3 @command{qemu-img} [@var{standard} @var{options}] @var{command} [@var{command} @var{options}]
7 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
8 qemu-img allows you to create, convert and modify images offline. It can handle
9 all image formats supported by QEMU.
11 @b{Warning:} Never use qemu-img to modify images in use by a running virtual
12 machine or any other process; this may destroy the image. Also, be aware that
13 querying an image that is being modified by another process may encounter
22 Display this help and exit
24 Display version information and exit
25 @item -T, --trace [[enable=]@var{pattern}][,events=@var{file}][,file=@var{file}]
27 @include qemu-option-trace.texi
30 The following commands are supported:
32 @include qemu-img-cmds.texi
37 is a disk image filename
39 @item --object @var{objectdef}
41 is a QEMU user creatable object definition. See the @code{qemu(1)} manual
42 page for a description of the object properties. The most common object
43 type is a @code{secret}, which is used to supply passwords and/or encryption
48 Indicates that the source @var{filename} parameter is to be interpreted as a
49 full option string, not a plain filename. This parameter is mutually
50 exclusive with the @var{-f} parameter.
52 @item --target-image-opts
54 Indicates that the @var{output_filename} parameter(s) are to be interpreted as
55 a full option string, not a plain filename. This parameter is mutually
56 exclusive with the @var{-O} parameters. It is currently required to also use
57 the @var{-n} parameter to skip image creation. This restriction may be relaxed
61 is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases. See below
62 for a description of the supported disk formats.
65 will enumerate information about backing files in a disk image chain. Refer
66 below for further description.
69 is the disk image size in bytes. Optional suffixes @code{k} or @code{K}
70 (kilobyte, 1024) @code{M} (megabyte, 1024k) and @code{G} (gigabyte, 1024M)
71 and T (terabyte, 1024G) are supported. @code{b} is ignored.
74 is the destination disk image filename
77 is the destination format
79 is a comma separated list of format specific options in a
80 name=value format. Use @code{-o ?} for an overview of the options supported
81 by the used format or see the format descriptions below for details.
83 is param used for internal snapshot, format is
84 'snapshot.id=[ID],snapshot.name=[NAME]' or '[ID_OR_NAME]'
85 @item snapshot_id_or_name
86 is deprecated, use snapshot_param instead
89 indicates that target image must be compressed (qcow format only)
91 with or without a command shows help and lists the supported formats
93 display progress bar (compare, convert and rebase commands only).
94 If the @var{-p} option is not used for a command that supports it, the
95 progress is reported when the process receives a @code{SIGUSR1} or
96 @code{SIGINFO} signal.
98 Quiet mode - do not print any output (except errors). There's no progress bar
99 in case both @var{-q} and @var{-p} options are used.
101 indicates the consecutive number of bytes that must contain only zeros
102 for qemu-img to create a sparse image during conversion. This value is rounded
103 down to the nearest 512 bytes. You may use the common size suffixes like
104 @code{k} for kilobytes.
106 specifies the cache mode that should be used with the (destination) file. See
107 the documentation of the emulator's @code{-drive cache=...} option for allowed
109 @item -T @var{src_cache}
110 specifies the cache mode that should be used with the source file(s). See
111 the documentation of the emulator's @code{-drive cache=...} option for allowed
115 Parameters to snapshot subcommand:
120 is the name of the snapshot to create, apply or delete
122 applies a snapshot (revert disk to saved state)
128 lists all snapshots in the given image
131 Parameters to compare subcommand:
140 Strict mode - fail on different image size or sector allocation
143 Parameters to convert subcommand:
148 Skip the creation of the target volume
150 Number of parallel coroutines for the convert process
152 Allow out-of-order writes to the destination. This option improves performance,
153 but is only recommended for preallocated devices like host devices or other
157 Parameters to dd subcommand:
161 @item bs=@var{block_size}
162 defines the block size
163 @item count=@var{blocks}
164 sets the number of input blocks to copy
167 @item of=@var{output}
169 @item skip=@var{blocks}
170 sets the number of input blocks to skip
176 @item bench [-c @var{count}] [-d @var{depth}] [-f @var{fmt}] [--flush-interval=@var{flush_interval}] [-n] [--no-drain] [-o @var{offset}] [--pattern=@var{pattern}] [-q] [-s @var{buffer_size}] [-S @var{step_size}] [-t @var{cache}] [-w] @var{filename}
178 Run a simple sequential I/O benchmark on the specified image. If @code{-w} is
179 specified, a write test is performed, otherwise a read test is performed.
181 A total number of @var{count} I/O requests is performed, each @var{buffer_size}
182 bytes in size, and with @var{depth} requests in parallel. The first request
183 starts at the position given by @var{offset}, each following request increases
184 the current position by @var{step_size}. If @var{step_size} is not given,
185 @var{buffer_size} is used for its value.
187 If @var{flush_interval} is specified for a write test, the request queue is
188 drained and a flush is issued before new writes are made whenever the number of
189 remaining requests is a multiple of @var{flush_interval}. If additionally
190 @code{--no-drain} is specified, a flush is issued without draining the request
193 If @code{-n} is specified, the native AIO backend is used if possible. On
194 Linux, this option only works if @code{-t none} or @code{-t directsync} is
197 For write tests, by default a buffer filled with zeros is written. This can be
198 overridden with a pattern byte specified by @var{pattern}.
200 @item check [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [-r [leaks | all]] [-T @var{src_cache}] @var{filename}
202 Perform a consistency check on the disk image @var{filename}. The command can
203 output in the format @var{ofmt} which is either @code{human} or @code{json}.
205 If @code{-r} is specified, qemu-img tries to repair any inconsistencies found
206 during the check. @code{-r leaks} repairs only cluster leaks, whereas
207 @code{-r all} fixes all kinds of errors, with a higher risk of choosing the
208 wrong fix or hiding corruption that has already occurred.
210 Only the formats @code{qcow2}, @code{qed} and @code{vdi} support
213 In case the image does not have any inconsistencies, check exits with @code{0}.
214 Other exit codes indicate the kind of inconsistency found or if another error
215 occurred. The following table summarizes all exit codes of the check subcommand:
220 Check completed, the image is (now) consistent
222 Check not completed because of internal errors
224 Check completed, image is corrupted
226 Check completed, image has leaked clusters, but is not corrupted
228 Checks are not supported by the image format
232 If @code{-r} is specified, exit codes representing the image state refer to the
233 state after (the attempt at) repairing it. That is, a successful @code{-r all}
234 will yield the exit code 0, independently of the image state before.
236 @item create [-f @var{fmt}] [-b @var{backing_file}] [-F @var{backing_fmt}] [-o @var{options}] @var{filename} [@var{size}]
238 Create the new disk image @var{filename} of size @var{size} and format
239 @var{fmt}. Depending on the file format, you can add one or more @var{options}
240 that enable additional features of this format.
242 If the option @var{backing_file} is specified, then the image will record
243 only the differences from @var{backing_file}. No size needs to be specified in
244 this case. @var{backing_file} will never be modified unless you use the
245 @code{commit} monitor command (or qemu-img commit).
247 The size can also be specified using the @var{size} option with @code{-o},
248 it doesn't need to be specified separately in this case.
250 @item commit [-q] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-b @var{base}] [-d] [-p] @var{filename}
252 Commit the changes recorded in @var{filename} in its base image or backing file.
253 If the backing file is smaller than the snapshot, then the backing file will be
254 resized to be the same size as the snapshot. If the snapshot is smaller than
255 the backing file, the backing file will not be truncated. If you want the
256 backing file to match the size of the smaller snapshot, you can safely truncate
257 it yourself once the commit operation successfully completes.
259 The image @var{filename} is emptied after the operation has succeeded. If you do
260 not need @var{filename} afterwards and intend to drop it, you may skip emptying
261 @var{filename} by specifying the @code{-d} flag.
263 If the backing chain of the given image file @var{filename} has more than one
264 layer, the backing file into which the changes will be committed may be
265 specified as @var{base} (which has to be part of @var{filename}'s backing
266 chain). If @var{base} is not specified, the immediate backing file of the top
267 image (which is @var{filename}) will be used. For reasons of consistency,
268 explicitly specifying @var{base} will always imply @code{-d} (since emptying an
269 image after committing to an indirect backing file would lead to different data
270 being read from the image due to content in the intermediate backing chain
271 overruling the commit target).
273 @item compare [-f @var{fmt}] [-F @var{fmt}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-p] [-s] [-q] @var{filename1} @var{filename2}
275 Check if two images have the same content. You can compare images with
276 different format or settings.
278 The format is probed unless you specify it by @var{-f} (used for
279 @var{filename1}) and/or @var{-F} (used for @var{filename2}) option.
281 By default, images with different size are considered identical if the larger
282 image contains only unallocated and/or zeroed sectors in the area after the end
283 of the other image. In addition, if any sector is not allocated in one image
284 and contains only zero bytes in the second one, it is evaluated as equal. You
285 can use Strict mode by specifying the @var{-s} option. When compare runs in
286 Strict mode, it fails in case image size differs or a sector is allocated in
287 one image and is not allocated in the second one.
289 By default, compare prints out a result message. This message displays
290 information that both images are same or the position of the first different
291 byte. In addition, result message can report different image size in case
294 Compare exits with @code{0} in case the images are equal and with @code{1}
295 in case the images differ. Other exit codes mean an error occurred during
296 execution and standard error output should contain an error message.
297 The following table sumarizes all exit codes of the compare subcommand:
306 Error on opening an image
308 Error on checking a sector allocation
310 Error on reading data
314 @item convert [-c] [-p] [-n] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-O @var{output_fmt}] [-B @var{backing_file}] [-o @var{options}] [-s @var{snapshot_id_or_name}] [-l @var{snapshot_param}] [-m @var{num_coroutines}] [-W] [-S @var{sparse_size}] @var{filename} [@var{filename2} [...]] @var{output_filename}
316 Convert the disk image @var{filename} or a snapshot @var{snapshot_param}(@var{snapshot_id_or_name} is deprecated)
317 to disk image @var{output_filename} using format @var{output_fmt}. It can be optionally compressed (@code{-c}
318 option) or use any format specific options like encryption (@code{-o} option).
320 Only the formats @code{qcow} and @code{qcow2} support compression. The
321 compression is read-only. It means that if a compressed sector is
322 rewritten, then it is rewritten as uncompressed data.
324 Image conversion is also useful to get smaller image when using a
325 growable format such as @code{qcow}: the empty sectors are detected and
326 suppressed from the destination image.
328 @var{sparse_size} indicates the consecutive number of bytes (defaults to 4k)
329 that must contain only zeros for qemu-img to create a sparse image during
330 conversion. If @var{sparse_size} is 0, the source will not be scanned for
331 unallocated or zero sectors, and the destination image will always be
334 You can use the @var{backing_file} option to force the output image to be
335 created as a copy on write image of the specified base image; the
336 @var{backing_file} should have the same content as the input's base image,
337 however the path, image format, etc may differ.
339 If the @code{-n} option is specified, the target volume creation will be
340 skipped. This is useful for formats such as @code{rbd} if the target
341 volume has already been created with site specific options that cannot
342 be supplied through qemu-img.
344 Out of order writes can be enabled with @code{-W} to improve performance.
345 This is only recommended for preallocated devices like host devices or other
346 raw block devices. Out of order write does not work in combination with
347 creating compressed images.
349 @var{num_coroutines} specifies how many coroutines work in parallel during
350 the convert process (defaults to 8).
352 @item dd [-f @var{fmt}] [-O @var{output_fmt}] [bs=@var{block_size}] [count=@var{blocks}] [skip=@var{blocks}] if=@var{input} of=@var{output}
354 Dd copies from @var{input} file to @var{output} file converting it from
355 @var{fmt} format to @var{output_fmt} format.
357 The data is by default read and written using blocks of 512 bytes but can be
358 modified by specifying @var{block_size}. If count=@var{blocks} is specified
359 dd will stop reading input after reading @var{blocks} input blocks.
361 The size syntax is similar to dd(1)'s size syntax.
363 @item info [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [--backing-chain] @var{filename}
365 Give information about the disk image @var{filename}. Use it in
366 particular to know the size reserved on disk which can be different
367 from the displayed size. If VM snapshots are stored in the disk image,
368 they are displayed too. The command can output in the format @var{ofmt}
369 which is either @code{human} or @code{json}.
371 If a disk image has a backing file chain, information about each disk image in
372 the chain can be recursively enumerated by using the option @code{--backing-chain}.
374 For instance, if you have an image chain like:
377 base.qcow2 <- snap1.qcow2 <- snap2.qcow2
380 To enumerate information about each disk image in the above chain, starting from top to base, do:
383 qemu-img info --backing-chain snap2.qcow2
386 @item map [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] @var{filename}
388 Dump the metadata of image @var{filename} and its backing file chain.
389 In particular, this commands dumps the allocation state of every sector
390 of @var{filename}, together with the topmost file that allocates it in
391 the backing file chain.
393 Two option formats are possible. The default format (@code{human})
394 only dumps known-nonzero areas of the file. Known-zero parts of the
395 file are omitted altogether, and likewise for parts that are not allocated
396 throughout the chain. @command{qemu-img} output will identify a file
397 from where the data can be read, and the offset in the file. Each line
398 will include four fields, the first three of which are hexadecimal
399 numbers. For example the first line of:
401 Offset Length Mapped to File
402 0 0x20000 0x50000 /tmp/overlay.qcow2
403 0x100000 0x10000 0x95380000 /tmp/backing.qcow2
406 means that 0x20000 (131072) bytes starting at offset 0 in the image are
407 available in /tmp/overlay.qcow2 (opened in @code{raw} format) starting
408 at offset 0x50000 (327680). Data that is compressed, encrypted, or
409 otherwise not available in raw format will cause an error if @code{human}
410 format is in use. Note that file names can include newlines, thus it is
411 not safe to parse this output format in scripts.
413 The alternative format @code{json} will return an array of dictionaries
414 in JSON format. It will include similar information in
415 the @code{start}, @code{length}, @code{offset} fields;
416 it will also include other more specific information:
419 whether the sectors contain actual data or not (boolean field @code{data};
420 if false, the sectors are either unallocated or stored as optimized
424 whether the data is known to read as zero (boolean field @code{zero});
427 in order to make the output shorter, the target file is expressed as
428 a @code{depth}; for example, a depth of 2 refers to the backing file
429 of the backing file of @var{filename}.
432 In JSON format, the @code{offset} field is optional; it is absent in
433 cases where @code{human} format would omit the entry or exit with an error.
434 If @code{data} is false and the @code{offset} field is present, the
435 corresponding sectors in the file are not yet in use, but they are
438 For more information, consult @file{include/block/block.h} in QEMU's
441 @item measure [--output=@var{ofmt}] [-O @var{output_fmt}] [-o @var{options}] [--size @var{N} | [--object @var{objectdef}] [--image-opts] [-f @var{fmt}] [-l @var{snapshot_param}] @var{filename}]
443 Calculate the file size required for a new image. This information can be used
444 to size logical volumes or SAN LUNs appropriately for the image that will be
445 placed in them. The values reported are guaranteed to be large enough to fit
446 the image. The command can output in the format @var{ofmt} which is either
447 @code{human} or @code{json}.
449 If the size @var{N} is given then act as if creating a new empty image file
450 using @command{qemu-img create}. If @var{filename} is given then act as if
451 converting an existing image file using @command{qemu-img convert}. The format
452 of the new file is given by @var{output_fmt} while the format of an existing
453 file is given by @var{fmt}.
455 A snapshot in an existing image can be specified using @var{snapshot_param}.
457 The following fields are reported:
459 required size: 524288
460 fully allocated size: 1074069504
463 The @code{required size} is the file size of the new image. It may be smaller
464 than the virtual disk size if the image format supports compact representation.
466 The @code{fully allocated size} is the file size of the new image once data has
467 been written to all sectors. This is the maximum size that the image file can
468 occupy with the exception of internal snapshots, dirty bitmaps, vmstate data,
469 and other advanced image format features.
471 @item snapshot [-l | -a @var{snapshot} | -c @var{snapshot} | -d @var{snapshot} ] @var{filename}
473 List, apply, create or delete snapshots in image @var{filename}.
475 @item rebase [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-p] [-u] -b @var{backing_file} [-F @var{backing_fmt}] @var{filename}
477 Changes the backing file of an image. Only the formats @code{qcow2} and
478 @code{qed} support changing the backing file.
480 The backing file is changed to @var{backing_file} and (if the image format of
481 @var{filename} supports this) the backing file format is changed to
482 @var{backing_fmt}. If @var{backing_file} is specified as ``'' (the empty
483 string), then the image is rebased onto no backing file (i.e. it will exist
484 independently of any backing file).
486 @var{cache} specifies the cache mode to be used for @var{filename}, whereas
487 @var{src_cache} specifies the cache mode for reading backing files.
489 There are two different modes in which @code{rebase} can operate:
492 This is the default mode and performs a real rebase operation. The new backing
493 file may differ from the old one and qemu-img rebase will take care of keeping
494 the guest-visible content of @var{filename} unchanged.
496 In order to achieve this, any clusters that differ between @var{backing_file}
497 and the old backing file of @var{filename} are merged into @var{filename}
498 before actually changing the backing file.
500 Note that the safe mode is an expensive operation, comparable to converting
501 an image. It only works if the old backing file still exists.
504 qemu-img uses the unsafe mode if @code{-u} is specified. In this mode, only the
505 backing file name and format of @var{filename} is changed without any checks
506 on the file contents. The user must take care of specifying the correct new
507 backing file, or the guest-visible content of the image will be corrupted.
509 This mode is useful for renaming or moving the backing file to somewhere else.
510 It can be used without an accessible old backing file, i.e. you can use it to
511 fix an image whose backing file has already been moved/renamed.
514 You can use @code{rebase} to perform a ``diff'' operation on two
515 disk images. This can be useful when you have copied or cloned
516 a guest, and you want to get back to a thin image on top of a
517 template or base image.
519 Say that @code{base.img} has been cloned as @code{modified.img} by
520 copying it, and that the @code{modified.img} guest has run so there
521 are now some changes compared to @code{base.img}. To construct a thin
522 image called @code{diff.qcow2} that contains just the differences, do:
525 qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b modified.img diff.qcow2
526 qemu-img rebase -b base.img diff.qcow2
529 At this point, @code{modified.img} can be discarded, since
530 @code{base.img + diff.qcow2} contains the same information.
532 @item resize [--preallocation=@var{prealloc}] @var{filename} [+ | -]@var{size}
534 Change the disk image as if it had been created with @var{size}.
536 Before using this command to shrink a disk image, you MUST use file system and
537 partitioning tools inside the VM to reduce allocated file systems and partition
538 sizes accordingly. Failure to do so will result in data loss!
540 After using this command to grow a disk image, you must use file system and
541 partitioning tools inside the VM to actually begin using the new space on the
544 When growing an image, the @code{--preallocation} option may be used to specify
545 how the additional image area should be allocated on the host. See the format
546 description in the @code{NOTES} section which values are allowed. Using this
547 option may result in slightly more data being allocated than necessary.
549 @item amend [-p] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] -o @var{options} @var{filename}
551 Amends the image format specific @var{options} for the image file
552 @var{filename}. Not all file formats support this operation.
558 Supported image file formats:
563 Raw disk image format (default). This format has the advantage of
564 being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your
565 file system supports @emph{holes} (for example in ext2 or ext3 on
566 Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve
567 space. Use @code{qemu-img info} to know the real size used by the
568 image or @code{ls -ls} on Unix/Linux.
573 Preallocation mode (allowed values: @code{off}, @code{falloc}, @code{full}).
574 @code{falloc} mode preallocates space for image by calling posix_fallocate().
575 @code{full} mode preallocates space for image by writing zeros to underlying
580 QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller
581 images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example
582 on Windows), optional AES encryption, zlib based compression and
583 support of multiple VM snapshots.
588 Determines the qcow2 version to use. @code{compat=0.10} uses the
589 traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10.
590 @code{compat=1.1} enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and
591 newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes zero
592 clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images.
595 File name of a base image (see @option{create} subcommand)
597 Image format of the base image
599 If this option is set to @code{on}, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC.
601 The use of encryption in qcow and qcow2 images is considered to be flawed by
602 modern cryptography standards, suffering from a number of design problems:
606 The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based
607 on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks
608 which can reveal the existence of encrypted data.
610 The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly
611 chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption.
613 In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to
614 change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must
615 be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The
616 original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred,
617 though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies.
619 Initialization vectors used to encrypt sectors are based on the
620 guest virtual sector number, instead of the host physical sector. When
621 a disk image has multiple internal snapshots this means that data in
622 multiple physical sectors is encrypted with the same initialization
623 vector. With the CBC mode, this opens the possibility of watermarking
624 attacks if the attack can collect multiple sectors encrypted with the
625 same IV and some predictable data. Having multiple qcow2 images with
626 the same passphrase also exposes this weakness since the passphrase
627 is directly used as the key.
630 Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption is thus strongly discouraged. Users are
631 recommended to use an alternative encryption technology such as the
632 Linux dm-crypt / LUKS system.
635 Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster
636 sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally
637 provide better performance.
640 Preallocation mode (allowed values: @code{off}, @code{metadata}, @code{falloc},
641 @code{full}). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can
642 improve performance when the image needs to grow. @code{falloc} and @code{full}
643 preallocations are like the same options of @code{raw} format, but sets up
647 If this option is set to @code{on}, reference count updates are postponed with
648 the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is
649 particularly interesting with @option{cache=writethrough} which doesn't batch
650 metadata updates. The tradeoff is that after a host crash, the reference count
651 tables must be rebuilt, i.e. on the next open an (automatic) @code{qemu-img
652 check -r all} is required, which may take some time.
654 This option can only be enabled if @code{compat=1.1} is specified.
657 If this option is set to @code{on}, it will turn off COW of the file. It's only
658 valid on btrfs, no effect on other file systems.
660 Btrfs has low performance when hosting a VM image file, even more when the guest
661 on the VM also using btrfs as file system. Turning off COW is a way to mitigate
662 this bad performance. Generally there are two ways to turn off COW on btrfs:
663 a) Disable it by mounting with nodatacow, then all newly created files will be
664 NOCOW. b) For an empty file, add the NOCOW file attribute. That's what this option
667 Note: this option is only valid to new or empty files. If there is an existing
668 file which is COW and has data blocks already, it couldn't be changed to NOCOW
669 by setting @code{nocow=on}. One can issue @code{lsattr filename} to check if
670 the NOCOW flag is set or not (Capital 'C' is NOCOW flag).
675 QEMU also supports various other image file formats for compatibility with
676 older QEMU versions or other hypervisors, including VMDK, VDI, VHD (vpc), VHDX,
677 qcow1 and QED. For a full list of supported formats see @code{qemu-img --help}.
678 For a more detailed description of these formats, see the QEMU Emulation User
681 The main purpose of the block drivers for these formats is image conversion.
682 For running VMs, it is recommended to convert the disk images to either raw or
683 qcow2 in order to achieve good performance.
689 @setfilename qemu-img
690 @settitle QEMU disk image utility
693 The HTML documentation of QEMU for more precise information and Linux
694 user mode emulator invocation.