1 QEMU virtio-fs shared file system daemon
2 ========================================
7 **virtiofsd** [*OPTIONS*]
12 Share a host directory tree with a guest through a virtio-fs device. This
13 program is a vhost-user backend that implements the virtio-fs device. Each
14 virtio-fs device instance requires its own virtiofsd process.
16 This program is designed to work with QEMU's ``--device vhost-user-fs-pci``
17 but should work with any virtual machine monitor (VMM) that supports
18 vhost-user. See the Examples section below.
20 This program must be run as the root user. The program drops privileges where
21 possible during startup although it must be able to create and access files
24 * The ability to invoke syscalls is limited using seccomp(2).
25 * Linux capabilities(7) are dropped.
27 In "namespace" sandbox mode the program switches into a new file system
28 namespace and invokes pivot_root(2) to make the shared directory tree its root.
29 A new pid and net namespace is also created to isolate the process.
31 In "chroot" sandbox mode the program invokes chroot(2) to make the shared
32 directory tree its root. This mode is intended for container environments where
33 the container runtime has already set up the namespaces and the program does
34 not have permission to create namespaces itself.
36 Both sandbox modes prevent "file system escapes" due to symlinks and other file
37 system objects that might lead to files outside the shared directory.
42 .. program:: virtiofsd
44 .. option:: -h, --help
48 .. option:: -V, --version
58 Print log messages to syslog instead of stderr.
66 Enable/disable flock. The default is ``no_flock``.
69 Modify the list of capabilities allowed; CAPLIST is a colon separated
70 list of capabilities, each preceded by either + or -, e.g.
71 ''+sys_admin:-chown''.
74 Print only log messages matching LEVEL or more severe. LEVEL is one of
75 ``err``, ``warn``, ``info``, or ``debug``. The default is ``info``.
77 * posix_lock|no_posix_lock -
78 Enable/disable remote POSIX locks. The default is ``no_posix_lock``.
80 * readdirplus|no_readdirplus -
81 Enable/disable readdirplus. The default is ``readdirplus``.
83 * sandbox=namespace|chroot -
85 - namespace: Create mount, pid, and net namespaces and pivot_root(2) into
87 - chroot: chroot(2) into shared directory (use in containers).
88 The default is "namespace".
91 Share host directory tree located at PATH. This option is required.
94 I/O timeout in seconds. The default depends on cache= option.
96 * writeback|no_writeback -
97 Enable/disable writeback cache. The cache allows the FUSE client to buffer
98 and merge write requests. The default is ``no_writeback``.
101 Enable/disable extended attributes (xattr) on files and directories. The
102 default is ``no_xattr``.
104 .. option:: --socket-path=PATH
106 Listen on vhost-user UNIX domain socket at PATH.
108 .. option:: --socket-group=GROUP
110 Set the vhost-user UNIX domain socket gid to GROUP.
112 .. option:: --fd=FDNUM
114 Accept connections from vhost-user UNIX domain socket file descriptor FDNUM.
115 The file descriptor must already be listening for connections.
117 .. option:: --thread-pool-size=NUM
119 Restrict the number of worker threads per request queue to NUM. The default
122 .. option:: --cache=none|auto|always
124 Select the desired trade-off between coherency and performance. ``none``
125 forbids the FUSE client from caching to achieve best coherency at the cost of
126 performance. ``auto`` acts similar to NFS with a 1 second metadata cache
127 timeout. ``always`` sets a long cache lifetime at the expense of coherency.
128 The default is ``auto``.
133 By default the name of xattr's used by the client are passed through to the server
134 file system. This can be a problem where either those xattr names are used
135 by something on the server (e.g. selinux client/server confusion) or if the
136 virtiofsd is running in a container with restricted privileges where it cannot
137 access some attributes.
139 A mapping of xattr names can be made using -o xattrmap=mapping where the ``mapping``
140 string consists of a series of rules.
142 The first matching rule terminates the mapping.
143 The set of rules must include a terminating rule to match any remaining attributes
146 Each rule consists of a number of fields separated with a separator that is the
147 first non-white space character in the rule. This separator must then be used
149 White space may be added before and after each rule.
151 Using ':' as the separator a rule is of the form:
153 ``:type:scope:key:prepend:``
157 - 'client' - match 'key' against a xattr name from the client for
158 setxattr/getxattr/removexattr
159 - 'server' - match 'prepend' against a xattr name from the server
161 - 'all' - can be used to make a single rule where both the server
162 and client matches are triggered.
166 - 'prefix' - is designed to prepend and strip a prefix; the modified
167 attributes then being passed on to the client/server.
169 - 'ok' - Causes the rule set to be terminated when a match is found
170 while allowing matching xattr's through unchanged.
171 It is intended both as a way of explicitly terminating
172 the list of rules, and to allow some xattr's to skip following rules.
174 - 'bad' - If a client tries to use a name matching 'key' it's
175 denied using EPERM; when the server passes an attribute
176 name matching 'prepend' it's hidden. In many ways it's use is very like
177 'ok' as either an explicit terminator or for special handling of certain
180 **key** is a string tested as a prefix on an attribute name originating
181 on the client. It maybe empty in which case a 'client' rule
182 will always match on client names.
184 **prepend** is a string tested as a prefix on an attribute name originating
185 on the server, and used as a new prefix. It may be empty
186 in which case a 'server' rule will always match on all names from
191 ``:prefix:client:trusted.:user.virtiofs.:``
193 will match 'trusted.' attributes in client calls and prefix them before
194 passing them to the server.
196 ``:prefix:server::user.virtiofs.:``
198 will strip 'user.virtiofs.' from all server replies.
200 ``:prefix:all:trusted.:user.virtiofs.:``
202 combines the previous two cases into a single rule.
204 ``:ok:client:user.::``
206 will allow get/set xattr for 'user.' xattr's and ignore
209 ``:ok:server::security.:``
211 will pass 'securty.' xattr's in listxattr from the server
212 and ignore following rules.
216 will terminate the rule search passing any remaining attributes
219 ``:bad:server::security.:``
221 would hide 'security.' xattr's in listxattr from the server.
223 A simpler 'map' type provides a shorter syntax for the common case:
225 ``:map:key:prepend:``
227 The 'map' type adds a number of separate rules to add **prepend** as a prefix
228 to the matched **key** (or all attributes if **key** is empty).
229 There may be at most one 'map' rule and it must be the last rule in the set.
231 xattr-mapping Examples
232 ----------------------
234 1) Prefix all attributes with 'user.virtiofs.'
238 -o xattrmap=":prefix:all::user.virtiofs.::bad:all:::"
241 This uses two rules, using : as the field separator;
242 the first rule prefixes and strips 'user.virtiofs.',
243 the second rule hides any non-prefixed attributes that
246 This is equivalent to the 'map' rule:
249 -o xattrmap=":map::user.virtiofs.:"
251 2) Prefix 'trusted.' attributes, allow others through
255 "/prefix/all/trusted./user.virtiofs./
256 /bad/server//trusted./
257 /bad/client/user.virtiofs.//
261 Here there are four rules, using / as the field
262 separator, and also demonstrating that new lines can
263 be included between rules.
264 The first rule is the prefixing of 'trusted.' and
265 stripping of 'user.virtiofs.'.
266 The second rule hides unprefixed 'trusted.' attributes
268 The third rule stops a guest from explicitly setting
269 the 'user.virtiofs.' path directly.
270 Finally, the fourth rule lets all remaining attributes
273 This is equivalent to the 'map' rule:
276 -o xattrmap="/map/trusted./user.virtiofs./"
278 3) Hide 'security.' attributes, and allow everything else
282 "/bad/all/security./security./
285 The first rule combines what could be separate client and server
286 rules into a single 'all' rule, matching 'security.' in either
287 client arguments or lists returned from the host. This stops
288 the client seeing any 'security.' attributes on the server and
289 stops it setting any.
294 Export ``/var/lib/fs/vm001/`` on vhost-user UNIX domain socket
295 ``/var/run/vm001-vhost-fs.sock``:
299 host# virtiofsd --socket-path=/var/run/vm001-vhost-fs.sock -o source=/var/lib/fs/vm001
300 host# qemu-system-x86_64 \
301 -chardev socket,id=char0,path=/var/run/vm001-vhost-fs.sock \
302 -device vhost-user-fs-pci,chardev=char0,tag=myfs \
303 -object memory-backend-memfd,id=mem,size=4G,share=on \
304 -numa node,memdev=mem \
306 guest# mount -t virtiofs myfs /mnt