xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/interop/qemu-ga.rst (revision 0b84b662)
1QEMU Guest Agent
2================
3
4Synopsis
5--------
6
7**qemu-ga** [*OPTIONS*]
8
9Description
10-----------
11
12The QEMU Guest Agent is a daemon intended to be run within virtual
13machines. It allows the hypervisor host to perform various operations
14in the guest, such as:
15
16- get information from the guest
17- set the guest's system time
18- read/write a file
19- sync and freeze the filesystems
20- suspend the guest
21- reconfigure guest local processors
22- set user's password
23- ...
24
25qemu-ga will read a system configuration file on startup (located at
26|CONFDIR|\ ``/qemu-ga.conf`` by default), then parse remaining
27configuration options on the command line. For the same key, the last
28option wins, but the lists accumulate (see below for configuration
29file format).
30
31Options
32-------
33
34.. program:: qemu-ga
35
36.. option:: -m, --method=METHOD
37
38  Transport method: one of ``unix-listen``, ``virtio-serial``, or
39  ``isa-serial`` (``virtio-serial`` is the default).
40
41.. option:: -p, --path=PATH
42
43  Device/socket path (the default for virtio-serial is
44  ``/dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0``,
45  the default for isa-serial is ``/dev/ttyS0``)
46
47.. option:: -l, --logfile=PATH
48
49  Set log file path (default is stderr).
50
51.. option:: -f, --pidfile=PATH
52
53  Specify pid file (default is ``/var/run/qemu-ga.pid``).
54
55.. option:: -F, --fsfreeze-hook=PATH
56
57  Enable fsfreeze hook. Accepts an optional argument that specifies
58  script to run on freeze/thaw. Script will be called with
59  'freeze'/'thaw' arguments accordingly (default is
60  |CONFDIR|\ ``/fsfreeze-hook``). If using -F with an argument, do
61  not follow -F with a space (for example:
62  ``-F/var/run/fsfreezehook.sh``).
63
64.. option:: -t, --statedir=PATH
65
66  Specify the directory to store state information (absolute paths only,
67  default is ``/var/run``).
68
69.. option:: -v, --verbose
70
71  Log extra debugging information.
72
73.. option:: -V, --version
74
75  Print version information and exit.
76
77.. option:: -d, --daemon
78
79  Daemonize after startup (detach from terminal).
80
81.. option:: -b, --blacklist=LIST
82
83  Comma-separated list of RPCs to disable (no spaces, ``?`` to list
84  available RPCs).
85
86.. option:: -D, --dump-conf
87
88  Dump the configuration in a format compatible with ``qemu-ga.conf``
89  and exit.
90
91.. option:: -h, --help
92
93  Display this help and exit.
94
95Files
96-----
97
98
99The syntax of the ``qemu-ga.conf`` configuration file follows the
100Desktop Entry Specification, here is a quick summary: it consists of
101groups of key-value pairs, interspersed with comments.
102
103::
104
105    # qemu-ga configuration sample
106    [general]
107    daemonize = 0
108    pidfile = /var/run/qemu-ga.pid
109    verbose = 0
110    method = virtio-serial
111    path = /dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0
112    statedir = /var/run
113
114The list of keys follows the command line options:
115
116=============  ===========
117Key             Key type
118=============  ===========
119daemon         boolean
120method         string
121path           string
122logfile        string
123pidfile        string
124fsfreeze-hook  string
125statedir       string
126verbose        boolean
127blacklist      string list
128=============  ===========
129
130See also
131--------
132
133:manpage:`qemu(1)`
134