Welcome to the Fuchsia Virtualization Guest tool. This document covers the basic structure of how our command-line interface (CLI) tool works, so that you can make full use of it and extend it to fit your needs!
The launch command creates an interactive session with a new Virtual Machine running the specified package.
guest launch package [--cmdline-add <arg>...] [--interrupt <interrupt>...] [--default-net <bool>] [--memory <memory-size>] [--cpus <num-cpus>] [--virtio-* <bool>]
Example: guest launch zircon_guest --default-net false --virtio-gpu true
Positional Arguments
package: String: The package to use for the Guest operating system, such as zircon_guest or debian_guest.Optional Arguments
cmdline-add: String: Argument to add to the Guest kernel command line. This option is repeatable to add multiple arguments.default-net: bool: Whether to enable a default network device. The default value is true.memory: u64: Amount of memory, in bytes, to provide the Guest.cpus: u8: Number of virtual cpu's provided to the Guest.interrupt: u32: Adds a hardware interrupt mapping to the Guest. This option is repeatable to add multiple interrupt mappings.virtio-balloon: bool: Whether to enable virtio-balloon for the Guest. The default value is true.virtio-console: bool: Whether to enable virtio-console for the Guest. The default value is true.virtio-gpu: bool: Whether to enable virtio-gpu for the Guest. The default value is true.virtio-rng: bool: Whether to enable virtio-rng for the Guest. The default value is true.virtio-sound: bool: Whether to enable virtio-sound for the Guest. The default value is true.virtio-sound-input: bool: Whether to enable virtio-sound-input for the Guest. The default value is false.virtio-vsock: bool: Whether to enable virtio-vsock for the Guest. The default value is true.The launch command serves as an intermediary between the end user and the Guest Manager. The end user provides the specified arguments (shown above) for how they wish the Guest to be configured, which are parsed by the guest tool. The parsed arguments and then sent to the Guest Manager via FIDL, which spawns a vmm (Virtual Machine Monitor) component and supplies a FIDL connection to the guest tool for communicating with the spawned Guest.
The Virtual Machine (VM) is communicated with to retrieve sockets connected to the Guest's serial port and terminal. These sockets are treated as data streams within guest, processing information read from these sockets and writing user input back to the VM (which then passes the information to the Guest), enabling an interactive session to occur.
The list command allows for viewing of all currently running VMs.
guest list
Example output:
guest:zircon guest:termina
The list command connects to the Guest Manager via FIDL, and queries for a list of all currently running VMs on Fuchsia. These environments contain information about all VMs running within them, in the form of guest: label pairs, where the label is the type of the VM. The values outputted by this command are used as arguments for other commands of the tool.
The balloon command allows for modifying the size of a memory balloon. See virtio-balloon.cc for more on the Balloon device.
guest balloon guest-type num-pages
Example: guest balloon debian 3
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM you are trying to modify. See list for how to find this value.num-pages: u32: Number of memory pages the balloon will have after this operation.The balloon command is used for modifying the size of a memory balloon. The guest tool takes the above arguments to locate the VM that is to be modified, and the new size for the associated memory balloon (which will shrink or grow depending on the value automatically). It provides the Guest Manager with the identifiers inputted via FIDL, and upon successful location, is provided the VM's BalloonController from the Guest Manager. This controller is used by guest to directly talk to the VM balloon via FIDL to modify the page number of the memory balloon.
The balloon-stats command allows for viewing the current statistics of a memory balloon.
guest balloon-stats guest-type
Example: guest balloon-stats debian
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM you are trying to modify. See list for how to find this value.The balloon-stats command functions almost identically to the balloon command in terms of how it locates the VM through the provided input arguments, however rather than requesting the number of memory pages be changed through the BalloonController over FIDL, instead a FIDL request is made to retrieve a vector of MemStats, which detail the statistics for the fields of a memory balloon through tag, value pairs. These tags are detailed here:
"swap-in": Amount of memory swapped into balloon "swap-out": Amount of memory swapped out of balloon "major-faults": Amount of major faults so far "minor-faults": Amount of minor faults so far "free-memory": Amount of free memory in balloon "total-memory": Amount of memory total in balloon "available-memory": Amount of memory as in /proc "disk-caches": Amount of disk caches "hugetlb-allocations": Amount of hugetlb allocations "hugetlb-failures": Amount of hugetlb allocation failures
The serial command allows for interacting with a Guest over a serial connection.
guest serial guest-type
Example: guest serial debian
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM you are trying to interact with. See list for how to find this value.The serial command provides a convenient way to interact with a VM through a serial connection. This is useful for when you wish to access the serial port for a running VM, for example. The guest tool takes an environment identifier and a context identifier that identifies a VM, which are provided to the Guest Manager. Upon successful location, the guest tool is provided with a FIDL connection to the VM, which is then queried for a serial socket. The guest tool takes this socket and begins an interactive session over serial only, similar to the process in launch.
The vsh command allows for creating a virtual shell to a guest.
guest vsh [guest-type] [--args <arg>]
Example: guest vsh termina --args penguin
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM is currently running. See list for how to find this value.port: u32: Port for where a currently running virtual shell is running on.Optional Arguments
args: String: Argument to provide to the argv of virtual shell. This argument is repeatable to add additional arguments. Leave blank for default shell.It is important to note that this command requires a vshd server is run in the Guest prior to use, which as of writing is currently only true for termina.
The vsh command is the primary way of interacting with guests over a virtual shell. The end user provides guest with optional values for the environment, context, and port that identify a vsock connection for vsh to create a new virtual shell on, with defaults provided in their absence. These defaults are described below:
guest-type: Defaults to Linux environment, if available, else the first environment in the VMM's list.port: Defaults to 9001 if no port given.Regardless of if these values are specified or not, the guest tool will attempt to create a new virtual shell in the specified VM that contains a Guest running a vshd server. Upon successful location of such a VM, guest will launch a new virtual shell to allow interaction with the Guest. Default arguments are provided to the virtual shell if none are specified through --args.
If arguments are specified via --args, additional functionality is executed by guest; namely, the guest tool will wait for the Linux environment to be ready before continuing to connect to the Guest as described above. This process is displayed to the end user until either the LinuxManager (a separate manager from the Guest Manager) reports success or failure; on failure, the user is prompted if they would like to try again (failure may occur for a few reasons, most notably internet connection issues).
The socat command. allow for creating a vsock connection on guest_type. Data received on the socket will be sent to stdout and data from stdin will be sent over the socket.
guest socat guest-type port
Example: guest socat debian 2222
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM is currently running. See list for how to find this value.port: u32: Port on guest to connect to.The socat command is the used to create a vsock connection in a running VM. The end user provides guest with identifiers to find the VM hosting a listener server, and a port to connect to. The guest tool sends these identifiers to the Guest Manager via FIDL, being returned a FIDL connection to the environment specified. The tool then creates an interactive session through a socket, with data received being sent to stdout and input from stdin sent to the host.
The socat-listen command allows for listening on a vsock port within guest_type VM.
guest socat-listen guest-type host-port
Example: guest socat-listen debian 2222
Positional Arguments
guest-type: string: String that identifies the VM for where a socat connection is running.port: u32: Port to listen on.The socat-listen command is used to listen on a vsock port on the host endpoint (guest-type), acting as a server for a vsock connection. The end user provides guest with the environment and port they wish to have this server listen on.
Once guest is successfully able to listen on a port, it starts as a server. The server will run until it accepts one connection, at which point a session will begin between the client and server (see socat). Once this connection closes, the server is shut down and the process exits.
The wipe command allows for clearing any stateful data associated with the guest. Currently this command only supports termina.
The VM must not already be running when this command is issued.
Example: guest wipe termina
Positional Arguments
guest_type: The guest to clear. Currently this must be termina.