Ubuntu Manpage: virt-cat - Display files in a virtual machine

Provided by: libguestfs-tools_1.24.5-1ubuntu0.1_amd64

NAME

       virt-cat - Display files in a virtual machine

SYNOPSIS

        virt-cat [--options] -d domname file [file ...]

        virt-cat [--options] -a disk.img [-a disk.img ...] file [file ...]

       Old-style:

        virt-cat domname file

        virt-cat disk.img file

DESCRIPTION

       "virt-cat" is a command line tool to display the contents of "file" where "file" exists in the named
       virtual machine (or disk image).

       Multiple filenames can be given, in which case they are concatenated together.  Each filename must be a
       full path, starting at the root directory (starting with '/').

       "virt-cat" can be used to quickly view a file.  To edit a file, use "virt-edit".  For more complex cases
       you should look at the guestfish(1) tool (see "USING GUESTFISH" below).

EXAMPLES

       Display "/etc/fstab" file from inside the libvirt VM called "mydomain":

        virt-cat -d mydomain /etc/fstab

       List syslog messages from a VM disk image file:

        virt-cat -a disk.img /var/log/messages | tail

       Find out what DHCP IP address a VM acquired:

        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/log/messages | \
          grep 'dhclient: bound to' | tail

       Find out what packages were recently installed:

        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/log/yum.log | tail

       Find out who is logged on inside a virtual machine:

        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/run/utmp > /tmp/utmp
        who /tmp/utmp

       or who was logged on:

        virt-cat -d mydomain /var/log/wtmp > /tmp/wtmp
        last -f /tmp/wtmp

OPTIONS

--help
Display brief help.

-a file
--add file
Add file which should be a disk image from a virtual machine. If the virtual machine has multiple
block devices, you must supply all of them with separate -a options.

The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and force a particular format use
the --format=.. option.

-a URI
--add URI
Add a remote disk. See "ADDING REMOTE STORAGE" in guestfish(1).

-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 (-a), then libvirt is not used at all.

-d guest
--domain guest
Add all the disks from the named libvirt guest. Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names.

--echo-keys
When prompting for keys and passphrases, virt-cat normally turns echoing off so you cannot see what
you are typing. If you are not worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room
you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.

--format=raw|qcow2|..
--format
The default for the -a option is to auto-detect the format of the disk image. Using this forces the
disk format for -a options which follow on the command line. Using --format with no argument
switches back to auto-detection for subsequent -a options.

For example:

virt-cat --format=raw -a disk.img file

forces raw format (no auto-detection) for "disk.img".

virt-cat --format=raw -a disk.img --format -a another.img file

forces raw format (no auto-detection) for "disk.img" and reverts to auto-detection for "another.img".

If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use this option to specify the disk
format. This avoids a possible security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851).

--keys-from-stdin
Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is to try to read passphrases from the
user by opening "/dev/tty".

-v
--verbose
Enable verbose messages for debugging.

-V
--version
Display version number and exit.

-x Enable tracing of libguestfs API calls.

OLD-STYLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

       Previous versions of virt-cat allowed you to write either:

        virt-cat disk.img [disk.img ...] file

       or

        virt-cat guestname file

       whereas in this version you should use -a or -d respectively to avoid the confusing  case  where  a  disk
       image might have the same name as a guest.

       For compatibility the old style is still supported.

WINDOWS PATHS

       "virt-cat" has a limited ability to understand Windows drive letters and paths (eg. "E:\foo\bar.txt").

       If and only if the guest is running Windows then:

       •   Drive letter prefixes like "C:" are resolved against the Windows Registry to the correct filesystem.

       •   Any  backslash  ("\") characters in the path are replaced with forward slashes so that libguestfs can
           process it.

       •   The path is resolved case insensitively to locate the file that should be displayed.

       There are some known shortcomings:

       •   Some NTFS symbolic links may not be followed correctly.

       •   NTFS junction points that cross filesystems are not followed.

USING GUESTFISH

       guestfish(1) is a more powerful, lower level tool which you can use when "virt-cat" doesn't work.

       Using "virt-cat" is approximately equivalent to doing:

        guestfish --ro -i -d domname download file -

       where "domname" is the name of the libvirt guest, and "file" is the full path  to  the  file.   Note  the
       final "-" (meaning "output to stdout").

       The  command  above  uses  libguestfs's  guest  inspection  feature  and  so does not work on guests that
       libguestfs cannot inspect, or on things like arbitrary disk images that don't contain guests.  To display
       a file from a disk image directly, use:

        guestfish --ro -a disk.img -m /dev/sda1 download file -

       where "disk.img" is the disk image, "/dev/sda1" is the filesystem within the disk image,  and  "file"  is
       the full path to the file.

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.

EXIT STATUS

       This program returns 0 if successful, or non-zero if there was an error.

AUTHOR

       Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2010-2012 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-1.24.5                                  2015-10-14                                        virt-cat(1)