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Diffstat (limited to 'virt-df/virt-df.pod')
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diff --git a/virt-df/virt-df.pod b/virt-df/virt-df.pod new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84b1d97 --- /dev/null +++ b/virt-df/virt-df.pod @@ -0,0 +1,174 @@ +=head1 NAME + +virt-df - 'df'-like utility for virtualization stats + +=head1 SUMMARY + +virt-df [-options] + +=head1 DESCRIPTION + +virt-df is a L<df(1)>-like utility for showing the actual disk usage +of guests. Many command line options are the same as for ordinary +I<df>. + +It uses libvirt so it is capable of showing stats across a variety of +different virtualization systems. + +There are some shortcomings to the whole approach of reading disk +state from outside the guest. Please read SHORTCOMINGS section below +for more details. + +=head1 OPTIONS + +=over 4 + +=item B<-a>, B<--all> + +Show all domains. The default is show only running (active) domains. + +=item B<-c uri>, B<--connect uri> + +Connect to libvirt URI. The default is to connect to the default +libvirt URI, normally Xen. + +=item B<-h>, B<--human-readable> + +Display human-readable sizes (eg. 10GiB). + +=item B<-i>, B<--inodes> + +Display inode information. + +=item B<--help> + +Display usage summary. + +=item B<--version> + +Display version and exit. + +=back + +=head1 SHORTCOMINGS + +virt-df spies on the guest's disk image to try to work out how much +disk space it is actually using. There are some shortcomings to this, +described here. + +(1) It does not work over remote connections. The storage API does +not support peeking into remote disks, and libvirt has rejected a +request to add this support. + +(2) It only understands a limited set of partition types. Assuming +that the files and partitions that we get back from libvirt / Xen +correspond to block devices in the guests, we can go some way towards +manually parsing those partitions to find out what they contain. We +can read the MBR, LVM, superblocks and so on. However that's a lot of +parsing work, and currently there is no library which understands a +wide range of partition schemes and filesystem types (not even +libparted which doesn't support LVM yet). The Linux kernel does +support that, but there's not really any good way to access that work. + +The current implementation uses a hand-coded parser which understands +some simple formats (MBR, LVM2, ext2/3). In future we should use +something like libparted. + +(3) The statistics you get are delayed. The real state of, for +example, an ext2 filesystem is only stored in the memory of the +guest's kernel. The ext2 superblock contains some meta-information +about blocks used and free, but this superblock is not up to date. In +fact the guest kernel may not update it even on a 'sync', not until +the filesystem is unmounted. Some operations do appear to write the +superblock, for example L<fsync(2)> [that is my reading of the ext2/3 +source code at least]. + +=head1 SECURITY + +The current code is probably not secure against malicious guests. In +particular a malicious guest can set up a disk in such a way that disk +structures with loops can cause virt-df to spin forever. We are +preparing a parsing library which can fix these sorts of problems. + +In the meantime, do not run virt-df on untrusted guests. + +=head1 SEE ALSO + +L<df(1)>, +L<virsh(1)>, +L<xm(1)>, +L<http://www.libvirt.org/ocaml/>, +L<http://www.libvirt.org/>, +L<http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/>, +L<http://caml.inria.fr/> + +=head1 AUTHORS + +Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com> + +=head1 COPYRIGHT + +(C) Copyright 2007-2008 Red Hat Inc., Richard W.M. Jones +http://libvirt.org/ + +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. + +=head1 REPORTING BUGS + +Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page: +L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>. + +If you find a bug in virt-df, please follow these steps to report it: + +=over 4 + +=item 1. Check for existing bug reports + +Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs. +Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even +have fixed it. + +=item 2. Capture debug and error messages + +Run + + virt-df > virt-df.log 2>&1 + +and keep I<virt-df.log>. It contains error messages which you should +submit with your bug report. + +=item 3. Get version of virt-df and version of libvirt. + +Run + + virt-df --version + +=item 4. Submit a bug report. + +Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug. +Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible. + +Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug +messages file (step 2). + +=item 5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com + +Assign or reassign the bug to B<rjones @ redhat.com> (without the +spaces). You can also send me an email with the bug number if you +want a faster response. + +=back + +=end |