virt-tar - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

virt-tar - Extract or upload files to a virtual machine

SYNOPSIS

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

OBSOLETE

This tool is obsolete. Use virt-copy-in(1), virt-copy-out(1), virt-tar-in(1),
virt-tar-out(1) as replacements.

EXAMPLES

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

WARNING

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.

DESCRIPTION

"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).

OPTIONS

--help
Display brief help.

--version
Display version number and exit.

-c URI
--connect URI
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.

--format raw
Specify the format of disk images given on the command line. If this is omitted then
the format is autodetected from the content of the disk image.

If disk images are requested from libvirt, then this program asks libvirt for this
information. In this case, the value of the format parameter is ignored.

If working with untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should ensure the format
is always specified.

-x
--extract
--download
-u
--upload
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.

-z
--gzip
Specify that the input or output tarball is gzip-compressed.

Use virt-tar online using onworks.net services