Provided by: libguestfs0t64_1.52.2-6ubuntu3_amd64 
NAME
guestfs-release-notes - libguestfs Release Notes
RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGUESTFS 1.28
These release notes only cover the differences from the previous stable/dev branch split
(1.26.0). For detailed changelogs, please see the git repository, or the ChangeLog file
distributed in the tarball.
New features
Tools
virt-v2v(1) and virt-p2v(1) are tools for converting from foreign hypervisors (such as
VMware or Xen) or physical machines, to KVM. These tools were previously a separate
project. The code for both tools has been integrated into the libguestfs tree. As part
of the refactoring, virt-p2v has been rewritten (from Ruby, now C), and virt-v2v now uses
several modern features of qemu which make it run many times faster than before.
virt-v2v(1) can import from: VMware vCenter, VMware OVA files, local disk files, libvirt,
RHEL 5 Xen. It can output to: oVirt or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV-M),
OpenStack Glance, libvirt, qemu, local disk files.
virt-log(1) is a new tool for listing log files from guests. It supports a variety of
guests including Linux traditional, Linux using journal, and Windows event log.
virt-builder(1) has a new "--machine-readable" option to make it simpler to consume virt-
builder from other programs.
New virt-builder(1) and virt-customize(1) --chmod option.
virt-sysprep(1) will now remove: systemd journals, anaconda logs, lightdm logs, debian-
installer files, apt logs, exim logs, ConsoleKit logs, firewalld logs, grubby logs,
proftpd logs, libvirt/libxml logs, and several other log files. The virt-sysprep
"user-account" operation is now able to remove or keep particular user accounts. (Pino
Toscano).
New guestmount(1) --fd option, allowing you to run guestmount captive under another
process.
virt-sparsify(1) has a new --tmp option allowing you to precisely control where temporary
files are stored.
virt-sparsify(1) can now write to a block device.
virt-customize(1) and virt-sysprep(1) now support adding firstboot scripts to Windows
guests.
virt-cat(1), virt-edit(1), virt-ls(1) now support the -m option, allowing you to override
automatic inspection of guests and instead specify where to mount partitions (Pino
Toscano).
The virt tools now have coloured output: green for OK, red for errors, blue for warnings.
Language bindings
You can build a Python distribution using "make -C python sdist"
Ruby bindings have switched from "Test::Unit" to "MiniTest".
The Java bindings are now compatible with OpenJDK 8 (Pino Toscano).
Inspection
Oracle Linux is returned as "oraclelinux" (Nikos Skalkotos).
Linux guests which do not have /etc/fstab can now be handled (Pino Toscano).
Minix is returned as "minix" (Pino Toscano).
Architectures
Aarch64 (64 bit ARM) support has been added.
Inspection and the "guestfs_file_architecture" call can now recognize arm (32 bit) and
aarch64 guests.
Security
CVE-2014-0191 Network usage and entity resolution in XML parsing
Libguestfs previously used unsafe libxml2 APIs for parsing libvirt XML. These APIs
defaulted to allowing network connections to be made when certain XML documents were
presented. Using a malformed XML document it was also possible to exhaust all CPU,
memory or file descriptors on the machine.
Since the libvirt XML comes from a trusted source (the libvirt daemon) it is not
thought that this could have been exploitable.
This was fixed in libguestfs ≥ 1.27.9 and the fix was backported to stable versions ≥
1.26.2, ≥ 1.24.9, ≥ 1.22.10 and ≥ 1.20.13. (Thanks: Dan Berrange, Pino Toscano).
Shellshock (bash CVE-2014-6271)
This bash bug indirectly affects libguestfs. For more information see:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2014-September/msg00252.html
API
New APIs
"guestfs_clear_backend_setting"
"guestfs_get_backend_setting"
"guestfs_set_backend_setting"
Use these APIs to set individual backend settings.
"guestfs_cpio_out"
Convert a directory within the disk image to cpio format.
"guestfs_journal_get_realtime_usec"
Fetch precise journal times, see sd_journal_get_realtime_usec(3).
"guestfs_lstatns"
"guestfs_lstatnslist"
"guestfs_statns"
Enhanced versions of "guestfs_lstat", "guestfs_lstatlist", "guestfs_stat" which return
nanosecond timestamps.
Build changes
Libguestfs can now be built with qemu 2.x.
Add support for packaging the appliance on Mageia (Joseph Wang, Thierry Vignaud).
Augeas is now a required dependency.
Flex and bison are now required dependencies.
Internals
User-Mode Linux (UML) is no longer a supported backend (although still available). It
will be supported again once someone steps in and fixes various regressions and brokenness
in the UML (Linux) kernel.
You can now connect gdb to qemu by specifying "LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND_SETTINGS=gdb"
Serial BIOS (sgabios) is now used by the libvirt backend (on x86 only) so that we see
early BIOS messages.
For the OCaml virt tools, exceptions are now handled and printed by a common function.
A GCC warning about large stack frames is now enabled by default. Several places that
used large arrays and structures on the stack have been fixed.
There is now a test for booting the appliance repeatedly. Useful for finding kernel
leaks. See: tests/qemu/qemu-boot.c
There is a test for testing the speed of various qemu features such as virtio-serial
uploads and block device writes. See: tests/qemu/qemu-speed-test.c
GCC warnings are now enabled for OCaml-C bindings in the OCaml virt tools.
The code for editing files used by virt-edit(1), guestfish(1) "edit" command,
virt-customize(1) --edit option and more is now shared between all these utilities (thanks
Pino Toscano).
The FUSE tests were rewritten in C to ensure finer control over how system calls are
tested.
The update-bugs.sh script has been fixed so it should no longer create an empty "BUGS"
file if the Bugzilla server is unavailable.
The virt-resize(1) tests now use a stochastic method to ensure much deeper and broader
testing.
When the network is enabled, the appliance now uses DHCP to acquire an IP address.
If libvirt is being used then the appliance will connect to "virbr0" (can be overridden by
setting "LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND_SETTINGS=network_bridge=<some_bridge>"). This enables full-
featured network connections, with working ICMP, ping and so on.
Bugs fixed
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1153515
empty (but set) LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND prints libguestfs: error: invalid backend:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151766
libguestfs-bash-completion package contains file
/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/virt-log, but no _virt_log() function in that
file
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151738
typo error in man page of virt-edit
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151033
virt-v2v conversions from VMware vCenter server run slowly
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150880
virt-v2v: warning: display <graphics type='sdl'> was ignored when converting rhel5
guest with sdl graphics
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150867
'copy-file-to-file /src /dest' create file /dest even if command 'copy-file-to-file
/src /dest' failed
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150815
Can not find "RECURSIVE LONG LISTING" in 'man virt-diff'
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150701
virt-v2v does not fstrim data disks and non-mounted filesystems
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150475
Exporting 2+ disk guest to RHEV, only one disk shows after import
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148355
virt-filesystems: incorrect LVM vg name when listing Fedora 21 Alpha Atomic image
filesystems
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148072
Option missing --no-selinux-relabel
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148012
RFE: Allow qemu-bridge-helper to be used to implement guestfs_set_network
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146815
virt-v2v prints warning: /files/etc/fstab/8/spec references unknown device "cdrom"
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146275
regression setting root password with virt-builder/virt-customize
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146017
virt-v2v -v -x during windows guest conversion will hang at hivex: hivex_open: used
block id ……
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1145995
Improve the error info when converting windows guest with unclean file system
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1145916
virt-v2v fails to convert win7 guest
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144891
RFE: stat calls do not return nanosecond timestamps
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144766
futimens() is a no-op via guestmount
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144201
guestfish can not restore terminal's output colour when exit guestfish, if the
terminal's background colour is black then it will make a inconvenient
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143949
virt-customize option '--password-crypto' do not work
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143887
Warning shows when converting guests to rhev:chown: changing ownership of
‘/tmp/v2v.u48xag/*.ovf’: Invalid argument
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143883
warning shows when converting rhel7 guest:virt-v2v:could not update grub2 console:
aug_get: no matching node (ignored)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143866
virt-v2v fails with error: cannot open Packages index using db5
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142416
part-get-name give 'libguestfs: error: part_get_name: parted does not support the
machine output (-m)' error message when run 'part-get-name /dev/sda 1'
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142186
virt-sysprep option '--mount-options' don't work well
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142158
Illegal command 'part-get-name /dev/sda1 1' cause libguestfs appliance crashed
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142004
virt-v2v prints warning:WARNING:/files/boot/grub/device.map references unknown device
"xvda"
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141723
virt-v2v: error: disk sda has no defined format shows when converting xen hvm guest
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141680
[RFE] virt-v2 should support convert a domain with using domain's UUID instead of
domain name
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141631
[RFE] virt-v2 should support convert a guest to a dir-pool with using pool's uuid
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141157
virt-sysprep option '--user-accounts' don't work well
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141145
virt-v2v fails to convert xen pv guests.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141113
virt-v2v fails to convert esx guests
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140946
qemu-img shows error message for backing file twice
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140894
No error messages output if append '--format qcow2' after '-a guest.img', guest.img is
a raw format image file
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140547
virt-builder option '--format' don't work well
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140156
RFE: Export to RHEV data domain
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140050
No error shows when multiple conflicting options used with virt-v2v
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1139973
Improve the error info when converting xen guest with no passwordless SSH access
configured
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1139543
Improve the error info when converting guest with no space left
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138586
No error shows when converting running guest with virt-v2v
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138184
virt-v2v will fail when converting guests with initramfs-*kdump.img under /boot
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138182
xen guest will be kernel panic after converted by virt-v2v
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1130189
Annoying message about permissions of /dev/kvm
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1123007
libguestfs 'direct' backend should close file descriptors before exec-ing qemu to
avoid leaking !O_CLOEXEC fds
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1122557
virt-sparsify overwrites block devices if used as output files
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1113156
Empty fstab breaks libguestfs inspection
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1111662
Guestfs.Error("vgchange_uuid_all: Volume group has active logical volumes")
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1109174
virt-win-reg manual page is corrupted
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1106548
root gets an error accessing to a non-root dir on a snapshot guestmount VMDK img
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1103877
These APIs also need to add to `guestfish -h` command list
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1102448
mageia package list is incorrect
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1102447
libguestfs 1.27.13 does not build due to libxml library order
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1100498
RFE: non-polling mechanism to detect guestmount --no-fork readiness
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1099490
scrub-file can't handle link file
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1099284
typo errors in man pages
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1098718
RFE: virt-builder aliases
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1096465
virt-builder "proxy=off" setting doesn't turn off the proxy for downloads
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1094746
virt-sparsify man failes to mention what happens to snapshots within a qcow2 image
(they are discarded)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1092753
virt-builder: If several repos contain the same os-version images, then they are
duplicated in -l output
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1091803
tar-in-opts execute failed that cause libguestfs appliance crashed
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1088424
virt-resize: libguestfs error: part_set_name: parted: /dev/sdb: Error during
translation: Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1088262
virt-builder cannot write to a block device
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1085029
Ruby tests fail with latest Ruby
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1079210
virt-sparsify --in-place cannot sparsify as much as it should
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1079182
virt-df cannot report used disk space of windows guest when updated to 6.5
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1077817
virt-builder error: "syntax error at line 3: syntax error"
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1056290
virt-sparsify overwrites block devices if used as output files
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/812970
virt-rescue cannot set ≥<rescue> prompt, on Ubuntu 12.04
SEE ALSO
guestfs-examples(1), guestfs-faq(1), guestfs-performance(1), guestfs-recipes(1),
guestfs-testing(1), guestfs(3), guestfish(1), http://libguestfs.org/
AUTHOR
Richard W.M. Jones
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2009-2023 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.