systemd/man/systemd-vmspawn.xml

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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->

<refentry id="systemd-vmspawn" conditional="ENABLE_VMSPAWN"
    xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">

  <refentryinfo>
    <title>systemd-vmspawn</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>systemd-vmspawn</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>systemd-vmspawn</refname>
    <refpurpose>Spawn an OS in a virtual machine.</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>systemd-vmspawn</command>
      <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
      <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">ARGS</arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>
    <para><command>systemd-vmspawn</command> may be used to start a virtual machine from an OS image. In many ways it is similar to <citerefentry
    project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, but it
    launches a full virtual machine instead of using namespaces.</para>

    <para>Note: on Ubuntu/Debian derivatives systemd-vmspawn requires the user to be in the <literal>kvm</literal> group to use the VSock options.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Options</title>

    <para>The excess arguments are passed as extra kernel command line arguments using SMBIOS.</para>

    <para>The following options are understood:</para>

    <variablelist>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-q</option></term>
        <term><option>--quiet</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Turns off any status output by the tool
        itself. When this switch is used, the only output from vmspawn
        will be the console output of the Virtual Machine OS itself.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v256"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Image Options</title>

      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><option>-i</option></term>
          <term><option>--image=</option></term>

          <listitem><para>Root file system disk image (or device node) for the virtual machine.</para>

          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Host Configuration</title>

      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><option>--qemu-smp=</option><replaceable>SMP</replaceable></term>

          <listitem><para>Configures the number of CPUs to start the virtual machine with.
          Defaults to 1.</para>

          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term><option>--qemu-mem=</option><replaceable>MEM</replaceable></term>

          <listitem><para>Configures the amount of memory to start the virtual machine with.
          Defaults to 2G.</para>

          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--qemu-kvm=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Configures whether to use KVM. If the option is not specified KVM support will be
        detected automatically. If true, KVM is always used, and if false, KVM is never used.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--qemu-vsock=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>Configure whether to use VSock networking.</para>
          <para>If the option is not specified VSock support will be detected automatically.
          If yes is specified VSocks are always used, and vice versa if no is set VSocks are never used.</para>
          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--vsock-cid=</option><replaceable>CID</replaceable></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>Configure vmspawn to use a specific CID for the guest.</para>
          <para>If the option is not specified or an empty argument is supplied the guest will be assigned a random CID.</para>
          <para>Valid CIDs are in the range <constant>3</constant> to <constant>4294967294</constant> (<constant>0xFFFF_FFFE</constant>).
          CIDs outside of this range are reserved.</para>
          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--tpm=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>Configure whether to use qemu with a virtual TPM or not.</para>
          <para>If the option is not specified vmspawn will detect the presence of <citerefentry project='man-pages'>
          <refentrytitle>swtpm</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> and use it if available.
          If yes is specified <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swtpm</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
          is always used, and vice versa if no is set <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swtpm</refentrytitle>
          <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> is never used.</para>
          <para>Note: the virtual TPM used may change in future.</para>
          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v256"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--qemu-gui</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Start QEMU in graphical mode.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--secure-boot=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Configure whether to search for firmware which supports Secure Boot.</para>
        <para>If the option is not specified the first firmware which is detected will be used.
        If the option is set to yes then the first firmware with Secure Boot support will be selected.
        If no is specified then the first firmware without Secure Boot will be selected.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--firmware=</option><replaceable>PATH</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Takes an absolute path, or a relative path beginning with
        <filename>./</filename>. Specifies a JSON firmware definition file, which allows selecting the
        firmware to boot in the VM. If not specified a suitable firmware is automatically discovered. If the
        special string <literal>list</literal> is specified lists all discovered firmwares.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v256"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>

    </refsect2><refsect2>
      <title>System Identity Options</title>

      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><option>-M</option></term>
          <term><option>--machine=</option></term>

          <listitem><para>Sets the machine name for this virtual machine. This
          name may be used to identify this virtual machine during its runtime
          (for example in tools like
          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
          and similar).</para>
          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>

    </refsect2><refsect2>
      <title>Credentials</title>

      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><option>--load-credential=</option><replaceable>ID</replaceable>:<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></term>
          <term><option>--set-credential=</option><replaceable>ID</replaceable>:<replaceable>VALUE</replaceable></term>

          <listitem><para>Pass a credential to the virtual machine. These two options correspond to the
          <varname>LoadCredential=</varname> and <varname>SetCredential=</varname> settings in unit files. See
          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
          details about these concepts, as well as the syntax of the option's arguments.</para>

          <para>In order to embed binary data into the credential data for <option>--set-credential=</option>,
          use C-style escaping (i.e. <literal>\n</literal> to embed a newline, or <literal>\x00</literal> to
          embed a <constant>NUL</constant> byte). Note that the invoking shell might already apply unescaping
          once, hence this might require double escaping!.</para>

          <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>

    </refsect2><refsect2>
      <title>Other</title>

      <variablelist>
        <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
        <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
        <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
      </variablelist>
    </refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" />

  <refsect1>
    <title>Examples</title>

    <example>
      <title>Run an Arch Linux VM image generated by mkosi</title>

      <programlisting>
$ mkosi -d arch -p systemd -p linux --autologin -o image.raw -f build
$ systemd-vmspawn --image=image.raw
      </programlisting>
    </example>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Exit status</title>

    <para>If an error occurred the value errno is propagated to the return code.
    If EXIT_STATUS is supplied by the running image that is returned.
    Otherwise EXIT_SUCCESS is returned.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <para><simplelist type="inline">
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>mkosi</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
    </simplelist></para>
  </refsect1>
</refentry>