user_VBoxManage.xml@ 55836

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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 512</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>--groups <group>, ...</computeroutput>:
473	This changes the group membership of a VM. Groups always start with
474	a <computeroutput>/</computeroutput> and can be nested. By default
475	VMs are in group <computeroutput>/</computeroutput>.</para>
476	</listitem>
477
478	<listitem>
479	<para><computeroutput>--description <desc></computeroutput>:
480	This changes the VM's description, which is a way to record details
481	about the VM in a way which is meaningful for the user. The GUI
482	interprets HTML formatting, the command line allows arbitrary
483	strings potentially containing multiple lines.</para>
484	</listitem>
485
486	<listitem>
487	<para><computeroutput>--ostype <ostype></computeroutput>:
488	This specifies what guest operating system is supposed to run in
489	the VM. To learn about the various identifiers that can be used
490	here, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
491	ostypes</computeroutput>.</para>
492	</listitem>
493
494	<listitem>
495	<para><computeroutput>--memory
496	<memorysize></computeroutput>: This sets the amount of RAM,
497	in MB, that the virtual machine should allocate for itself from
498	the host. See the remarks in <xref linkend="gui-createvm" /> for
499	more information.</para>
500	</listitem>
501
502	<listitem>
503	<para><computeroutput>--vram <vramsize></computeroutput>:
504	This sets the amount of RAM that the virtual graphics card should
505	have. See <xref linkend="settings-display" /> for details.</para>
506	</listitem>
507
508	<listitem>
509	<para><computeroutput>--acpi on\|off</computeroutput>;
510	<computeroutput>--ioapic on\|off</computeroutput>: These two
511	determine whether the VM should have ACPI and I/O APIC support,
512	respectively; see <xref linkend="settings-motherboard" /> for
513	details.</para>
514	</listitem>
515
516	<listitem>
517	<para><computeroutput>--hardwareuuid
518	<uuid></computeroutput>: The UUID presented to the guest via
519	memory tables (DMI/SMBIOS), hardware and guest properties. By
520	default this is the same as the VM uuid. Useful when cloning a VM.
521	Teleporting takes care of this automatically.</para>
522	</listitem>
523
524	<listitem>
525	<para><computeroutput>--cpus <cpucount></computeroutput>:
526	This sets the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine (see
527	<xref linkend="settings-processor" />). If CPU hot-plugging is
528	enabled (see below), this then sets the
529	<emphasis>maximum</emphasis> number of virtual CPUs that can be
530	plugged into the virtual machines.</para>
531	</listitem>
532
533	<listitem>
534	<para><computeroutput>--cpuhotplug on\|off</computeroutput>: This
535	enables CPU hot-plugging. When enabled, virtual CPUs can be added
536	to and removed from a virtual machine while it is running. See
537	<xref linkend="cpuhotplug" /> for more information.</para>
538	</listitem>
539
540	<listitem>
541	<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu\|unplugcpu
542	<id></computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled (see
543	above), this adds a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or
544	removes one). <computeroutput><id></computeroutput>
545	specifies the index of the virtual CPU to be added or removed and
546	must be a number from 0 to the maximum no. of CPUs configured with
547	the <computeroutput>--cpus</computeroutput> option. CPU 0 can
548	never be removed.</para>
549	</listitem>
550
551	<listitem>
552	<para><computeroutput>--cpuexecutioncap
553	<1-100></computeroutput>: This setting controls how much cpu
554	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual
555	CPU can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
556	</listitem>
557
558	<listitem>
559	<para><computeroutput>--pae on\|off</computeroutput>: This
560	enables/disables PAE (see <xref
561	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
562	</listitem>
563
564	<listitem>
565	<para><computeroutput>--longmode on\|off</computeroutput>: This
566	enables/disables long mode (see <xref
567	linkend="settings-processor" />).</para>
568	</listitem>
569
570	<listitem>
571	<para><computeroutput>--synthcpu on\|off</computeroutput>: This
572	setting determines whether VirtualBox will expose a synthetic CPU
573	to the guest to allow live migration between host systems that
574	differ significantly.</para>
575	</listitem>
576
577	<listitem>
578	<para><computeroutput>--hpet on\|off</computeroutput>: This
579	enables/disables a High Precision Event Timer (HPET) which can
580	replace the legacy system timers. This is turned off by default.
581	Note that Windows supports a HPET only from Vista onwards.</para>
582	</listitem>
583
584	<listitem>
585	<para><computeroutput>--hwvirtex on\|off</computeroutput>: This
586	enables or disables the use of hardware virtualization extensions
587	(Intel VT-x or AMD-V) in the processor of your host system; see
588	<xref linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
589	</listitem>
590
591	<listitem>
592	<para><computeroutput>--triplefaultreset on\|off</computeroutput>:
593	This setting allows to reset the guest instead of triggering a
594	Guru Meditation. Some guests raise a triple fault to reset the
595	CPU so sometimes this is desired behavior. Works only for non-SMP
596	guests.</para>
597	</listitem>
598
599	<listitem>
600	<para><computeroutput>--paravirtprovider
601	none\|default\|legacy\|minimal\|hyperv\|kvm</computeroutput>: This
602	setting specifies which paravirtualization interface to provide to
603	the guest operating system. Specifying
604	<computeroutput>none</computeroutput> explicitly turns off exposing
605	any paravirtualization interface. The option
606	<computeroutput>default</computeroutput>, will pick an appropriate
607	interface depending on the guest OS type while starting the VM.
608	This is the default option chosen while creating new VMs. The
609	<computeroutput>legacy</computeroutput> option is chosen for VMs
610	which were created with older VirtualBox versions and will pick a
611	paravirtualization interface while starting the VM with VirtualBox
612	5.0 and newer. The <computeroutput>minimal</computeroutput> provider
613	is mandatory for Mac OS X guests, while
614	<computeroutput>kvm</computeroutput> and
615	<computeroutput>hyperv</computeroutput> are recommended for Linux
616	and Windows guests respectively. These options are explained in
617	detail under <xref linkend="gimproviders" />.</para>
618	</listitem>
619
620	<listitem>
621	<para><computeroutput>--nestedpaging on\|off</computeroutput>: If
622	hardware virtualization is enabled, this additional setting
623	enables or disables the use of the nested paging feature in the
624	processor of your host system; see <xref
625	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
626	</listitem>
627
628	<listitem>
629	<para><computeroutput>--largepages on\|off</computeroutput>: If
630	hardware virtualization <emphasis>and</emphasis> nested paging are
631	enabled, for Intel VT-x only, an additional performance
632	improvement of up to 5% can be obtained by enabling this setting.
633	This causes the hypervisor to use large pages to reduce TLB use
634	and overhead.</para>
635	</listitem>
636
637	<listitem>
638	<para><computeroutput>--vtxvpid on\|off</computeroutput>: If
639	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
640	additional setting enables or disables the use of the tagged TLB
641	(VPID) feature in the processor of your host system; see <xref
642	linkend="hwvirt" />.</para>
643	</listitem>
644
645	<listitem>
646	<para><computeroutput>--vtxux on\|off</computeroutput>: If
647	hardware virtualization is enabled, for Intel VT-x only, this
648	setting enables or disables the use of the unrestricted guest mode
649	feature for executing your guest.</para>
650	</listitem>
651
652	<listitem>
653	<para><computeroutput>--accelerate3d on\|off</computeroutput>: This
654	enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether hardware 3D
655	acceleration should be available; see <xref
656	linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para>
657	</listitem>
658
659	<listitem>
660	<para><computeroutput>--accelerate2dvideo on\|off</computeroutput>:
661	This enables, if the Guest Additions are installed, whether 2D video
662	acceleration should be available; see <xref
663	linkend="guestadd-2d" />.</para>
664	</listitem>
665
666	<listitem>
667	<para><computeroutput>--chipset piix3\|ich9</computeroutput>:
668	By default VirtualBox emulates an Intel PIIX3 chipset. Usually there
669	is no reason to change the default setting unless it is required to
670	relax some of its constraints; see <xref
671	linkend="settings-motherboard" />.</para>
672	</listitem>
673
674	<listitem>
675	<para>You can influence the BIOS logo that is displayed when a
676	virtual machine starts up with a number of settings. Per default,
677	a VirtualBox logo is displayed.</para>
678
679	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogofadein
680	on\|off</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>--bioslogofadeout
681	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can determine whether the logo should
682	fade in and out, respectively.</para>
683
684	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogodisplaytime
685	<msec></computeroutput> you can set how long the logo should
686	be visible, in milliseconds.</para>
687
688	<para>With <computeroutput>--bioslogoimagepath
689	<imagepath></computeroutput> you can, if you are so
690	inclined, replace the image that is shown, with your own logo. The
691	image must be an uncompressed 256 color BMP file without color
692	space information (Windows 3.0 format). The image must not be
693	bigger than 640 x 480.</para>
694	</listitem>
695
696	<listitem>
697	<para><computeroutput>--biosbootmenu
698	disabled\|menuonly\|messageandmenu</computeroutput>: This specifies
699	whether the BIOS allows the user to select a temporary boot
700	device. <computeroutput>menuonly</computeroutput> suppresses the
701	message, but the user can still press F12 to select a temporary
702	boot device.</para>
703	</listitem>
704
705	<listitem>
706	<para><computeroutput>--nicbootprio<1-N>
707	<priority></computeroutput>: This specifies the order in which
708	NICs are tried for booting over the network (using PXE). The
709	priority is an integer in the 0 to 4 range. Priority 1 is the
710	highest, priority 4 is low. Priority 0, which is the default unless
711	otherwise specified, is the lowest.
712	</para>
713	<para> Note that this option only has effect when the Intel PXE boot
714	ROM is used.
715	</para>
716	</listitem>
717
718	<listitem>
719	<para><computeroutput>--biospxedebug on\|off</computeroutput>:
720	This option enables additional debugging output when using the
721	Intel PXE boot ROM. The output will be written to the release log
722	file (<xref linkend="collect-debug-info" />.</para>
723	</listitem>
724
725	<listitem>
726	<para><computeroutput>--boot<1-4>
727	none\|floppy\|dvd\|disk\|net</computeroutput>: This specifies the boot
728	order for the virtual machine. There are four "slots", which the
729	VM will try to access from 1 to 4, and for each of which you can
730	set a device that the VM should attempt to boot from.</para>
731	</listitem>
732
733	<listitem>
734	<para><computeroutput>--rtcuseutc on\|off</computeroutput>: This
735	option lets the real-time clock (RTC) operate in UTC time (see
736	<xref linkend="settings-motherboard" />).</para>
737	</listitem>
738
739	<listitem>
740	<para><computeroutput>--biossystemtimeoffset <ms></computeroutput>:
741	This allows you to set a fixed time offset of the guest relative to
742	the host time. The offset is specified in milliseconds. If the offset
743	is positive the guest time runs ahead the host time.</para>
744	</listitem>
745
746	<listitem>
747	<para><computeroutput>--snapshotfolder
748	default\|<path></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
749	the folder in which snapshots will be kept for a virtual
750	machine.</para>
751	</listitem>
752
753	<listitem>
754	<para><computeroutput>--firmware efi\|bios</computeroutput>:
755	Specifies which firmware is used to boot particular virtual
756	machine: EFI or BIOS. Use EFI only if your fully understand what
757	you're doing.</para>
758	</listitem>
759
760	<listitem>
761	<para><computeroutput>--guestmemoryballoon
762	<size></computeroutput> sets the default size of the guest
763	memory balloon, that is, memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest
764	Additions from the guest operating system and returned to the
765	hypervisor for re-use by other virtual machines.
766	<computeroutput><size></computeroutput> must be specified in
767	megabytes. The default size is 0 megabytes. For details,
768	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
769	</listitem>
770
771	<listitem>
772	<para><computeroutput>--defaultfrontend
773	default\|<name></computeroutput>: This allows you to specify
774	the default frontend which will be used when starting this VM; see
775	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" /> for details.</para>
776	</listitem>
777	</itemizedlist></para>
778	</sect2>
779
780	<sect2>
781	<title>Networking settings</title>
782
783	<para>The following networking settings are available through
784	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
785	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
786	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose settings
787	should be changed.<itemizedlist>
788	<listitem>
789	<para><computeroutput>--nic<1-N>
790	none\|null\|nat\|natnetwork\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>:
791	With this, you can set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards,
792	what type of networking should be available. They can be not
793	present (<computeroutput>none</computeroutput>), not connected to
794	the host (<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network
795	address translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>),
796	use the new network address translation engine
797	(<computeroutput>natnetwork</computeroutput>),
798	bridged networking (<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or
799	communicate with other virtual machines using internal networking
800	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>), host-only networking
801	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>), or access rarely used
802	sub-modes (<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>).
803	These options correspond
804	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
805	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
806	</listitem>
807
808	<listitem>
809	<para><computeroutput>--nicpromisc<1-N>
810	deny\|allow-vms\|allow-all</computeroutput>:
811	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
812	specify how the promiscious mode is handled. This setting is only
813	relevant for bridged networking.
814	<computeroutput>deny</computeroutput> (default setting) hides
815	any traffic not intended for this VM.
816	<computeroutput>allow-vms</computeroutput> hides all host
817	traffic from this VM but allows the VM to see traffic from/to other
818	VMs.
819	<computeroutput>allow-all</computeroutput> removes this
820	restriction completely.</para>
821	</listitem>
822
823	<listitem>
824	<para><computeroutput>--nictype<1-N>
825	Am79C970A\|Am79C973\|82540EM\|82543GC\|82545EM\|virtio</computeroutput>:
826	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
827	specify which networking hardware VirtualBox presents to the
828	guest; see <xref linkend="nichardware" />.</para>
829	</listitem>
830
831	<listitem>
832	<para><computeroutput>--cableconnected<1-N>
833	on\|off</computeroutput>: This allows you to temporarily disconnect
834	a virtual network interface, as if a network cable had been pulled
835	from a real network card. This might be useful for resetting
836	certain software components in the VM.</para>
837	</listitem>
838
839	<listitem>
840	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
841	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
842	purposes.</para>
843
844	<para>With <computeroutput>--nictrace<1-N>
845	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
846	particular virtual network card.</para>
847
848	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
849	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
850	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
851	logged to.</para>
852	</listitem>
853
854	<listitem>
855	<para><computeroutput>--natnet<1-N>
856	<network>\|default</computeroutput>:
857	If the networking type is set to <computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>
858	(not <computeroutput>natnetwork</computeroutput>) then this
859	setting specifies the IP address range to be used for
860	this network. See <xref linkend="changenat" /> for an
861	example.</para>
862	</listitem>
863
864	<listitem>
865	<para><computeroutput>--nat-network<1-N> <network
866	name></computeroutput>: If the networking type is set to
867	<computeroutput>natnetwork</computeroutput> (not
868	<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>) then this setting specifies
869	the name of the NAT network this adapter is connected to.</para>
870	</listitem>
871
872	This allows you to change the address range occupied by
873	<listitem>
874	<para><computeroutput>--bridgeadapter<1-N>
875	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If bridged networking
876	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the
877	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
878	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify which host
879	interface the given virtual network interface will use. For
880	details, please see <xref linkend="network_bridged" />.</para>
881	</listitem>
882
883	<listitem>
884	<para><computeroutput>--hostonlyadapter<1-N>
885	none\|<devicename></computeroutput>: If host-only networking
886	has been enabled for a virtual network card (see the --nic option
887	above; otherwise this setting has no effect), use this option to
888	specify which host-only networking interface the given virtual
889	network interface will use. For details, please see <xref
890	linkend="network_hostonly" />.</para>
891	</listitem>
892
893	<listitem>
894	<para><computeroutput>--intnet<1-N>
895	network</computeroutput>: If internal networking has been enabled
896	for a virtual network card (see the
897	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
898	this setting has no effect), use this option to specify the name
899	of the internal network (see <xref
900	linkend="network_internal" />).</para>
901	</listitem>
902
903	<listitem>
904	<para><computeroutput>--macaddress<1-N>
905	auto\|<mac></computeroutput>: With this option you can set
906	the MAC address of the virtual network card. Normally, each
907	virtual network card is assigned a random address by VirtualBox at
908	VM creation.</para>
909	</listitem>
910
911	<listitem>
912	<para><computeroutput>--nicgenericdrv<1-N>
913	<backend driver></computeroutput>: If generic networking has been
914	enabled for a virtual network card (see the
915	<computeroutput>--nic</computeroutput> option above; otherwise
916	this setting has no effect), this mode allows you to access
917	rarely used networking sub-modes, such as VDE network or UDP Tunnel.
918	</para>
919	</listitem>
920
921	<listitem>
922	<para><computeroutput>--nicproperty<1-N>
923	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
924	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
925	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
926	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
927	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
928	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
929	</para>
930	</listitem>
931	</itemizedlist></para>
932
933	<sect3>
934	<title>NAT Networking settings.</title>
935
936	<para>The following NAT networking settings are available through
937	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>. With all these
938	settings, the decimal number directly following the option name ("1-N"
939	in the list below) specifies the virtual network adapter whose
940	settings should be changed.<itemizedlist>
941	<listitem>
942	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N>
943	[<name>],tcp\|udp,[<hostip>],<hostport>,[<guestip>],
944	<guestport></computeroutput>: This option defines a NAT
945	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
946	for details).</para>
947	</listitem>
948
949	<listitem>
950	<para><computeroutput>--natpf<1-N> delete
951	<name></computeroutput>: This option deletes a NAT
952	port-forwarding rule (please see <xref linkend="natforward" />
953	for details).</para>
954	</listitem>
955
956	<listitem>
957	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpprefix<1-N>
958	<prefix></computeroutput>: This option defines a prefix
959	for the built-in TFTP server, i.e. where the boot file is
960	located (please see <xref linkend="nat-tftp" /> and <xref
961	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
962	</listitem>
963
964	<listitem>
965	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpfile<1-N>
966	<bootfile></computeroutput>: This option defines the TFT
967	boot file (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for
968	details).</para>
969	</listitem>
970
971	<listitem>
972	<para><computeroutput>--nattftpserver<1-N>
973	<tftpserver></computeroutput>: This option defines the
974	TFTP server address to boot from (please see <xref
975	linkend="nat-adv-tftp" /> for details).</para>
976	</listitem>
977
978	<listitem>
979	<para><computeroutput>--natdnspassdomain<1-N>
980	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option specifies whether the
981	built-in DHCP server passes the domain name for network name
982	resolution.</para>
983	</listitem>
984
985	<listitem>
986	<para><computeroutput>--natdnsproxy<1-N>
987	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine proxy
988	all guest DNS requests to the host's DNS servers (please see
989	<xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
990	</listitem>
991
992	<listitem>
993	<para><computeroutput>--natdnshostresolver<1-N>
994	on\|off</computeroutput>: This option makes the NAT engine use
995	the host's resolver mechanisms to handle DNS requests (please
996	see <xref linkend="nat-adv-dns" /> for details).</para>
997	</listitem>
998
999	<listitem>
1000	<para><computeroutput>--natsettings<1-N>
1001	[<mtu>],[<socksnd>],[<sockrcv>],[<tcpsnd>],
1002	[<tcprcv>]</computeroutput>: This option controls several
1003	NAT settings (please see <xref linkend="nat-adv-settings" /> for
1004	details).</para>
1005	</listitem>
1006
1007	<listitem>
1008	<para><computeroutput>--nataliasmode<1-N>
1009	default\|[log],[proxyonly],[sameports]</computeroutput>: This
1010	option defines behaviour of NAT engine core: log - enables
1011	logging, proxyonly - switches of aliasing mode makes NAT
1012	transparent, sameports enforces NAT engine to send packets via
1013	the same port as they originated on, default - disable all
1014	mentioned modes above . (please see <xref
1015	linkend="nat-adv-alias" /> for details).</para>
1016	</listitem>
1017	</itemizedlist></para>
1018	</sect3>
1019	</sect2>
1020
1021	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other">
1022	<title>Miscellaneous settings</title>
1023
1024	<para>The following other hardware settings, such as serial port, audio,
1025	clipboard, drag'n drop, monitor and USB settings are available through
1026	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1027	<listitem>
1028	<para><computeroutput>--uart<1-N> off\|<I/O base>
1029	<IRQ></computeroutput>: With this option you can configure
1030	virtual serial ports for the VM; see <xref
1031	linkend="serialports" /> for an introduction.</para>
1032	</listitem>
1033
1034	<listitem>
1035	<para><computeroutput>--uartmode<1-N>
1036	<arg></computeroutput>: This setting controls how VirtualBox
1037	connects a given virtual serial port (previously configured with
1038	the <computeroutput>--uartX</computeroutput> setting, see above)
1039	to the host on which the virtual machine is running. As described
1040	in detail in <xref linkend="serialports" />, for each such port,
1041	you can specify <computeroutput><arg></computeroutput> as
1042	one of the following options:<itemizedlist>
1043	<listitem>
1044	<para><computeroutput>disconnected</computeroutput>: Even
1045	though the serial port is shown to the guest, it has no
1046	"other end" -- like a real COM port without a cable.</para>
1047	</listitem>
1048
1049	<listitem>
1050	<para><computeroutput>server
1051	<pipename></computeroutput>: On a Windows host, this
1052	tells VirtualBox to create a named pipe on the host named
1053	<computeroutput><pipename></computeroutput> and
1054	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that Windows
1055	requires that the name of a named pipe begin with
1056	<computeroutput>\\.\pipe\</computeroutput>.</para>
1057
1058	<para>On a Linux host, instead of a named pipe, a local
1059	domain socket is used.</para>
1060	</listitem>
1061
1062	<listitem>
1063	<para><computeroutput>client
1064	<pipename></computeroutput>: This operates just like
1065	<computeroutput>server ...</computeroutput>, except that the
1066	pipe (or local domain socket) is not created by VirtualBox,
1067	but assumed to exist already.</para>
1068	</listitem>
1069
1070	<listitem>
1071	<para><computeroutput>tcpserver
1072	<port></computeroutput>: This
1073	tells VirtualBox to create a TCP socket on the host with TCP
1074	<computeroutput><port></computeroutput> and
1075	connect the virtual serial device to it. Note that UNIX-like
1076	systems require ports over 1024 for normal users.</para>
1077	</listitem>
1078
1079	<listitem>
1080	<para><computeroutput>tcpclient
1081	<hostname:port></computeroutput>: This operates just like
1082	<computeroutput>tcpserver ...</computeroutput>, except that the
1083	TCP socket is not created by VirtualBox,
1084	but assumed to exist already.</para>
1085	</listitem>
1086
1087	<listitem>
1088	<para><computeroutput><devicename></computeroutput>:
1089	If, instead of the above, the device name of a physical
1090	hardware serial port of the host is specified, the virtual
1091	serial port is connected to that hardware port. On a Windows
1092	host, the device name will be a COM port such as
1093	<computeroutput>COM1</computeroutput>; on a Linux host, the
1094	device name will look like
1095	<computeroutput>/dev/ttyS0</computeroutput>. This allows you
1096	to "wire" a real serial port to a virtual machine.</para>
1097	</listitem>
1098	</itemizedlist></para>
1099	</listitem>
1100
1101	<listitem>
1102	<para><computeroutput>--lptmode<1-N>
1103	<Device></computeroutput>:
1104	Specifies the Device Name of the parallel port that
1105	the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
1106	<emphasis>before</emphasis> <computeroutput>--lpt</computeroutput>.
1107	This feature is host operating system specific.</para>
1108	</listitem>
1109
1110	<listitem>
1111	<para><computeroutput>--lpt<1-N>
1112	<I/O base> <IRQ></computeroutput>:
1113	Specifies the I/O address of the parallel port and the IRQ
1114	number that the Parallel Port feature will be using. Use this
1115	<emphasis>after</emphasis>
1116	<computeroutput>--lptmod</computeroutput>. I/O base address and IRQ are
1117	the values that guest sees i.e. the values avalable under guest Device Manager.</para>
1118	</listitem>
1119
1120	<listitem>
1121	<para><computeroutput>--audio none\|null\|oss</computeroutput>: With
1122	this option, you can set whether the VM should have audio
1123	support.</para>
1124	</listitem>
1125
1126	<listitem>
1127	<para><computeroutput>--clipboard
1128	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1129	With this setting, you can select if and how the guest or host
1130	operating system's clipboard should be shared with the host or guest;
1131	see <xref linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
1132	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1133	</listitem>
1134
1135	<listitem>
1136	<para><computeroutput>--draganddrop
1137	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1138	With this setting, you can select the current drag'n drop mode
1139	being used between the host and the virtual machine;
1140	see <xref linkend="guestadd-dnd" />. This requires that the Guest
1141	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1142	</listitem>
1143
1144	<listitem>
1145	<para><computeroutput>--monitorcount
1146	<count></computeroutput>: This enables multi-monitor
1147	support; see <xref linkend="settings-display" />.</para>
1148	</listitem>
1149
1150	<listitem>
1151	<para><computeroutput>--usb on\|off</computeroutput>: This option
1152	enables or disables the VM's virtual USB controller; see <xref
1153	linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1154	</listitem>
1155
1156	<listitem>
1157	<para><computeroutput>--usbehci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1158	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 2.0 controller;
1159	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1160	</listitem>
1161
1162	<listitem>
1163	<para><computeroutput>--usbxhci on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1164	option enables or disables the VM's virtual USB 3.0 controller;
1165	see <xref linkend="settings-usb" /> for details.</para>
1166	</listitem>
1167	</itemizedlist></para>
1168
1169	<!-- @todo r=andy Document tracing-* commands -->
1170	</sect2>
1171
1172	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-vrde">
1173	<title>Remote machine settings</title>
1174
1175	<para>The following settings that affect remote machine behavior are
1176	available through <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1177	modifyvm</computeroutput>:<itemizedlist>
1178	<listitem>
1179	<para><computeroutput>--vrde on\|off</computeroutput>: With the
1180	VirtualBox graphical user interface, this enables or disables the
1181	VirtualBox remote desktop extension (VRDE) server. Note that if
1182	you are using <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> (see
1183	<xref linkend="vboxheadless" />), VRDE is enabled by
1184	default.</para>
1185	</listitem>
1186
1187	<!-- @todo r=andy Document vrdeproperty -->
1188
1189	<listitem>
1190	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeextpack default\|<name></computeroutput>:
1191	Allows to specify the library to use for to access the VM
1192	remotely. The default is to use the RDP code which is part of the
1193	Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.</para>
1194	</listitem>
1195
1196	<listitem>
1197	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeport
1198	default\|<ports></computeroutput>: A port or a range of ports
1199	the VRDE server can bind to; "default" or "0" means port 3389, the
1200	standard port for RDP. You can specify a comma-separated list of
1201	ports or ranges of ports. Use a dash between two port numbers to
1202	specify a range. The VRDE server will bind to <emphasis
1203	role="bold">one</emphasis> of available ports from the specified
1204	list. Only one machine can use a given port at a time. For
1205	example, the option <computeroutput> --vrdeport
1206	5000,5010-5012</computeroutput> will tell the server to bind to
1207	one of following ports: 5000, 5010, 5011 or 5012.</para>
1208	</listitem>
1209
1210	<listitem>
1211	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeaddress <IP
1212	address></computeroutput>: The IP address of the host network
1213	interface the VRDE server will bind to. If specified, the server
1214	will accept connections only on the specified host network
1215	interface.</para>
1216	<para>The setting can be used to specify whether the VRDP server
1217	should accept either IPv4 or IPv6 or both connections:
1218	<itemizedlist>
1219	<listitem>
1220	<para>only IPv4: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "0.0.0.0"
1221	</computeroutput></para>
1222	</listitem>
1223	<listitem>
1224	<para>only IPv6: <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress "::"
1225	</computeroutput></para>
1226	</listitem>
1227	<listitem>
1228	<para>both IPv6 and IPv4 (default): <computeroutput>--vrdeaddress ""
1229	</computeroutput></para>
1230	</listitem>
1231	</itemizedlist></para>
1232	</listitem>
1233
1234	<listitem>
1235	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthtype
1236	null\|external\|guest</computeroutput>: This allows you to choose
1237	whether and how authorization will be performed; see <xref
1238	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1239	</listitem>
1240
1241	<listitem>
1242	<para><computeroutput>--vrdeauthlibrary
1243	default\|<name></computeroutput>: This allos to set the
1244	library used for RDP authentication, see <xref lang=""
1245	linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
1246	</listitem>
1247
1248	<listitem>
1249	<para><computeroutput>--vrdemulticon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1250	enables multiple connections to the same VRDE server, if the
1251	server supports this feature; see <xref lang=""
1252	linkend="vrde-multiconnection" />.</para>
1253	</listitem>
1254
1255	<listitem>
1256	<para><computeroutput>--vrdereusecon on\|off</computeroutput>: This
1257	specifies the VRDE server behavior when multiple connections are
1258	disabled. When this option is enabled, the server will allow a new
1259	client to connect and will drop the existing connection. When this
1260	option is disabled (this is the default setting), a new connection
1261	will not be accepted if there is already a client connected to the
1262	server.</para>
1263	</listitem>
1264
1265	<listitem>
1266	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannel on\|off</computeroutput>:
1267	This enables video redirection, if it is supported by the VRDE
1268	server; see <xref lang="" linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1269	</listitem>
1270
1271	<listitem>
1272	<para><computeroutput>--vrdevideochannelquality
1273	<percent></computeroutput>: Sets the image quality for video
1274	redirection; see <xref lang=""
1275	linkend="vrde-videochannel" />.</para>
1276	</listitem>
1277	</itemizedlist></para>
1278	</sect2>
1279
1280	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport">
1281	<title>Teleporting settings</title>
1282
1283	<para>With the following commands for <computeroutput>VBoxManage
1284	modifyvm</computeroutput> you can configure a machine to be a target for
1285	teleporting. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for an
1286	introduction.<itemizedlist>
1287	<listitem>
1288	<para><computeroutput>--teleporter on\|off</computeroutput>: With
1289	this setting you turn on or off whether a machine waits for a
1290	teleporting request to come in on the network when it is started.
1291	If "on", when the machine is started, it does not boot the virtual
1292	machine as it would normally; instead, it then waits for a
1293	teleporting request to come in on the port and address listed with
1294	the next two parameters.</para>
1295	</listitem>
1296
1297	<listitem>
1298	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterport
1299	<port></computeroutput>, <computeroutput>--teleporteraddress
1300	<address></computeroutput>: these must be used with
1301	--teleporter and tell the virtual machine on which port and
1302	address it should listen for a teleporting request from another
1303	virtual machine. <computeroutput><port></computeroutput> can
1304	be any free TCP/IP port number (e.g. 6000);
1305	<computeroutput><address></computeroutput> can be any IP
1306	address or hostname and specifies the TCP/IP socket to bind to.
1307	The default is "0.0.0.0", which means any address.</para>
1308	</listitem>
1309
1310	<listitem>
1311	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpassword
1312	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1313	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1314	source machine specifies the same password as the one given with
1315	this command.</para>
1316	</listitem>
1317
1318	<listitem>
1319	<para><computeroutput>--teleporterpasswordfile
1320	<password></computeroutput>: if this optional argument is
1321	given, then the teleporting request will only succeed if the
1322	source machine specifies the same password as the one specified
1323	in the file give with this command. Use <computeroutput>stdin</computeroutput>
1324	to read the password from stdin.</para>
1325	</listitem>
1326
1327	<listitem>
1328	<para><computeroutput>--cpuid <leaf> <eax> <ebx>
1329	<ecx> <edx></computeroutput>: Advanced users can use
1330	this command before a teleporting operation to restrict the
1331	virtual CPU capabilities that VirtualBox presents to the guest
1332	operating system. This must be run on both the source and the
1333	target machines involved in the teleporting and will then modify
1334	what the guest sees when it executes the
1335	<computeroutput>CPUID</computeroutput> machine instruction. This
1336	might help with misbehaving applications that wrongly assume that
1337	certain CPU capabilities are present. The meaning of the
1338	parameters is hardware dependent; please refer to the AMD or Intel
1339	processor manuals.</para>
1340	</listitem>
1341	</itemizedlist></para>
1342	</sect2>
1343
1344	<sect2 id="vboxmanage-modifyvm-debugging">
1345	<title>Debugging settings</title>
1346
1347	<para>The following settings are only relevant for low-level VM
1348	debugging. Regular users will never need these settings.<itemizedlist>
1349	<listitem>
1350	<para><computeroutput>--tracing-enabled on\|off</computeroutput>:
1351	Enable the tracebuffer. This consumes some memory for the tracebuffer
1352	and adds extra overhead.</para>
1353	</listitem>
1354	<listitem>
1355	<para><computeroutput>--tracing-config <config-string></computeroutput>:
1356	Allows to configure tracing. In particular this defines which group of
1357	tracepoints are enabled.</para>
1358	</listitem>
1359	</itemizedlist>
1360	</para>
1361	</sect2>
1362
1363	</sect1>
1364
1365	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevm">
1366	<title>VBoxManage clonevm</title>
1367
1368	<para>This command creates a full or linked copy of an existing virtual
1369	machine.</para>
1370
1371	<para>The <computeroutput>clonevm</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1372	least the name of the virtual machine which should be cloned. The following
1373	additional settings can be used to further configure the clone VM
1374	operation:</para>
1375
1376	<itemizedlist>
1377	<listitem>
1378	<para><computeroutput>--snapshot <uuid>\|<name></computeroutput>:
1379	Select a specific snapshot where the clone operation should refer
1380	to. Default is referring to the current state.</para>
1381	</listitem>
1382	<listitem>
1383	<para><computeroutput>--mode machine\|machineandchildren\|all</computeroutput>:
1384	Selects the cloning mode of the operation. If
1385	<computeroutput>machine</computeroutput> is selected (the default),
1386	the current state of the VM without any snapshots is cloned. In the
1387	<computeroutput>machineandchildren</computeroutput> mode the snapshot
1388	provided by <computeroutput>--snapshot</computeroutput> and all
1389	child snapshots are cloned. If <computeroutput>all</computeroutput>
1390	is the selected mode all snapshots and the current state are cloned.
1391	</para>
1392	</listitem>
1393	<listitem>
1394	<para><computeroutput>--options link\|keepallmacs\|keepnatmacs\|keepdisknames</computeroutput>:
1395	Allows additional fine tuning of the clone operation. The first
1396	option defines that a linked clone should be created, which is
1397	only possible for a machine clone from a snapshot. The next two
1398	options allow to define how the MAC addresses of every virtual
1399	network card should be handled. They can either be reinitialized
1400	(the default), left unchanged
1401	(<computeroutput>keepallmacs</computeroutput>) or left unchanged
1402	when the network type is NAT
1403	(<computeroutput>keepnatmacs</computeroutput>). If you add
1404	<computeroutput>keepdisknames</computeroutput> all new disk images
1405	are called like the original ones, otherwise they are
1406	renamed.</para>
1407	</listitem>
1408	<listitem>
1409	<para><computeroutput>--name <name></computeroutput>: Select a
1410	new name for the new virtual machine. Default is "Original Name
1411	Clone".</para>
1412	</listitem>
1413	<listitem>
1414	<para><computeroutput>--basefolder <basefolder></computeroutput>:
1415	Select the folder where the new virtual machine configuration should
1416	be saved in.</para>
1417	</listitem>
1418	<listitem>
1419	<para><computeroutput>--uuid <uuid></computeroutput>:
1420	Select the UUID the new VM should have. This id has to be unique in
1421	the VirtualBox instance this clone should be registered. Default is
1422	creating a new UUID.</para>
1423	</listitem>
1424	<listitem>
1425	<para><computeroutput>--register</computeroutput>:
1426	Automatically register the new clone in this VirtualBox
1427	installation. If you manually want to register the new VM later, see
1428	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-registervm" /> for instructions how to do
1429	so.</para>
1430	</listitem>
1431	</itemizedlist>
1432	</sect1>
1433
1434	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-import">
1435	<title>VBoxManage import</title>
1436
1437	<para>This command imports a virtual appliance in OVF format by copying
1438	the virtual disk images and creating virtual machines in VirtualBox. See
1439	<xref linkend="ovf" /> for an introduction to appliances.</para>
1440
1441	<para>The <computeroutput>import</computeroutput> subcommand takes at
1442	least the path name of an OVF file as input and expects the disk images,
1443	if needed, in the same directory as the OVF file. A lot of additional
1444	command-line options are supported to control in detail what is being
1445	imported and modify the import parameters, but the details depend on the
1446	content of the OVF file.</para>
1447
1448	<para>It is therefore recommended to first run the import subcommand with
1449	the <computeroutput>--dry-run</computeroutput> or
1450	<computeroutput>-n</computeroutput> option. This will then print a
1451	description of the appliance's contents to the screen how it would be
1452	imported into VirtualBox, together with the optional command-line options
1453	to influence the import behavior.</para>
1454
1455	<para>As an example, here is the screen output with a sample appliance
1456	containing a Windows XP guest:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf --dry-run
1457	Interpreting WindowsXp.ovf...
1458	OK.
1459	Virtual system 0:
1460	0: Suggested OS type: "WindowsXP"
1461	(change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all)
1462	1: Suggested VM name "Windows XP Professional_1"
1463	(change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>")
1464	3: Number of CPUs: 1
1465	(change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>")
1466	4: Guest memory: 956 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>")
1467	5: Sound card (appliance expects "ensoniq1371", can change on import)
1468	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore")
1469	6: USB controller
1470	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 6 --ignore")
1471	7: Network adapter: orig bridged, config 2, extra type=bridged
1472	8: Floppy
1473	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore")
1474	9: SCSI controller, type BusLogic
1475	(change with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --scsitype {BusLogic\|LsiLogic}";
1476	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore")
1477	10: IDE controller, type PIIX4
1478	(disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore")
1479	11: Hard disk image: source image=WindowsXp.vmdk,
1480	target path=/home/user/disks/WindowsXp.vmdk, controller=9;channel=0
1481	(change controller with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --controller <id>";
1482	disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore")</screen></para>
1483
1484	<para>As you can see, the individual configuration items are numbered, and
1485	depending on their type support different command-line options. The import
1486	subcommand can be directed to ignore many such items with a
1487	<computeroutput>--vsys X --unit Y --ignore</computeroutput> option, where
1488	X is the number of the virtual system (zero unless there are several
1489	virtual system descriptions in the appliance) and Y the item number, as
1490	printed on the screen.</para>
1491
1492	<para>In the above example, Item #1 specifies the name of the target
1493	machine in VirtualBox. Items #9 and #10 specify hard disk controllers,
1494	respectively. Item #11 describes a hard disk image; in this case, the
1495	additional <computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput> option indicates
1496	which item the disk image should be connected to, with the default coming
1497	from the OVF file.</para>
1498
1499	<para>You can combine several items for the same virtual system behind the
1500	same <computeroutput>--vsys</computeroutput> option. For example, to
1501	import a machine as described in the OVF, but without the sound card and
1502	without the USB controller, and with the disk image connected to the IDE
1503	controller instead of the SCSI controller, use this:<screen>VBoxManage import WindowsXp.ovf
1504	--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore --unit 6 --ignore --unit 11 --controller 10</screen></para>
1505	</sect1>
1506
1507	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-export">
1508	<title>VBoxManage export</title>
1509
1510	<para>This command exports one or more virtual machines from VirtualBox
1511	into a virtual appliance in OVF format, including copying their virtual
1512	disk images to compressed VMDK. See <xref linkend="ovf" /> for an
1513	introduction to appliances.</para>
1514
1515	<para>The <computeroutput>export</computeroutput> command is simple to
1516	use: list the machine (or the machines) that you would like to export to
1517	the same OVF file and specify the target OVF file after an additional
1518	<computeroutput>--output</computeroutput> or
1519	<computeroutput>-o</computeroutput> option. Note that the directory of the
1520	target OVF file will also receive the exported disk images in the
1521	compressed VMDK format (regardless of the original format) and should have
1522	enough disk space left for them.</para>
1523
1524	<para>Beside a simple export of a given virtual machine, you can append
1525	several product information to the appliance file. Use
1526	<computeroutput>--product</computeroutput>,
1527	<computeroutput>--producturl</computeroutput>,
1528	<computeroutput>--vendor</computeroutput>,
1529	<computeroutput>--vendorurl</computeroutput> and
1530	<computeroutput>--version</computeroutput> to specify this additional
1531	information. For legal reasons you may add a license text or the content
1532	of a license file by using the <computeroutput>--eula</computeroutput> and
1533	<computeroutput>--eulafile</computeroutput> option respectively. As with
1534	OVF import, you must use the <computeroutput>--vsys X</computeroutput>
1535	option to direct the previously mentioned options to the correct virtual
1536	machine.</para>
1537
1538	<para>For virtualization products which aren't fully compatible with the
1539	OVF standard 1.0 you can enable a OVF 0.9 legacy mode with the
1540	<computeroutput>--legacy09</computeroutput> option.</para>
1541
1542	<para>To specify options controlling the exact content of the appliance
1543	file, you can use <computeroutput>--option</computeroutput> to request the
1544	creation of a manifest file (encouraged, allows detection of corrupted
1545	appliances on import), the additional export of DVD images, and the
1546	exclusion of MAC addresses. You can specify a list of options, e.g.
1547	<computeroutput>--option manifest,nomacs</computeroutput>. For details,
1548	check the help output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage export</computeroutput>.</para>
1549	</sect1>
1550
1551	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-startvm">
1552	<title>VBoxManage startvm</title>
1553
1554	<para>This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the
1555	"Powered off" or "Saved" states.</para>
1556
1557	<para>The optional <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> specifier
1558	determines whether the machine will be started in a window or whether the
1559	output should go through <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>,
1560	with VRDE enabled or not; see <xref linkend="vboxheadless" /> for more
1561	information. The list of types is subject to change, and it's not
1562	guaranteed that all types are accepted by any product variant.</para>
1563
1564	<para>The global or per-VM default value for the VM frontend type will be
1565	taken if the type is not explicitly specified. If none of these are set,
1566	the GUI variant will be started.</para>
1567
1568	<para>The following values are allowed:</para>
1569
1570	<glosslist>
1571	<glossentry>
1572	<glossterm><computeroutput>gui</computeroutput></glossterm>
1573
1574	<glossdef>
1575	<para>Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.</para>
1576	</glossdef>
1577	</glossentry>
1578
1579	<glossentry>
1580	<glossterm><computeroutput>headless</computeroutput></glossterm>
1581
1582	<glossdef>
1583	<para>Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.</para>
1584	</glossdef>
1585	</glossentry>
1586
1587	<glossentry>
1588	<glossterm><computeroutput>sdl</computeroutput></glossterm>
1589
1590	<glossdef>
1591	<para>Starts a VM with a minimal GUI and limited features.</para>
1592	</glossdef>
1593	</glossentry>
1594
1595	<glossentry>
1596	<glossterm><computeroutput>separate</computeroutput></glossterm>
1597
1598	<glossdef>
1599	<para>Starts a VM with detachable UI (technically it is a headless VM
1600	with user interface in a separate process). This is an experimental
1601	feature as it lacks certain functionality at the moment (e.g. 3D
1602	acceleration will not work).</para>
1603	</glossdef>
1604	</glossentry>
1605	</glosslist>
1606
1607	<note>
1608	<para>If you experience problems with starting virtual machines with
1609	particular frontends and there is no conclusive error information,
1610	consider starting virtual machines directly by running the respective
1611	front-end, as this can give additional error information.</para>
1612	</note>
1613	</sect1>
1614
1615	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-controlvm">
1616	<title>VBoxManage controlvm</title>
1617
1618	<para>The <computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> subcommand allows you
1619	to change the state of a virtual machine that is currently running. The
1620	following can be specified:</para>
1621
1622	<para><itemizedlist>
1623	<listitem>
1624	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1625	pause</computeroutput> temporarily puts a virtual machine on hold,
1626	without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted
1627	in gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is
1628	equivalent to selecting the "Pause" item in the "Machine" menu of
1629	the GUI.)</para>
1630	</listitem>
1631
1632	<listitem>
1633	<para>Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1634	resume</computeroutput> to undo a previous
1635	<computeroutput>pause</computeroutput> command. (This is equivalent
1636	to selecting the "Resume" item in the "Machine" menu of the
1637	GUI.)</para>
1638	</listitem>
1639
1640	<listitem>
1641	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1642	reset</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine as
1643	pressing the "Reset" button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
1644	virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating
1645	system again immediately. The state of the VM is not saved
1646	beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
1647	the "Reset" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI.)</para>
1648	</listitem>
1649
1650	<listitem>
1651	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1652	poweroff</computeroutput> has the same effect on a virtual machine
1653	as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of
1654	the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is
1655	equivalent to selecting the "Close" item in the "Machine" menu of
1656	the GUI or pressing the window's close button, and then selecting
1657	"Power off the machine" in the dialog.)</para>
1658
1659	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Powered off". From there,
1660	it can be started again; see <xref
1661	linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1662	</listitem>
1663
1664	<listitem>
1665	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm <vm>
1666	savestate</computeroutput> will save the current state of the VM to
1667	disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the
1668	"Close" item in the "Machine" menu of the GUI or pressing the
1669	window's close button, and then selecting "Save the machine state"
1670	in the dialog.)</para>
1671
1672	<para>After this, the VM's state will be "Saved". From there, it can
1673	be started again; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
1674	</listitem>
1675
1676	<listitem>
1677	<para><computeroutput>VBoxManage controlvm "VM name" teleport
1678	--hostname <name> --port <port> [--passwordfile
1679	<file> \| --password <password>]</computeroutput> makes
1680	the machine the source of a teleporting operation and initiates a
1681	teleport to the given target. See <xref linkend="teleporting" /> for
1682	an introduction. If the optional password is specified, it must match
1683	the password that was given to the
1684	<computeroutput>modifyvm</computeroutput> command for the target
1685	machine; see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-teleport" /> for
1686	details.</para>
1687	</listitem>
1688	</itemizedlist></para>
1689
1690	<para>A few extra options are available with
1691	<computeroutput>controlvm</computeroutput> that do not directly affect the
1692	VM's running state:</para>
1693
1694	<itemizedlist>
1695	<!-- @todo r=andy Document keyboardputscancode -->
1696
1697	<listitem>
1698	<para>The <computeroutput>setlinkstate<1-N></computeroutput>
1699	operation connects or disconnects virtual network cables from their
1700	network interfaces.</para>
1701	</listitem>
1702
1703	<listitem>
1704	<para><computeroutput>nic<1-N>
1705	null\|nat\|bridged\|intnet\|hostonly\|generic</computeroutput>: With this, you can
1706	set, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, what type of
1707	networking should be available. They can be not connected to the host
1708	(<computeroutput>null</computeroutput>), use network address
1709	translation (<computeroutput>nat</computeroutput>), bridged networking
1710	(<computeroutput>bridged</computeroutput>) or communicate with other
1711	virtual machines using internal networking
1712	(<computeroutput>intnet</computeroutput>) or host-only networking
1713	(<computeroutput>hostonly</computeroutput>) or access to rarely used
1714	sub-modes
1715	(<computeroutput>generic</computeroutput>). These options correspond
1716	to the modes which are described in detail in <xref
1717	linkend="networkingmodes" />.</para>
1718	</listitem>
1719
1720	<listitem>
1721	<para>With the "nictrace" options, you can optionally trace
1722	network traffic by dumping it to a file, for debugging
1723	purposes.</para>
1724
1725	<para>With <computeroutput>nictrace<1-N>
1726	on\|off</computeroutput>, you can enable network tracing for a
1727	particular virtual network card.</para>
1728
1729	<para>If enabled, you must specify with
1730	<computeroutput>--nictracefile<1-N>
1731	<filename></computeroutput> what file the trace should be
1732	logged to.</para>
1733	</listitem>
1734
1735	<listitem>
1736	<para><computeroutput>nicpromisc<1-N>
1737	deny\|allow-vms\|allow-all</computeroutput>:
1738	This allows you, for each of the VM's virtual network cards, to
1739	specify how the promiscious mode is handled. This setting is only
1740	relevant for bridged networking.
1741	<computeroutput>deny</computeroutput> (default setting) hides
1742	any traffic not intended for this VM.
1743	<computeroutput>allow-vms</computeroutput> hides all host
1744	traffic from this VM but allows the VM to see traffic from/to other
1745	VMs.
1746	<computeroutput>allow-all</computeroutput> removes this
1747	restriction completely.</para>
1748	</listitem>
1749
1750	<listitem>
1751	<para><computeroutput>nicproperty<1-N>
1752	<paramname>="paramvalue"</computeroutput>:
1753	This option, in combination with "nicgenericdrv" allows you to
1754	pass parameters to rarely-used network backends.</para><para>
1755	Those parameters are backend engine-specific, and are different
1756	between UDP Tunnel and the VDE backend drivers. For example,
1757	please see <xref linkend="network_udp_tunnel" />.
1758	</para>
1759	</listitem>
1760
1761	<listitem>
1762	<para>The <computeroutput>guestmemoryballoon</computeroutput>
1763	operation changes the size of the guest memory balloon, that is,
1764	memory allocated by the VirtualBox Guest Additions from the guest
1765	operating system and returned to the hypervisor for re-use by other
1766	virtual machines. This must be specified in megabytes. For details,
1767	see <xref linkend="guestadd-balloon" />.</para>
1768	</listitem>
1769
1770	<listitem>
1771	<para><computeroutput>usbattach</computeroutput> and
1772	<computeroutput>usbdettach</computeroutput> make host USB devices
1773	visible to the virtual machine on the fly, without the need for
1774	creating filters first. The USB devices can be specified by UUID
1775	(unique identifier) or by address on the host system.</para>
1776
1777	<para>You can use <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
1778	usbhost</computeroutput> to locate this information.</para>
1779	</listitem>
1780
1781	<listitem>
1782	<para><computeroutput>clipboard
1783	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1784	With this setting, you can select if and how the guest or host
1785	operating system's clipboard should be shared with the host or guest;
1786	see <xref linkend="generalsettings" />. This requires that the Guest
1787	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1788	</listitem>
1789
1790	<listitem>
1791	<para><computeroutput>draganddrop
1792	disabled\|hosttoguest\|guesttohost\|bidirectional</computeroutput>:
1793	With this setting, you can select the current drag'n drop mode
1794	being used between the host and the virtual machine;
1795	see <xref linkend="guestadd-dnd" />. This requires that the Guest
1796	Additions be installed in the virtual machine.</para>
1797	</listitem>
1798
1799	<listitem>
1800	<para><computeroutput>vrde on\|off</computeroutput> lets you enable or
1801	disable the VRDE server, if it is installed.</para>
1802	</listitem>
1803
1804	<listitem>
1805	<para><computeroutput>vrdeport default\|<ports></computeroutput>
1806	changes the port or a range of ports that the VRDE server can bind to;
1807	"default" or "0" means port 3389, the standard port for RDP. For
1808	details, see the description for the
1809	<computeroutput>--vrdeport</computeroutput> option in <xref
1810	linkend="vboxmanage-modifyvm-other" />.</para>
1811	</listitem>
1812
1813
1814	<listitem>
1815	<para><computeroutput>setvideomodehint</computeroutput> requests that
1816	the guest system change to a particular video mode. This requires that
1817	the Guest Additions be installed, and will not work for all guest
1818	systems.</para>
1819	</listitem>
1820
1821	<listitem>
1822	<para><computeroutput>screenshotpng</computeroutput> takes a screenshot
1823	of the guest display and saves it in PNG format.</para>
1824	</listitem>
1825
1826	<listitem>
1827	<para><computeroutput>videocap on\|off</computeroutput> enables or disables
1828	recording a VM session into a WebM/VP8 file.</para>
1829	</listitem>
1830
1831	<listitem>
1832	<para><computeroutput>videocapscreens all\|<screen ID> [<screen ID> ...]]</computeroutput>
1833	allows to specify which screens of the VM are being recorded. This setting
1834	cannot be changed while video capturing is enabled. Each screen is recorded
1835	into a separate file.</para>
1836	</listitem>
1837
1838	<listitem>
1839	<para><computeroutput>videocapfile <file></computeroutput> sets the filename
1840	VirtualBox uses to save the recorded content. This setting cannot be changed
1841	while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1842	</listitem>
1843
1844	<listitem>
1845	<para><computeroutput>videocapres <width> <height></computeroutput>
1846	sets the resolution (in pixels) of the recorded video. This setting cannot be
1847	changed while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1848	</listitem>
1849
1850	<listitem> <!-- @todo r=andy Clarify rate. -->
1851	<para><computeroutput>videocaprate <rate></computeroutput> sets the
1852	bitrate in kilobits (kb) per second. Increasing this value makes the video
1853	look better for the cost of an increased file size. This setting cannot be
1854	changed while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1855	</listitem>
1856
1857	<listitem>
1858	<para><computeroutput>videocapfps <fps></computeroutput> sets the
1859	maximum number of frames per second (FPS) to be recorded. Frames with a
1860	higher frequency will be skipped. Reducing this value increases the number
1861	of skipped frames and reduces the file size. This setting cannot be changed
1862	while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1863	</listitem>
1864
1865	<listitem> <!-- @todo r=andy Clarify time format. -->
1866	<para><computeroutput>videocapmaxtime <time></computeroutput> sets
1867	the maximum time the video capturing will take place since activation.
1868	The capturing stops when the defined time interval has elapsed. If this
1869	value is zero the capturing is not limited by time. This setting cannot
1870	be changed while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1871	</listitem>
1872
1873	<listitem>
1874	<para><computeroutput>videocapmaxsize <MB></computeroutput> limits
1875	the maximum size of the captured video file (in MB). The capturing stops
1876	when file size has reached the specified size. If this value is zero
1877	the capturing will not be limited by file size. This setting cannot be
1878	changed while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1879	</listitem>
1880
1881	<listitem>
1882	<para><computeroutput>videocapopts <key=value> [<key=value> ...]</computeroutput>
1883	can be used to specify additional video capturing options. These options
1884	only are for advanced users and must be specified in a comma-separated
1885	key=value format, e.g. <computeroutput>foo=bar,a=b</computeroutput>.
1886	This setting cannot be changed while video capturing is enabled.</para>
1887	</listitem>
1888
1889	<listitem>
1890	<para>The <computeroutput>setcredentials</computeroutput> operation is
1891	used for remote logons in Windows guests. For details, please refer to
1892	<xref linkend="autologon" />.</para>
1893	</listitem>
1894
1895	<!-- @todo r=andy Document teleport! -->
1896
1897	<listitem>
1898	<para><computeroutput>--plugcpu\|unplugcpu
1899	<id></computeroutput>: If CPU hot-plugging is enabled, this adds
1900	a virtual CPU to the virtual machines (or removes one).
1901	<computeroutput><id></computeroutput> specifies the index of
1902	the virtual CPU to be added or removed and must be a number from 0
1903	to the maximum no. of CPUs configured. CPU 0 can never be removed.</para>
1904	</listitem>
1905
1906	<listitem>
1907	<para>The <computeroutput>cpuexecutioncap
1908	<1-100></computeroutput>: This operation controls how much cpu
1909	time a virtual CPU can use. A value of 50 implies a single virtual CPU
1910	can use up to 50% of a single host CPU.</para>
1911	</listitem>
1912
1913	<!-- @todo r=andy Document webcam! -->
1914
1915	</itemizedlist>
1916	</sect1>
1917
1918	<sect1>
1919	<title>VBoxManage discardstate</title>
1920
1921	<para>This command discards the saved state of a virtual machine which is
1922	not currently running, which will cause its operating system to restart
1923	next time you start it. This is the equivalent of pulling out the power
1924	cable on a physical machine, and should be avoided if possible.</para>
1925	</sect1>
1926
1927	<sect1>
1928	<title>VBoxManage adoptstate</title>
1929
1930	<para>If you have a saved state file (<computeroutput>.sav</computeroutput>)
1931	that is separate from the VM configuration, you can use this command to
1932	"adopt" the file. This will change the VM to saved state and when you
1933	start it, VirtualBox will attempt to restore it from the saved state file
1934	you indicated. This command should only be used in special setups.</para>
1935	</sect1>
1936
1937	<sect1>
1938	<title>VBoxManage snapshot</title>
1939
1940	<para>This command is used to control snapshots from the command line. A
1941	snapshot consists of a complete copy of the virtual machine settings,
1942	copied at the time when the snapshot was taken, and optionally a virtual
1943	machine saved state file if the snapshot was taken while the machine was
1944	running. After a snapshot has been taken, VirtualBox creates differencing
1945	hard disk for each normal hard disk associated with the machine so that
1946	when a snapshot is restored, the contents of the virtual machine's virtual
1947	hard disks can be quickly reset by simply dropping the pre-existing
1948	differencing files.</para>
1949
1950	<para>The <computeroutput>take</computeroutput> operation takes a snapshot
1951	of the current state of the virtual machine. You must supply a name for
1952	the snapshot and can optionally supply a description. The new snapshot is
1953	inserted into the snapshots tree as a child of the current snapshot and
1954	then becomes the new current snapshot. The
1955	<computeroutput>--description</computeroutput> parameter allows to
1956	describe the snapshot. If <computeroutput>--live</computeroutput>
1957	is specified, the VM will not be stopped during the snapshot creation
1958	(live smapshotting).</para>
1959
1960	<para>The <computeroutput>delete</computeroutput> operation deletes a
1961	snapshot (specified by name or by UUID). This can take a while to finish
1962	since the differencing images associated with the snapshot might need to
1963	be merged with their child differencing images.</para>
1964
1965	<para>The <computeroutput>restore</computeroutput> operation will restore
1966	the given snapshot (specified by name or by UUID) by resetting the virtual
1967	machine's settings and current state to that of the snapshot. The previous
1968	current state of the machine will be lost. After this, the given snapshot
1969	becomes the new "current" snapshot so that subsequent snapshots are
1970	inserted under the snapshot from which was restored.</para>
1971
1972	<para>The <computeroutput>restorecurrent</computeroutput> operation is a
1973	shortcut to restore the current snapshot (i.e. the snapshot from which the
1974	current state is derived). This subcommand is equivalent to using the
1975	"restore" subcommand with the name or UUID of the current snapshot, except
1976	that it avoids the extra step of determining that name or UUID.</para>
1977
1978	<para>With the <computeroutput>edit</computeroutput> operation, you can
1979	change the name or description of an existing snapshot.</para>
1980
1981	<para>With the <computeroutput>showvminfo</computeroutput> operation, you
1982	can view the virtual machine settings that were stored with an existing
1983	snapshot.</para>
1984	</sect1>
1985
1986	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-closemedium">
1987	<title>VBoxManage closemedium</title>
1988
1989	<para>This commands removes a hard disk, DVD or floppy image from a
1990	VirtualBox media registry.<footnote>
1991	<para>Before VirtualBox 4.0, it was necessary to call VBoxManage
1992	openmedium before a medium could be attached to a virtual machine;
1993	that call "registered" the medium with the global VirtualBox media
1994	registry. With VirtualBox 4.0 this is no longer necessary; media are
1995	added to media registries automatically. The "closemedium" call has
1996	been retained, however, to allow for explicitly removing a medium from
1997	a registry.</para>
1998	</footnote></para>
1999
2000	<para>Optionally, you can request that the image be deleted. You will get
2001	appropriate diagnostics that the deletion failed, however the image will
2002	become unregistered in any case.</para>
2003	</sect1>
2004
2005	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storageattach">
2006	<title>VBoxManage storageattach</title>
2007
2008	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage medium connected to
2009	a storage controller that was previously added with the
2010	<computeroutput>storagectl</computeroutput> command (see the previous
2011	section). The syntax is as follows:</para>
2012
2013	<screen>VBoxManage storageattach <uuid\|vmname>
2014	--storagectl <name>
2015	[--port <number>]
2016	[--device <number>]
2017	[--type dvddrive\|hdd\|fdd]
2018	[--medium none\|emptydrive\|
2019	<uuid>\|<filename>\|host:<drive>\|iscsi]
2020	[--mtype normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable]
2021	[--comment <text>]
2022	[--setuuid <uuid>]
2023	[--setparentuuid <uuid>]
2024	[--passthrough on\|off]
2025	[--tempeject on\|off]
2026	[--nonrotational on\|off]
2027	[--discard on\|off]
2028	[--bandwidthgroup name\|none]
2029	[--forceunmount]
2030	[--server <name>\|<ip>]
2031	[--target <target>]
2032	[--tport <port>]
2033	[--lun <lun>]
2034	[--encodedlun <lun>]
2035	[--username <username>]
2036	[--password <password>]
2037	[--initiator <initiator>]
2038	[--intnet]</screen>
2039
2040	<para>A number of parameters are commonly required; the ones at the end of
2041	the list are required only for iSCSI targets (see below).</para>
2042
2043	<para>The common parameters are:<glosslist>
2044	<glossentry>
2045	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2046
2047	<glossdef>
2048	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2049	</glossdef>
2050	</glossentry>
2051
2052	<glossentry>
2053	<glossterm><computeroutput>--storagectl</computeroutput></glossterm>
2054
2055	<glossdef>
2056	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory. The list of the
2057	storage controllers currently attached to a VM can be obtained
2058	with <computeroutput>VBoxManage showvminfo</computeroutput>; see
2059	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-showvminfo" />.</para>
2060	</glossdef>
2061	</glossentry>
2062
2063	<glossentry>
2064	<glossterm><computeroutput>--port</computeroutput></glossterm>
2065
2066	<glossdef>
2067	<para>The number of the storage controller's port which is to be
2068	modified. Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a
2069	single port.</para>
2070	</glossdef>
2071	</glossentry>
2072
2073	<glossentry>
2074	<glossterm><computeroutput>--device</computeroutput></glossterm>
2075
2076	<glossdef>
2077	<para>The number of the port's device which is to be modified.
2078	Mandatory, unless the storage controller has only a single device
2079	per port.</para>
2080	</glossdef>
2081	</glossentry>
2082
2083	<glossentry>
2084	<glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
2085
2086	<glossdef>
2087	<para>Define the type of the drive to which the medium is being
2088	attached/detached/modified. This argument can only be omitted if
2089	the type of medium can be determined from either the medium given
2090	with the <computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> argument or
2091	from a previous medium attachment.</para>
2092	</glossdef>
2093	</glossentry>
2094
2095	<glossentry>
2096	<glossterm><computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput></glossterm>
2097
2098	<glossdef>
2099	<para>Specifies what is to be attached. The following values are
2100	supported:<itemizedlist>
2101	<listitem>
2102	<para>"none": Any existing device should be removed from the
2103	given slot.</para>
2104	</listitem>
2105
2106	<listitem>
2107	<para>"emptydrive": For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only,
2108	this makes the device slot behaves like a removeable drive
2109	into which no media has been inserted.</para>
2110	</listitem>
2111
2112	<listitem>
2113	<para>"additions": For a virtual DVD drive only, this
2114	attaches the <emphasis>VirtualBox Guest Additions</emphasis>
2115	image to the given device slot.</para>
2116	</listitem>
2117
2118	<listitem>
2119	<para>If a UUID is specified, it must be the UUID of a
2120	storage medium that is already known to VirtualBox (e.g.
2121	because it has been attached to another virtual machine).
2122	See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for how to list known
2123	media. This medium is then attached to the given device
2124	slot.</para>
2125	</listitem>
2126
2127	<listitem>
2128	<para>If a filename is specified, it must be the full path
2129	of an existing disk image (ISO, RAW, VDI, VMDK or other),
2130	which is then attached to the given device slot.</para>
2131	</listitem>
2132
2133	<listitem>
2134	<para>"host:<drive>": For a virtual DVD or floppy
2135	drive only, this connects the given device slot to the
2136	specified DVD or floppy drive on the host computer.</para>
2137	</listitem>
2138
2139	<listitem>
2140	<para>"iscsi": For virtual hard disks only, this allows for
2141	specifying an iSCSI target. In this case, more parameters
2142	must be given; see below.</para>
2143	</listitem>
2144	</itemizedlist></para>
2145
2146	<para>Some of the above changes, in particular for removeable
2147	media (floppies and CDs/DVDs), can be effected while a VM is
2148	running. Others (device changes or changes in hard disk device
2149	slots) require the VM to be powered off.</para>
2150	</glossdef>
2151	</glossentry>
2152
2153	<glossentry>
2154	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mtype</computeroutput></glossterm>
2155
2156	<glossdef>
2157	<para>Defines how this medium behaves with respect to snapshots
2158	and write operations. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for
2159	details.</para>
2160	</glossdef>
2161	</glossentry>
2162
2163	<glossentry>
2164	<glossterm><computeroutput>--comment</computeroutput></glossterm>
2165
2166	<glossdef>
2167	<para>Any description that you want to have stored with this
2168	medium (optional; for example, for an iSCSI target, "Big storage
2169	server downstairs"). This is purely descriptive and not needed for
2170	the medium to function correctly.</para>
2171	</glossdef>
2172	</glossentry>
2173
2174	<glossentry>
2175	<glossterm><computeroutput>--setuuid, --setparentuuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
2176
2177	<glossdef>
2178	<para>Modifies the UUID or parent UUID of a medium before
2179	attaching it to a VM. This is an expert option. Inappropriate use
2180	can make the medium unusable or lead to broken VM configurations
2181	if any other VM is referring to the same media already. The most
2182	frequently used variant is <code>--setuuid ""</code>, which assigns
2183	a new (random) UUID to an image. This is useful to resolve the
2184	duplicate UUID errors if one duplicated an image using file copy
2185	utilities.</para>
2186	</glossdef>
2187	</glossentry>
2188
2189	<glossentry>
2190	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passthrough</computeroutput></glossterm>
2191
2192	<glossdef>
2193	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can enable DVD writing
2194	support (currently experimental; see <xref
2195	linkend="storage-cds" />).</para>
2196	</glossdef>
2197	</glossentry>
2198
2199	<glossentry>
2200	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tempeject</computeroutput></glossterm>
2201
2202	<glossdef>
2203	<para>For a virtual DVD drive only, you can configure the behavior
2204	for guest-triggered medium eject. If this is set to "on", the eject
2205	has only temporary effects. If the VM is powered off and restarted
2206	the originally configured medium will be still in the drive.</para>
2207	</glossdef>
2208	</glossentry>
2209
2210	<glossentry>
2211	<glossterm><computeroutput>--nonrotational</computeroutput></glossterm>
2212
2213	<glossdef>
2214	<para>This switch allows to enable the non-rotational flag for virtual
2215	hard disks. Some guests (i.e. Windows 7+) treat such disks like SSDs
2216	and don't perform disk fragmentation on such media.
2217	</para>
2218	</glossdef>
2219	</glossentry>
2220
2221	<glossentry>
2222	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bandwidthgroup</computeroutput></glossterm>
2223
2224	<glossdef>
2225	<para>Sets the bandwidth group to use for the given device; see
2226	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" />.</para>
2227	</glossdef>
2228	</glossentry>
2229
2230	<glossentry>
2231	<glossterm><computeroutput>--forceunmount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2232
2233	<glossdef>
2234	<para>For a virtual DVD or floppy drive only, this forcibly
2235	unmounts the DVD/CD/Floppy or mounts a new DVD/CD/Floppy even if
2236	the previous one is locked down by the guest for reading. Again,
2237	see <xref linkend="storage-cds" /> for details.</para>
2238	</glossdef>
2239	</glossentry>
2240	</glosslist></para>
2241
2242	<para>When "iscsi" is used with the
2243	<computeroutput>--medium</computeroutput> parameter for iSCSI support --
2244	see <xref linkend="storage-iscsi" /> --, additional parameters must or can
2245	be used:<glosslist>
2246	<glossentry>
2247	<glossterm><computeroutput>--server</computeroutput></glossterm>
2248
2249	<glossdef>
2250	<para>The host name or IP address of the iSCSI target;
2251	required.</para>
2252	</glossdef>
2253	</glossentry>
2254
2255	<glossentry>
2256	<glossterm><computeroutput>--target</computeroutput></glossterm>
2257
2258	<glossdef>
2259	<para>Target name string. This is determined by the iSCSI target
2260	and used to identify the storage resource; required.</para>
2261	</glossdef>
2262	</glossentry>
2263
2264	<glossentry>
2265	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tport</computeroutput></glossterm>
2266
2267	<glossdef>
2268	<para>TCP/IP port number of the iSCSI service on the target
2269	(optional).</para>
2270	</glossdef>
2271	</glossentry>
2272
2273	<glossentry>
2274	<glossterm><computeroutput>--lun</computeroutput></glossterm>
2275
2276	<glossdef>
2277	<para>Logical Unit Number of the target resource (optional).
2278	Often, this value is zero.</para>
2279	</glossdef>
2280	</glossentry>
2281
2282	<glossentry>
2283	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username, --password</computeroutput></glossterm>
2284
2285	<glossdef>
2286	<para>Username and password (initiator secret) for target
2287	authentication, if required (optional).<note>
2288	<para>Username and password are stored without
2289	encryption (i.e. in clear text) in the XML machine
2290	configuration file if no settings password is provided.
2291	When a settings password was specified the first time,
2292	the password is stored encrypted.</para>
2293	</note></para>
2294	</glossdef>
2295	</glossentry>
2296
2297	<glossentry>
2298	<glossterm><computeroutput>--intnet</computeroutput></glossterm>
2299
2300	<glossdef>
2301	<para>If specified, connect to the iSCSI target via Internal
2302	Networking. This needs further configuration which is described in
2303	<xref linkend="iscsi-intnet" />.</para>
2304	</glossdef>
2305	</glossentry>
2306	</glosslist></para>
2307	</sect1>
2308
2309	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-storagectl">
2310	<title>VBoxManage storagectl</title>
2311
2312	<para>This command attaches/modifies/removes a storage controller. After
2313	this, virtual media can be attached to the controller with the
2314	<computeroutput>storageattach</computeroutput> command (see the next
2315	section).</para>
2316
2317	<para>The syntax is as follows:</para>
2318
2319	<screen>VBoxManage storagectl <uuid\|vmname>
2320	--name <name>
2321	[--add <ide/sata/scsi/floppy>]
2322	[--controller <LsiLogic\|LSILogicSAS\|BusLogic\|
2323	IntelAhci\|PIIX3\|PIIX4\|ICH6\|I82078\|usb>]
2324	[--sataportcount <1-30>]
2325	[--hostiocache on\|off]
2326	[--bootable on\|off]
2327	[--remove]</screen>
2328
2329	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
2330	<glossentry>
2331	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2332
2333	<glossdef>
2334	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2335	</glossdef>
2336	</glossentry>
2337
2338	<glossentry>
2339	<glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2340
2341	<glossdef>
2342	<para>Name of the storage controller. Mandatory.</para>
2343	</glossdef>
2344	</glossentry>
2345
2346	<glossentry>
2347	<glossterm><computeroutput>--add</computeroutput></glossterm>
2348
2349	<glossdef>
2350	<para>Define the type of the system bus to which the storage
2351	controller must be connected.</para>
2352	</glossdef>
2353	</glossentry>
2354
2355	<glossentry>
2356	<glossterm><computeroutput>--controller</computeroutput></glossterm>
2357
2358	<glossdef>
2359	<para>Allows to choose the type of chipset being emulated for the
2360	given storage controller.</para>
2361	</glossdef>
2362	</glossentry>
2363
2364	<glossentry>
2365	<glossterm><computeroutput>--sataportcount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2366
2367	<glossdef>
2368	<para>This determines how many ports the SATA controller should
2369	support.</para>
2370	</glossdef>
2371	</glossentry>
2372
2373	<glossentry>
2374	<glossterm><computeroutput>--hostiocache</computeroutput></glossterm>
2375
2376	<glossdef>
2377	<para>Configures the use of the host I/O cache for all disk images
2378	attached to this storage controller. For details, please see <xref
2379	linkend="iocaching" />.</para>
2380	</glossdef>
2381	</glossentry>
2382
2383	<glossentry>
2384	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bootable</computeroutput></glossterm>
2385
2386	<glossdef>
2387	<para>Selects whether this controller is bootable.</para>
2388	</glossdef>
2389	</glossentry>
2390
2391	<glossentry>
2392	<glossterm><computeroutput>--remove</computeroutput></glossterm>
2393
2394	<glossdef>
2395	<para>Removes the storage controller from the VM config.</para>
2396	</glossdef>
2397	</glossentry>
2398	</glosslist></para>
2399	</sect1>
2400
2401	<sect1>
2402	<title>VBoxManage bandwidthctl</title>
2403
2404	<para>This command creates/deletes/modifies/shows bandwidth groups of the given
2405	virtual machine:<screen>VBoxManage bandwidthctl <uuid\|vmname>
2406	add <name> --type disk\|network --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2407	set <name> --limit <megabytes per second>[k\|m\|g\|K\|M\|G] \|
2408	remove <name> \|
2409	list [--machinereadable]</screen></para>
2410
2411	<para>The following subcommands are available:<itemizedlist>
2412	<listitem>
2413	<para><computeroutput>add</computeroutput>, creates a new bandwidth
2414	group of given type.</para>
2415	</listitem>
2416	<listitem>
2417	<para><computeroutput>set</computeroutput>, modifies the limit for an
2418	existing bandwidth group.</para>
2419	</listitem>
2420	<listitem>
2421	<para><computeroutput>remove</computeroutput>, destroys a bandwidth
2422	group.</para>
2423	</listitem>
2424	<listitem>
2425	<para><computeroutput>list</computeroutput>, shows all bandwidth groups
2426	defined for the given VM.</para>
2427	</listitem>
2428	</itemizedlist>
2429	</para>
2430	<para>The parameters mean:<glosslist>
2431	<glossentry>
2432	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
2433
2434	<glossdef>
2435	<para>The VM UUID or VM Name. Mandatory.</para>
2436	</glossdef>
2437	</glossentry>
2438
2439	<glossentry>
2440	<glossterm><computeroutput>--name</computeroutput></glossterm>
2441
2442	<glossdef>
2443	<para>Name of the bandwidth group. Mandatory.</para>
2444	</glossdef>
2445	</glossentry>
2446
2447	<glossentry>
2448	<glossterm><computeroutput>--type</computeroutput></glossterm>
2449
2450	<glossdef>
2451	<para>Type of the bandwidth group. Mandatory. Two types are
2452	supported: <computeroutput>disk</computeroutput> and
2453	<computeroutput>network</computeroutput>. See
2454	<xref linkend="storage-bandwidth-limit" /> or
2455	<xref linkend="network_bandwidth_limit" /> for a description of a
2456	particular type.</para>
2457	</glossdef>
2458	</glossentry>
2459
2460	<glossentry>
2461	<glossterm><computeroutput>--limit</computeroutput></glossterm>
2462
2463	<glossdef>
2464	<para>Specifies the limit for the given group. Can be changed
2465	while the VM is running. The default unit is megabytes per
2466	second. The unit can be changed by specifying one of the
2467	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>
2468	</glossdef>
2469	</glossentry>
2470	</glosslist>
2471	<note>
2472	<para>The network bandwidth limits apply only to the traffic being sent by
2473	virtual machines. The traffic being received by VMs is unlimited.</para>
2474	</note>
2475	<note>
2476	<para>To remove a bandwidth group it must not be referenced by any disks
2477	or adapters in running VM.</para>
2478	</note>
2479	</para>
2480	</sect1>
2481
2482	<sect1>
2483	<title>VBoxManage showhdinfo</title>
2484
2485	<para>This command shows information about a virtual hard disk image,
2486	notably its size, its size on disk, its type and the virtual machines
2487	which use it.<note>
2488	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2489	"showvdiinfo" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2490	"showhdinfo" command.</para>
2491	</note></para>
2492	<para>The disk image must be specified either by its UUID (if the medium
2493	is registered) or by its filename. Registered images can be listed by
2494	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
2495	for more information). A filename must be specified as valid path, either
2496	as an absolute path or as a relative path starting from the current
2497	directory.</para>
2498	</sect1>
2499
2500	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-createvdi">
2501	<title>VBoxManage createhd</title>
2502
2503	<para>This command creates a new virtual hard disk image. The syntax is as
2504	follows:</para>
2505
2506	<screen>VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
2507	--size <megabytes>
2508	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD] (default: VDI)
2509	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]</screen>
2510
2511	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2512	<glossentry>
2513	<glossterm><computeroutput>--filename</computeroutput></glossterm>
2514
2515	<glossdef>
2516	<para>Allows to choose a file name. Mandatory.</para>
2517	</glossdef>
2518	</glossentry>
2519
2520	<glossentry>
2521	<glossterm><computeroutput>--size</computeroutput></glossterm>
2522
2523	<glossdef>
2524	<para>Allows to define the image capacity, in 1 MiB units.
2525	Mandatory.</para>
2526	</glossdef>
2527	</glossentry>
2528
2529	<glossentry>
2530	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2531
2532	<glossdef>
2533	<para>Allows to choose a file format for the output file different
2534	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2535	</glossdef>
2536	</glossentry>
2537
2538	<glossentry>
2539	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2540
2541	<glossdef>
2542	<para>Allows to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2543	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2544	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2545	result in an error message.</para>
2546	</glossdef>
2547	</glossentry>
2548	</glosslist> <note>
2549	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2550	"createvdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2551	"createhd" command.</para>
2552	</note></para>
2553	</sect1>
2554
2555	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-modifyvdi">
2556	<title>VBoxManage modifyhd</title>
2557
2558	<para>With the <computeroutput>modifyhd</computeroutput> command, you can
2559	change the characteristics of a disk image after it has been
2560	created:<screen>VBoxManage modifyhd <uuid\|filename>
2561	[--type normal\|writethrough\|immutable\|shareable\|
2562	readonly\|multiattach]
2563	[--autoreset on\|off]
2564	[--compact]
2565	[--resize <megabytes>\|--resizebyte <bytes>]</screen><note>
2566	<para>Despite the "hd" in the subcommand name, the command works with
2567	all disk images, not only hard disks. For compatibility with earlier
2568	versions of VirtualBox, the "modifyvdi" command is also supported and
2569	mapped internally to the "modifyhd" command.</para>
2570	</note></para>
2571
2572	<para>The disk image to modify must be specified either by its UUID
2573	(if the medium is registered) or by its filename. Registered images
2574	can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2575	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2576	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path
2577	or as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2578	<para>The following options are available:<itemizedlist>
2579	<listitem>
2580	<para>With the <computeroutput>--type</computeroutput> argument, you
2581	can change the type of an existing image between the normal,
2582	immutable, write-through and other modes; see <xref
2583	linkend="hdimagewrites" /> for details.</para>
2584	</listitem>
2585
2586	<listitem>
2587	<para>For immutable (differencing) hard disks only, the
2588	<computeroutput>--autoreset on\|off</computeroutput> option
2589	determines whether the disk is automatically reset on every VM
2590	startup (again, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />). The default
2591	is "on".</para>
2592	</listitem>
2593
2594	<listitem>
2595	<para>With the <computeroutput>--compact</computeroutput> option,
2596	can be used to compact disk images, i.e. remove blocks that only
2597	contains zeroes. This will shrink a dynamically allocated image
2598	again; it will reduce the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
2599	image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.
2600	Compaction works both for base images and for diff images created as
2601	part of a snapshot.</para>
2602
2603	<para>For this operation to be effective, it is required that free
2604	space in the guest system first be zeroed out using a suitable
2605	software tool. For Windows guests, you can use the
2606	<computeroutput>sdelete</computeroutput> tool provided by Microsoft.
2607	Execute <computeroutput>sdelete -z</computeroutput> in the guest to
2608	zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk
2609	image. For Linux, use the <code>zerofree</code> utility which
2610	supports ext2/ext3 filesystems. For Mac OS X guests, use the
2611	<emphasis>Erase Free Space</emphasis> feature of the built-in
2612	<emphasis>Disk Utility</emphasis>. Use
2613	<emphasis>Zero Out Data</emphasis> there.</para>
2614
2615	<para>Please note that compacting is currently only available for
2616	VDI images. A similar effect can be achieved by zeroing out free
2617	blocks and then cloning the disk to any other dynamically allocated
2618	format. You can use this workaround until compacting is also
2619	supported for disk formats other than VDI.</para>
2620	</listitem>
2621
2622	<listitem>
2623	<para>The <computeroutput>--resize x</computeroutput> option (where x
2624	is the desired new total space in <emphasis role="bold">megabytes</emphasis>)
2625	allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the
2626	<emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk without affecting
2627	the physical size much.<footnote>
2628	<para>Image resizing was added with VirtualBox 4.0.</para>
2629	</footnote> This currently works only for VDI and VHD formats, and only
2630	for the dynamically allocated variants, and can only be used to expand
2631	(not shrink) the capacity.
2632	For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full,
2633	you can use the <computeroutput>--resize 15360</computeroutput>
2634	command to change the capacity to 15G (15,360MB) without having to create a new
2635	image and copy all data from within a virtual machine. Note however that
2636	this only changes the drive capacity; you will typically next need to use
2637	a partition management tool inside the guest to adjust the main partition
2638	to fill the drive.</para><para>The <computeroutput>--resizebyte x</computeroutput>
2639	option does almost the same thing, except that x is expressed in bytes
2640	instead of megabytes.</para>
2641	</listitem>
2642	</itemizedlist></para>
2643	</sect1>
2644
2645	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-clonevdi">
2646	<title>VBoxManage clonehd</title>
2647
2648	<para>This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a
2649	new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be
2650	transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using
2651	the Virtual Media Manager; see <xref linkend="vdis" /> and <xref
2652	linkend="cloningvdis" />. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2653
2654	<screen>VBoxManage clonehd <uuid\|inutfile> <uuid\|outputfile>
2655	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD\|RAW\|<other>]
2656	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2657	[--existing]</screen>
2658
2659	<para>The disk image to clone as well as the target image must be described
2660	either by its UUIDs (if the mediums are registered) or by its filename.
2661	Registered images can be listed by <computeroutput>VBoxManage list hdds</computeroutput>
2662	(see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> for more information).
2663	A filename must be specified as valid path, either as an absolute path or
2664	as a relative path starting from the current directory.</para>
2665	<para>The following options are available:<glosslist>
2666	<glossentry>
2667	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2668
2669	<glossdef>
2670	<para>Allow to choose a file format for the output file different
2671	from the file format of the input file.</para>
2672	</glossdef>
2673	</glossentry>
2674
2675	<glossentry>
2676	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2677
2678	<glossdef>
2679	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2680	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2681	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2682	result in an error message.</para>
2683	</glossdef>
2684	</glossentry>
2685
2686	<glossentry>
2687	<glossterm><computeroutput>--existing</computeroutput></glossterm>
2688
2689	<glossdef>
2690	<para>Perform the clone operation to an already existing
2691	destination medium. Only the portion of the source medium which
2692	fits into the destination medium is copied. This means if the
2693	destination medium is smaller than the source only a part of it is
2694	copied, and if the destination medium is larger than the source
2695	the remaining part of the destination medium is unchanged.</para>
2696	</glossdef>
2697	</glossentry>
2698	</glosslist> <note>
2699	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2700	"clonevdi" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2701	"clonehd" command.</para>
2702	</note></para>
2703	</sect1>
2704
2705	<sect1>
2706	<title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
2707
2708	<para>This command converts a raw disk image to a VirtualBox Disk Image
2709	(VDI) file. The syntax is as follows:</para>
2710
2711	<screen>VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
2712	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2713	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2714	[--uuid <uuid>]
2715	VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
2716	[--format VDI\|VMDK\|VHD]
2717	[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
2718	[--uuid <uuid>]</screen>
2719
2720	<para>where the parameters mean:<glosslist>
2721	<glossentry>
2722	<glossterm><computeroutput>--bytes</computeroutput></glossterm>
2723
2724	<glossdef>
2725	<para>The size of the image file, in bytes, provided through
2726	stdin.</para>
2727	</glossdef>
2728	</glossentry>
2729
2730	<glossentry>
2731	<glossterm><computeroutput>--format</computeroutput></glossterm>
2732
2733	<glossdef>
2734	<para>Select the disk image format to create. Default is
2735	VDI.</para>
2736	</glossdef>
2737	</glossentry>
2738
2739	<glossentry>
2740	<glossterm><computeroutput>--variant</computeroutput></glossterm>
2741
2742	<glossdef>
2743	<para>Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file.
2744	It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all
2745	combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will
2746	result in an error message.</para>
2747	</glossdef>
2748	</glossentry>
2749
2750	<glossentry>
2751	<glossterm><computeroutput>--uuid</computeroutput></glossterm>
2752
2753	<glossdef>
2754	<para>Allow to specifiy the UUID of the output file.</para>
2755	</glossdef>
2756	</glossentry>
2757	</glosslist> The second form forces VBoxManage to read the content for
2758	the disk image from standard input (useful for using that command in a
2759	pipe).</para>
2760
2761	<para><note>
2762	<para>For compatibility with earlier versions of VirtualBox, the
2763	"convertdd" command is also supported and mapped internally to the
2764	"convertfromraw" command.</para>
2765	</note></para>
2766	</sect1>
2767
2768	<sect1>
2769	<title>VBoxManage getextradata/setextradata</title>
2770
2771	<para>These commands let you attach and retrieve string data to a virtual
2772	machine or to a VirtualBox configuration (by specifying
2773	<computeroutput>global</computeroutput> instead of a virtual machine
2774	name). You must specify a key (as a text string) to associate the data
2775	with, which you can later use to retrieve it. For example:</para>
2776
2777	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate 2006.01.01
2778	VBoxManage setextradata SUSE10 installdate 2006.02.02</screen>
2779
2780	<para>would associate the string "2006.01.01" with the key installdate for
2781	the virtual machine Fedora5, and "2006.02.02" on the machine SUSE10. You
2782	could retrieve the information as follows:</para>
2783
2784	<screen>VBoxManage getextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2785
2786	<para>which would return</para>
2787
2788	<screen>VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version $VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR.$VBOX_VERSION_MINOR.$VBOX_VERSION_BUILD
2789	(C) 2005-$VBOX_C_YEAR $VBOX_VENDOR
2790	All rights reserved.
2791
2792	Value: 2006.01.01</screen>
2793	<para>To remove a key, the <computeroutput>setextradata</computeroutput>
2794	command must be run without specifying data (only the key), for example:
2795	</para>
2796
2797	<screen>VBoxManage setextradata Fedora5 installdate</screen>
2798
2799	</sect1>
2800
2801	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-setproperty">
2802	<title>VBoxManage setproperty</title>
2803
2804	<para>This command is used to change global settings which affect the
2805	entire VirtualBox installation. Some of these correspond to the settings
2806	in the "Global settings" dialog in the graphical user interface. The
2807	following properties are available:<glosslist>
2808	<glossentry>
2809	<glossterm><computeroutput>machinefolder</computeroutput></glossterm>
2810
2811	<glossdef>
2812	<para>This specifies the default folder in which virtual machine
2813	definitions are kept; see <xref linkend="vboxconfigdata" /> for
2814	details.</para>
2815	</glossdef>
2816	</glossentry>
2817
2818	<glossentry>
2819	<glossterm><computeroutput>hwvirtexclusive</computeroutput></glossterm>
2820	<para>This specifies whether VirtualBox will make exclusive use of
2821	the hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) of the
2822	host system's processor; see <xref linkend="hwvirt" />. If you wish to
2823	share these extensions with other hypervisors running at the same time,
2824	you must disable this setting. Doing so has negative performance implications.
2825	</para>
2826	</glossentry>
2827
2828
2829	<glossentry>
2830	<glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2831
2832	<glossdef>
2833	<para>This specifies which library to use when "external"
2834	authentication has been selected for a particular virtual machine;
2835	see <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para>
2836	</glossdef>
2837	</glossentry>
2838
2839	<glossentry>
2840	<glossterm><computeroutput>websrvauthlibrary</computeroutput></glossterm>
2841
2842	<glossdef>
2843	<para>This specifies which library the web service uses to
2844	authenticate users. For details about the VirtualBox web service,
2845	please refer to the separate VirtualBox SDK reference (see <xref
2846	linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />).</para>
2847	</glossdef>
2848	</glossentry>
2849
2850	<glossentry>
2851	<glossterm><computeroutput>vrdeextpack</computeroutput></glossterm>
2852
2853	<glossdef>
2854	<para>This specifies which library implements the VirtualBox
2855	Remote Desktop Extension.</para>
2856	</glossdef>
2857	</glossentry>
2858
2859	<glossentry>
2860	<glossterm><computeroutput>loghistorycount</computeroutput></glossterm>
2861
2862	<glossdef>
2863	<para>This selects how many rotated (old) VM logs are kept.</para>
2864	</glossdef>
2865	</glossentry>
2866
2867	<glossentry>
2868	<glossterm><computeroutput>autostartdbpath</computeroutput></glossterm>
2869
2870	<glossdef>
2871	<para>This selects the path to the autostart database. See
2872	<xref linkend="autostart" />.</para>
2873	</glossdef>
2874	</glossentry>
2875
2876	<glossentry>
2877	<glossterm><computeroutput>defaultfrontend</computeroutput></glossterm>
2878
2879	<glossdef>
2880	<para>This selects the global default VM frontend setting. See
2881	<xref linkend="vboxmanage-startvm" />.</para>
2882	</glossdef>
2883	</glossentry>
2884	</glosslist></para>
2885	</sect1>
2886
2887	<sect1>
2888	<title>VBoxManage usbfilter add/modify/remove</title>
2889
2890	<para>The <computeroutput>usbfilter</computeroutput> commands are used for
2891	working with USB filters in virtual machines, or global filters which
2892	affect the whole VirtualBox setup. Global filters are applied before
2893	machine-specific filters, and may be used to prevent devices from being
2894	captured by any virtual machine. Global filters are always applied in a
2895	particular order, and only the first filter which fits a device is
2896	applied. So for example, if the first global filter says to hold (make
2897	available) a particular Kingston memory stick device and the second to
2898	ignore all Kingston devices, that memory stick will be available to any
2899	machine with an appropriate filter, but no other Kingston device
2900	will.</para>
2901
2902	<para>When creating a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2903	add</computeroutput>, you must supply three or four mandatory parameters.
2904	The index specifies the position in the list at which the filter should be
2905	placed. If there is already a filter at that position, then it and the
2906	following ones will be shifted back one place. Otherwise the new filter
2907	will be added onto the end of the list. The
2908	<computeroutput>target</computeroutput> parameter selects the virtual
2909	machine that the filter should be attached to or use "global" to apply it
2910	to all virtual machines. <computeroutput>name</computeroutput> is a name
2911	for the new filter and for global filters,
2912	<computeroutput>action</computeroutput> says whether to allow machines
2913	access to devices that fit the filter description ("hold") or not to give
2914	them access ("ignore"). In addition, you should specify parameters to
2915	filter by. You can find the parameters for devices attached to your system
2916	using <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbhost</computeroutput>. Finally,
2917	you can specify whether the filter should be active, and for local
2918	filters, whether they are for local devices, remote (over an RDP
2919	connection) or either.</para>
2920
2921	<para>When you modify a USB filter using <computeroutput>usbfilter
2922	modify</computeroutput>, you must specify the filter by index (see the
2923	output of <computeroutput>VBoxManage list usbfilters</computeroutput> to
2924	find global filter indexes and that of <computeroutput>VBoxManage
2925	showvminfo</computeroutput> to find indexes for individual machines) and
2926	by target, which is either a virtual machine or "global". The properties
2927	which can be changed are the same as for <computeroutput>usbfilter
2928	add</computeroutput>. To remove a filter, use <computeroutput>usbfilter
2929	remove</computeroutput> and specify the index and the target.</para>
2930	</sect1>
2931
2932	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-sharedfolder">
2933	<title>VBoxManage sharedfolder add/remove</title>
2934
2935	<para>This command allows you to share folders on the host computer with
2936	guest operating systems. For this, the guest systems must have a version
2937	of the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed which supports this
2938	functionality.</para>
2939
2940	<para>Shared folders are described in detail in <xref
2941	linkend="sharedfolders" />.</para>
2942	</sect1>
2943
2944	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestproperty">
2945	<title>VBoxManage guestproperty</title>
2946
2947	<para>The "guestproperty" commands allow you to get or set properties of a
2948	running virtual machine. Please see <xref linkend="guestadd-guestprops" />
2949	for an introduction. As explained there, guest properties are arbitrary
2950	key/value string pairs which can be written to and read from by either the
2951	guest or the host, so they can be used as a low-volume communication
2952	channel for strings, provided that a guest is running and has the Guest
2953	Additions installed. In addition, a number of values whose keys begin with
2954	"/VirtualBox/" are automatically set and maintained by the Guest
2955	Additions.</para>
2956
2957	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
2958	<computeroutput><vm></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
2959	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
2960	<listitem>
2961	<para><computeroutput>enumerate <vm> [--patterns
2962	<pattern>]</computeroutput>: This lists all the guest
2963	properties that are available for the given VM, including the value.
2964	This list will be very limited if the guest's service process cannot
2965	be contacted, e.g. because the VM is not running or the Guest
2966	Additions are not installed.</para>
2967
2968	<para>If <computeroutput>--patterns <pattern></computeroutput>
2969	is specified, it acts as a filter to only list properties that match
2970	the given pattern. The pattern can contain the following wildcard
2971	characters:<itemizedlist>
2972	<listitem>
2973	<para><computeroutput>*</computeroutput> (asterisk):
2974	represents any number of characters; for example,
2975	"<computeroutput>/VirtualBox*</computeroutput>" would match
2976	all properties beginning with "/VirtualBox".</para>
2977	</listitem>
2978
2979	<listitem>
2980	<para><computeroutput>?</computeroutput> (question mark):
2981	represents a single arbitrary character; for example,
2982	"<computeroutput>fo?</computeroutput>" would match both "foo"
2983	and "for".</para>
2984	</listitem>
2985
2986	<listitem>
2987	<para><computeroutput>\|</computeroutput> (pipe symbol): can be
2988	used to specify multiple alternative patterns; for example,
2989	"<computeroutput>s\|t</computeroutput>" would match anything
2990	starting with either "s" or "t".</para>
2991	</listitem>
2992	</itemizedlist></para>
2993	</listitem>
2994
2995	<listitem>
2996	<para><computeroutput>get <vm> <property>
2997	</computeroutput>: This
2998	retrieves the value of a single property only. If the property
2999	cannot be found (e.g. because the guest is not running), this will
3000	print <screen>No value set!</screen></para>
3001	</listitem>
3002
3003	<listitem>
3004	<para><computeroutput>set <vm> <property> [<value>
3005	[--flags <flags>]]</computeroutput>: This allows you to set a
3006	guest property by specifying the key and value. If
3007	<computeroutput><value></computeroutput> is omitted, the
3008	property is deleted. With <computeroutput>--flags</computeroutput>
3009	you can optionally specify additional behavior (you can combine
3010	several by separating them with commas):<itemizedlist>
3011	<listitem>
3012	<para><computeroutput>TRANSIENT</computeroutput>: the value
3013	will not be stored with the VM data when the VM exits;</para>
3014	</listitem>
3015
3016	<listitem>
3017	<para><computeroutput>TRANSRESET</computeroutput>: the value
3018	will be deleted as soon as the VM restarts and/or exits;</para>
3019	</listitem>
3020
3021	<listitem>
3022	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYGUEST</computeroutput>: the value
3023	can only be changed by the host, but the guest can only read
3024	it;</para>
3025	</listitem>
3026
3027	<listitem>
3028	<para><computeroutput>RDONLYHOST</computeroutput>: reversely,
3029	the value can only be changed by the guest, but the host can
3030	only read it;</para>
3031	</listitem>
3032
3033	<listitem>
3034	<para><computeroutput>READONLY</computeroutput>: a combination
3035	of the two, the value cannot be changed at all.</para>
3036	</listitem>
3037	</itemizedlist></para>
3038	</listitem>
3039
3040	<listitem>
3041	<para><computeroutput>wait <vm> <pattern> --timeout
3042	<timeout></computeroutput>: This waits for a particular value
3043	described by "pattern" to change or to be deleted or created. The
3044	pattern rules are the same as for the "enumerate" subcommand
3045	above.</para>
3046	</listitem>
3047
3048	<listitem>
3049	<para><computeroutput>delete <vm> <property>
3050	</computeroutput>: Deletes a formerly set guest property.
3051	</para></listitem>
3052	</itemizedlist></para>
3053	</sect1>
3054
3055	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-guestcontrol">
3056	<title>VBoxManage guestcontrol</title>
3057
3058	<para>The <computeroutput>guestcontrol</computeroutput> commands allow you
3059	to control certain things inside a guest from the host. Please see <xref
3060	linkend="guestadd-guestcontrol" /> for an introduction.</para>
3061
3062	<para>Generally, the syntax is as follows:</para>
3063
3064	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> <command></screen>
3065
3066	<para>The following subcommands are available (where
3067	<computeroutput><uuid\|vmname></computeroutput>, in each case, can either be a
3068	VM name or a VM UUID, as with the other VBoxManage commands):<itemizedlist>
3069	<listitem>
3070	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>execute</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3071	which allows for
3072	executing a program/script (process) which already is installed and
3073	runnable on the guest. This command only works while a VM is up and
3074	running and has the following syntax:</para>
3075
3076	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> exec[ute]
3077	--image <path to program> --username <name>
3078	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3079	[--environment "<NAME>=<VALUE> [<NAME>=<VALUE>]"]
3080	[--verbose] [--timeout <msec>]
3081	[--wait-exit] [--wait-stdout] [--wait-stderr]
3082	[--dos2unix] [--unix2dos]
3083	-- [[<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
3084
3085	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3086	<glossentry>
3087	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3088
3089	<glossdef>
3090	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3091	</glossdef>
3092	</glossentry>
3093
3094	<glossentry>
3095	<glossterm><computeroutput>--image "<path to program>"</computeroutput></glossterm>
3096
3097	<glossdef>
3098	<para>Absolute path and process name of process to execute
3099	in the guest, e.g.
3100	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput></para>
3101	</glossdef>
3102	</glossentry>
3103
3104	<glossentry>
3105	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3106
3107	<glossdef>
3108	<para>Name of the user the process should run under. This
3109	user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3110	</glossdef>
3111	</glossentry>
3112
3113	<glossentry>
3114	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3115
3116	<glossdef>
3117	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3118	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3119	assumed.</para>
3120	</glossdef>
3121	</glossentry>
3122
3123	<glossentry>
3124	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3125
3126	<glossdef>
3127	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3128	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3129	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3130	</glossdef>
3131	</glossentry>
3132
3133	<glossentry>
3134	<glossterm><computeroutput>--dos2unix</computeroutput></glossterm>
3135
3136	<glossdef>
3137	Converts output from DOS/Windows guests to UNIX-compatible
3138	line endings (CR + LF -> LF). Not implemented yet.
3139	</glossdef>
3140	</glossentry>
3141
3142	<glossentry>
3143	<glossterm><computeroutput>--environment
3144	"<NAME>=<VALUE>"</computeroutput></glossterm>
3145
3146	<glossdef>
3147	<para>One or more environment variables to be set or
3148	unset.</para>
3149
3150	<para>By default, the new process in the guest will be
3151	created with the standard environment of the guest OS. This
3152	option allows for modifying that environment. To set/modify
3153	a variable, a pair of
3154	<computeroutput>NAME=VALUE</computeroutput> must be
3155	specified; to unset a certain variable, the name with no
3156	value must set, e.g.
3157	<computeroutput>NAME=</computeroutput>.</para>
3158
3159	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
3160	quotation marks. More than one
3161	<computeroutput>--environment</computeroutput> at a time can
3162	be specified to keep the command line tidy.</para>
3163	</glossdef>
3164	</glossentry>
3165
3166	<glossentry>
3167	<glossterm><computeroutput>--timeout <msec></computeroutput></glossterm>
3168
3169	<glossdef>
3170	<para>Value (in milliseconds) that specifies the time how
3171	long the started process is allowed to run and how long
3172	VBoxManage waits for getting output from that process. If no
3173	timeout is specified, VBoxManage will wait forever until the
3174	started process ends or an error occured.</para>
3175	</glossdef>
3176	</glossentry>
3177
3178	<glossentry>
3179	<glossterm><computeroutput>--unix2dos</computeroutput></glossterm>
3180
3181	<glossdef>
3182	Converts output from a UNIX/Linux guests to DOS-/Windows-compatible
3183	line endings (LF -> CR + LF). Not implemented yet.
3184	</glossdef>
3185	</glossentry>
3186
3187	<glossentry>
3188	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3189
3190	<glossdef>
3191	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3192	</glossdef>
3193	</glossentry>
3194
3195	<glossentry>
3196	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-exit</computeroutput></glossterm>
3197
3198	<glossdef>
3199	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
3200	exit code along with the exit reason/flags.</para>
3201	</glossdef>
3202	</glossentry>
3203
3204	<glossentry>
3205	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stdout</computeroutput></glossterm>
3206
3207	<glossdef>
3208	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
3209	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
3210	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stdout.</para>
3211	</glossdef>
3212	</glossentry>
3213
3214	<glossentry>
3215	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-stderr</computeroutput></glossterm>
3216
3217	<glossdef>
3218	<para>Waits until the process ends and outputs its
3219	exit code along with the exit reason/flags. While waiting
3220	VBoxManage retrieves the process output collected from stderr.</para>
3221	</glossdef>
3222	</glossentry>
3223
3224	<glossentry>
3225	<glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
3226
3227	<glossdef>
3228	<para>One or more arguments to pass to the process being
3229	executed.</para>
3230	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
3231	quotation marks.</para>
3232	</glossdef>
3233	</glossentry>
3234
3235	</glosslist></para>
3236
3237	<para><note>
3238	<para>On Windows there are certain limitations for graphical
3239	applications; please see <xref linkend="KnownIssues" /> for more
3240	information.</para>
3241	</note> Examples: <screen>VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "My VM" execute --image "/bin/ls"
3242	--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"
3243	--username foo --passwordfile bar.txt --wait-exit --wait-stdout</screen> Note that
3244	the double backslashes in the second example are only required on
3245	Unix hosts.</para>
3246
3247	<para><note>
3248	<para>For certain commands a user name of an existing user account on the guest
3249	must be specified; anonymous executions are not supported for security reasons. A
3250	user account password, however, is optional and depends on the guest's OS security
3251	policy or rules. If no password is specified for a given user name, an empty password
3252	will be used. On certain OSes like Windows the security policy may needs to be adjusted
3253	in order to allow user accounts with an empty password set. Also, global domain rules might
3254	apply and therefore cannot be changed.</para>
3255	</note></para>
3256
3257	<para>Starting at VirtualBox 4.1.2 guest process execution by default is limited
3258	to serve up to 5 guest processes at a time. If a new guest process gets started
3259	which would exceed this limit, the oldest not running guest process will be discarded
3260	in order to be able to run that new process. Also, retrieving output from this
3261	old guest process will not be possible anymore then. If all 5 guest processes
3262	are still active and running, starting a new guest process will result in an
3263	appropriate error message.</para>
3264
3265	<para>To raise or lower the guest process execution limit, either the guest
3266	property <computeroutput>/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
3267	or VBoxService' command line by specifying <computeroutput>--control-procs-max-kept</computeroutput>
3268	needs to be modified. A restart of the guest OS is required afterwards. To serve unlimited
3269	guest processes, a value of <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> needs to be set (not recommended).</para>
3270	</listitem>
3271
3272	<listitem>
3273	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3274	which allows copying
3275	files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3276	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3277
3278	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> copyto\|cp
3279	<guest source> <host dest> --username <name>
3280	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3281	[--dryrun] [--follow] [--recursive] [--verbose]</screen>
3282
3283	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3284	<glossentry>
3285	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3286
3287	<glossdef>
3288	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3289	</glossdef>
3290	</glossentry>
3291
3292	<glossentry>
3293	<glossterm><computeroutput>source on host</computeroutput></glossterm>
3294
3295	<glossdef>
3296	<para>Absolute path of source file(s) on host to copy over
3297	to the guest, e.g.
3298	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe</computeroutput>.
3299	This also can be a wildcard expression, e.g.
3300	<computeroutput>C:\Windows\System32\*.dll</computeroutput></para>
3301	</glossdef>
3302	</glossentry>
3303
3304	<glossentry>
3305	<glossterm><computeroutput>destination on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3306
3307	<glossdef>
3308	<para>Absolute destination path on the guest, e.g.
3309	<computeroutput>C:\Temp</computeroutput></para>
3310	</glossdef>
3311	</glossentry>
3312
3313	<glossentry>
3314	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3315
3316	<glossdef>
3317	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3318	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3319	</glossdef>
3320	</glossentry>
3321
3322	<glossentry>
3323	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3324
3325	<glossdef>
3326	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3327	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3328	assumed.</para>
3329	</glossdef>
3330	</glossentry>
3331
3332	<glossentry>
3333	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3334
3335	<glossdef>
3336	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3337	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3338	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3339	</glossdef>
3340	</glossentry>
3341
3342	<glossentry>
3343	<glossterm><computeroutput>--dryrun</computeroutput></glossterm>
3344
3345	<glossdef>
3346	<para>Tells VBoxManage to only perform a dry run instead of
3347	really copying files to the guest.</para>
3348	</glossdef>
3349	</glossentry>
3350
3351	<glossentry>
3352	<glossterm><computeroutput>--follow</computeroutput></glossterm>
3353
3354	<glossdef>
3355	<para>Enables following symlinks on the host's
3356	source.</para>
3357	</glossdef>
3358	</glossentry>
3359
3360	<glossentry>
3361	<glossterm><computeroutput>--recursive</computeroutput></glossterm>
3362
3363	<glossdef>
3364	<para>Recursively copies files/directories of the specified
3365	source.</para>
3366	</glossdef>
3367	</glossentry>
3368
3369	<glossentry>
3370	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3371
3372	<glossdef>
3373	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3374	</glossdef>
3375	</glossentry>
3376
3377	<glossentry>
3378	<glossterm><computeroutput>--flags <flags></computeroutput></glossterm>
3379
3380	<glossdef>
3381	<para>Additional flags to set. This is not used at the
3382	moment.</para>
3383	</glossdef>
3384	</glossentry>
3385	</glosslist></para>
3386	</listitem>
3387
3388	<listitem>
3389	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>copyfrom</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3390	which allows copying
3391	files from the guest to the host (only with installed Guest
3392	Additions 4.0 and later). It has the same parameters as
3393	<computeroutput>copyto</computeroutput> above.</para>
3394	</listitem>
3395
3396	<listitem>
3397	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createdirectory</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3398	which allows
3399	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3400	Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
3401
3402	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> createdir[ectory]\|mkdir\|md
3403	<guest directory>... --username <name>
3404	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3405	[--parents] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
3406
3407	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3408	<glossentry>
3409	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3410
3411	<glossdef>
3412	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3413	</glossdef>
3414	</glossentry>
3415
3416	<glossentry>
3417	<glossterm><computeroutput>directory to create on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3418
3419	<glossdef>
3420	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to create on
3421	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>.
3422	Parent directories need to exist (e.g. in this example
3423	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput>) when switch
3424	<computeroutput>--parents</computeroutput> is omitted. The
3425	specified user must have appropriate rights to create the
3426	specified directory.</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>--parents</computeroutput></glossterm>
3461
3462	<glossdef>
3463	<para>Also creates not yet existing parent directories of
3464	the specified directory, e.g. if the directory
3465	<computeroutput>D:\Foo</computeroutput> of
3466	<computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput> does not exist
3467	yet it will be created. Without specifying
3468	<computeroutput>--parent</computeroutput> the action would
3469	have failed.</para>
3470	</glossdef>
3471	</glossentry>
3472
3473	<glossentry>
3474	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mode <mode></computeroutput></glossterm>
3475
3476	<glossdef>
3477	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3478	Only octal modes (e.g.
3479	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3480	now.</para>
3481	</glossdef>
3482	</glossentry>
3483
3484	<glossentry>
3485	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3486
3487	<glossdef>
3488	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3489	</glossdef>
3490	</glossentry>
3491	</glosslist></para>
3492	</listitem>
3493
3494	<listitem>
3495	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>removedirectory</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3496	which allows deletion of guest directories (only with installed Guest
3497	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3498
3499	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> removedir[ectory]\|rmdir
3500	<guest directory>... --username <name>
3501	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3502	[--recursive\|-R\|-r] [--verbose]</screen>
3503
3504	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3505	<glossentry>
3506	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3507
3508	<glossdef>
3509	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3510	</glossdef>
3511	</glossentry>
3512
3513	<glossentry>
3514	<glossterm><computeroutput>directory to remove on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3515
3516	<glossdef>
3517	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to remove on
3518	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar</computeroutput>. The
3519	specified user must have appropriate rights to delete the
3520	specified guest directories.</para>
3521	</glossdef>
3522	</glossentry>
3523
3524	<glossentry>
3525	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3526
3527	<glossdef>
3528	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3529	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3530	</glossdef>
3531	</glossentry>
3532
3533	<glossentry>
3534	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3535
3536	<glossdef>
3537	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3538	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3539	assumed.</para>
3540	</glossdef>
3541	</glossentry>
3542
3543	<glossentry>
3544	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3545
3546	<glossdef>
3547	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3548	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3549	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3550	</glossdef>
3551	</glossentry>
3552
3553	<glossentry>
3554	<glossterm><computeroutput>--recursive</computeroutput></glossterm>
3555
3556	<glossdef>
3557	<para>Remove directories and their contents recursively.</para>
3558	</glossdef>
3559	</glossentry>
3560
3561	<glossentry>
3562	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3563
3564	<glossdef>
3565	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3566	</glossdef>
3567	</glossentry>
3568	</glosslist></para>
3569	</listitem>
3570
3571	<listitem>
3572	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>removefile</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3573	which allows deletion of guest files (only with installed Guest
3574	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3575
3576	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> removefile\|rm
3577	<guest file>... --username <name>
3578	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3579	[--verbose]</screen>
3580
3581	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3582	<glossentry>
3583	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3584
3585	<glossdef>
3586	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3587	</glossdef>
3588	</glossentry>
3589
3590	<glossentry>
3591	<glossterm><computeroutput>file to remove on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3592
3593	<glossdef>
3594	<para>Absolute path of a file/files to remove on
3595	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>D:\Foo\Bar\text.txt</computeroutput>. The
3596	specified user must have appropriate rights to delete the
3597	specified guest files.</para>
3598	</glossdef>
3599	</glossentry>
3600
3601	<glossentry>
3602	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3603
3604	<glossdef>
3605	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3606	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3607	</glossdef>
3608	</glossentry>
3609
3610	<glossentry>
3611	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3612
3613	<glossdef>
3614	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3615	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3616	assumed.</para>
3617	</glossdef>
3618	</glossentry>
3619
3620	<glossentry>
3621	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3622
3623	<glossdef>
3624	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3625	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3626	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3627	</glossdef>
3628	</glossentry>
3629
3630	<glossentry>
3631	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3632
3633	<glossdef>
3634	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3635	</glossdef>
3636	</glossentry>
3637	</glosslist></para>
3638	</listitem>
3639
3640	<listitem>
3641	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>ren[ame]\|mv</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3642	which allows renaming of guest files and/or directories (only with installed Guest
3643	Additions 4.3.2 and later).</para>
3644
3645	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> ren[ame]\|mv
3646	<source>... <dest> --username <name>
3647	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3648	[--verbose]</screen>
3649
3650	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3651	<glossentry>
3652	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3653
3654	<glossdef>
3655	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3656	</glossdef>
3657	</glossentry>
3658
3659	<glossentry>
3660	<glossterm><computeroutput>source</computeroutput></glossterm>
3661
3662	<glossdef>
3663	<para>Absolute path of one or more source(s) to move to
3664	destination. If more than one source is specified, destination
3665	must be an existing directory on the guest. The specified user
3666	must have appropriate rights to access source and destination
3667	files and directories.</para>
3668	</glossdef>
3669	</glossentry>
3670
3671	<glossentry>
3672	<glossterm><computeroutput>dest</computeroutput></glossterm>
3673
3674	<glossdef>
3675	<para>Absolute path of the destination to move the source(s)
3676	to. This can be a directory or a file, depending if one or more
3677	sources have been specified. The specified user
3678	must have appropriate rights to access the destination
3679	file and directory.</para>
3680	</glossdef>
3681	</glossentry>
3682
3683	<glossentry>
3684	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3685
3686	<glossdef>
3687	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3688	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3689	</glossdef>
3690	</glossentry>
3691
3692	<glossentry>
3693	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3694
3695	<glossdef>
3696	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3697	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3698	assumed.</para>
3699	</glossdef>
3700	</glossentry>
3701
3702	<glossentry>
3703	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3704
3705	<glossdef>
3706	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3707	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3708	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3709	</glossdef>
3710	</glossentry>
3711
3712	<glossentry>
3713	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3714
3715	<glossdef>
3716	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3717	</glossdef>
3718	</glossentry>
3719	</glosslist></para>
3720	</listitem>
3721
3722	<listitem>
3723	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>createtemporary</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3724	which allows
3725	copying files from the host to the guest (only with installed Guest
3726	Additions 4.2 and later).</para>
3727
3728	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> createtemp[orary]\|mktemp
3729	<template> --username <name>
3730	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
3731	[--directory] [--secure] [--tmpdir <directory>]
3732	[--domain <domain>] [--mode <mode>] [--verbose]</screen>
3733
3734	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3735	<glossentry>
3736	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3737
3738	<glossdef>
3739	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3740	</glossdef>
3741	</glossentry>
3742
3743	<glossentry>
3744	<glossterm><computeroutput>template</computeroutput></glossterm>
3745
3746	<glossdef>
3747	<para>A file name without a path and with at least three consecutive 'X'
3748	characters or ending in 'X'
3749	</para>
3750	</glossdef>
3751	</glossentry>
3752
3753	<glossentry>
3754	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
3755
3756	<glossdef>
3757	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
3758	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
3759	</glossdef>
3760	</glossentry>
3761
3762	<glossentry>
3763	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
3764
3765	<glossdef>
3766	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
3767	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
3768	assumed.</para>
3769	</glossdef>
3770	</glossentry>
3771
3772	<glossentry>
3773	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
3774
3775	<glossdef>
3776	<para>Password of the user account specified with
3777	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
3778	an empty password is assumed.</para>
3779	</glossdef>
3780	</glossentry>
3781
3782	<glossentry>
3783	<glossterm><computeroutput>--directory</computeroutput></glossterm>
3784
3785	<glossdef>
3786	<para>Create a temporary directory instead of a file.</para>
3787	</glossdef>
3788	</glossentry>
3789
3790	<glossentry>
3791	<glossterm><computeroutput>--secure</computeroutput></glossterm>
3792
3793	<glossdef>
3794	<para>
3795	Secure creation. The file mode is fixed to
3796	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>. And the operation
3797	will fail if it cannot performed securely.
3798	</para>
3799	</glossdef>
3800	</glossentry>
3801
3802	<glossentry>
3803	<glossterm><computeroutput>--tmpdir <directory></computeroutput></glossterm>
3804
3805	<glossdef>
3806	<para>
3807	Directory where the file / directory is created. If not
3808	specified, the platform-specific temp directory is used.
3809	</para>
3810	</glossdef>
3811	</glossentry>
3812
3813	<glossentry>
3814	<glossterm><computeroutput>--mode <mode></computeroutput></glossterm>
3815
3816	<glossdef>
3817	<para>Sets the permission mode of the specified directory.
3818	Only octal modes (e.g.
3819	<computeroutput>0755</computeroutput>) are supported right
3820	now.</para>
3821	</glossdef>
3822	</glossentry>
3823
3824	<glossentry>
3825	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3826
3827	<glossdef>
3828	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3829	</glossdef>
3830	</glossentry>
3831	</glosslist></para>
3832	</listitem>
3833
3834	<listitem>
3835	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3836	which lists various guest control information such as open guest sessions,
3837	guest processes and guest files.</para>
3838
3839	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> list
3840	<all\|sessions\|processes\|files> [--verbose]</screen>
3841
3842	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3843	<glossentry>
3844	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3845
3846	<glossdef>
3847	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3848	</glossdef>
3849	</glossentry>
3850
3851	<glossentry>
3852	<glossterm><computeroutput>all\|sessions\|processes\|files</computeroutput></glossterm>
3853
3854	<glossdef>
3855	<para>Whether to list guest sessions, guest processes, guest files
3856	or all information available. Mandatory.</para>
3857	</glossdef>
3858	</glossentry>
3859
3860	<glossentry>
3861	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3862
3863	<glossdef>
3864	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3865	</glossdef>
3866	</glossentry>
3867	</glosslist></para>
3868	</listitem>
3869
3870	<listitem>
3871	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>process kill</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3872	which terminates specific guest processes of a guest session, based on either the
3873	session's ID or the session's name.</para>
3874
3875	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> process kill
3876	--session-id <ID>
3877	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3878	[--verbose]
3879	<PID> ... <PID n></screen>
3880
3881	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3882	<glossentry>
3883	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3884
3885	<glossdef>
3886	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3887	</glossdef>
3888	</glossentry>
3889
3890	<glossentry>
3891	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
3892
3893	<glossdef>
3894	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its ID.</para>
3895	</glossdef>
3896	</glossentry>
3897
3898	<glossentry>
3899	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
3900
3901	<glossdef>
3902	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its name. Multiple
3903	sessions can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
3904	</glossdef>
3905	</glossentry>
3906
3907	<glossentry>
3908	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3909
3910	<glossdef>
3911	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3912	</glossdef>
3913	</glossentry>
3914
3915	<glossentry>
3916	<glossterm><computeroutput><PID> ... <PID n></computeroutput></glossterm>
3917
3918	<glossdef>
3919	<para>List of process identifiers (PIDs) to terminate.</para>
3920	</glossdef>
3921	</glossentry>
3922	</glosslist></para>
3923	</listitem>
3924
3925	<listitem>
3926	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>[p[s]]kill</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3927	which terminates specific guest processes of a guest session, based on either the
3928	session's ID or the session's name.</para>
3929
3930	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> process kill
3931	--session-id <ID>
3932	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3933	[--verbose]
3934	<PID> ... <PID n></screen>
3935
3936	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3937	<glossentry>
3938	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3939
3940	<glossdef>
3941	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3942	</glossdef>
3943	</glossentry>
3944
3945	<glossentry>
3946	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
3947
3948	<glossdef>
3949	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its ID.</para>
3950	</glossdef>
3951	</glossentry>
3952
3953	<glossentry>
3954	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
3955
3956	<glossdef>
3957	<para>Specifies the guest session to use by its name. Multiple
3958	sessions can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
3959	</glossdef>
3960	</glossentry>
3961
3962	<glossentry>
3963	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
3964
3965	<glossdef>
3966	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
3967	</glossdef>
3968	</glossentry>
3969
3970	<glossentry>
3971	<glossterm><computeroutput><PID> ... <PID n></computeroutput></glossterm>
3972
3973	<glossdef>
3974	<para>List of process identifiers (PIDs) to terminate.</para>
3975	</glossdef>
3976	</glossentry>
3977	</glosslist></para>
3978	</listitem>
3979
3980	<listitem>
3981	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>session close</computeroutput></emphasis>,
3982	which closes specific guest sessions, based on either the session's ID or the
3983	session's name.</para>
3984
3985	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> session close
3986	--session-id <ID>
3987	\| --session-name <name or pattern>
3988	\| --all
3989	[--verbose]</screen>
3990
3991	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
3992	<glossentry>
3993	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
3994
3995	<glossdef>
3996	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
3997	</glossdef>
3998	</glossentry>
3999
4000	<glossentry>
4001	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-id</computeroutput></glossterm>
4002
4003	<glossdef>
4004	<para>Close a guest session specified by its ID.</para>
4005	</glossdef>
4006	</glossentry>
4007
4008	<glossentry>
4009	<glossterm><computeroutput>--session-name</computeroutput></glossterm>
4010
4011	<glossdef>
4012	<para>Close a guest session specified by its name. Multiple sessions
4013	can be closed when specifying * or ? wildcards.</para>
4014	</glossdef>
4015	</glossentry>
4016
4017	<glossentry>
4018	<glossterm><computeroutput>--all</computeroutput></glossterm>
4019
4020	<glossdef>
4021	<para>Close all guest sessions.</para>
4022	</glossdef>
4023	</glossentry>
4024
4025	<glossentry>
4026	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
4027
4028	<glossdef>
4029	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
4030	</glossdef>
4031	</glossentry>
4032	</glosslist></para>
4033	</listitem>
4034
4035	<listitem>
4036	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>stat</computeroutput></emphasis>,
4037	which displays file
4038	or file system status on the guest.</para>
4039
4040	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> stat
4041	<file>... --username <name>
4042	[--passwordfile <file> \| --password <password>]
4043	[--verbose]</screen>
4044
4045	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
4046	<glossentry>
4047	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
4048
4049	<glossdef>
4050	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
4051	</glossdef>
4052	</glossentry>
4053
4054	<glossentry>
4055	<glossterm><computeroutput>file element(s) to check on guest</computeroutput></glossterm>
4056
4057	<glossdef>
4058	<para>Absolute path of directory/directories to check on
4059	guest, e.g. <computeroutput>/home/foo/a.out</computeroutput>.
4060	The specified user must have appropriate rights to access
4061	the given file element(s).</para>
4062	</glossdef>
4063	</glossentry>
4064
4065	<glossentry>
4066	<glossterm><computeroutput>--username <name></computeroutput></glossterm>
4067
4068	<glossdef>
4069	<para>Name of the user the copy process should run under.
4070	This user must exist on the guest OS.</para>
4071	</glossdef>
4072	</glossentry>
4073
4074	<glossentry>
4075	<glossterm><computeroutput>--passwordfile <file></computeroutput></glossterm>
4076
4077	<glossdef>
4078	<para>Password of the user account specified to be read from
4079	the given file. If not given, an empty password is
4080	assumed.</para>
4081	</glossdef>
4082	</glossentry>
4083
4084	<glossentry>
4085	<glossterm><computeroutput>--password <password></computeroutput></glossterm>
4086
4087	<glossdef>
4088	<para>Password of the user account specified with
4089	<computeroutput>--username</computeroutput>. If not given,
4090	an empty password is assumed.</para>
4091	</glossdef>
4092	</glossentry>
4093
4094	<glossentry>
4095	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
4096
4097	<glossdef>
4098	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
4099	</glossdef>
4100	</glossentry>
4101	</glosslist></para>
4102	</listitem>
4103
4104	<listitem>
4105	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>updateadditions</computeroutput></emphasis>,
4106	which allows
4107	for updating an already installed Guest Additions version on the
4108	guest (only already installed Guest Additions 4.0 and later).</para>
4109
4110	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> updateadditions
4111	[--source "<guest additions .ISO file to use>"] [--verbose]
4112	[--wait-start] [-- [<argument1>] ... [<argumentN>]]</screen>
4113
4114	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
4115	<glossentry>
4116	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
4117
4118	<glossdef>
4119	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
4120	</glossdef>
4121	</glossentry>
4122
4123	<glossentry>
4124	<glossterm><computeroutput>--source</computeroutput> "<guest additions .ISO file to
4125	use>"</glossterm>
4126
4127	<glossdef>
4128	<para>Full path to an alternative VirtualBox Guest Additions
4129	.ISO file to use for the Guest Additions update.</para>
4130	</glossdef>
4131	</glossentry>
4132
4133	<glossentry>
4134	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
4135
4136	<glossdef>
4137	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
4138	</glossdef>
4139	</glossentry>
4140
4141	<glossentry>
4142	<glossterm><computeroutput>--wait-start</computeroutput></glossterm>
4143	<glossdef>
4144	<para>Starts the regular updating process and waits until the
4145	actual Guest Additions update inside the guest was started.
4146	This can be necessary due to needed interaction with the
4147	guest OS during the installation phase.</para>
4148	<para>When omitting this flag VBoxManage will wait for the
4149	whole Guest Additions update to complete.</para>
4150	</glossdef>
4151	</glossentry>
4152
4153	<glossentry>
4154	<glossterm><computeroutput>[-- [<argument1s>] ... [<argumentNs>]]</computeroutput></glossterm>
4155
4156	<glossdef>
4157	<para>Optional command line arguments to use for the Guest Additions
4158	installer. Useful for retrofitting features which weren't installed
4159	before on the guest.</para>
4160	<para>Arguments containing spaces must be enclosed in
4161	quotation marks.</para>
4162	</glossdef>
4163	</glossentry>
4164	</glosslist></para>
4165	</listitem>
4166	<listitem>
4167	<para><emphasis role="bold"><computeroutput>watch</computeroutput></emphasis>,
4168	which prints current guest control activity.</para>
4169
4170	<screen>VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid\|vmname> watch
4171	[--verbose]</screen>
4172
4173	<para>where the parameters mean: <glosslist>
4174	<glossentry>
4175	<glossterm><computeroutput>uuid\|vmname</computeroutput></glossterm>
4176
4177	<glossdef>
4178	<para>The VM UUID or VM name. Mandatory.</para>
4179	</glossdef>
4180	</glossentry>
4181
4182	<glossentry>
4183	<glossterm><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput></glossterm>
4184
4185	<glossdef>
4186	<para>Tells VBoxManage to be more verbose.</para>
4187	</glossdef>
4188	</glossentry>
4189	</glosslist></para>
4190	</listitem>
4191	</itemizedlist></para>
4192	</sect1>
4193
4194	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-debugvm">
4195	<title>VBoxManage debugvm</title>
4196
4197	<para>The "debugvm" commands are for experts who want to tinker with the
4198	exact details of virtual machine execution. Like the VM debugger described
4199	in <xref linkend="ts_debugger" />, these commands are only useful if you are
4200	very familiar with the details of the PC architecture and how to debug
4201	software.</para>
4202
4203	<para>The subcommands of "debugvm" all operate on a running virtual
4204	machine. The following are available:<itemizedlist>
4205	<listitem>
4206	<para>With <computeroutput>dumpguestcore --filename
4207	<name></computeroutput>, you can create a system dump of the
4208	running VM, which will be written into the given file. This file
4209	will have the standard ELF core format (with custom sections); see
4210	<xref linkend="ts_guest-core-format" />.</para>
4211
4212	<para>This corresponds to the
4213	<computeroutput>writecore</computeroutput> command in the debugger.
4214	</para>
4215	</listitem>
4216
4217	<listitem>
4218	<para>The <computeroutput>info</computeroutput> command is used to
4219	display info items relating to the VMM, device emulations and
4220	associated drivers. This command takes one or two arguments: the
4221	name of the info item, optionally followed by a string containing
4222	arguments specific to the info item.
4223	The <computeroutput>help</computeroutput> info item provides a
4224	listning of the available items and hints about any optional
4225	arguments.</para>
4226
4227	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>info</computeroutput>
4228	command in the debugger.</para>
4229	</listitem>
4230
4231	<listitem>
4232	<para>The <computeroutput>injectnmi</computeroutput> command causes
4233	a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) in the guest, which might be useful
4234	for certain debugging scenarios. What happens exactly is dependent
4235	on the guest operating system, but an NMI can crash the whole guest
4236	operating system. Do not use unless you know what you're
4237	doing.</para>
4238	</listitem>
4239
4240	<listitem>
4241	<para>The <computeroutput>osdetect</computeroutput> command makes the
4242	VMM's debugger facility (re-)detection the guest operation
4243	system.</para>
4244
4245	<para>This corresponds to the <computeroutput>detect</computeroutput>
4246	command in the debugger.</para>
4247	</listitem>
4248
4249	<listitem>
4250	<para>The <computeroutput>osinfo</computeroutput> command is used to
4251	display info about the operating system (OS) detected by the VMM's
4252	debugger facility.</para>
4253	</listitem>
4254
4255	<listitem>
4256	<para>The <computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command is
4257	used to display CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
4258	of registers, each having one of the following forms:
4259	<itemizedlist>
4260	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
4261	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
4262	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field</computeroutput></listitem>
4263	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name</computeroutput></listitem>
4264	<listitem><computeroutput>all</computeroutput></listitem>
4265	</itemizedlist>
4266	The <computeroutput>all</computeroutput> form will cause all
4267	registers to be shown (no sub-fields). The registers names are
4268	case-insensitive. When requesting a CPU register the register set
4269	can be omitted, it will be selected using the value of the
4270	<computeroutput>--cpu</computeroutput> option (defaulting to 0).
4271	</para>
4272	</listitem>
4273
4274	<listitem>
4275	<para>The <computeroutput>setregisters</computeroutput> command is
4276	used to change CPU and device registers. The command takes a list
4277	of register assignments, each having one of the following forms:
4278	<itemizedlist>
4279	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
4280	<listitem><computeroutput>register-set.register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
4281	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name.sub-field=value</computeroutput></listitem>
4282	<listitem><computeroutput>cpu-register-name=value</computeroutput></listitem>
4283	</itemizedlist>
4284	The value format should be in the same style as what
4285	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> displays, with the
4286	exception that both octal and decimal can be used instead of
4287	hexadecimal. The register naming and the default CPU register set
4288	are handled the same way as with the
4289	<computeroutput>getregisters</computeroutput> command.</para>
4290	</listitem>
4291
4292	<listitem>
4293	<para>The <computeroutput>statistics</computeroutput> command can be
4294	used to display VMM statistics on the command line. The
4295	<computeroutput>--reset</computeroutput> option will reset
4296	statistics. The affected statistics can be filtered with the
4297	<computeroutput>--pattern</computeroutput> option, which accepts
4298	DOS/NT-style wildcards (<computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and
4299	<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>).</para>
4300	</listitem>
4301	</itemizedlist></para>
4302	</sect1>
4303
4304	<sect1 id="metrics">
4305	<title>VBoxManage metrics</title>
4306
4307	<para>This command supports monitoring the usage of system resources.
4308	Resources are represented by various metrics associated with the host
4309	system or a particular VM. For example, the host system has a
4310	<computeroutput>CPU/Load/User</computeroutput> metric that shows the
4311	percentage of time CPUs spend executing in user mode over a specific
4312	sampling period.</para>
4313
4314	<para>Metric data is collected and retained internally; it may be
4315	retrieved at any time with the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
4316	query</computeroutput> subcommand. The data is available as long as the
4317	background <computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput> process is alive. That
4318	process terminates shortly after all VMs and frontends have been
4319	closed.</para>
4320
4321	<para>By default no metrics are collected at all. Metrics collection does
4322	not start until <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics setup</computeroutput>
4323	is invoked with a proper sampling interval and the number of metrics to be
4324	retained. The interval is measured in seconds. For example, to enable
4325	collecting the host processor and memory usage metrics every second and
4326	keeping the 5 most current samples, the following command can be
4327	used:</para>
4328
4329	<screen>VBoxManage metrics setup --period 1 --samples 5 host CPU/Load,RAM/Usage</screen>
4330
4331	<para>Metric collection can only be enabled for started VMs. Collected
4332	data and collection settings for a particular VM will disappear as soon as
4333	it shuts down. Use <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics list
4334	</computeroutput> subcommand to see which metrics are currently available.
4335	You can also use <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option with any
4336	subcommand that modifies metric settings to find out which metrics were
4337	affected.</para>
4338
4339	<para>Note that the <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
4340	setup</computeroutput> subcommand discards all samples that may have been
4341	previously collected for the specified set of objects and metrics.</para>
4342
4343	<para>To enable or disable metrics collection without discarding the data
4344	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics enable</computeroutput> and
4345	<computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics disable</computeroutput> subcommands
4346	can be used. Note that these subcommands expect metrics, not submetrics,
4347	like <code>CPU/Load</code> or <code>RAM/Usage</code> as parameters. In
4348	other words enabling <code>CPU/Load/User</code> while disabling
4349	<code>CPU/Load/Kernel</code> is not supported.</para>
4350
4351	<para>The host and VMs have different sets of associated metrics.
4352	Available metrics can be listed with <computeroutput>VBoxManage metrics
4353	list</computeroutput> subcommand.</para>
4354
4355	<para>A complete metric name may include an aggregate function. The name
4356	has the following form:
4357	<computeroutput>Category/Metric[/SubMetric][:aggregate]</computeroutput>.
4358	For example, <computeroutput>RAM/Usage/Free:min</computeroutput> stands
4359	for the minimum amount of available memory over all retained data if
4360	applied to the host object.</para>
4361
4362	<para>Subcommands may apply to all objects and metrics or can be limited
4363	to one object or/and a list of metrics. If no objects or metrics are given
4364	in the parameters, the subcommands will apply to all available metrics of
4365	all objects. You may use an asterisk
4366	("<computeroutput>*</computeroutput>") to explicitly specify that the
4367	command should be applied to all objects or metrics. Use "host" as the
4368	object name to limit the scope of the command to host-related metrics. To
4369	limit the scope to a subset of metrics, use a metric list with names
4370	separated by commas.</para>
4371
4372	<para>For example, to query metric data on the CPU time spent in user and
4373	kernel modes by the virtual machine named "test", you can use the
4374	following command:</para>
4375
4376	<screen>VBoxManage metrics query test CPU/Load/User,CPU/Load/Kernel</screen>
4377
4378	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
4379
4380	<glosslist>
4381	<glossentry>
4382	<glossterm><computeroutput>list</computeroutput></glossterm>
4383
4384	<glossdef>
4385	<para>This subcommand shows the parameters of the currently existing
4386	metrics. Note that VM-specific metrics are only available when a
4387	particular VM is running.</para>
4388	</glossdef>
4389	</glossentry>
4390
4391	<glossentry>
4392	<glossterm><computeroutput>setup</computeroutput></glossterm>
4393
4394	<glossdef>
4395	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
4396	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
4397	retained data is available for displaying with the
4398	<code>query</code> subcommand. The <computeroutput>--list
4399	</computeroutput> option shows which metrics have been modified as
4400	the result of the command execution.</para>
4401	</glossdef>
4402	</glossentry>
4403
4404	<glossentry>
4405	<glossterm><computeroutput>enable</computeroutput></glossterm>
4406
4407	<glossdef>
4408	<para>This subcommand "resumes" data collection after it has been
4409	stopped with <code>disable</code> subcommand. Note that specifying
4410	submetrics as parameters will not enable underlying metrics. Use
4411	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
4412	did what was expected.</para>
4413	</glossdef>
4414	</glossentry>
4415
4416	<glossentry>
4417	<glossterm><computeroutput>disable</computeroutput></glossterm>
4418
4419	<glossdef>
4420	<para>This subcommand "suspends" data collection without affecting
4421	collection parameters or collected data. Note that specifying
4422	submetrics as parameters will not disable underlying metrics. Use
4423	<computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> to find out if the command
4424	did what was expected.</para>
4425	</glossdef>
4426	</glossentry>
4427
4428	<glossentry>
4429	<glossterm><computeroutput>query</computeroutput></glossterm>
4430
4431	<glossdef>
4432	<para>This subcommand retrieves and displays the currently retained
4433	metric data.<note>
4434	<para>The <code>query</code> subcommand does not remove or
4435	"flush" retained data. If you query often enough you will see
4436	how old samples are gradually being "phased out" by new
4437	samples.</para>
4438	</note></para>
4439	</glossdef>
4440	</glossentry>
4441
4442	<glossentry>
4443	<glossterm><computeroutput>collect</computeroutput></glossterm>
4444
4445	<glossdef>
4446	<para>This subcommand sets the interval between taking two samples
4447	of metric data and the number of samples retained internally. The
4448	collected data is displayed periodically until Ctrl-C is pressed
4449	unless the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput> option is
4450	specified. With the <computeroutput>--detach</computeroutput>
4451	option, this subcommand operates the same way as <code>setup</code>
4452	does. The <computeroutput>--list</computeroutput> option shows which
4453	metrics match the specified filter.</para>
4454	</glossdef>
4455	</glossentry>
4456	</glosslist>
4457	</sect1>
4458
4459	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-hostonlyif">
4460	<title>VBoxManage hostonlyif</title>
4461
4462	<para>With "hostonlyif" you can change the IP configuration of a host-only
4463	network interface. For a description of host-only networking, please
4464	refer to <xref linkend="network_hostonly" />. Each host-only interface is
4465	identified by a name and can either use the internal DHCP server or a
4466	manual IP configuration (both IP4 and IP6).</para>
4467
4468	<para>The following list summarizes the available subcommands:</para>
4469
4470	<glosslist>
4471	<glossentry>
4472	<glossterm><computeroutput>ipconfig "<name>"</computeroutput></glossterm>
4473	<glossdef>
4474	<para>Configure a hostonly interface</para>
4475	</glossdef>
4476	</glossentry>
4477	<glossentry>
4478	<glossterm><computeroutput>create</computeroutput></glossterm>
4479	<glossdef>
4480	<para>Ceates a new vboxnet<N> interface on the host OS.
4481	This command is essential before you can attach VMs to host-only network.</para>
4482	</glossdef>
4483	</glossentry>
4484	<glossentry>
4485	<glossterm><computeroutput>remove vboxnet<N></computeroutput></glossterm>
4486	<glossdef>
4487	<para>Removes a vboxnet<N> interface from the host OS.</para>
4488	</glossdef>
4489	</glossentry>
4490	</glosslist>
4491
4492	</sect1>
4493
4494	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-dhcpserver">
4495	<title>VBoxManage dhcpserver</title>
4496
4497	<para>The "dhcpserver" commands allow you to control the DHCP server that
4498	is built into VirtualBox. You may find this useful when using internal or
4499	host-only networking. (Theoretically, you can enable it for a bridged
4500	network as well, but that will likely cause conflicts with other DHCP
4501	servers in your physical network.)</para>
4502
4503	<para>Use the following command line options:<itemizedlist>
4504	<listitem>
4505	<para>If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter
4506	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
4507	--netname <network_name></computeroutput>, where
4508	<computeroutput><network_name></computeroutput> is the same
4509	network name you used with <computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm
4510	<vmname> --intnet<X>
4511	<network_name></computeroutput>.</para>
4512	</listitem>
4513
4514	<listitem>
4515	<para>If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter
4516	of a virtual machine, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add
4517	--ifname <hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> instead, where
4518	<computeroutput><hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> is the
4519	same host-only interface name you used with
4520	<computeroutput>VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname>
4521	--hostonlyadapter<X>
4522	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput>.</para>
4523
4524	<para>Alternatively, you can also use the --netname option as with
4525	internal networks if you know the host-only network's name; you can
4526	see the names with <computeroutput>VBoxManage list
4527	hostonlyifs</computeroutput> (see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
4528	above).</para>
4529	</listitem>
4530	</itemizedlist></para>
4531
4532	<para>The following additional parameters are required when first adding a
4533	DHCP server:<itemizedlist>
4534	<listitem>
4535	<para>With <computeroutput>--ip</computeroutput>, specify the IP
4536	address of the DHCP server itself.</para>
4537	</listitem>
4538
4539	<listitem>
4540	<para>With <computeroutput>--netmask</computeroutput>, specify the
4541	netmask of the network.</para>
4542	</listitem>
4543
4544	<listitem>
4545	<para>With <computeroutput>--lowerip</computeroutput> and
4546	<computeroutput>--upperip</computeroutput>, you can specify the
4547	lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server
4548	will hand out to clients.</para>
4549	</listitem>
4550	</itemizedlist></para>
4551
4552	<para>Finally, you must specify <computeroutput>--enable</computeroutput>
4553	or the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing
4554	nothing.</para>
4555
4556	<para>After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for
4557	given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine
4558	which uses that network is started.</para>
4559
4560	<para>Reversely, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver
4561	remove</computeroutput> with the given <computeroutput>--netname
4562	<network_name></computeroutput> or <computeroutput>--ifname
4563	<hostonly_if_name></computeroutput> to remove the DHCP server again
4564	for the given internal or host-only network.</para>
4565
4566	<para>To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with
4567	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver add</computeroutput>, you can use
4568	<computeroutput>VBoxManage dhcpserver modify</computeroutput> for a given
4569	network or host-only interface name.</para>
4570	</sect1>
4571
4572	<sect1 id="vboxmanage-extpack">
4573	<title>VBoxManage extpack</title>
4574
4575	<para>The "extpack" command allows you to add or remove VirtualBox
4576	extension packs, as described in <xref
4577	linkend="intro-installing" />.<itemizedlist>
4578	<listitem>
4579	<para>To add a new extension pack, use <computeroutput>VBoxManage
4580	extpack install <.vbox-extpack></computeroutput>. This command
4581	will fail if an older version of the same extension pack is already
4582	installed. The optional <computeroutput>--replace</computeroutput>
4583	parameter can be used to uninstall the old package before the new
4584	package is installed.</para>
4585	</listitem>
4586
4587	<listitem>
4588	<para>To remove a previously installed extension pack, use
4589	<computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack uninstall
4590	<name></computeroutput>. You can use
4591	<computeroutput>VBoxManage list extpacks</computeroutput> to show
4592	the names of the extension packs which are currently installed;
4593	please see <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" /> also. The optional
4594	<computeroutput>--force</computeroutput> parameter can be used to
4595	override the refusal of an extension pack to be uninstalled.</para>
4596	</listitem>
4597
4598	<listitem>
4599	<para>The <computeroutput>VBoxManage extpack
4600	cleanup</computeroutput> command can be used to remove temporary
4601	files and directories that may have been left behind if a previous
4602	install or uninstall command failed.</para>
4603	</listitem>
4604	</itemizedlist></para>
4605	<para>The following commands show examples how to list extension packs and
4606	remove one:<screen>
4607	$ VBoxManage list extpacks
4608	Extension Packs: 1
4609	Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
4610	Version: 4.1.12
4611	Revision: 77218
4612	Edition:
4613	Description: USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
4614	VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
4615	Usable: true
4616	Why unusable:
4617	$ VBoxManage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"
4618	0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
4619	Successfully uninstalled "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".</screen></para>
4620	</sect1>
4621	</chapter>

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