virt-tar - Extract or upload files to a virtual machine
virt-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
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
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.
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).
Display brief help.
Display version number and exit.
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.
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.
Specify that the input or output tarball is gzip-compressed.
guestfs(3), guestfish(1), virt-cat(1), virt-edit(1), the Sys::Guestfs(3) manpage, the Sys::Guestfs::Lib(3) manpage, the Sys::Virt(3) manpage, http://libguestfs.org/.
Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/
Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat Inc.
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., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.