroutput>hdds</computeroutput>,
255	<computeroutput>dvds</computeroutput> and
256	<computeroutput>floppies</computeroutput> all give you information
257	about virtual disk images currently in use by VirtualBox, including
258	all their settings, the unique identifiers (UUIDs) associated with
259	them by VirtualBox and all files associated with them. This is the
260	command-line equivalent of the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref
261	linkend="vdis" />.</para>
262	</listitem>
263
264	<listitem>
265	<para><computeroutput>usbhost</computeroutput> supplies information
266	about USB devices attached to the host, notably information useful
267	for constructing USB filters and whether they are currently in use
268	by the host.</para>
269	</listitem>
270
271	<listitem>
272	<para><computeroutput>usbfilters</computeroutput> lists all global
273	USB filters registered with VirtualBox -- that is, filters for
274	devices which are accessible to all virtual machines -- and displays
275	the filter parameters.</para>
276	</listitem>
277
278	<listitem>
279	<para><computeroutput>systemproperties</computeroutput> displays
280	some global VirtualBox settings, such as minimum and maximum guest
281	RAM and virtual hard disk size, folder settings and the current
282	authentication library in use.</para>
283	</listitem>
284
285	<listitem>
286	<para><computeroutput>extpacks</computeroutput> displays all
287	VirtualBox extension packs currently installed; see <xref
288	linkend="intro-installing" /> and <xref
289	linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" /> for more information.</para>
290	</listitem>
291	</itemizedlist></para>
292	</sect1>
293
294	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-showvminfo">
295	<title>VBoxManage showvminfo</title>
296
297	<para>The <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> command shows
298	information about a particular virtual machine. This is the same
299	information as <computeroutput>VBoxManage list vms --long</computeroutput>
300	would show for all virtual machines.</para>
301
302	<para>You will get information similar to the following:</para>
303
304	<para><screen>$ VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"
305	VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
306	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
307	All rights reserved.
308
309	Name: Windows XP
310	Guest OS: Other/Unknown
311	UUID: 1bf3464d-57c6-4d49-92a9-a5cc3816b7e7
312	Config file: /home/username/.config/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Windows XP.xml
313	Memory size: 512MB
314	VRAM size: 12MB
315	Number of CPUs: 2
316	Synthetic Cpu: off
317	Boot menu mode: message and menu
318	Boot Device (1): DVD
319	Boot Device (2): HardDisk
320	Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
321	Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
322	ACPI: on
323	IOAPIC: on
324	PAE: on
325	Time offset: 0 ms
326	Hardw. virt.ext: on
327	Nested Paging: on
328	VT-x VPID: off
329	State: powered off (since 2009-10-20T14:52:19.000000000)
330	Monitor count: 1
331	3D Acceleration: off
332	2D Video Acceleration: off
333	Teleporter Enabled: off
334	Teleporter Port: 0
335	Teleporter Address:
336	Teleporter Password:
337	Storage Controller (0): IDE Controller
338	Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
339	Storage Controller (1): Floppy Controller 1
340	Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
341	IDE Controller (0, 0): /home/user/windows.vdi (UUID: 46f6e53a-4557-460a-9b95-68b0f17d744b)
342	IDE Controller (0, 1): /home/user/openbsd-cd46.iso (UUID: 4335e162-59d3-4512-91d5-b63e94eebe0b)
343	Floppy Controller 1 (0, 0): /home/user/floppy.img (UUID: 62ac6ccb-df36-42f2-972e-22f836368137)
344	NIC 1: disabled
345	NIC 2: disabled
346	NIC 3: disabled
347	NIC 4: disabled
348	NIC 5: disabled
349	NIC 6: disabled
350	NIC 7: disabled
351	NIC 8: disabled
352	UART 1: disabled
353	UART 2: disabled
354	Audio: disabled (Driver: Unknown)
355	Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
356	VRDE: disabled
357	USB: disabled
358
359	USB Device Filters:
360	<none>
361
362	Shared folders:
363	<none>
364
365	Statistics update: disabled</screen></para>
366	</sect1>
367
368	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-registervm">
369	<title>VBoxManage registervm / unregistervm</title>
370
371	<para>The <computeroutput>registervm</computeroutput> command allows you
372	to import a virtual machine definition in an XML file into VirtualBox. The
373	machine must not conflict with one already registered in VirtualBox and it
374	may not have any hard or removable disks attached. It is advisable to
375	place the definition file in the machines folder before registering
376	it.<note>
377	<para>When creating a new virtual machine with
378	<computeroutput>VBoxManage createvm</computeroutput> (see below), you
379	can directly specify the <computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>
380	option to avoid having to register it separately.</para>
381	</note></para>
382
383	<para>The <computeroutput>unregistervm</computeroutput> command
384	unregisters a virtual machine. If
385	<computeroutput>--delete</computeroutput> is also specified, the following
386	files will automatically be deleted as well:<orderedlist>
387	<listitem>
388	<para>all hard disk image files, including differencing files, which
389	are used by the machine and not shared with other machines;</para>
390	</listitem>
391
392	<listitem>
393	<para>saved state files that the machine created, if any (one if the
394	machine was in "saved" state and one for each online
395	snapshot);</para>
396	</listitem>
397
398	<listitem>
399	<para>the machine XML file and its backups;</para>
400	</listitem>
401
402	<listitem>
403	<para>the machine log files, if any;</para>
404	</listitem>
405
406	<listitem>
407	<para>the machine directory, if it is empty after having deleted all
408	the above.</para>
409	</listitem>
410	</orderedlist></para>
411	</sect1>
412
413	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvm">
414	<title>VBoxManage createvm</title>
415
416	<para>This command creates a new XML virtual machine definition
417	file.</para>
418
419	<para>The <computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput> parameter
420	is required and must specify the name of the machine. Since this name is
421	used by default as the file name of the settings file (with the extension
422	<computeroutput>.xml</computeroutput>) and the machine folder (a subfolder
423	of the <computeroutput>.config/VirtualBox/Machines</computeroutput> folder - this folder name may vary depending on the operating system and the version of VirtualBox which you are using), it
424	must conform to your host operating system's requirements for file name
425	specifications. If the VM is later renamed, the file and folder names will
426	change automatically.</para>
427
428	<para>However, if the <computeroutput>--basefolder
429	<path></computeroutput> option is used, the machine folder will be
430	named <computeroutput><path></computeroutput>. In this case, the
431	names of the file and the folder will not change if the virtual machine is
432	renamed.</para>
433
434	<para>By default, this command only creates the XML file without
435	automatically registering the VM with your VirtualBox installation. To
436	register the VM instantly, use the optional
437	<computeroutput>--register</computeroutput> option, or run
438	<computeroutput>VBoxManage registervm</computeroutput> separately
439	afterwards.</para>
440	</sect1>
441
442	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm">
443	<title>VBoxManage modifyvm</title>
444
445	<para>This command changes the properties of a registered virtual machine
446	which is not running. Most of the properties that this command makes
447	available correspond to the VM settings that VirtualBox graphical user
448	interface displays in each VM's "Settings" dialog; these were described in
449	<xref linkend="BasicConcepts" />. Some of the more advanced settings,
450	however, are only available through the
451	<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> interface.</para>
452
453	<para>These commands require that the machine is powered off (neither
454	running nor in "saved" state). Some machine settings can also be changed
455	while a machine is running; those settings will then have a corresponding
456	subcommand with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm</computeroutput>
457	subcommand (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-controlvm" />).</para>
458
459	<sect2>
460	<title>General settings</title>
461
462	<para>The following general settings are available through
463	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
464	<listitem>
465	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: This
466	changes the VM's name and possibly renames the internal virtual
467	machine files, as described with <computeroutput>VBoxManage
468	createvm</computeroutput> above.</para>
469	</listitem>
470
471	<listitem>
472	<para><computeroutput>--ostype <ostype></computeroutput>:
473	This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
474	the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
475	here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
476	ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
477	</listitem>
478
479	<listitem>
480	<para><computeroutput>--memory
481	<memorysize></computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
482	in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
483	the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
484	more information.</para>
485	</listitem>
486
487	<listitem>
488	<para><computeroutput>--vram <vramsize></computeroutput>:
489	This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
490	have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
491	</listitem>
492
493	<listitem>
494	<para><computeroutput>--acpi on\|off</computeroutput>;
495	<computeroutput>--ioapic on\|off</computeroutput>: These two
496	determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
497	respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
498	details.</para>
499	</listitem>
500
501	<listitem>
502	<para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
503	<uuid></computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
504	memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
505	default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
506	Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
507	</listitem>
508
509	<listitem>
510	<para><computeroutput>--cpus <cpucount></computeroutput>:
511	This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
512	<xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
513	enabled (see below), this then sets the
514	<emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
515	plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
516	</listitem>
517
518	<listitem>
519	<para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on\|off</computeroutput>: This
520	option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
521	<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
522	</listitem>
523
524	<listitem>
525	<para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on\|off</computeroutput>: This
526	enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
527	to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
528	<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
529	</listitem>
530
531	<listitem>
532	<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu\|unplugcpu
533	<id></computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
534	above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
535	removes one). <computeroutput><id></computeroutput>
536	specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
537	must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
538	the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
539	never be removed.</para>
540	</listitem>
541
542	<listitem>
543	<para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
544	<1-100></computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
545	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
546	CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
547	</listitem>
548
549	<listitem>
550	<para><computeroutput>--pae on\|off</computeroutput>: This
551	enables/disables PAE (see <xref
552	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
553	</listitem>
554
555	<listitem>
556	<para><computeroutput>--longmode on\|off</computeroutput>: This
557	enables/disables long mode (see <xref
558	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
559	</listitem>
560
561	<listitem>
562	<para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on\|off</computeroutput>: This
563	setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
564	to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
565	differ significantly.</para>
566	</listitem>
567
568	<listitem>
569	<para><computeroutput>--hpet on\|off</computeroutput>: This
570	enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
571	replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
572	Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
573	</listitem>
574
575	<listitem>
576	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on\|off</computeroutput>: This
577	enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
578	(Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
579	<xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
580	</listitem>
581
582	<listitem>
583	<para><computeroutput>--triplefaultreset on\|off</computeroutput>:
584	This setting allows to reset the guest instead of triggering a
585	Guru Meditation. Some guests raise a triple fault to reset the
586	CPU so sometimes this is desired behavior. Works only for non-SMP
587	guests.</para>
588	</listitem>
589
590	<listitem>
591	<para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on\|off</computeroutput>: If
592	hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
593	enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
594	processor of your host system; see <xref
595	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
596	</listitem>
597
598	<listitem>
599	<para><computeroutput>--largepages on\|off</computeroutput>: If
600	hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
601	enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
602	improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
603	This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
604	and overhead.</para>
605	</listitem>
606
607	<listitem>
608	<para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on\|off</computeroutput>: If
609	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
610	additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
611	(VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
612	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
613	</listitem>
614
615	<listitem>
616	<para><computeroutput>--vtxux on\|off</computeroutput>: If
617	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
618	setting enables or disables the use of the unrestricted guest mode
619	feature for executing your guest.</para>
620	</listitem>
621
622	<listitem>
623	<para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on\|off</computeroutput>: This
624	enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
625	acceleration should be available; see <xref
626	linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
627	</listitem>
628
629	<listitem>
630	<para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
631	virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
632	a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
633
634	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
635	on\|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
636	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
637	fade in and out, respectively.</para>
638
639	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
640	<msec></computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
641	be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
642
643	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
644	<imagepath></computeroutput> you can, if you are so
645	inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
646	image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file without color
647	space information (Windows 3.0 format). The image must not be
648	bigger than 640 x 480.</para>
649	</listitem>
650
651	<listitem>
652	<para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
653	disabled\|menuonly\|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
654	whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
655	device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
656	message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
657	boot device.</para>
658	</listitem>
659
660	<listitem>
661	<para><computeroutput>--nicbootprio<1-N>
662	<priority></computeroutput>: This specifies the order in which
663	NICs are tried for booting over the network (using PXE). The
664	priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range. Priority 1 is the
665	highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0, which is the default unless
666	otherwise specified, is the lowest.
667	</para>
668	<para> Note that this option only has effect when the Intel PXE boot
669	ROM is used.
670	</para>
671	</listitem>
672
673	<listitem>
674	<para><computeroutput>--boot<1-4>
675	none\|floppy\|dvd\|disk\|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
676	order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
677	VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
678	set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
679	</listitem>
680
681	<listitem>
682	<para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
683	default\|<path></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
684	the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
685	machine.</para>
686	</listitem>
687
688	<listitem>
689	<para><computeroutput>--firmware efi\|bios</computeroutput>:
690	Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
691	machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
692	you're doing.</para>
693	</listitem>
694
695	<listitem>
696	<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
697	<size></computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
698	memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
699	Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
700	hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines. <size> must
701	be specified in megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For
702	details, see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
703	</listitem>
704
705	<listitem>
706	<para><computeroutput>--lptmode<1-N>
707	<Device></computeroutput>
708	Specifies the Device Name of the parallel port that
709	the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
710	<emphasis>before</emphasis> <computeroutput>--lpt</computeroutput>.
711	This feature is host operating system specific.</para>
712	</listitem>
713
714	<listitem>
715	<para><computeroutput>--lpt<1-N>
716	<I/O base> <IRQ></computeroutput>
717	Specifies the I/O address of the parallel port and the IRQ
718	number that the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
719	<emphasis>after</emphasis>
720	<computeroutput>--lptmod</computeroutput>. I/O base address and IRQ are
721	the values that guest sees i.e. the values avalable under guest Device Manager.</para>
722	</listitem>
723
724	<listitem>
725	<para><computeroutput>--defaultfrontend
726	default\|<name></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
727	the default frontend which will be used when starting this VM; see
728	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
729	</listitem>
730	</itemizedlist></para>
731	</sect2>
732
733	<sect2>
734	<title>Networking settings</title>
735
736	<para>The following networking settings are available through
737	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
738	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
739	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
740	should be changed.<itemizedlist>
741	<listitem>
742	<para><computeroutput>--nic<1-N>
743	none\|null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic
744	</computeroutput>: With
745	this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
746	what type of networking should be available. They can be not
747	present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
748	the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
749	address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
750	bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
751	communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
752	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
753	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
754	sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
755	These options correspond
756	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
757	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
758	</listitem>
759
760	<listitem>
761	<para><computeroutput>--nictype<1-N>
762	Am79C970A\|Am79C973\|82540EM\|82543GC\|82545EM\|virtio</computeroutput>:
763	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
764	specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
765	guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
766	</listitem>
767
768	<listitem>
769	<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected<1-N>
770	on\|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
771	a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
772	from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
773	certain software components in the VM.</para>
774	</listitem>
775
776	<listitem>
777	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
778	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
779	purposes.</para>
780
781	<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace<1-N>
782	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
783	particular virtual network card.</para>
784
785	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
786	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
787	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
788	logged to.</para>
789	</listitem>
790
791	<listitem>
792	<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter<1-N>
793	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If bridged networking
794	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
795	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
796	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
797	interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
798	details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
799	</listitem>
800
801	<listitem>
802	<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
803	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If host-only networking
804	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
805	above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
806	specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
807	network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
808	linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
809	</listitem>
810
811	<listitem>
812	<para><computeroutput>--intnet<1-N>
813	network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
814	for a virtual network card (see the
815	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
816	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
817	of the internal network (see <xref
818	linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
819	</listitem>
820
821	<listitem>
822	<para><computeroutput>--macaddress<1-N>
823	auto\|<mac></computeroutput>: With this option you can set
824	the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
825	virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
826	VM creation.</para>
827	</listitem>
828
829	<listitem>
830	<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv<1-N>
831	<backend driver></computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
832	enabled for a virtual network card (see the
833	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
834	this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
835	rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
836	</para>
837	</listitem>
838
839	<listitem>
840	<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty<1-N>
841	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
842	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
843	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
844	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
845	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
846	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
847	</para>
848	</listitem>
849	</itemizedlist></para>
850
851	<sect3>
852	<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
853
854	<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
855	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
856	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
857	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
858	settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
859	<listitem>
860	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N>
861	[<name>],tcp\|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
862	<guestport></computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
863	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
864	for details).</para>
865	</listitem>
866
867	<listitem>
868	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N> delete
869	<name></computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
870	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
871	for details).</para>
872	</listitem>
873
874	<listitem>
875	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix<1-N>
876	<prefix></computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
877	for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
878	located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
879	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
880	</listitem>
881
882	<listitem>
883	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile<1-N>
884	<bootfile></computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
885	boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
886	details).</para>
887	</listitem>
888
889	<listitem>
890	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver<1-N>
891	<tftpserver></computeroutput>: This option defines the
892	TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
893	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
894	</listitem>
895
896	<listitem>
897	<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
898	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
899	built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
900	resolution.</para>
901	</listitem>
902
903	<listitem>
904	<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy<1-N>
905	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
906	all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
907	<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
908	</listitem>
909
910	<listitem>
911	<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
912	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
913	the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
914	see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
915	</listitem>
916
917	<listitem>
918	<para><computeroutput>--natnatsettings<1-N>
919	[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
920	[<tcprcv>]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
921	NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
922	details).</para>
923	</listitem>
924
925	<listitem>
926	<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode<1-N>
927	default\|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
928	option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
929	logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
930	transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
931	the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
932	mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
933	linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
934	</listitem>
935	</itemizedlist></para>
936	</sect3>
937	</sect2>
938
939	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
940	<title>Serial port, audio, clipboard and USB settings</title>
941
942	<para>The following other hardware settings are available through
943	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
944	<listitem>
945	<para><computeroutput>--uart<1-N> off\|<I/O base>
946	<IRQ></computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
947	virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
948	linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
949	</listitem>
950
951	<listitem>
952	<para><computeroutput>--uartmode<1-N>
953	<arg></computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
954	connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
955	the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
956	to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
957	in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
958	you can specify <computeroutput><arg></computeroutput> as
959	one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
960	<listitem>
961	<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
962	though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
963	"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
964	</listitem>
965
966	<listitem>
967	<para><computeroutput>server
968	<pipename></computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
969	tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
970	<computeroutput><pipename></computeroutput> and
971	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
972	requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
973	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
974
975	<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
976	domain socket is used.</para>
977	</listitem>
978
979	<listitem>
980	<para><computeroutput>client
981	<pipename></computeroutput>: This operates just like
982	<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
983	pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
984	but assumed to exist already.</para>
985	</listitem>
986
987	<listitem>
988	<para><computeroutput><devicename></computeroutput>:
989	If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
990	hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
991	serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
992	host, the device name will be a COM port such as
993	<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
994	device name will look like
995	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
996	to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
997	</listitem>
998	</itemizedlist></para>
999	</listitem>
1000
1001	<listitem>
1002	<para><computeroutput>--audio none\|null\|oss</computeroutput>: With
1003	this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
1004	support.</para>
1005	</listitem>
1006
1007	<listitem>
1008	<para><computeroutput>--clipboard
1009	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1010	With this setting, you can select whether the guest operating
1011	system's clipboard should be shared with the host; see <xref
1012	linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
1013	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1014	</listitem>
1015
1016	<listitem>
1017	<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
1018	<count></computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
1019	support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
1020	</listitem>
1021
1022	<listitem>
1023	<para><computeroutput>--usb on\|off</computeroutput>: This option
1024	enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
1025	linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1026	</listitem>
1027
1028	<listitem>
1029	<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1030	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
1031	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1032	</listitem>
1033	</itemizedlist></para>
1034	</sect2>
1035
1036	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-vrde">
1037	<title>Remote machine settings</title>
1038
1039	<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
1040	available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1041	modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1042	<listitem>
1043	<para><computeroutput>--vrde on\|off</computeroutput>: With the
1044	VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
1045	VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
1046	you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
1047	<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
1048	default.</para>
1049	</listitem>
1050
1051	<listitem>
1052	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
1053	default\|<ports></computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
1054	the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
1055	standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
1056	ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
1057	specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
1058	role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
1059	list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
1060	example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
1061	5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
1062	one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
1063	</listitem>
1064
1065	<listitem>
1066	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress <IP
1067	address></computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1068	interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1069	will accept connections only on the specified host network
1070	interface.</para>
1071	<para>The setting can be used to specify whether the VRDP server
1072	should accept either IPv4 or IPv6 or both connections:
1073	<itemizedlist>
1074	<listitem>
1075	<para>only IPv4: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "0.0.0.0"
1076	</computeroutput></para>
1077	</listitem>
1078	<listitem>
1079	<para>only IPv6: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "::"
1080	</computeroutput></para>
1081	</listitem>
1082	<listitem>
1083	<para>both IPv6 and IPv4 (default): <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress ""
1084	</computeroutput></para>
1085	</listitem>
1086	</itemizedlist></para>
1087	</listitem>
1088
1089	<listitem>
1090	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1091	null\|external\|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1092	whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1093	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1094	</listitem>
1095
1096	<listitem>
1097	<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1098	enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1099	server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1100	linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1101	</listitem>
1102
1103	<listitem>
1104	<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1105	specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1106	disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1107	client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1108	option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1109	will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1110	server.</para>
1111	</listitem>
1112
1113	<listitem>
1114	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on\|off</computeroutput>:
1115	This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1116	server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1117	</listitem>
1118
1119	<listitem>
1120	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1121	<percent></computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1122	redirection; see <xref lang=""
1123	linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1124	</listitem>
1125	</itemizedlist></para>
1126	</sect2>
1127
1128	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1129	<title>Teleporting settings</title>
1130
1131	<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1132	modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1133	teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1134	introduction.<itemizedlist>
1135	<listitem>
1136	<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on\|off</computeroutput>: With
1137	this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1138	teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1139	If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1140	machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1141	teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1142	the next two parameters.</para>
1143	</listitem>
1144
1145	<listitem>
1146	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1147	<port></computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1148	<address></computeroutput>: these must be used with
1149	--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1150	address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1151	virtual machine. <computeroutput><port></computeroutput> can
1152	be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1153	<computeroutput><address></computeroutput> can be any IP
1154	address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1155	The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1156	</listitem>
1157
1158	<listitem>
1159	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1160	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1161	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1162	source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1163	this command.</para>
1164	</listitem>
1165
1166	<listitem>
1167	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1168	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1169	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1170	source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1171	in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1172	to read the password from stdin.</para>
1173	</listitem>
1174
1175	<listitem>
1176	<para><computeroutput>--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
1177	<ecx> <edx></computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1178	this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1179	virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1180	operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1181	target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1182	what the guest sees when it executes the
1183	<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1184	might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1185	certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1186	parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1187	processor manuals.</para>
1188	</listitem>
1189	</itemizedlist></para>
1190	</sect2>
1191	</sect1>
1192
1193	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1194	<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1195
1196	<para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1197	machine.</para>
1198
1199	<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1200	least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1201	additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1202	operation:</para>
1203
1204	<itemizedlist>
1205	<listitem>
1206	<para><computeroutput>--snapshot <uuid>\|<name></computeroutput>:
1207	Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1208	to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1209	</listitem>
1210	<listitem>
1211	<para><computeroutput>--mode machine\|machineandchildren\|all</computeroutput>:
1212	Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1213	<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1214	the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1215	<computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1216	provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1217	child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1218	is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1219	</para>
1220	</listitem>
1221	<listitem>
1222	<para><computeroutput>--options link\|keepallmacs\|keepnatmacs\|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1223	Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1224	option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1225	only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1226	options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1227	network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1228	(the default), left unchanged
1229	(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1230	when the network type is NAT
1231	(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1232	<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1233	are called like the original ones, otherwise they are
1234	renamed.</para>
1235	</listitem>
1236	<listitem>
1237	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: Select a
1238	new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1239	Clone".</para>
1240	</listitem>
1241	<listitem>
1242	<para><computeroutput>--basefolder <basefolder></computeroutput>:
1243	Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1244	be saved in.</para>
1245	</listitem>
1246	<listitem>
1247	<para><computeroutput>--uuid <uuid></computeroutput>:
1248	Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1249	the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1250	creating a new UUID.</para>
1251	</listitem>
1252	<listitem>
1253	<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1254	Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1255	installation. If you manually want to register the new VM later, see
1256	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1257	so.</para>
1258	</listitem>
1259	</itemizedlist>
1260	</sect1>
1261
1262	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1263	<title>VBoxManage import</title>
1264
1265	<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1266	the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1267	<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1268
1269	<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1270	least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1271	if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1272	command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1273	imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1274	content of the OVF file.</para>
1275
1276	<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1277	the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1278	<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1279	description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1280	imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1281	to influence the import behavior.</para>
1282
1283	<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1284	containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1285	Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1286	OK.
1287	Virtual system 0:
1288	0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1289	(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1290	1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1291	(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
1292	3: Number of CPUs: 1
1293	(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
1294	4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
1295	5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1296	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1297	6: USB controller
1298	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1299	7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1300	8: Floppy
1301	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1302	9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1303	(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic\|LsiLogic}";
1304	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
1305	10: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1306	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
1307	11: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1308	target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1309	(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
1310	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1311
1312	<para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1313	depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1314	subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1315	<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1316	X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1317	virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1318	printed on the screen.</para>
1319
1320	<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1321	machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1322	respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1323	additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1324	which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1325	from the OVF file.</para>
1326
1327	<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1328	same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1329	import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1330	without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1331	controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1332	--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1333	</sect1>
1334
1335	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1336	<title>VBoxManage export</title>
1337
1338	<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1339	into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1340	disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1341	introduction to appliances.</para>
1342
1343	<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1344	use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1345	the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1346	<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1347	<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1348	target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1349	compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1350	enough disk space left for them.</para>
1351
1352	<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1353	several product information to the appliance file. Use
1354	<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1355	<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1356	<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1357	<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1358	<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1359	information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1360	of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1361	<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1362	OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1363	option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1364	machine.</para>
1365
1366	<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1367	OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1368	<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1369
1370	<para>To specify options controlling the exact content of the appliance
1371	file, you can use <computeroutput>--option</computeroutput> to request the
1372	creation of a manifest file (encouraged, allows detection of corrupted
1373	appliances on import), the additional export of DVD images, and the
1374	exclusion of MAC addresses. You can specify a list of options, e.g.
1375	<computeroutput>--option manifest,nomacs</computeroutput>. For details,
1376	check the help output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage export</computeroutput>.</para>
1377	</sect1>
1378
1379	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1380	<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1381
1382	<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1383	"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1384
1385	<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1386	determines whether the machine will be started in a window or whether the
1387	output should go through <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>,
1388	with VRDE enabled or not; see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1389	information. The list of types is subject to change, and it's not
1390	guaranteed that all types are accepted by any product variant.</para>
1391
1392	<para>The global or per-VM default value for the VM frontend type will be
1393	taken if the type is not explicitly specified. If none of these are set,
1394	the GUI variant will be started.</para>
1395
1396	<para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1397
1398	<glosslist>
1399	<glossentry>
1400	<glossterm><computeroutput>gui</computeroutput></glossterm>
1401
1402	<glossdef>
1403	<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1404	</glossdef>
1405	</glossentry>
1406
1407	<glossentry>
1408	<glossterm><computeroutput>headless</computeroutput></glossterm>
1409
1410	<glossdef>
1411	<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1412	</glossdef>
1413	</glossentry>
1414
1415	<glossentry>
1416	<glossterm><computeroutput>sdl</computeroutput></glossterm>
1417
1418	<glossdef>
1419	<para>Starts a VM with a minimal GUI and limited features.</para>
1420	</glossdef>
1421	</glossentry>
1422	</glosslist>
1423
1424	<note>
1425	<para>If you experience problems with starting virtual machines with
1426	particular frontends and there is no conclusive error information,
1427	consider starting virtual machines directly by running the respective
1428	front-end, as this can give additional error information.</para>
1429	</note>
1430	</sect1>
1431
1432	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1433	<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1434
1435	<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1436	to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1437	following can be specified:</para>
1438
1439	<para><itemizedlist>
1440	<listitem>
1441	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1442	pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1443	without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1444	in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1445	equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1446	the GUI.)</para>
1447	</listitem>
1448
1449	<listitem>
1450	<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1451	resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1452	<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1453	to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1454	GUI.)</para>
1455	</listitem>
1456
1457	<listitem>
1458	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1459	reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1460	pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1461	virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1462	system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1463	beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1464	the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1465	</listitem>
1466
1467	<listitem>
1468	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1469	poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1470	as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1471	the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1472	equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1473	the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1474	"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1475
1476	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1477	it can be started again; see <xref
1478	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1479	</listitem>
1480
1481	<listitem>
1482	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1483	savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1484	disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1485	"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1486	window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1487	in the dialog.)</para>
1488
1489	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1490	be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1491	</listitem>
1492
1493	<listitem>
1494	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm "VM name" teleport
1495	--hostname <name> --port <port> [--passwordfile
1496	<file> \| --password <password>]</computeroutput> makes
1497	the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a
1498	teleport to the given target. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for
1499	an introduction. If the optional password is specified, it must match
1500	the password that was given to the
1501	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for the target
1502	machine; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for
1503	details.</para>
1504	</listitem>
1505	</itemizedlist></para>
1506
1507	<para>A few extra options are available with
1508	<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1509	VM's running state:</para>
1510
1511	<itemizedlist>
1512	<listitem>
1513	<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate<1-N></computeroutput>
1514	operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1515	network interfaces.</para>
1516	</listitem>
1517
1518	<listitem>
1519	<para><computeroutput>nic<1-N>
1520	null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1521	set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1522	networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1523	(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1524	translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1525	(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1526	virtual machines using internal networking
1527	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1528	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1529	sub-modes
1530	(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1531	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1532	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1533	</listitem>
1534
1535	<listitem>
1536	<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1537	<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1538	visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1539	creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1540	(unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1541
1542	<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1543	usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1544	</listitem>
1545
1546	<listitem>
1547	<para><computeroutput>vrde on\|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1548	disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1549	</listitem>
1550
1551	<listitem>
1552	<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default\|<ports></computeroutput>
1553	changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1554	"default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1555	details, see the description for the
1556	<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1557	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1558	</listitem>
1559
1560	<listitem>
1561	<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1562	the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1563	the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1564	systems.</para>
1565	</listitem>
1566
1567	<listitem>
1568	<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1569	of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1570	</listitem>
1571
1572	<listitem>
1573	<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1574	used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1575	<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1576	</listitem>
1577
1578	<listitem>
1579	<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1580	operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1581	memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1582	operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1583	virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1584	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1585	</listitem>
1586
1587	<listitem>
1588	<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1589	<1-100></computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1590	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1591	can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1592	</listitem>
1593	</itemizedlist>
1594	</sect1>
1595
1596	<sect1>
1597	<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1598
1599	<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1600	not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1601	next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1602	cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1603	</sect1>
1604
1605	<sect1>
1606	<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1607
1608	<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1609	that is separate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1610	"adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1611	start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1612	you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1613	</sect1>
1614
1615	<sect1>
1616	<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1617
1618	<para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1619	snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1620	copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1621	machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1622	running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1623	hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1624	when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1625	hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1626	differencing files.</para>
1627
1628	<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1629	of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1630	the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1631	inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1632	then becomes the new current snapshot. The
1633	<computeroutput>--description</computeroutput> parameter allows to
1634	describe the snapshot. If <computeroutput>--live</computeroutput>
1635	is specified, the VM will not be stopped during the snapshot creation
1636	(live smapshotting).</para>
1637
1638	<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1639	snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1640	since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1641	be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1642
1643	<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1644	the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1645	machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1646	current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1647	becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1648	inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1649
1650	<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1651	shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1652	current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1653	"restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1654	that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1655
1656	<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1657	change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1658
1659	<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1660	can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1661	snapshot.</para>
1662	</sect1>
1663
1664	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1665	<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1666
1667	<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1668	VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1669	<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1670	openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1671	that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1672	registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1673	added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1674	been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1675	a registry.</para>
1676	</footnote></para>
1677
1678	<para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
1679	appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
1680	become unregistered in any case.</para>
1681	</sect1>
1682
1683	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storageattach">
1684	<title>VBoxManage storageattach</title>
1685
1686	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
1687	a storage controller that was previously added with the
1688	<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
1689	section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
1690
1691	<screen>VBoxManage storageattach <uuid\|vmname>
1692	--storagectl <name>
1693	[--port <number>]
1694	[--device <number>]
1695	[--type dvddrive\|hdd\|fdd]
1696	[--medium none\|emptydrive\|
1697	<uuid>\|<filename>\|host:<drive>\|iscsi]
1698	[--mtype normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable]
1699	[--comment <text>]
1700	[--setuuid <uuid>]
1701	[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
1702	[--passthrough on\|off]
1703	[--tempeject on\|off]
1704	[--nonrotational on\|off]
1705	[--discard on\|off]
1706	[--bandwidthgroup name\|none]
1707	[--forceunmount]
1708	[--server <name>\|<ip>]
1709	[--target <target>]
1710	[--tport <port>]
1711	[--lun <lun>]
1712	[--encodedlun <lun>]
1713	[--username <username>]
1714	[--password <password>]
1715	[--initiator <initiator>]
1716	[--intnet]</screen>
1717
1718	<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
1719	the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
1720
1721	<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
1722	<glossentry>
1723	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
1724
1725	<glossdef>
1726	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
1727	</glossdef>
1728	</glossentry>
1729
1730	<glossentry>
1731	<glossterm><computeroutput>--storagectl</computeroutput></glossterm>
1732
1733	<glossdef>
1734	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
1735	storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
1736	with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
1737	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
1738	</glossdef>
1739	</glossentry>
1740
1741	<glossentry>
1742	<glossterm><computeroutput>--port</computeroutput></glossterm>
1743
1744	<glossdef>
1745	<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
1746	modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
1747	single port.</para>
1748	</glossdef>
1749	</glossentry>
1750
1751	<glossentry>
1752	<glossterm><computeroutput>--device</computeroutput></glossterm>
1753
1754	<glossdef>
1755	<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
1756	Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
1757	per port.</para>
1758	</glossdef>
1759	</glossentry>
1760
1761	<glossentry>
1762	<glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
1763
1764	<glossdef>
1765	<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
1766	attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
1767	the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
1768	with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
1769	from a previous medium attachment.</para>
1770	</glossdef>
1771	</glossentry>
1772
1773	<glossentry>
1774	<glossterm><computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput></glossterm>
1775
1776	<glossdef>
1777	<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
1778	supported:<itemizedlist>
1779	<listitem>
1780	<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
1781	given slot.</para>
1782	</listitem>
1783
1784	<listitem>
1785	<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
1786	this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
1787	into which no media has been inserted.</para>
1788	</listitem>
1789
1790	<listitem>
1791	<para>"additions": For a virtual DVD drive only, this
1792	attaches the <emphasis>VirtualBox Guest Additions</emphasis>
1793	image to the given device slot.</para>
1794	</listitem>
1795
1796	<listitem>
1797	<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
1798	storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
1799	because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
1800	See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
1801	media. This medium is then attached to the given device
1802	slot.</para>
1803	</listitem>
1804
1805	<listitem>
1806	<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
1807	of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
1808	which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
1809	</listitem>
1810
1811	<listitem>
1812	<para>"host:<drive>": For a virtual DVD or floppy
1813	drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
1814	specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
1815	</listitem>
1816
1817	<listitem>
1818	<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
1819	specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
1820	must be given; see below.</para>
1821	</listitem>
1822	</itemizedlist></para>
1823
1824	<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
1825	media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
1826	running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
1827	slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
1828	</glossdef>
1829	</glossentry>
1830
1831	<glossentry>
1832	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mtype</computeroutput></glossterm>
1833
1834	<glossdef>
1835	<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
1836	and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
1837	details.</para>
1838	</glossdef>
1839	</glossentry>
1840
1841	<glossentry>
1842	<glossterm><computeroutput>--comment</computeroutput></glossterm>
1843
1844	<glossdef>
1845	<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
1846	medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
1847	server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
1848	the medium to function correctly.</para>
1849	</glossdef>
1850	</glossentry>
1851
1852	<glossentry>
1853	<glossterm><computeroutput>--setuuid, --setparentuuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
1854
1855	<glossdef>
1856	<para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
1857	attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
1858	can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
1859	if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
1860	frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
1861	a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
1862	duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
1863	utilities.</para>
1864	</glossdef>
1865	</glossentry>
1866
1867	<glossentry>
1868	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passthrough</computeroutput></glossterm>
1869
1870	<glossdef>
1871	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
1872	support (currently experimental; see <xref
1873	linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
1874	</glossdef>
1875	</glossentry>
1876
1877	<glossentry>
1878	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tempeject</computeroutput></glossterm>
1879
1880	<glossdef>
1881	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
1882	for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
1883	has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
1884	the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
1885	</glossdef>
1886	</glossentry>
1887
1888	<glossentry>
1889	<glossterm><computeroutput>--nonrotational</computeroutput></glossterm>
1890
1891	<glossdef>
1892	<para>This switch allows to enable the non-rotational flag for virtual
1893	hard disks. Some guests (i.e. Windows 7+) treat such disks like SSDs
1894	and don't perform disk fragmentation on such media.
1895	</para>
1896	</glossdef>
1897	</glossentry>
1898
1899	<glossentry>
1900	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bandwidthgroup</computeroutput></glossterm>
1901
1902	<glossdef>
1903	<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
1904	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
1905	</glossdef>
1906	</glossentry>
1907
1908	<glossentry>
1909	<glossterm><computeroutput>--forceunmount</computeroutput></glossterm>
1910
1911	<glossdef>
1912	<para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
1913	unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
1914	the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
1915	see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
1916	</glossdef>
1917	</glossentry>
1918	</glosslist></para>
1919
1920	<para>When "iscsi" is used with the
1921	<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
1922	see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
1923	be used:<glosslist>
1924	<glossentry>
1925	<glossterm><computeroutput>--server</computeroutput></glossterm>
1926
1927	<glossdef>
1928	<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
1929	required.</para>
1930	</glossdef>
1931	</glossentry>
1932
1933	<glossentry>
1934	<glossterm><computeroutput>--target</computeroutput></glossterm>
1935
1936	<glossdef>
1937	<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
1938	and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
1939	</glossdef>
1940	</glossentry>
1941
1942	<glossentry>
1943	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tport</computeroutput></glossterm>
1944
1945	<glossdef>
1946	<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
1947	(optional).</para>
1948	</glossdef>
1949	</glossentry>
1950
1951	<glossentry>
1952	<glossterm><computeroutput>--lun</computeroutput></glossterm>
1953
1954	<glossdef>
1955	<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
1956	Often, this value is zero.</para>
1957	</glossdef>
1958	</glossentry>
1959
1960	<glossentry>
1961	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username, --password</computeroutput></glossterm>
1962
1963	<glossdef>
1964	<para>Username and password (initiator secret) for target
1965	authentication, if required (optional).<note>
1966	<para>Username and password are stored without
1967	encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
1968	configuration file if no settings password is provided.
1969	When a settings password was specified the first time,
1970	the password is stored encrypted.</para>
1971	</note></para>
1972	</glossdef>
1973	</glossentry>
1974
1975	<glossentry>
1976	<glossterm><computeroutput>--intnet</computeroutput></glossterm>
1977
1978	<glossdef>
1979	<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
1980	Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
1981	<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
1982	</glossdef>
1983	</glossentry>
1984	</glosslist></para>
1985	</sect1>
1986
1987	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
1988	<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
1989
1990	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
1991	this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
1992	<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
1993	section).</para>
1994
1995	<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
1996
1997	<screen>VBoxManage storagectl <uuid\|vmname>
1998	--name <name>
1999	[--add <ide/sata/scsi/floppy>]
2000	[--controller <LsiLogic\|LSILogicSAS\|BusLogic\|
2001	IntelAhci\|PIIX3\|PIIX4\|ICH6\|I82078>]
2002	[--sataportcount <1-30>]
2003	[--hostiocache on\|off]
2004	[--bootable on\|off]
2005	[--remove]</screen>
2006
2007	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2008	<glossentry>
2009	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2010
2011	<glossdef>
2012	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2013	</glossdef>
2014	</glossentry>
2015
2016	<glossentry>
2017	<glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2018
2019	<glossdef>
2020	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
2021	</glossdef>
2022	</glossentry>
2023
2024	<glossentry>
2025	<glossterm><computeroutput>--add</computeroutput></glossterm>
2026
2027	<glossdef>
2028	<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
2029	controller must be connected.</para>
2030	</glossdef>
2031	</glossentry>
2032
2033	<glossentry>
2034	<glossterm><computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput></glossterm>
2035
2036	<glossdef>
2037	<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
2038	given storage controller.</para>
2039	</glossdef>
2040	</glossentry>
2041
2042	<glossentry>
2043	<glossterm><computeroutput>--sataportcount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2044
2045	<glossdef>
2046	<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
2047	support.</para>
2048	</glossdef>
2049	</glossentry>
2050
2051	<glossentry>
2052	<glossterm><computeroutput>--hostiocache</computeroutput></glossterm>
2053
2054	<glossdef>
2055	<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
2056	attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
2057	linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
2058	</glossdef>
2059	</glossentry>
2060
2061	<glossentry>
2062	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bootable</computeroutput></glossterm>
2063
2064	<glossdef>
2065	<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
2066	</glossdef>
2067	</glossentry>
2068
2069	<glossentry>
2070	<glossterm><computeroutput>--remove</computeroutput></glossterm>
2071
2072	<glossdef>
2073	<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
2074	</glossdef>
2075	</glossentry>
2076	</glosslist></para>
2077	</sect1>
2078
2079	<sect1>
2080	<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
2081
2082	<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies/shows bandwidth groups of the given
2083	virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid\|vmname>
2084	add <name> --type disk\|network --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2085	set <name> --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2086	remove <name> \|
2087	list [--machinereadable]</screen></para>
2088
2089	<para>The following subcommands are available:<itemizedlist>
2090	<listitem>
2091	<para><computeroutput>add</computeroutput>, creates a new bandwidth
2092	group of given type.</para>
2093	</listitem>
2094	<listitem>
2095	<para><computeroutput>set</computeroutput>, modifies the limit for an
2096	existing bandwidth group.</para>
2097	</listitem>
2098	<listitem>
2099	<para><computeroutput>remove</computeroutput>, destroys a bandwidth
2100	group.</para>
2101	</listitem>
2102	<listitem>
2103	<para><computeroutput>list</computeroutput>, shows all bandwidth groups
2104	defined for the given VM.</para>
2105	</listitem>
2106	</itemizedlist>
2107	</para>
2108	<para>The parameters mean:<glosslist>
2109	<glossentry>
2110	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2111
2112	<glossdef>
2113	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2114	</glossdef>
2115	</glossentry>
2116
2117	<glossentry>
2118	<glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2119
2120	<glossdef>
2121	<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
2122	</glossdef>
2123	</glossentry>
2124
2125	<glossentry>
2126	<glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
2127
2128	<glossdef>
2129	<para>Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
2130	supported: <computeroutput>disk</computeroutput> and
2131	<computeroutput>network</computeroutput>. See
2132	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> or
2133	<xref linkend="network_bandwidth_limit" /> for a description of a
2134	particular type.</para>
2135	</glossdef>
2136	</glossentry>
2137
2138	<glossentry>
2139	<glossterm><computeroutput>--limit</computeroutput></glossterm>
2140
2141	<glossdef>
2142	<para>Specifies the limit for the given group. Can be changed
2143	while the VM is running. The default unit is megabytes per
2144	second. The unit can be changed by specifying one of the
2145	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>
2146	</glossdef>
2147	</glossentry>
2148	</glosslist>
2149	<note>
2150	<para>The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by
2151	virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.</para>
2152	</note>
2153	<note>
2154	<para>To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks
2155	or adapters in running VM.</para>
2156	</note>
2157	</para>
2158	</sect1>
2159
2160	<sect1>
2161	<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2162
2163	<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2164	notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2165	which use it.<note>
2166	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2167	"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2168	"showhdinfo" command.</para>
2169	</note></para>
2170	<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2171	is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2172	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2173	for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2174	as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2175	directory.</para>
2176	</sect1>
2177
2178	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2179	<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2180
2181	<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2182	follows:</para>
2183
2184	<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
2185	--size <megabytes>
2186	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD] (default: VDI)
2187	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2188
2189	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2190	<glossentry>
2191	<glossterm><computeroutput>--filename</computeroutput></glossterm>
2192
2193	<glossdef>
2194	<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2195	</glossdef>
2196	</glossentry>
2197
2198	<glossentry>
2199	<glossterm><computeroutput>--size</computeroutput></glossterm>
2200
2201	<glossdef>
2202	<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2203	Mandatory.</para>
2204	</glossdef>
2205	</glossentry>
2206
2207	<glossentry>
2208	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2209
2210	<glossdef>
2211	<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2212	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2213	</glossdef>
2214	</glossentry>
2215
2216	<glossentry>
2217	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2218
2219	<glossdef>
2220	<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2221	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2222	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2223	result in an error message.</para>
2224	</glossdef>
2225	</glossentry>
2226	</glosslist> <note>
2227	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2228	"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2229	"createhd" command.</para>
2230	</note></para>
2231	</sect1>
2232
2233	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2234	<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2235
2236	<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2237	change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2238	created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd <uuid\|filename>
2239	[--type normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable\|
2240	readonly\|multiattach]
2241	[--autoreset on\|off]
2242	[--compact]
2243	[--resize <megabytes>\|--resizebyte <bytes>]</screen><note>
2244	<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2245	all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2246	versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2247	mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2248	</note></para>
2249
2250	<para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2251	(if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2252	can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2253	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2254	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2255	or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2256	<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2257	<listitem>
2258	<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2259	can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2260	immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2261	linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2262	</listitem>
2263
2264	<listitem>
2265	<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2266	<computeroutput>--autoreset on\|off</computeroutput> option
2267	determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2268	startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2269	is "on".</para>
2270	</listitem>
2271
2272	<listitem>
2273	<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2274	can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2275	contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2276	again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2277	image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2278	Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2279	part of a snapshot.</para>
2280
2281	<para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2282	space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2283	software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2284	<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2285	Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2286	zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2287	image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2288	supports ext2/ext3 filesystems. For Mac OS X guests, use the
2289	<emphasis>Erase Free Space</emphasis> feature of the built-in
2290	<emphasis>Disk Utility</emphasis>. Use
2291	<emphasis>Zero Out Data</emphasis> there.</para>
2292
2293	<para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2294	VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2295	blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2296	format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2297	supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2298	</listitem>
2299
2300	<listitem>
2301	<para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2302	is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2303	allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2304	<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2305	the physical size much.<footnote>
2306	<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2307	</footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2308	for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2309	(not shrink) the capacity.
2310	For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2311	you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2312	command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2313	image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2314	this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2315	a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2316	to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2317	option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2318	instead of megabytes.</para>
2319	</listitem>
2320	</itemizedlist></para>
2321	</sect1>
2322
2323	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2324	<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2325
2326	<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2327	new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2328	transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2329	the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2330	linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2331
2332	<screen>VBoxManage clonehd <uuid\|inutfile> <uuid\|outputfile>
2333	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD\|RAW\|<other>]
2334	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2335	[--existing]</screen>
2336
2337	<para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2338	either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2339	Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2340	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2341	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2342	as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2343	<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2344	<glossentry>
2345	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2346
2347	<glossdef>
2348	<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2349	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2350	</glossdef>
2351	</glossentry>
2352
2353	<glossentry>
2354	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2355
2356	<glossdef>
2357	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2358	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2359	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2360	result in an error message.</para>
2361	</glossdef>
2362	</glossentry>
2363
2364	<glossentry>
2365	<glossterm><computeroutput>--existing</computeroutput></glossterm>
2366
2367	<glossdef>
2368	<para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2369	destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2370	fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2371	destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2372	copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2373	the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2374	</glossdef>
2375	</glossentry>
2376	</glosslist> <note>
2377	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2378	"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2379	"clonehd" command.</para>
2380	</note></para>
2381	</sect1>
2382
2383	<sect1>
2384	<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2385
2386	<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2387	(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2388
2389	<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
2390	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2391	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2392	[--uuid <uuid>]
2393	VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
2394	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2395	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2396	[--uuid <uuid>]</screen>
2397
2398	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2399	<glossentry>
2400	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bytes</computeroutput></glossterm>
2401
2402	<glossdef>
2403	<para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2404	stdin.</para>
2405	</glossdef>
2406	</glossentry>
2407
2408	<glossentry>
2409	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2410
2411	<glossdef>
2412	<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2413	VDI.</para>
2414	</glossdef>
2415	</glossentry>
2416
2417	<glossentry>
2418	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2419
2420	<glossdef>
2421	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2422	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2423	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2424	result in an error message.</para>
2425	</glossdef>
2426	</glossentry>
2427
2428	<glossentry>
2429	<glossterm><computeroutput>--uuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
2430
2431	<glossdef>
2432	<para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2433	</glossdef>
2434	</glossentry>
2435	</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2436	the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2437	pipe).</para>
2438
2439	<para><note>
2440	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2441	"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2442	"convertfromraw" command.</para>
2443	</note></para>
2444	</sect1>
2445
2446	<sect1>
2447	<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2448
2449	<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2450	machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2451	<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2452	name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2453	with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2454
2455	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2456	VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2457
2458	<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2459	the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2460	could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2461
2462	<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2463
2464	<para>which would return</para>
2465
2466	<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2467	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2468	All rights reserved.
2469
2470	Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2471	<para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2472	command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2473	</para>
2474
2475	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2476
2477	</sect1>
2478
2479	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2480	<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2481
2482	<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2483	entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2484	in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2485	following properties are available:<glosslist>
2486	<glossentry>
2487	<glossterm><computeroutput>machinefolder</computeroutput></glossterm>
2488
2489	<glossdef>
2490	<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2491	definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2492	details.</para>
2493	</glossdef>
2494	</glossentry>
2495
2496	<glossentry>
2497	<glossterm><computeroutput>hwvirtexclusive</computeroutput></glossterm>
2498	<para>This specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of
2499	the hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) of the
2500	host system's processor; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If you wish to
2501	share these extensions with other hypervisors running at the same time,
2502	you must disable this setting. Doing so has negative performance implications.
2503	</para>
2504	</glossentry>
2505
2506
2507	<glossentry>
2508	<glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2509
2510	<glossdef>
2511	<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2512	authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2513	see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2514	</glossdef>
2515	</glossentry>
2516
2517	<glossentry>
2518	<glossterm><computeroutput>websrvauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2519
2520	<glossdef>
2521	<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2522	authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2523	please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2524	linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2525	</glossdef>
2526	</glossentry>
2527
2528	<glossentry>
2529	<glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeextpack</computeroutput></glossterm>
2530
2531	<glossdef>
2532	<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2533	Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2534	</glossdef>
2535	</glossentry>
2536
2537	<glossentry>
2538	<glossterm><computeroutput>loghistorycount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2539
2540	<glossdef>
2541	<para>This selects how many rotated (old) VM logs are kept.</para>
2542	</glossdef>
2543	</glossentry>
2544
2545	<glossentry>
2546	<glossterm><computeroutput>autostartdbpath</computeroutput></glossterm>
2547
2548	<glossdef>
2549	<para>This selects the path to the autostart database. See
2550	<xref linkend="autostart" />.</para>
2551	</glossdef>
2552	</glossentry>
2553
2554	<glossentry>
2555	<glossterm><computeroutput>defaultfrontend</computeroutput></glossterm>
2556
2557	<glossdef>
2558	<para>This selects the global default VM frontend setting. See
2559	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
2560	</glossdef>
2561	</glossentry>
2562	</glosslist></para>
2563	</sect1>
2564
2565	<sect1>
2566	<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2567
2568	<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2569	working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2570	affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2571	machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2572	captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2573	particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2574	applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2575	available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2576	ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2577	machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2578	will.</para>
2579
2580	<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2581	add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2582	The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2583	placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2584	following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2585	will be added onto the end of the list. The
2586	<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2587	machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2588	to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2589	for the new filter and for global filters,
2590	<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2591	access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2592	them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2593	filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2594	using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2595	you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2596	filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2597	connection) or either.</para>
2598
2599	<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2600	modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2601	output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2602	find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2603	showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2604	by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2605	which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2606	add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2607	remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2608	</sect1>
2609
2610	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2611	<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2612
2613	<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2614	guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2615	of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2616	functionality.</para>
2617
2618	<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2619	linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2620	</sect1>
2621
2622	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2623	<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2624
2625	<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2626	running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2627	for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2628	key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2629	guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2630	channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2631	Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2632	"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2633	Additions.</para>
2634
2635	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2636	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2637	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2638	<listitem>
2639	<para><computeroutput>enumerate <vm> [--patterns
2640	<pattern>]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2641	properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2642	This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2643	be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2644	Additions are not installed.</para>
2645
2646	<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns <pattern></computeroutput>
2647	is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2648	the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2649	characters:<itemizedlist>
2650	<listitem>
2651	<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2652	represents any number of characters; for example,
2653	"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2654	all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2655	</listitem>
2656
2657	<listitem>
2658	<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2659	represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2660	"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2661	and "for".</para>
2662	</listitem>
2663
2664	<listitem>
2665	<para><computeroutput>\|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2666	used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2667	"<computeroutput>s\|t</computeroutput>" would match anything
2668	starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2669	</listitem>
2670	</itemizedlist></para>
2671	</listitem>
2672
2673	<listitem>
2674	<para><computeroutput>get <vm></computeroutput>: This
2675	retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2676	cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
2677	print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
2678	</listitem>
2679
2680	<listitem>
2681	<para><computeroutput>set <vm> <property> [<value>
2682	[--flags <flags>]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
2683	guest property by specifying the key and value. If
2684	<computeroutput><value></computeroutput> is omitted, the
2685	property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
2686	you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
2687	several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
2688	<listitem>
2689	<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
2690	will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
2691	</listitem>
2692
2693	<listitem>
2694	<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
2695	will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
2696	</listitem>
2697
2698	<listitem>
2699	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
2700	can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
2701	it;</para>
2702	</listitem>
2703
2704	<listitem>
2705	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
2706	the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
2707	only read it;</para>
2708	</listitem>
2709
2710	<listitem>
2711	<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
2712	of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
2713	</listitem>
2714	</itemizedlist></para>
2715	</listitem>
2716
2717	<listitem>
2718	<para><computeroutput>wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
2719	<timeout></computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
2720	described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
2721	pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
2722	above.</para>
2723	</listitem>
2724
2725	<listitem>
2726	<para><computeroutput>delete <vm> <property>
2727	</computeroutput>: Deletes a formerly set guest property.
2728	</para></listitem>
2729	</itemizedlist></para>
2730	</sect1>
2731
2732	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
2733	<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
2734
2735	<para>The "guestcontrol" commands allow you to control certain things
2736	inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
2737	linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
2738
2739	<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
2740
2741	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> <command></screen>
2742
2743	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2744	<computeroutput><uuid\|vmname></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2745	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2746	<listitem>
2747	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput></emphasis>,
2748	which allows for
2749	executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
2750	runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
2751	running and has the following syntax:</para>
2752
2753	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> exec[ute]
2754	--image <path to program> --username <name>
2755	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2756	[--environment "<NAME>=<VALUE> [<NAME>=<VALUE>]"]
2757	[--verbose] [--timeout <msec>]
2758	[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
2759	[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
2760	-- [[<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
2761
2762	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2763	<glossentry>
2764	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2765
2766	<glossdef>
2767	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2768	</glossdef>
2769	</glossentry>
2770
2771	<glossentry>
2772	<glossterm><computeroutput>--image "<path to program>"</computeroutput></glossterm>
2773
2774	<glossdef>
2775	<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
2776	in the guest, e.g.
2777	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
2778	</glossdef>
2779	</glossentry>
2780
2781	<glossentry>
2782	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
2783
2784	<glossdef>
2785	<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
2786	user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2787	</glossdef>
2788	</glossentry>
2789
2790	<glossentry>
2791	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
2792
2793	<glossdef>
2794	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
2795	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
2796	assumed.</para>
2797	</glossdef>
2798	</glossentry>
2799
2800	<glossentry>
2801	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
2802
2803	<glossdef>
2804	<para>Password of the user account specified with
2805	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
2806	an empty password is assumed.</para>
2807	</glossdef>
2808	</glossentry>
2809
2810	<glossentry>
2811	<glossterm><computeroutput>--dos2unix</computeroutput></glossterm>
2812
2813	<glossdef>
2814	Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
2815	line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
2816	</glossdef>
2817	</glossentry>
2818
2819	<glossentry>
2820	<glossterm><computeroutput>--environment
2821	"<NAME>=<VALUE>"</computeroutput></glossterm>
2822
2823	<glossdef>
2824	<para>One or more environment variables to be set or
2825	unset.</para>
2826
2827	<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
2828	created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
2829	option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
2830	a variable, a pair of
2831	<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
2832	specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
2833	value must set, e.g.
2834	<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
2835
2836	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2837	quotation marks. More than one
2838	<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
2839	be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
2840	</glossdef>
2841	</glossentry>
2842
2843	<glossentry>
2844	<glossterm><computeroutput>--timeout <msec></computeroutput></glossterm>
2845
2846	<glossdef>
2847	<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
2848	long the started process is allowed to run and how long
2849	VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
2850	timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
2851	started process ends or an error occured.</para>
2852	</glossdef>
2853	</glossentry>
2854
2855	<glossentry>
2856	<glossterm><computeroutput>--unix2dos</computeroutput></glossterm>
2857
2858	<glossdef>
2859	Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
2860	line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
2861	</glossdef>
2862	</glossentry>
2863
2864	<glossentry>
2865	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
2866
2867	<glossdef>
2868	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
2869	</glossdef>
2870	</glossentry>
2871
2872	<glossentry>
2873	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-exit</computeroutput></glossterm>
2874
2875	<glossdef>
2876	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2877	exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
2878	</glossdef>
2879	</glossentry>
2880
2881	<glossentry>
2882	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stdout</computeroutput></glossterm>
2883
2884	<glossdef>
2885	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2886	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2887	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
2888	</glossdef>
2889	</glossentry>
2890
2891	<glossentry>
2892	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stderr</computeroutput></glossterm>
2893
2894	<glossdef>
2895	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
2896	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
2897	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
2898	</glossdef>
2899	</glossentry>
2900
2901	<glossentry>
2902	<glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
2903
2904	<glossdef>
2905	<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
2906	executed.</para>
2907	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
2908	quotation marks.</para>
2909	</glossdef>
2910	</glossentry>
2911
2912	</glosslist></para>
2913
2914	<para><note>
2915	<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
2916	applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
2917	information.</para>
2918	</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
2919	--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"
2920	--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
2921	the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
2922	Unix hosts.</para>
2923
2924	<para><note>
2925	<para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
2926	must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
2927	user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
2928	policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
2929	will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
2930	in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
2931	apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
2932	</note></para>
2933
2934	<para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
2935	to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
2936	which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
2937	in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
2938	old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
2939	are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
2940	appropriate error message.</para>
2941
2942	<para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
2943	property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2944	or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
2945	needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
2946	guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
2947	</listitem>
2948
2949	<listitem>
2950	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput></emphasis>,
2951	which allows copying
2952	files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
2953	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
2954
2955	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> copyto\|cp
2956	<guest source> <host dest> --username <name>
2957	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
2958	[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
2959
2960	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2961	<glossentry>
2962	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2963
2964	<glossdef>
2965	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
2966	</glossdef>
2967	</glossentry>
2968
2969	<glossentry>
2970	<glossterm><computeroutput>source on host</computeroutput></glossterm>
2971
2972	<glossdef>
2973	<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
2974	to the guest, e.g.
2975	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
2976	This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
2977	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
2978	</glossdef>
2979	</glossentry>
2980
2981	<glossentry>
2982	<glossterm><computeroutput>destination on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
2983
2984	<glossdef>
2985	<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
2986	<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
2987	</glossdef>
2988	</glossentry>
2989
2990	<glossentry>
2991	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
2992
2993	<glossdef>
2994	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
2995	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
2996	</glossdef>
2997	</glossentry>
2998
2999	<glossentry>
3000	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3001
3002	<glossdef>
3003	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3004	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3005	assumed.</para>
3006	</glossdef>
3007	</glossentry>
3008
3009	<glossentry>
3010	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3011
3012	<glossdef>
3013	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3014	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3015	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3016	</glossdef>
3017	</glossentry>
3018
3019	<glossentry>
3020	<glossterm><computeroutput>--dryrun</computeroutput></glossterm>
3021
3022	<glossdef>
3023	<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
3024	really copying files to the guest.</para>
3025	</glossdef>
3026	</glossentry>
3027
3028	<glossentry>
3029	<glossterm><computeroutput>--follow</computeroutput></glossterm>
3030
3031	<glossdef>
3032	<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
3033	source.</para>
3034	</glossdef>
3035	</glossentry>
3036
3037	<glossentry>
3038	<glossterm><computeroutput>--recursive</computeroutput></glossterm>
3039
3040	<glossdef>
3041	<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
3042	source.</para>
3043	</glossdef>
3044	</glossentry>
3045
3046	<glossentry>
3047	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3048
3049	<glossdef>
3050	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3051	</glossdef>
3052	</glossentry>
3053
3054	<glossentry>
3055	<glossterm><computeroutput>--flags <flags></computeroutput></glossterm>
3056
3057	<glossdef>
3058	<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
3059	moment.</para>
3060	</glossdef>
3061	</glossentry>
3062	</glosslist></para>
3063	</listitem>
3064
3065	<listitem>
3066	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyfrom</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3067	which allows copying
3068	files from the guest to the host (only with installed Guest
3069	Additions 4.0 and later). It has the same parameters as
3070	<computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput> above.</para>
3071	</listitem>
3072
3073	<listitem>
3074	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3075	which allows
3076	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3077	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3078
3079	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> createdir[ectory]\|mkdir\|md
3080	<guest directory>... --username <name>
3081	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3082	[--parents] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
3083
3084	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3085	<glossentry>
3086	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3087
3088	<glossdef>
3089	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3090	</glossdef>
3091	</glossentry>
3092
3093	<glossentry>
3094	<glossterm><computeroutput>directory to create on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3095
3096	<glossdef>
3097	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
3098	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
3099	Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
3100	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
3101	<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
3102	specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
3103	specified directory.</para>
3104	</glossdef>
3105	</glossentry>
3106
3107	<glossentry>
3108	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3109
3110	<glossdef>
3111	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3112	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3113	</glossdef>
3114	</glossentry>
3115
3116	<glossentry>
3117	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3118
3119	<glossdef>
3120	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3121	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3122	assumed.</para>
3123	</glossdef>
3124	</glossentry>
3125
3126	<glossentry>
3127	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3128
3129	<glossdef>
3130	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3131	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3132	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3133	</glossdef>
3134	</glossentry>
3135
3136	<glossentry>
3137	<glossterm><computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput></glossterm>
3138
3139	<glossdef>
3140	<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
3141	the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
3142	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
3143	<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
3144	yet it will be created. Without specifying
3145	<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
3146	have failed.</para>
3147	</glossdef>
3148	</glossentry>
3149
3150	<glossentry>
3151	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mode <mode></computeroutput></glossterm>
3152
3153	<glossdef>
3154	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3155	Only octal modes (e.g.
3156	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3157	now.</para>
3158	</glossdef>
3159	</glossentry>
3160
3161	<glossentry>
3162	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3163
3164	<glossdef>
3165	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3166	</glossdef>
3167	</glossentry>
3168	</glosslist></para>
3169	</listitem>
3170
3171	<listitem>
3172	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>removedirectory</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3173	which allows deletion of guest directories (only with installed Guest
3174	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3175
3176	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> removedir[ectory]\|rmdir
3177	<guest directory>... --username <name>
3178	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3179	[--recursive\|-R\|-r] [--verbose]</screen>
3180
3181	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3182	<glossentry>
3183	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3184
3185	<glossdef>
3186	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3187	</glossdef>
3188	</glossentry>
3189
3190	<glossentry>
3191	<glossterm><computeroutput>directory to remove on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3192
3193	<glossdef>
3194	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to remove on
3195	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>. The
3196	specified user must have appropriate rights to delete the
3197	specified guest directories.</para>
3198	</glossdef>
3199	</glossentry>
3200
3201	<glossentry>
3202	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3203
3204	<glossdef>
3205	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3206	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3207	</glossdef>
3208	</glossentry>
3209
3210	<glossentry>
3211	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3212
3213	<glossdef>
3214	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3215	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3216	assumed.</para>
3217	</glossdef>
3218	</glossentry>
3219
3220	<glossentry>
3221	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3222
3223	<glossdef>
3224	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3225	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3226	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3227	</glossdef>
3228	</glossentry>
3229
3230	<glossentry>
3231	<glossterm><computeroutput>--recursive</computeroutput></glossterm>
3232
3233	<glossdef>
3234	<para>Remove directories and their contents recursively.</para>
3235	</glossdef>
3236	</glossentry>
3237
3238	<glossentry>
3239	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3240
3241	<glossdef>
3242	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3243	</glossdef>
3244	</glossentry>
3245	</glosslist></para>
3246	</listitem>
3247
3248	<listitem>
3249	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>removefile</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3250	which allows deletion of guest files (only with installed Guest
3251	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3252
3253	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> removefile\|rm
3254	<guest file>... --username <name>
3255	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3256	[--verbose]</screen>
3257
3258	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3259	<glossentry>
3260	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3261
3262	<glossdef>
3263	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3264	</glossdef>
3265	</glossentry>
3266
3267	<glossentry>
3268	<glossterm><computeroutput>file to remove on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3269
3270	<glossdef>
3271	<para>Absolute path of a file/files to remove on
3272	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar\text.txt</computeroutput>. The
3273	specified user must have appropriate rights to delete the
3274	specified guest files.</para>
3275	</glossdef>
3276	</glossentry>
3277
3278	<glossentry>
3279	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3280
3281	<glossdef>
3282	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3283	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3284	</glossdef>
3285	</glossentry>
3286
3287	<glossentry>
3288	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3289
3290	<glossdef>
3291	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3292	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3293	assumed.</para>
3294	</glossdef>
3295	</glossentry>
3296
3297	<glossentry>
3298	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3299
3300	<glossdef>
3301	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3302	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3303	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3304	</glossdef>
3305	</glossentry>
3306
3307	<glossentry>
3308	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3309
3310	<glossdef>
3311	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3312	</glossdef>
3313	</glossentry>
3314	</glosslist></para>
3315	</listitem>
3316
3317	<listitem>
3318	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>ren[ame]\|mv</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3319	which allows renaming of guest files and/or directories (only with installed Guest
3320	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3321
3322	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> ren[ame]\|mv
3323	<source>... <dest> --username <name>
3324	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3325	[--verbose]</screen>
3326
3327	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3328	<glossentry>
3329	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3330
3331	<glossdef>
3332	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3333	</glossdef>
3334	</glossentry>
3335
3336	<glossentry>
3337	<glossterm><computeroutput>source</computeroutput></glossterm>
3338
3339	<glossdef>
3340	<para>Absolute path of one or more source(s) to move to
3341	destination. If more than one source is specified, destination
3342	must be an existing directory on the guest. The specified user
3343	must have appropriate rights to access source and destination
3344	files and directories.</para>
3345	</glossdef>
3346	</glossentry>
3347
3348	<glossentry>
3349	<glossterm><computeroutput>dest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3350
3351	<glossdef>
3352	<para>Absolute path of the destination to move the source(s)
3353	to. This can be a directory or a file, depending if one or more
3354	sources have been specified. The specified user
3355	must have appropriate rights to access the destination
3356	file and directory.</para>
3357	</glossdef>
3358	</glossentry>
3359
3360	<glossentry>
3361	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3362
3363	<glossdef>
3364	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3365	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3366	</glossdef>
3367	</glossentry>
3368
3369	<glossentry>
3370	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3371
3372	<glossdef>
3373	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3374	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3375	assumed.</para>
3376	</glossdef>
3377	</glossentry>
3378
3379	<glossentry>
3380	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3381
3382	<glossdef>
3383	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3384	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3385	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3386	</glossdef>
3387	</glossentry>
3388
3389	<glossentry>
3390	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3391
3392	<glossdef>
3393	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3394	</glossdef>
3395	</glossentry>
3396	</glosslist></para>
3397	</listitem>
3398
3399	<listitem>
3400	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createtemporary</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3401	which allows
3402	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3403	Additions 4.2 and later).</para>
3404
3405	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> createtemp[orary]\|mktemp
3406	<template> --username <name>
3407	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3408	[--directory] [--secure] [--tmpdir <directory>]
3409	[--domain <domain>] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
3410
3411	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3412	<glossentry>
3413	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3414
3415	<glossdef>
3416	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3417	</glossdef>
3418	</glossentry>
3419
3420	<glossentry>
3421	<glossterm><computeroutput>template</computeroutput></glossterm>
3422
3423	<glossdef>
3424	<para>A file name without a path and with at least three consecutive 'X'
3425	characters or ending in 'X'
3426	</para>
3427	</glossdef>
3428	</glossentry>
3429
3430	<glossentry>
3431	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3432
3433	<glossdef>
3434	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3435	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3436	</glossdef>
3437	</glossentry>
3438
3439	<glossentry>
3440	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3441
3442	<glossdef>
3443	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3444	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3445	assumed.</para>
3446	</glossdef>
3447	</glossentry>
3448
3449	<glossentry>
3450	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3451
3452	<glossdef>
3453	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3454	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3455	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3456	</glossdef>
3457	</glossentry>
3458
3459	<glossentry>
3460	<glossterm><computeroutput>--directory</computeroutput></glossterm>
3461
3462	<glossdef>
3463	<para>Create a temporary directory instead of a file.</para>
3464	</glossdef>
3465	</glossentry>
3466
3467	<glossentry>
3468	<glossterm><computeroutput>--secure</computeroutput></glossterm>
3469
3470	<glossdef>
3471	<para>
3472	Secure creation. The file mode is fixed to
3473	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>. And the operation
3474	will fail if it cannot performed securely.
3475	</para>
3476	</glossdef>
3477	</glossentry>
3478
3479	<glossentry>
3480	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tmpdir <directory></computeroutput></glossterm>
3481
3482	<glossdef>
3483	<para>
3484	Directory where the file / directory is created. If not
3485	specified, the platform-specific temp directory is used.
3486	</para>
3487	</glossdef>
3488	</glossentry>
3489
3490	<glossentry>
3491	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mode <mode></computeroutput></glossterm>
3492
3493	<glossdef>
3494	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3495	Only octal modes (e.g.
3496	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3497	now.</para>
3498	</glossdef>
3499	</glossentry>
3500
3501	<glossentry>
3502	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3503
3504	<glossdef>
3505	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3506	</glossdef>
3507	</glossentry>
3508	</glosslist></para>
3509	</listitem>
3510
3511	<listitem>
3512	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3513	which lists various guest control information such as open guest sessions,
3514	guest processes and guest files.</para>
3515
3516	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> list
3517	<all\|sessions\|processes\|files> [--verbose]</screen>
3518
3519	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3520	<glossentry>
3521	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3522
3523	<glossdef>
3524	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3525	</glossdef>
3526	</glossentry>
3527
3528	<glossentry>
3529	<glossterm><computeroutput>all\|sessions\|processes\|files</computeroutput></glossterm>
3530
3531	<glossdef>
3532	<para>Whether to list guest sessions, guest processes, guest files
3533	or all information available. Mandatory.</para>
3534	</glossdef>
3535	</glossentry>
3536
3537	<glossentry>
3538	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3539
3540	<glossdef>
3541	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3542	</glossdef>
3543	</glossentry>
3544	</glosslist></para>
3545	</listitem>
3546
3547	<listitem>
3548	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>process kill</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3549	which terminates specific guest processes of a guest session, based on either the
3550	session's ID or the session's name.</para>
3551
3552	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> process kill
3553	--session-id <ID>
3554	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3555	[--verbose]
3556	<PID> ... <PID n></screen>
3557
3558	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3559	<glossentry>
3560	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3561
3562	<glossdef>
3563	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3564	</glossdef>
3565	</glossentry>
3566
3567	<glossentry>
3568	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
3569
3570	<glossdef>
3571	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its ID.</para>
3572	</glossdef>
3573	</glossentry>
3574
3575	<glossentry>
3576	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
3577
3578	<glossdef>
3579	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its name. Multiple
3580	sessions can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
3581	</glossdef>
3582	</glossentry>
3583
3584	<glossentry>
3585	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3586
3587	<glossdef>
3588	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3589	</glossdef>
3590	</glossentry>
3591
3592	<glossentry>
3593	<glossterm><computeroutput><PID> ... <PID n></computeroutput></glossterm>
3594
3595	<glossdef>
3596	<para>List of process identifiers (PIDs) to terminate.</para>
3597	</glossdef>
3598	</glossentry>
3599	</glosslist></para>
3600	</listitem>
3601
3602	<listitem>
3603	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>[p[s]]kill</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3604	which terminates specific guest processes of a guest session, based on either the
3605	session's ID or the session's name.</para>
3606
3607	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> process kill
3608	--session-id <ID>
3609	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3610	[--verbose]
3611	<PID> ... <PID n></screen>
3612
3613	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3614	<glossentry>
3615	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3616
3617	<glossdef>
3618	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3619	</glossdef>
3620	</glossentry>
3621
3622	<glossentry>
3623	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
3624
3625	<glossdef>
3626	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its ID.</para>
3627	</glossdef>
3628	</glossentry>
3629
3630	<glossentry>
3631	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
3632
3633	<glossdef>
3634	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its name. Multiple
3635	sessions can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
3636	</glossdef>
3637	</glossentry>
3638
3639	<glossentry>
3640	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3641
3642	<glossdef>
3643	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3644	</glossdef>
3645	</glossentry>
3646
3647	<glossentry>
3648	<glossterm><computeroutput><PID> ... <PID n></computeroutput></glossterm>
3649
3650	<glossdef>
3651	<para>List of process identifiers (PIDs) to terminate.</para>
3652	</glossdef>
3653	</glossentry>
3654	</glosslist></para>
3655	</listitem>
3656
3657	<listitem>
3658	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>session close</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3659	which closes specific guest sessions, based on either the session's ID or the
3660	session's name.</para>
3661
3662	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> session close
3663	--session-id <ID>
3664	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3665	\| --all
3666	[--verbose]</screen>
3667
3668	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3669	<glossentry>
3670	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3671
3672	<glossdef>
3673	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3674	</glossdef>
3675	</glossentry>
3676
3677	<glossentry>
3678	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
3679
3680	<glossdef>
3681	<para>Close a guest session specified by its ID.</para>
3682	</glossdef>
3683	</glossentry>
3684
3685	<glossentry>
3686	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
3687
3688	<glossdef>
3689	<para>Close a guest session specified by its name. Multiple sessions
3690	can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
3691	</glossdef>
3692	</glossentry>
3693
3694	<glossentry>
3695	<glossterm><computeroutput>--all</computeroutput></glossterm>
3696
3697	<glossdef>
3698	<para>Close all guest sessions.</para>
3699	</glossdef>
3700	</glossentry>
3701
3702	<glossentry>
3703	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3704
3705	<glossdef>
3706	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3707	</glossdef>
3708	</glossentry>
3709	</glosslist></para>
3710	</listitem>
3711
3712	<listitem>
3713	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3714	which displays file
3715	or file system status on the guest.</para>
3716
3717	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> stat
3718	<file>... --username <name>
3719	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3720	[--verbose]</screen>
3721
3722	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3723	<glossentry>
3724	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3725
3726	<glossdef>
3727	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3728	</glossdef>
3729	</glossentry>
3730
3731	<glossentry>
3732	<glossterm><computeroutput>file element(s) to check on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3733
3734	<glossdef>
3735	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
3736	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
3737	The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
3738	the given file element(s).</para>
3739	</glossdef>
3740	</glossentry>
3741
3742	<glossentry>
3743	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3744
3745	<glossdef>
3746	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3747	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3748	</glossdef>
3749	</glossentry>
3750
3751	<glossentry>
3752	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3753
3754	<glossdef>
3755	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3756	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3757	assumed.</para>
3758	</glossdef>
3759	</glossentry>
3760
3761	<glossentry>
3762	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3763
3764	<glossdef>
3765	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3766	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3767	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3768	</glossdef>
3769	</glossentry>
3770
3771	<glossentry>
3772	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3773
3774	<glossdef>
3775	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3776	</glossdef>
3777	</glossentry>
3778	</glosslist></para>
3779	</listitem>
3780
3781	<listitem>
3782	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3783	which allows
3784	for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
3785	guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3786
3787	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> updateadditions
3788	[--source "<guest additions .ISO file to use>"] [--verbose]
3789	[--wait-start] [-- [<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
3790
3791	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3792	<glossentry>
3793	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3794
3795	<glossdef>
3796	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3797	</glossdef>
3798	</glossentry>
3799
3800	<glossentry>
3801	<glossterm><computeroutput>--source</computeroutput> "<guest additions .ISO file to
3802	use>"</glossterm>
3803
3804	<glossdef>
3805	<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
3806	.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
3807	</glossdef>
3808	</glossentry>
3809
3810	<glossentry>
3811	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3812
3813	<glossdef>
3814	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3815	</glossdef>
3816	</glossentry>
3817
3818	<glossentry>
3819	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-start</computeroutput></glossterm>
3820	<glossdef>
3821	<para>Starts the regular updating process and waits until the
3822	actual Guest Additions update inside the guest was started.
3823	This can be necessary due to needed interaction with the
3824	guest OS during the installation phase.</para>
3825	<para>When omitting this flag VBoxManage will wait for the
3826	whole Guest Additions update to complete.</para>
3827	</glossdef>
3828	</glossentry>
3829
3830	<glossentry>
3831	<glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
3832
3833	<glossdef>
3834	<para>Optional command line arguments to use for the Guest Additions
3835	installer. Useful for retrofitting features which weren't installed
3836	before on the guest.</para>
3837	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
3838	quotation marks.</para>
3839	</glossdef>
3840	</glossentry>
3841	</glosslist></para>
3842	</listitem>
3843	<listitem>
3844	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>watch</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3845	which prints current guest control activity.</para>
3846
3847	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> watch
3848	[--verbose]</screen>
3849
3850	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3851	<glossentry>
3852	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3853
3854	<glossdef>
3855	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3856	</glossdef>
3857	</glossentry>
3858
3859	<glossentry>
3860	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3861
3862	<glossdef>
3863	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3864	</glossdef>
3865	</glossentry>
3866	</glosslist></para>
3867	</listitem>
3868	</itemizedlist></para>
3869	</sect1>
3870
3871	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
3872	<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
3873
3874	<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
3875	exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
3876	in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
3877	very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
3878	software.</para>
3879
3880	<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
3881	machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
3882	<listitem>
3883	<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
3884	<name></computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
3885	running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
3886	will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
3887	<xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
3888
3889	<para>This corresponds to the
3890	<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
3891	</para>
3892	</listitem>
3893
3894	<listitem>
3895	<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
3896	display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
3897	associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
3898	name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
3899	arguments specific to the info item.
3900	The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
3901	listning of the available items and hints about any optional
3902	arguments.</para>
3903
3904	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
3905	command in the debugger.</para>
3906	</listitem>
3907
3908	<listitem>
3909	<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
3910	a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
3911	for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
3912	on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
3913	operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
3914	doing.</para>
3915	</listitem>
3916
3917	<listitem>
3918	<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
3919	VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
3920	system.</para>
3921
3922	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
3923	command in the debugger.</para>
3924	</listitem>
3925
3926	<listitem>
3927	<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
3928	display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
3929	debugger facility.</para>
3930	</listitem>
3931
3932	<listitem>
3933	<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
3934	used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3935	of registers, each having one of the following forms:
3936	<itemizedlist>
3937	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3938	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3939	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
3940	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
3941	<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
3942	</itemizedlist>
3943	The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
3944	registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
3945	case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
3946	can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
3947	<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
3948	</para>
3949	</listitem>
3950
3951	<listitem>
3952	<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
3953	used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
3954	of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
3955	<itemizedlist>
3956	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3957	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3958	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3959	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
3960	</itemizedlist>
3961	The value format should be in the same style as what
3962	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
3963	exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
3964	hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
3965	are handled the same way as with the
3966	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
3967	</listitem>
3968
3969	<listitem>
3970	<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
3971	used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
3972	<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
3973	statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
3974	<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
3975	DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
3976	<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
3977	</listitem>
3978	</itemizedlist></para>
3979	</sect1>
3980
3981	<sect1 id="metrics">
3982	<title>VBoxManage metrics</title>
3983
3984	<para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
3985	Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
3986	system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
3987	<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
3988	percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
3989	sampling period.</para>
3990
3991	<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
3992	retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
3993	query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
3994	background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
3995	process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
3996	closed.</para>
3997
3998	<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
3999	not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
4000	is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
4001	retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
4002	collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
4003	keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
4004	used:</para>
4005
4006	<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
4007
4008	<para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
4009	data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
4010	it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
4011	</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
4012	You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
4013	subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
4014	affected.</para>
4015
4016	<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
4017	setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
4018	previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
4019
4020	<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
4021	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
4022	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
4023	can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
4024	like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
4025	other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
4026	<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
4027
4028	<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
4029	Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
4030	list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
4031
4032	<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
4033	has the following form:
4034	<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
4035	For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
4036	for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
4037	applied to the host object.</para>
4038
4039	<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
4040	to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
4041	in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
4042	all objects. You may use an asterisk
4043	("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
4044	command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
4045	object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
4046	limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
4047	separated by commas.</para>
4048
4049	<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
4050	kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
4051	following command:</para>
4052
4053	<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
4054
4055	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
4056
4057	<glosslist>
4058	<glossentry>
4059	<glossterm><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></glossterm>
4060
4061	<glossdef>
4062	<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
4063	metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
4064	particular VM is running.</para>
4065	</glossdef>
4066	</glossentry>
4067
4068	<glossentry>
4069	<glossterm><computeroutput>setup</computeroutput></glossterm>
4070
4071	<glossdef>
4072	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
4073	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
4074	retained data is available for displaying with the
4075	<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
4076	</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
4077	the result of the command execution.</para>
4078	</glossdef>
4079	</glossentry>
4080
4081	<glossentry>
4082	<glossterm><computeroutput>enable</computeroutput></glossterm>
4083
4084	<glossdef>
4085	<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
4086	stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
4087	submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
4088	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
4089	did what was expected.</para>
4090	</glossdef>
4091	</glossentry>
4092
4093	<glossentry>
4094	<glossterm><computeroutput>disable</computeroutput></glossterm>
4095
4096	<glossdef>
4097	<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
4098	collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
4099	submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
4100	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
4101	did what was expected.</para>
4102	</glossdef>
4103	</glossentry>
4104
4105	<glossentry>
4106	<glossterm><computeroutput>query</computeroutput></glossterm>
4107
4108	<glossdef>
4109	<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
4110	metric data.<note>
4111	<para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
4112	"flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
4113	how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
4114	samples.</para>
4115	</note></para>
4116	</glossdef>
4117	</glossentry>
4118
4119	<glossentry>
4120	<glossterm><computeroutput>collect</computeroutput></glossterm>
4121
4122	<glossdef>
4123	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
4124	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
4125	collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
4126	unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
4127	specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
4128	option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
4129	does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
4130	metrics match the specified filter.</para>
4131	</glossdef>
4132	</glossentry>
4133	</glosslist>
4134	</sect1>
4135
4136	<sect1>
4137	<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
4138
4139	<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
4140	network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
4141	refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
4142	identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
4143	manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
4144	</sect1>
4145
4146	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
4147	<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
4148
4149	<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
4150	is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
4151	host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
4152	network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
4153	servers in your physical network.)</para>
4154
4155	<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
4156	<listitem>
4157	<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
4158	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
4159	--netname <network_name></computeroutput>, where
4160	<computeroutput><network_name></computeroutput> is the same
4161	network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
4162	<vmname> --intnet<X>
4163	<network_name></computeroutput>.</para>
4164	</listitem>
4165
4166	<listitem>
4167	<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
4168	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
4169	--ifname <hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> instead, where
4170	<computeroutput><hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> is the
4171	same host-only interface name you used with
4172	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
4173	--hostonlyadapter<X>
4174	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput>.</para>
4175
4176	<para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
4177	internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
4178	see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
4179	hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
4180	above).</para>
4181	</listitem>
4182	</itemizedlist></para>
4183
4184	<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
4185	DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
4186	<listitem>
4187	<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
4188	address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
4189	</listitem>
4190
4191	<listitem>
4192	<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
4193	netmask of the network.</para>
4194	</listitem>
4195
4196	<listitem>
4197	<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
4198	<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
4199	lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
4200	will hand out to clients.</para>
4201	</listitem>
4202	</itemizedlist></para>
4203
4204	<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
4205	or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
4206	nothing.</para>
4207
4208	<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
4209	given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
4210	which uses that network is started.</para>
4211
4212	<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
4213	remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
4214	<network_name></computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
4215	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
4216	for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
4217
4218	<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
4219	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
4220	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
4221	network or host-only interface name.</para>
4222	</sect1>
4223
4224	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
4225	<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
4226
4227	<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
4228	extension packs, as described in <xref
4229	linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
4230	<listitem>
4231	<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
4232	extpack install <.vbox-extpack></computeroutput>. This command
4233	will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
4234	installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
4235	parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
4236	package is installed.</para>
4237	</listitem>
4238
4239	<listitem>
4240	<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
4241	<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
4242	<name></computeroutput>. You can use
4243	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
4244	the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
4245	please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
4246	<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
4247	override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
4248	</listitem>
4249
4250	<listitem>
4251	<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
4252	cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
4253	files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
4254	install or uninstall command failed.</para>
4255	</listitem>
4256	</itemizedlist></para>
4257	<para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
4258	remove one:<screen>
4259	$ VBoxManage list extpacks
4260	Extension Packs: 1
4261	Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
4262	Version: 4.1.12
4263	Revision: 77218
4264	Edition:
4265	Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
4266	VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
4267	Usable: true
4268	Why unusable:
4269	$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
4270	0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
4271	Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
4272	</sect1>
4273	</chapter>

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