Provided by: nbdkit_1.24.1-2ubuntu4_amd64 bug

NAME

       nbdkit - toolkit for creating NBD servers

SYNOPSIS

        nbdkit [-D|--debug PLUGIN|FILTER|nbdkit.FLAG=N]
               [-e|--exportname EXPORTNAME] [--exit-with-parent]
               [--filter FILTER ...] [-f|--foreground]
               [-g|--group GROUP] [-i|--ipaddr IPADDR]
               [--log stderr|syslog|null]
               [-n|--newstyle] [--mask-handshake MASK] [--no-sr] [-o|--oldstyle]
               [-P|--pidfile PIDFILE]
               [-p|--port PORT] [-r|--readonly]
               [--run CMD] [-s|--single] [--selinux-label LABEL] [--swap]
               [-t|--threads THREADS]
               [--tls off|on|require]
               [--tls-certificates /path/to/certificates]
               [--tls-psk /path/to/pskfile] [--tls-verify-peer]
               [-U|--unix SOCKET] [-u|--user USER]
               [-v|--verbose] [-V|--version] [--vsock]
               PLUGIN [[KEY=]VALUE [KEY=VALUE [...]]]

        nbdkit --dump-config

        nbdkit PLUGIN --dump-plugin

        nbdkit --help

DESCRIPTION

       Network Block Device (NBD) is a network protocol for accessing block devices over the
       network.  Block devices are hard disks and things that behave like hard disks such as disk
       images and virtual machines.

       nbdkit is both a toolkit for creating NBD servers from “unconventional” sources, and the
       name of an NBD server.  nbdkit ships with many plugins for performing common tasks like
       serving local files.

   Plugins and filters
       nbdkit is different from other NBD servers because you can easily create new Network Block
       Device sources by writing a few glue functions, possibly in C, or perhaps in a high level
       language like Perl or Python.  The liberal licensing of nbdkit is meant to allow you to
       link nbdkit with proprietary libraries or to include nbdkit in proprietary code.

       If you want to write your own nbdkit plugin you should read nbdkit-plugin(3).

       nbdkit also has a concept of filters which can be layered on top of plugins.  Several
       filters are provided with nbdkit and if you want to write your own you should read
       nbdkit-filter(3).

EXAMPLES

   Basic file serving
       •   Serve file disk.img on port 10809 using nbdkit-file-plugin(1), and connect to it using
           guestfish(1):

            nbdkit file disk.img
            guestfish --rw --format=raw -a nbd://localhost

       •   Serve file disk.img on port 10809, requiring clients to use encrypted (TLS)
           connections:

            nbdkit --tls=require file disk.img

   Other nbdkit plugins
       •   Create a small disk containing test patterns using nbdkit-data-plugin(1):

            nbdkit data ' ( 0x55 0xAA )*2048 '

       •   Forward an NBD connection to a remote server over HTTPS or SSH using
           nbdkit-curl-plugin(1) or nbdkit-ssh-plugin(1):

            nbdkit -r curl https://example.com/disk.img

            nbdkit ssh host=example.com /var/tmp/disk.img

       •   Create a sparse 1 terabyte RAM disk using nbdkit-memory-plugin(1) and use it as a loop
           device (nbdkit-loop(1)):

            nbdkit memory 1T
            nbd-client -b 512 localhost /dev/nbd0

       •   Create a floppy disk image containing files from a local directory using
           nbdkit-floppy-plugin(1):

            nbdkit floppy dir/

   Combining plugins and filters
       •   Serve only the first partition from compressed disk image disk.img.xz, combining
           nbdkit-partition-filter(1), nbdkit-xz-filter(1) and nbdkit-file-plugin(1).

            nbdkit --filter=partition --filter=xz file disk.img.xz partition=1

           To understand this command line:

                                        plugin name and plugin parameter
                                                          │
                                                  ┌───────┴──────┐
                                                  │              │
            nbdkit --filter=partition --filter=xz file disk.img.xz partition=1
                            │              │                          │
                            └──────────────┴────┬─────────────────────┘
                                                │
                                   filters and filter parameter

       •   Create a scratch, empty nbdkit device and inject errors and delays, for testing
           clients, using nbdkit-memory-plugin(1), nbdkit-error-filter(1) and
           nbdkit-delay-filter(1):

            nbdkit --filter=error --filter=delay memory 100M \
                   error-rate=10% rdelay=1 wdelay=1

   Writing plugins in shell script
       •   Write a simple, custom plugin in shell script using nbdkit-sh-plugin(3):

            nbdkit sh - <<'EOF'
              case "$1" in
                get_size) echo 1M ;;
                pread) dd if=/dev/zero count=$3 iflag=count_bytes ;;
                *) exit 2 ;;
              esac
            EOF

       •   The same example as above can be written entirely on the command line using
           nbdkit-eval-plugin(1):

            nbdkit eval get_size='echo 1M' \
                        pread='dd if=/dev/zero count=$3 iflag=count_bytes'

   Display information
       Display information about nbdkit or a specific plugin:

        nbdkit --help
        nbdkit --version
        nbdkit --dump-config
        nbdkit example1 --help
        nbdkit example1 --dump-plugin

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       --help
           Display brief command line usage information and exit.

       -D PLUGIN.FLAG=N
       -D FILTER.FLAG=N
       --debug PLUGIN.FLAG=N
       --debug FILTER.FLAG=N
           Set the plugin or filter Debug Flag called "FLAG" to the integer value "N".  See
           "Debug Flags" in nbdkit-plugin(3).

       -D nbdkit.FLAG=N
       --debug nbdkit.FLAG=N
           (nbdkit ≥ 1.18)

           Set the nbdkit server Debug Flag called "FLAG" to the integer value "N".  See "SERVER
           DEBUG FLAGS" below.

       --dump-config
           Dump out the compile-time configuration values and exit.  See nbdkit-probing(1).

       --dump-plugin
           Dump out information about the plugin and exit.  See nbdkit-probing(1).

       --exit-with-parent
           If the parent process exits, we exit.  This can be used to avoid complicated cleanup
           or orphaned nbdkit processes.  There are some important caveats with this, see "EXIT
           WITH PARENT" in nbdkit-captive(1).

           An alternative to this is "CAPTIVE NBDKIT" in nbdkit-captive(1).

           This option implies --foreground.

       -e EXPORTNAME
       --export EXPORTNAME
       --export-name EXPORTNAME
       --exportname EXPORTNAME
           Set a preferred exportname to expose in the shell environment created during --run.
           The use of this option without --run has no effect.  This option does not change what
           nbdkit advertises as a server, but can aid in writing a captive client that wants to
           access particular content from a plugin that differentiates content based on the
           client's choice of export name.

           If not set, the --run environment is set to access the default exportname "" (empty
           string).

       -f
       --foreground
       --no-fork
           Don't fork into the background.

       --filter FILTER
           Add a filter before the plugin.  This option may be given one or more times to stack
           filters in front of the plugin.  They are processed in the order they appear on the
           command line.  See "FILTERS" and nbdkit-filter(3).

       -g GROUP
       --group GROUP
           Change group to "GROUP" after starting up.  A group name or numeric group ID can be
           used.

           The server needs sufficient permissions to be able to do this.  Normally this would
           mean starting the server up as root.

           See also -u.

       -i IPADDR
       --ip-addr IPADDR
       --ipaddr IPADDR
           Listen on the specified interface.  The default is to listen on all interfaces.  See
           also -p.

       --log=stderr
       --log=syslog
       --log=null
           Send error messages to standard error (--log=stderr), or to the system log
           (--log=syslog), or discard them completely (--log=null, not recommended for normal
           use).

           The default is to send error messages to stderr, unless nbdkit forks into the
           background in which case they are sent to syslog.

           For more details see "LOGGING" in nbdkit-service(1).

       -n
       --new-style
       --newstyle
           Use the newstyle NBD protocol.  This is the default in nbdkit ≥ 1.3.  In earlier
           versions the default was oldstyle.  See nbdkit-protocol(1).

       --no-sr
           Do not advertise structured replies.  A client must request structured replies to take
           advantage of block status and potential sparse reads; however, as structured reads are
           not a mandatory part of the newstyle NBD protocol, this option can be used to debug
           client fallbacks for dealing with older servers.  See nbdkit-protocol(1).

       -o
       --old-style
       --oldstyle
           Use the oldstyle NBD protocol.  This was the default in nbdkit ≤ 1.2, but now the
           default is newstyle.  Note this is incompatible with newer features such as export
           names and TLS.  See nbdkit-protocol(1).

       -P PIDFILE
       --pid-file PIDFILE
       --pidfile PIDFILE
           Write "PIDFILE" (containing the process ID of the server) after nbdkit becomes ready
           to accept connections.

           If the file already exists, it is overwritten.  nbdkit does not delete the file when
           it exits.

       -p PORT
       --port PORT
           Change the TCP/IP port number on which nbdkit serves requests.  The default is 10809.
           See also -i.

       -r
       --read-only
       --readonly
           The export will be read-only.  If a client writes, then it will get an error.

           Note that some plugins inherently don't support writes.  With those plugins the -r
           option is added implicitly.

           nbdkit-cow-filter(1) can be placed over read-only plugins to provide copy-on-write (or
           "snapshot") functionality.  If you are using qemu as a client then it also supports
           snapshots.

       --run CMD
           Run nbdkit as a captive subprocess of "CMD".  When "CMD" exits, nbdkit is killed.  See
           "CAPTIVE NBDKIT" in nbdkit-captive(1).

           This option implies --foreground.

       -s
       --single
       --stdin
           Don't fork.  Handle a single NBD connection on stdin/stdout.  After stdin closes, the
           server exits.

           You can use this option to run nbdkit from inetd or similar superservers; or just for
           testing; or if you want to run nbdkit in a non-conventional way.  Note that if you
           want to run nbdkit from systemd, then it may be better to use "SOCKET ACTIVATION" in
           nbdkit-service(1) instead of this option.

           This option implies --foreground.

       --selinux-label SOCKET-LABEL
           Apply the SELinux label "SOCKET-LABEL" to the nbdkit listening socket.

           The common — perhaps only — use of this option is to allow libvirt guests which are
           using SELinux and sVirt confinement to access nbdkit Unix domain sockets:

            nbdkit --selinux-label system_u:object_r:svirt_t:s0 ...

       --swap
           (nbdkit ≥ 1.18)

           Specifies that the NBD device will be used as swap space loop mounted on the same
           machine which is running nbdkit.  To avoid deadlocks this locks the whole nbdkit
           process into memory using mlockall(2).  This may require additional permissions, such
           as starting the server as root or raising the "RLIMIT_MEMLOCK" (ulimit(1) -l) limit on
           the process.

       -t THREADS
       --threads THREADS
           Set the number of threads to be used per connection, which in turn controls the number
           of outstanding requests that can be processed at once.  Only matters for plugins with
           thread_model=parallel (where it defaults to 16).  To force serialized behavior (useful
           if the client is not prepared for out-of-order responses), set this to 1.

       --tls=off
       --tls=on
       --tls=require
           Disable, enable or require TLS (authentication and encryption support).  See
           nbdkit-tls(1).

       --tls-certificates /path/to/certificates
           Set the path to the TLS certificates directory.  If not specified, some built-in paths
           are checked.  See nbdkit-tls(1) for more details.

       --tls-psk /path/to/pskfile
           Set the path to the pre-shared keys (PSK) file.  If used, this overrides certificate
           authentication.  There is no built-in path.  See nbdkit-tls(1) for more details.

       --tls-verify-peer
           Enables TLS client certificate verification.  The default is not to check the client's
           certificate.

       -U SOCKET
       --unix SOCKET
       -U -
       --unix -
           Accept connections on the Unix domain socket "SOCKET" (which is a path).

           nbdkit creates this socket, but it will probably have incorrect permissions (too
           permissive).  If it is a problem that some unauthorized user could connect to this
           socket between the time that nbdkit starts up and the authorized user connects, then
           put the socket into a directory that has restrictive permissions.

           nbdkit does not delete the socket file when it exits.  The caller should delete the
           socket file after use (else if you try to start nbdkit up again you will get an
           "Address already in use" error).

           If the socket name is - then nbdkit generates a randomly named private socket.  This
           is useful with "CAPTIVE NBDKIT" in nbdkit-captive(1).

       -u USER
       --user USER
           Change user to "USER" after starting up.  A user name or numeric user ID can be used.

           The server needs sufficient permissions to be able to do this.  Normally this would
           mean starting the server up as root.

           See also -g.

       -v
       --verbose
           Enable verbose messages.

           It's a good idea to use -f as well so the process does not fork into the background
           (but not required).

       -V
       --version
           Print the version number of nbdkit and exit.

           The --dump-config option provides separate major and minor numbers and may be easier
           to parse from shell scripts.

       --vsock
           (nbdkit ≥ 1.16)

           Use the AF_VSOCK protocol (instead of TCP/IP).  You must use this in conjunction with
           -p/--port.  See "AF_VSOCK" in nbdkit-service(1).

PLUGIN NAME

       You can give the full path to the plugin, like this:

        nbdkit $libdir/nbdkit/plugins/nbdkit-file-plugin.so [...]

       but it is usually more convenient to use this equivalent syntax:

        nbdkit file [...]

       $libdir is set at compile time.  To print it out, do:

        nbdkit --dump-config

PLUGIN CONFIGURATION

       After specifying the plugin name you can (optionally, it depends on the plugin) give
       plugin configuration on the command line in the form of "key=value".  For example:

        nbdkit file file=disk.img

       To list all the options supported by a plugin, do:

        nbdkit --help file

       To dump information about a plugin, do:

        nbdkit file --dump-plugin

   Magic parameters
       Some plugins declare a special "magic config key".  This is a key which is assumed if no
       "key=" part is present.  For example:

        nbdkit file disk.img

       is assumed to be "file=disk.img" because the file plugin declares "file" as its magic
       config key.  There can be ambiguity in the parsing of magic config keys if the value might
       look like a "key=value".  If there could be ambiguity then modify the value, eg. by
       prefixing it with "./"

       There is also a special exception for plugins which do not declare a magic config key, but
       where the first plugin argument does not contain an '=' character: it is assumed to be
       "script=value".  This is used by scripting language plugins:

        nbdkit perl foo.pl [args...]

       has the same meaning as:

        nbdkit perl script=foo.pl [args...]

   Shebang scripts
       You can use "#!" to run nbdkit plugins written in most scripting languages.  The file
       should be executable.  For example:

        #!/usr/sbin/nbdkit perl
        sub open {
          # etc
        }

       (see nbdkit-perl-plugin(3) for a full example).

SERVER DEBUG FLAGS

       As well as enabling or disabling debugging in the server using --verbose you can control
       extra debugging in the server using the "-D nbdkit.*" flags listed in this section.  Note
       these flags are an internal implementation detail of the server and may be changed or
       removed at any time in the future.

       -D nbdkit.backend.controlpath=0
       -D nbdkit.backend.controlpath=1
       -D nbdkit.backend.datapath=0
       -D nbdkit.backend.datapath=1
           These flags control the verbosity of nbdkit backend debugging messages (the ones which
           show every request processed by the server).  The default for both settings is 1
           (normal debugging) but you can set them to 0 to suppress these messages.

           "-D nbdkit.backend.datapath=0" is the more useful setting which lets you suppress
           messages about pread, pwrite, zero, trim, etc. commands.  When transferring large
           amounts of data these messages are numerous and not usually very interesting.

           "-D nbdkit.backend.controlpath=0" suppresses the non-datapath commands (config, open,
           close, can_write, etc.)

       -D nbdkit.tls.log=N
           Enable TLS logging.  "N" can be in the range 0 (no logging) to 99.  See
           gnutls_global_set_log_level(3).

       -D nbdkit.tls.session=1
           Print additional information about the TLS session, such as the type of authentication
           and encryption, and client certificate information.

SIGNALS

       nbdkit responds to the following signals:

       "SIGINT"
       "SIGQUIT"
       "SIGTERM"
           The server exits cleanly.

       "SIGPIPE"
           This signal is ignored.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       "LISTEN_FDS"
       "LISTEN_PID"
           If present in the environment when nbdkit starts up, these trigger "SOCKET ACTIVATION"
           in nbdkit-service(1).

SEE ALSO

   Other topics
       nbdkit-captive(1) — Run nbdkit under another process and have it reliably cleaned up.

       nbdkit-client(1) — How to mount NBD filesystems on a client machine.

       nbdkit-loop(1) — Use nbdkit with the Linux kernel client to create loop devices and loop
       mounts.

       nbdkit-probing(1) — How to probe for nbdkit configuration and plugins.

       nbdkit-protocol(1) — Which parts of the NBD protocol nbdkit supports.

       nbdkit-security(1) — Lists past security issues in nbdkit.

       nbdkit-service(1) — Running nbdkit as a service, and systemd socket activation.

       nbdkit-tls(1) — Authentication and encryption of NBD connections (sometimes incorrectly
       called "SSL").

   Plugins
       nbdkit-cdi-plugin(1), nbdkit-curl-plugin(1), nbdkit-data-plugin(1), nbdkit-eval-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-example1-plugin(1), nbdkit-example2-plugin(1), nbdkit-example3-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-example4-plugin(1), nbdkit-file-plugin(1), nbdkit-floppy-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-full-plugin(1), nbdkit-guestfs-plugin(1), nbdkit-gzip-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-info-plugin(1), nbdkit-iso-plugin(1), nbdkit-libvirt-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1), nbdkit-memory-plugin(1), nbdkit-nbd-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-null-plugin(1), nbdkit-ondemand-plugin(1), nbdkit-partitioning-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-pattern-plugin(1), nbdkit-random-plugin(1), nbdkit-S3-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-sparse-random-plugin(1), nbdkit-split-plugin(1), nbdkit-ssh-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-streaming-plugin(1), nbdkit-tar-plugin(1), nbdkit-tmpdisk-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-torrent-plugin(1), nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1), nbdkit-zero-plugin(1) ;
       nbdkit-cc-plugin(3), nbdkit-golang-plugin(3), nbdkit-lua-plugin(3),
       nbdkit-ocaml-plugin(3), nbdkit-perl-plugin(3), nbdkit-python-plugin(3),
       nbdkit-ruby-plugin(3), nbdkit-rust-plugin(3), nbdkit-sh-plugin(3), nbdkit-tcl-plugin(3) .

   Filters
       nbdkit-blocksize-filter(1), nbdkit-cache-filter(1), nbdkit-cacheextents-filter(1),
       nbdkit-checkwrite-filter(1), nbdkit-cow-filter(1), nbdkit-ddrescue-filter(1),
       nbdkit-delay-filter(1), nbdkit-error-filter(1), nbdkit-exitlast-filter(1),
       nbdkit-exitwhen-filter(1), nbdkit-exportname-filter(1), nbdkit-ext2-filter(1),
       nbdkit-extentlist-filter(1), nbdkit-fua-filter(1), nbdkit-gzip-filter(1),
       nbdkit-ip-filter(1), nbdkit-limit-filter(1), nbdkit-log-filter(1),
       nbdkit-nocache-filter(1), nbdkit-noextents-filter(1), nbdkit-nofilter-filter(1),
       nbdkit-noparallel-filter(1), nbdkit-nozero-filter(1), nbdkit-offset-filter(1),
       nbdkit-partition-filter(1), nbdkit-pause-filter(1), nbdkit-rate-filter(1),
       nbdkit-readahead-filter(1), nbdkit-retry-filter(1), nbdkit-stats-filter(1),
       nbdkit-swab-filter(1), nbdkit-tar-filter(1), nbdkit-tls-fallback-filter(1),
       nbdkit-truncate-filter(1), nbdkit-xz-filter(1) .

   For developers
       nbdkit-plugin(3), nbdkit-filter(3).

   Writing plugins in other programming languages
       nbdkit-cc-plugin(3), nbdkit-golang-plugin(3), nbdkit-lua-plugin(3),
       nbdkit-ocaml-plugin(3), nbdkit-perl-plugin(3), nbdkit-python-plugin(3),
       nbdkit-ruby-plugin(3), nbdkit-rust-plugin(3), nbdkit-sh-plugin(3), nbdkit-tcl-plugin(3) .

   Release notes for previous releases of nbdkit
       nbdkit-release-notes-1.4(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.6(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.8(1),
       nbdkit-release-notes-1.10(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.12(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.14(1),
       nbdkit-release-notes-1.16(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.18(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.20(1),
       nbdkit-release-notes-1.22(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.24(1).

   NBD clients
       guestfish(1), libnbd(3), nbd-client(1), nbdcopy(1), nbdfuse(1), nbdinfo(1), nbdsh(1),
       qemu(1).

   nbdkit links
       http://github.com/libguestfs/nbdkit — Source code.

   Other NBD servers
       qemu-nbd(1), nbd-server(1), https://bitbucket.org/hirofuchi/xnbd.

   Documentation for the NBD protocol
       https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/blob/master/doc/proto.md,
       https://nbd.sourceforge.io/.

   Similar protocols
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iSCSI, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATA_over_Ethernet,
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_Channel_over_Ethernet.

   Other manual pages of interest
       gnutls_priority_init(3), qemu-img(1), psktool(1), systemd.socket(5).

AUTHORS

       Eric Blake

       Richard W.M. Jones

       Yann E. MORIN

       Nir Soffer

       Pino Toscano

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2013-2020 Red Hat Inc.

LICENSE

       Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
       permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

       •   Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer.

       •   Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
           provided with the distribution.

       •   Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse
           or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written
           permission.

       THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
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