=head1 NAME

guestfs-testing - manual testing of libguestfs, you can help!

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This page has manual tests you can try on libguestfs.  Everyone has a
slightly different combination of platform, hardware and guests, so
this testing is very valuable.  Thanks for helping out!

Tests marked with a B<*> (asterisk) can B<destroy data> if you're not
careful.  The others are safe and won't modify anything.

These tests B<require libguestfs E<ge> 1.22>.

You can report bugs you find through this link:

L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools>

or post on the mailing list (registration is B<not> required, but if
you're not registered then you'll have to wait for a moderator to
manually approve your message):

L<https://lists.libguestfs.org>

=head1 TESTS

=head2 Run libguestfs-test-tool

Run:

 libguestfs-test-tool

This command does a very simple, non-destructive test that basic
libguestfs is functioning.  You don't need to run it as root.

If it I<doesn't> print C<===== TEST FINISHED OK =====>, report it as a
bug.  It is very important that you include the B<complete, unedited>
output of C<libguestfs-test-tool> in your bug report.  See the
L</BUGS> section at the end of this page.

=head2 Check KVM acceleration is being used.

If your host has hardware virt acceleration, then with a hot cache
libguestfs should be able to start up in a few seconds.  Run the
following command a few times:

 time guestfish -a /dev/null run

After a few runs, the time should settle down to a few seconds (under
3 seconds on fast 64 bit hardware).

If the command above does not work at all, use
L<libguestfs-test-tool(1)>.

=head2 Check which version of libguestfs, qemu, libvirt, etc is being used.

Look at the output of C<libguestfs-test-tool> and check:

=over 4

=item *

Which version of libguestfs is being used?  Near the beginning of the
output you'll see a line like:

 library version: 1.22.0fedora=19,release=1.fc19,libvirt

=item *

Is libvirt being used?  You can tell the difference by looking
for the backend:

 guestfs_get_backend: direct

or:

 guestfs_get_backend: libvirt

=item *

Which version of qemu is being used?  It may be printed out:

 libguestfs: qemu version 1.5

=item *

Which kernel is being used?  L<supermin(1)> will try to pick the
latest kernel installed on your machine.  You can see the version in
the appliance output, eg:

 [    0.000000] Linux version 3.9.2-200.fc18.x86_64 [...]

=back

=head2 Try to open a local guest image with guestfish.

You can use any guest disk image for this test.  Make sure you use the
C<--ro> flag so that L<guestfish(1)> will open the disk image
read-only.

 guestfish --ro -a /path/to/disk.img -i

If the command is successful, it should print out the guest operating
system name and put you at the guestfish C<E<gt>E<lt>fsE<gt>> prompt.
You can use guestfish commands like S<C<ll />> to look inside the disk
image.  To exit, type C<exit>.

If you get an error, try enabling debugging (add C<-v> to the command
line).  Also make sure that L<libguestfs-test-tool(1)> succeeds.

=head2 Try to open a remote guest image with guestfish.

You may also have to disable libvirt by setting this:

 export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct

If you have a disk image available over HTTP/FTP, try to open it.

 guestfish --ro -i --format=raw -a http://www.example.com/disk.img

For SSH you will need to make sure that ssh-agent is set up so you
don't need a password to log in to the remote machine.  Then a command
similar to this should work:

 guestfish --ro -i --format=raw \
   -a ssh://remote.example.com/path/to/disk.img

If you get an error, try enabling debugging (add C<-v> to the command
line).  Also make sure that L<libguestfs-test-tool(1)> succeeds.

=head2 Run virt-alignment-scan on all your guests.

Run L<virt-alignment-scan(1)> on guests or disk images:

 virt-alignment-scan -a /path/to/disk.img

or:

 virt-alignment-scan -d Guest

Does the alignment report match how the guest partitions are aligned?

=head2 Run virt-cat on some files in guests.

L<virt-cat(1)> can display files from guests.  For a Linux guest, try:

 virt-cat LinuxGuest /etc/passwd

A recent feature is support for Windows paths, for example:

 virt-cat WindowsGuest 'c:\windows\win.ini'

An even better test is if you have a Windows guest with multiple
drives.  Do C<D:>, C<E:> etc paths work correctly?

=head2 B<*> Copy some files into a B<shut off> guest.

L<virt-copy-in(1)> can recursively copy files and directories
into a guest or disk image.

 virt-copy-in -d Guest /etc /tmp

This should copy local directory F</etc> to F</tmp/etc> in the guest
(recursively).  If you boot the guest, can you see all of the copied
files and directories?

Shut the guest down and try copying multiple files and directories:

 virt-copy-in -d Guest /home /etc/issue /tmp

=head2 Copy some files out of a guest.

L<virt-copy-out(1)> can recursively copy files and directories
out of a guest or disk image.

 virt-copy-out -d Guest /home .

Note the final space and period in the command is not a typo.

This should copy F</home> from the guest into the current directory.

=head2 Run virt-df.

L<virt-df(1)> lists disk space.  Run:

 virt-df

You can try comparing this to the results from L<df(1)> inside the
guest, but there are some provisos:

=over 4

=item *

The guest must be idle.

=item *

The guest disks must be synched using L<sync(1)>.

=item *

Any action such as booting the guest will write log files causing the
numbers to change.

=back

We don’t guarantee that the numbers will be identical even under these
circumstances.  They should be similar.  It would indicate a bug if
you saw greatly differing numbers.

=head2 Try importing virt-df CSV output into a spreadsheet or database.

Run:

 virt-df --csv > /tmp/report.csv

Now try to load this into your favorite spreadsheet or database.  Are
the results reproduced faithfully in the spreadsheet/database?

L<http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/sql-copy.html>
L<http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/load-data.html>

=head2 B<*> Edit a file in a B<shut off> guest.

L<virt-edit(1)> can edit files in guests.  Try this command on
a RHEL or Fedora guest:

 virt-edit LinuxGuest /etc/sysconfig/network

On other Linux guests try editing other files such as:

 virt-edit LinuxGuest /etc/motd

Are the changes seen inside the guest when it is booted?

=head2 Display the filesystems / partitions / LVs in a guest.

L<virt-filesystems(1)> can be used to display filesystems in
a guest.  Try this command on any disk image or guest:

 virt-filesystems -a /path/to/disk.img --all --long -h

or:

 virt-filesystems -d Guest --all --long -h

Do the results match what is seen in the guest?

=head2 Run virt-inspector on all your guests.

Use L<virt-inspector(1)> to get a report on all of your guests or disk
images:

 virt-inspector -a /path/to/disk.img | less

or:

 virt-inspector -d Guest | less

Do the results match what is actually in the guest?

If you have an unusual guest (a rare Linux distro, a very new version
of Windows), does virt-inspector recognize it?  If not, then it's
probably a bug.

=head2 Try the auditing features of virt-ls on all your guests.

List all setuid or setgid programs in a Linux virtual machine:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest / | grep '^- [42]'

List all public-writable directories in a Linux virtual machine:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest / | grep '^d ...7'

List all Unix domain sockets in a Linux virtual machine:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest / | grep '^s'

List all regular files with filenames ending in ‘.png’:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest / | grep -i '^-.*\.png$'

Display files larger than 10MB in home directories:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest /home | awk '$3 > 10*1024*1024'

Find everything modified in the last 7 days:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest --time-days / | awk '$6 <= 7'

Find regular files modified in the last 24 hours:

 virt-ls -lR -d Guest --time-days / | grep '^-' | awk '$6 < 1'

Do the results match what is in the guest?

=head2 Create a disk image from a tarball.

Use L<virt-make-fs(1)> to create a disk image from any tarball
that you happen to have:

 virt-make-fs --partition=mbr --type=vfat /any/tarball.tar.gz output.img

Add ‘output.img’ as a raw disk to an existing guest.  Check the guest
can see the files.  This test is particularly useful if you try it
with a Windows guest.

Try other partitioning schemes, eg. I<--partition=gpt>.

Try other filesystem formats, eg. I<--type=ntfs>, I<--type=ext2>.

=head2 B<*> Run virt-rescue on a B<shut off> disk image or guest.

Use L<virt-rescue(1)> to examine, rescue or repair a B<shut off> guest
or disk image:

 virt-rescue -a /path/to/disk.img

or:

 virt-rescue -d Guest

Can you use ordinary shell commands to examine the guest?

=head2 B<*> Resize your guests.

Use L<virt-resize(1)> to give a guest some more disk space.  For
example, if you have a disk image that is smaller than 30G, increase
it to 30G by doing:

 truncate -s 30G newdisk.img
 virt-filesystems -a /path/to/olddisk.img --all --long -h
 virt-resize /path/to/olddisk.img newdisk.img --expand /dev/sda1
 qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda newdisk.img

Does the guest still boot?  Try expanding other partitions.

=head2 B<*> Sparsify a guest disk.

Using L<virt-sparsify(1)>, make a disk image more sparse:

 virt-sparsify /path/to/olddisk.img newdisk.img

Is F<newdisk.img> still bootable after sparsifying?  Is the resulting
disk image smaller (use C<du> to check)?

=head2 Build and boot a guest

Using L<virt-builder(1)>, choose a guest from the list:

 virt-builder -l

build it:

 virt-builder -o disk.img [os-version from list above]

and boot it:

 qemu-kvm -cpu host -m 2048 -drive file=disk.img,format=raw

Does it boot?

=head2 B<*> "Sysprep" a B<shut off> Linux guest.

B<Note> that this really will mess up an existing guest, so it's
better to clone the guest before trying this.

 virt-sysprep --hostname newhost.example.com -a /path/to/disk.img

Was the sysprep successful?  After booting, what changes were made and
were they successful?

=head2 Dump the Windows Registry from your Windows guests.

Use L<virt-win-reg(1)> to dump out the Windows Registry from
any Windows guests that you have.

 virt-win-reg --unsafe-printable-strings WindowsGuest 'HKLM\Software' |
   less

 virt-win-reg --unsafe-printable-strings WindowsGuest 'HKLM\System' |
   less

Does the output match running C<regedit> inside the guest?

A recent feature is the ability to dump user registries, so try this,
replacing I<username> with the name of a local user in the guest:

 virt-win-reg --unsafe-printable-strings WindowsGuest 'HKEY_USERS\username' |
   less

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<guestfs(3)>,
L<guestfish(1)>,
L<guestfs-examples(3)>,
L<http://libguestfs.org/>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Richard W.M. Jones (C<rjones at redhat dot com>)

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2011-2025 Red Hat Inc.
