NAME

       libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance - Make a "fixed appliance" for libguestfs

SYNOPSIS

        libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance [--options] OUTPUTDIR

        libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance [--options] --xz

DESCRIPTION

       libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance lets you make a pre-built binary appliance for libguestfs.

       Note that ordinary users should not need to run this tool.

       Some reasons why you might want to use this include:

       •   You want to make a self-contained libguestfs appliance that can be copied to another
           machine or platform that doesn't support supermin(8).

       •   You have multiple users on the same machine and want to avoid the storage duplication
           and start-up overhead of having multiple cached copies of the appliance.

       •   You want to have very predictable performance from libguestfs (see
           guestfs-performance(1)).

       For deeper understanding of why you might need this tool, read the section "FIXED
       APPLIANCE" below.

       Instead of running this tool, you can download fixed appliances from
       http://libguestfs.org/download/binaries/appliance/.  These appliances were made using this
       tool.

       There are two ways to use this tool.

       •   Specify an output directory, for example:

            libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance /usr/local/lib/guestfs/appliance

           The output directory is created if it does not exist.  Four files are created in this
           directory:

            <OUTPUTDIR>/kernel
            <OUTPUTDIR>/initrd
            <OUTPUTDIR>/root
            <OUTPUTDIR>/README.fixed

           Note that "OUTPUTDIR/root" is a sparse file, so take care when copying it.

           You can then run libguestfs (possibly after copying this directory to another machine)
           by setting the environment variable LIBGUESTFS_PATH to "OUTPUTDIR".

       •   The alternative method is to use the --xz option to create a compressed tarball:

            libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance --xz

           This creates a tarball in the current directory called:

            appliance-<VERSION>.tar.xz

           (where "VERSION" is the version of libguestfs).  The tarball contains the four files:

            appliance/kernel
            appliance/initrd
            appliance/root
            appliance/README.fixed

           Note that "appliance/root" is a sparse file, so take care when copying it.

OPTIONS

       --help
           Display short usage information and exit.

       -V
       --version
           Display the version number and exit.

       --xz
           Instead of creating the appliance in an output directory, create a compressed tarball
           of the appliance in the current directory called "appliance-VERSION.tar.xz" where
           "VERSION" is the version of libguestfs.

           Using --xz can take some time.  If working normally, the tool is completely silent
           when it is running.

FIXED APPLIANCE

       When libguestfs (or libguestfs tools) are run, they search a path looking for an
       appliance.  The path is built into libguestfs, or can be set using the "LIBGUESTFS_PATH"
       environment variable.

       Normally a supermin appliance is located on this path (see "SUPERMIN APPLIANCE" in
       supermin(8)).  libguestfs reconstructs this into a full appliance by running
       supermin-helper(8).

       However, a simpler "fixed appliance" can also be used.  libguestfs detects this by looking
       for a directory on the path containing four files called "kernel", "initrd", "root" and
       "README.fixed" (note the "README.fixed" file must be present as well).

       If the fixed appliance is found, libguestfs skips supermin entirely and just runs qemu
       with the kernel, initrd and root disk from the fixed appliance.

       Thus the fixed appliance can be used when a platform or Linux distro does not support
       supermin.  You build the fixed appliance on a platform that does support supermin, and
       copy it over, and use that to run libguestfs.

LICENSING

       The fixed appliance is a complete Linux binary distro.  If you distribute it, you may need
       to distribute corresponding source files to remain in legal compliance with the licenses
       of the software in the appliance (such as the GNU General Public License).

EXIT STATUS

       libguestfs-make-fixed-appliance returns 0 if the appliance was built without errors.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       For the full list of environment variables which may affect libguestfs, please see the
       guestfs(3) manual page.

SEE ALSO

       guestfs(3), supermin(8), supermin-helper(8), xz(1), http://libguestfs.org/,
       http://qemu.org/.

AUTHORS

       Richard W.M. Jones ("rjones at redhat dot com")

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2009-2014 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.