3 usage: qemu-img command [command 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
19 The following commands are supported:
21 @include qemu-img-cmds.texi
26 is a disk image filename
28 is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases. See below
29 for a description of the supported disk formats.
32 will enumerate information about backing files in a disk image chain. Refer
33 below for further description.
36 is the disk image size in bytes. Optional suffixes @code{k} or @code{K}
37 (kilobyte, 1024) @code{M} (megabyte, 1024k) and @code{G} (gigabyte, 1024M)
38 and T (terabyte, 1024G) are supported. @code{b} is ignored.
41 is the destination disk image filename
44 is the destination format
46 is a comma separated list of format specific options in a
47 name=value format. Use @code{-o ?} for an overview of the options supported
48 by the used format or see the format descriptions below for details.
50 is param used for internal snapshot, format is
51 'snapshot.id=[ID],snapshot.name=[NAME]' or '[ID_OR_NAME]'
52 @item snapshot_id_or_name
53 is deprecated, use snapshot_param instead
56 indicates that target image must be compressed (qcow format only)
58 with or without a command shows help and lists the supported formats
60 display progress bar (compare, convert and rebase commands only).
61 If the @var{-p} option is not used for a command that supports it, the
62 progress is reported when the process receives a @code{SIGUSR1} signal.
64 Quiet mode - do not print any output (except errors). There's no progress bar
65 in case both @var{-q} and @var{-p} options are used.
67 indicates the consecutive number of bytes that must contain only zeros
68 for qemu-img to create a sparse image during conversion. This value is rounded
69 down to the nearest 512 bytes. You may use the common size suffixes like
70 @code{k} for kilobytes.
72 specifies the cache mode that should be used with the (destination) file. See
73 the documentation of the emulator's @code{-drive cache=...} option for allowed
77 Parameters to snapshot subcommand:
82 is the name of the snapshot to create, apply or delete
84 applies a snapshot (revert disk to saved state)
90 lists all snapshots in the given image
93 Parameters to compare subcommand:
102 Strict mode - fail on on different image size or sector allocation
105 Parameters to convert subcommand:
110 Skip the creation of the target volume
116 @item check [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [-r [leaks | all]] @var{filename}
118 Perform a consistency check on the disk image @var{filename}. The command can
119 output in the format @var{ofmt} which is either @code{human} or @code{json}.
121 If @code{-r} is specified, qemu-img tries to repair any inconsistencies found
122 during the check. @code{-r leaks} repairs only cluster leaks, whereas
123 @code{-r all} fixes all kinds of errors, with a higher risk of choosing the
124 wrong fix or hiding corruption that has already occurred.
126 Only the formats @code{qcow2}, @code{qed} and @code{vdi} support
129 @item create [-f @var{fmt}] [-o @var{options}] @var{filename} [@var{size}]
131 Create the new disk image @var{filename} of size @var{size} and format
132 @var{fmt}. Depending on the file format, you can add one or more @var{options}
133 that enable additional features of this format.
135 If the option @var{backing_file} is specified, then the image will record
136 only the differences from @var{backing_file}. No size needs to be specified in
137 this case. @var{backing_file} will never be modified unless you use the
138 @code{commit} monitor command (or qemu-img commit).
140 The size can also be specified using the @var{size} option with @code{-o},
141 it doesn't need to be specified separately in this case.
143 @item commit [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] @var{filename}
145 Commit the changes recorded in @var{filename} in its base image or backing file.
146 If the backing file is smaller than the snapshot, then the backing file will be
147 resized to be the same size as the snapshot. If the snapshot is smaller than
148 the backing file, the backing file will not be truncated. If you want the
149 backing file to match the size of the smaller snapshot, you can safely truncate
150 it yourself once the commit operation successfully completes.
152 @item compare [-f @var{fmt}] [-F @var{fmt}] [-p] [-s] [-q] @var{filename1} @var{filename2}
154 Check if two images have the same content. You can compare images with
155 different format or settings.
157 The format is probed unless you specify it by @var{-f} (used for
158 @var{filename1}) and/or @var{-F} (used for @var{filename2}) option.
160 By default, images with different size are considered identical if the larger
161 image contains only unallocated and/or zeroed sectors in the area after the end
162 of the other image. In addition, if any sector is not allocated in one image
163 and contains only zero bytes in the second one, it is evaluated as equal. You
164 can use Strict mode by specifying the @var{-s} option. When compare runs in
165 Strict mode, it fails in case image size differs or a sector is allocated in
166 one image and is not allocated in the second one.
168 By default, compare prints out a result message. This message displays
169 information that both images are same or the position of the first different
170 byte. In addition, result message can report different image size in case
173 Compare exits with @code{0} in case the images are equal and with @code{1}
174 in case the images differ. Other exit codes mean an error occurred during
175 execution and standard error output should contain an error message.
176 The following table sumarizes all exit codes of the compare subcommand:
185 Error on opening an image
187 Error on checking a sector allocation
189 Error on reading data
193 @item convert [-c] [-p] [-n] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-O @var{output_fmt}] [-o @var{options}] [-s @var{snapshot_id_or_name}] [-l @var{snapshot_param}] [-S @var{sparse_size}] @var{filename} [@var{filename2} [...]] @var{output_filename}
195 Convert the disk image @var{filename} or a snapshot @var{snapshot_param}(@var{snapshot_id_or_name} is deprecated)
196 to disk image @var{output_filename} using format @var{output_fmt}. It can be optionally compressed (@code{-c}
197 option) or use any format specific options like encryption (@code{-o} option).
199 Only the formats @code{qcow} and @code{qcow2} support compression. The
200 compression is read-only. It means that if a compressed sector is
201 rewritten, then it is rewritten as uncompressed data.
203 Image conversion is also useful to get smaller image when using a
204 growable format such as @code{qcow} or @code{cow}: the empty sectors
205 are detected and suppressed from the destination image.
207 @var{sparse_size} indicates the consecutive number of bytes (defaults to 4k)
208 that must contain only zeros for qemu-img to create a sparse image during
209 conversion. If @var{sparse_size} is 0, the source will not be scanned for
210 unallocated or zero sectors, and the destination image will always be
213 You can use the @var{backing_file} option to force the output image to be
214 created as a copy on write image of the specified base image; the
215 @var{backing_file} should have the same content as the input's base image,
216 however the path, image format, etc may differ.
218 If the @code{-n} option is specified, the target volume creation will be
219 skipped. This is useful for formats such as @code{rbd} if the target
220 volume has already been created with site specific options that cannot
221 be supplied through qemu-img.
223 @item info [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [--backing-chain] @var{filename}
225 Give information about the disk image @var{filename}. Use it in
226 particular to know the size reserved on disk which can be different
227 from the displayed size. If VM snapshots are stored in the disk image,
228 they are displayed too. The command can output in the format @var{ofmt}
229 which is either @code{human} or @code{json}.
231 If a disk image has a backing file chain, information about each disk image in
232 the chain can be recursively enumerated by using the option @code{--backing-chain}.
234 For instance, if you have an image chain like:
237 base.qcow2 <- snap1.qcow2 <- snap2.qcow2
240 To enumerate information about each disk image in the above chain, starting from top to base, do:
243 qemu-img info --backing-chain snap2.qcow2
246 @item map [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] @var{filename}
248 Dump the metadata of image @var{filename} and its backing file chain.
249 In particular, this commands dumps the allocation state of every sector
250 of @var{filename}, together with the topmost file that allocates it in
251 the backing file chain.
253 Two option formats are possible. The default format (@code{human})
254 only dumps known-nonzero areas of the file. Known-zero parts of the
255 file are omitted altogether, and likewise for parts that are not allocated
256 throughout the chain. @command{qemu-img} output will identify a file
257 from where the data can be read, and the offset in the file. Each line
258 will include four fields, the first three of which are hexadecimal
259 numbers. For example the first line of:
261 Offset Length Mapped to File
262 0 0x20000 0x50000 /tmp/overlay.qcow2
263 0x100000 0x10000 0x95380000 /tmp/backing.qcow2
266 means that 0x20000 (131072) bytes starting at offset 0 in the image are
267 available in /tmp/overlay.qcow2 (opened in @code{raw} format) starting
268 at offset 0x50000 (327680). Data that is compressed, encrypted, or
269 otherwise not available in raw format will cause an error if @code{human}
270 format is in use. Note that file names can include newlines, thus it is
271 not safe to parse this output format in scripts.
273 The alternative format @code{json} will return an array of dictionaries
274 in JSON format. It will include similar information in
275 the @code{start}, @code{length}, @code{offset} fields;
276 it will also include other more specific information:
279 whether the sectors contain actual data or not (boolean field @code{data};
280 if false, the sectors are either unallocated or stored as optimized
284 whether the data is known to read as zero (boolean field @code{zero});
287 in order to make the output shorter, the target file is expressed as
288 a @code{depth}; for example, a depth of 2 refers to the backing file
289 of the backing file of @var{filename}.
292 In JSON format, the @code{offset} field is optional; it is absent in
293 cases where @code{human} format would omit the entry or exit with an error.
294 If @code{data} is false and the @code{offset} field is present, the
295 corresponding sectors in the file are not yet in use, but they are
298 For more information, consult @file{include/block/block.h} in QEMU's
301 @item snapshot [-l | -a @var{snapshot} | -c @var{snapshot} | -d @var{snapshot} ] @var{filename}
303 List, apply, create or delete snapshots in image @var{filename}.
305 @item rebase [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-p] [-u] -b @var{backing_file} [-F @var{backing_fmt}] @var{filename}
307 Changes the backing file of an image. Only the formats @code{qcow2} and
308 @code{qed} support changing the backing file.
310 The backing file is changed to @var{backing_file} and (if the image format of
311 @var{filename} supports this) the backing file format is changed to
312 @var{backing_fmt}. If @var{backing_file} is specified as ``'' (the empty
313 string), then the image is rebased onto no backing file (i.e. it will exist
314 independently of any backing file).
316 There are two different modes in which @code{rebase} can operate:
319 This is the default mode and performs a real rebase operation. The new backing
320 file may differ from the old one and qemu-img rebase will take care of keeping
321 the guest-visible content of @var{filename} unchanged.
323 In order to achieve this, any clusters that differ between @var{backing_file}
324 and the old backing file of @var{filename} are merged into @var{filename}
325 before actually changing the backing file.
327 Note that the safe mode is an expensive operation, comparable to converting
328 an image. It only works if the old backing file still exists.
331 qemu-img uses the unsafe mode if @code{-u} is specified. In this mode, only the
332 backing file name and format of @var{filename} is changed without any checks
333 on the file contents. The user must take care of specifying the correct new
334 backing file, or the guest-visible content of the image will be corrupted.
336 This mode is useful for renaming or moving the backing file to somewhere else.
337 It can be used without an accessible old backing file, i.e. you can use it to
338 fix an image whose backing file has already been moved/renamed.
341 You can use @code{rebase} to perform a ``diff'' operation on two
342 disk images. This can be useful when you have copied or cloned
343 a guest, and you want to get back to a thin image on top of a
344 template or base image.
346 Say that @code{base.img} has been cloned as @code{modified.img} by
347 copying it, and that the @code{modified.img} guest has run so there
348 are now some changes compared to @code{base.img}. To construct a thin
349 image called @code{diff.qcow2} that contains just the differences, do:
352 qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b modified.img diff.qcow2
353 qemu-img rebase -b base.img diff.qcow2
356 At this point, @code{modified.img} can be discarded, since
357 @code{base.img + diff.qcow2} contains the same information.
359 @item resize @var{filename} [+ | -]@var{size}
361 Change the disk image as if it had been created with @var{size}.
363 Before using this command to shrink a disk image, you MUST use file system and
364 partitioning tools inside the VM to reduce allocated file systems and partition
365 sizes accordingly. Failure to do so will result in data loss!
367 After using this command to grow a disk image, you must use file system and
368 partitioning tools inside the VM to actually begin using the new space on the
371 @item amend [-f @var{fmt}] -o @var{options} @var{filename}
373 Amends the image format specific @var{options} for the image file
374 @var{filename}. Not all file formats support this operation.
380 Supported image file formats:
385 Raw disk image format (default). This format has the advantage of
386 being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your
387 file system supports @emph{holes} (for example in ext2 or ext3 on
388 Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve
389 space. Use @code{qemu-img info} to know the real size used by the
390 image or @code{ls -ls} on Unix/Linux.
393 QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller
394 images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example
395 on Windows), optional AES encryption, zlib based compression and
396 support of multiple VM snapshots.
401 Determines the qcow2 version to use. @code{compat=0.10} uses the
402 traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10.
403 @code{compat=1.1} enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and
404 newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes zero
405 clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images.
408 File name of a base image (see @option{create} subcommand)
410 Image format of the base image
412 If this option is set to @code{on}, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC.
414 The use of encryption in qcow and qcow2 images is considered to be flawed by
415 modern cryptography standards, suffering from a number of design problems:
418 @item The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based
419 on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks
420 which can reveal the existence of encrypted data.
421 @item The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly
422 chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption.
423 @item In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to
424 change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must
425 be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The
426 original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred,
427 though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies.
430 Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption is thus strongly discouraged. Users are
431 recommended to use an alternative encryption technology such as the
432 Linux dm-crypt / LUKS system.
435 Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster
436 sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally
437 provide better performance.
440 Preallocation mode (allowed values: off, metadata). An image with preallocated
441 metadata is initially larger but can improve performance when the image needs
445 If this option is set to @code{on}, reference count updates are postponed with
446 the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is
447 particularly interesting with @option{cache=writethrough} which doesn't batch
448 metadata updates. The tradeoff is that after a host crash, the reference count
449 tables must be rebuilt, i.e. on the next open an (automatic) @code{qemu-img
450 check -r all} is required, which may take some time.
452 This option can only be enabled if @code{compat=1.1} is specified.
457 QEMU also supports various other image file formats for compatibility with
458 older QEMU versions or other hypervisors, including VMDK, VDI, VHD (vpc), VHDX,
459 qcow1 and QED. For a full list of supported formats see @code{qemu-img --help}.
460 For a more detailed description of these formats, see the QEMU Emulation User
463 The main purpose of the block drivers for these formats is image conversion.
464 For running VMs, it is recommended to convert the disk images to either raw or
465 qcow2 in order to achieve good performance.
471 @setfilename qemu-img
472 @settitle QEMU disk image utility
475 The HTML documentation of QEMU for more precise information and Linux
476 user mode emulator invocation.