user_VBoxManage.xml@ 46019

最後變更在這個檔案從46019是 45762,由 vboxsync 提交於 12 年前
Manual,changelog: IPv6 for VRDP.
檔案大小: 157.9 KB

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

注意: 瀏覽 TracBrowser 來幫助您使用儲存庫瀏覽器

source: vbox/trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml@ 46019

以其他格式下載: