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

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