virt-tar(1) Virtualization Support virt-tar(1)NAMEvirt-tar - Extract or upload files to a virtual machine
SYNOPSISvirt-tar [--options] -x domname directory tarball
virt-tar [--options] -u domname tarball directory
virt-tar [--options] disk.img [disk.img ...] -x directory tarball
virt-tar [--options] disk.img [disk.img ...] -u tarball directory
OBSOLETE
This tool is obsolete. Use virt-copy-in(1), virt-copy-out(1),
virt-tar-in(1), virt-tar-out(1) as replacements.
EXAMPLES
Download "/home" from the VM into a local tarball:
virt-tar-x domname /home home.tar
virt-tar-zx domname /home home.tar.gz
Upload a local tarball and unpack it inside "/tmp" in the VM:
virt-tar-u domname uploadstuff.tar /tmp
virt-tar-zu domname uploadstuff.tar.gz /tmp
WARNING
You must not use "virt-tar" with the -u option (upload) on live virtual
machines. If you do this, you risk disk corruption in the VM.
"virt-tar" tries to stop you from doing this, but doesn't catch all
cases.
You can use -x (extract) on live virtual machines, but you might get
inconsistent results or errors if there is filesystem activity inside
the VM. If the live VM is synched and quiescent, then "virt-tar" will
usually work, but the only way to guarantee consistent results is if
the virtual machine is shut down.
DESCRIPTION
"virt-tar" is a general purpose archive tool for downloading and
uploading parts of a guest filesystem. There are many possibilities:
making backups, uploading data files, snooping on guest activity,
fixing or customizing guests, etc.
If you want to just view a single file, use virt-cat(1). If you just
want to edit a single file, use virt-edit(1). For more complex cases
you should look at the guestfish(1) tool.
There are two modes of operation: -x (eXtract) downloads a directory
and its contents (recursively) from the virtual machine into a local
tarball. -u uploads from a local tarball, unpacking it into a
directory inside the virtual machine. You cannot use these two options
together.
In addition, you may need to use the -z (gZip) option to enable
compression. When uploading, you have to specify -z if the upload file
is compressed because virt-tar won't detect this on its own.
"virt-tar" can only handle tar (optionally gzipped) format tarballs.
For example it cannot do PKZip files or bzip2 compression. If you want
that then you'll have to rebuild the tarballs yourself. (This is a
limitation of the libguestfs(3) API).
OPTIONS--help
Display brief help.
--version
Display version number and exit.
-c URI
--connect URI
If using libvirt, connect to the given URI. If omitted, then we
connect to the default libvirt hypervisor.
If you specify guest block devices directly, then libvirt is not
used at all.
--format raw
Specify the format of disk images given on the command line. If
this is omitted then the format is autodetected from the content of
the disk image.
If disk images are requested from libvirt, then this program asks
libvirt for this information. In this case, the value of the
format parameter is ignored.
If working with untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should
ensure the format is always specified.
-x
--extract
--download
-u
--upload
Use -x to extract (download) a directory from a virtual machine to
a local tarball.
Use -u to upload and unpack from a local tarball into a virtual
machine. Please read the "WARNING" section above before using this
option.
You must specify exactly one of these options.
-z
--gzip
Specify that the input or output tarball is gzip-compressed.
SHELL QUOTING
Libvirt guest names can contain arbitrary characters, some of which
have meaning to the shell such as "#" and space. You may need to quote
or escape these characters on the command line. See the shell manual
page sh(1) for details.
SEE ALSOguestfs(3), guestfish(1), virt-cat(1), virt-edit(1), virt-copy-in(1),
virt-copy-out(1), virt-tar-in(1), virt-tar-out(1), Sys::Guestfs(3),
Sys::Guestfs::Lib(3), Sys::Virt(3), http://libguestfs.org/.
AUTHOR
Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat Inc.
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
BUGS
To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
When reporting a bug, please supply:
· The version of libguestfs.
· Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
source, etc)
· Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
· Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
into the bug report.
libguestfs-1.20.11 2013-08-27 virt-tar(1)
