=head1 NAME

guestfs-release-notes - libguestfs Release Notes

=head1 RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGUESTFS 1.28

These release notes only cover the differences from the previous
stable/dev branch split (1.26.0).  For detailed changelogs, please see
the git repository, or the ChangeLog file distributed in the tarball.

=head2 New features

=head3 Tools

L<virt-v2v(1)> and L<virt-p2v(1)> are tools for converting from
foreign hypervisors (such as VMware or Xen) or physical machines, to
KVM.  These tools were previously a separate project.  The code for
both tools has been integrated into the libguestfs tree.  As part of
the refactoring, virt-p2v has been rewritten (from Ruby, now C), and
virt-v2v now uses several modern features of qemu which make it run
many times faster than before.  L<virt-v2v(1)> can import from: VMware
vCenter, VMware OVA files, local disk files, libvirt, RHEL 5 Xen.  It
can output to: oVirt or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV-M),
OpenStack Glance, libvirt, qemu, local disk files.

L<virt-log(1)> is a new tool for listing log files from guests.  It
supports a variety of guests including Linux traditional, Linux using
journal, and Windows event log.

L<virt-builder(1)> has a new C<--machine-readable> option to make it
simpler to consume virt-builder from other programs.

New L<virt-builder(1)> and L<virt-customize(1)> I<--chmod> option.

L<virt-sysprep(1)> will now remove: systemd journals, anaconda logs,
lightdm logs, debian-installer files, apt logs, exim logs, ConsoleKit
logs, firewalld logs, grubby logs, proftpd logs, libvirt/libxml logs,
and several other log files.  The virt-sysprep C<user-account>
operation is now able to remove or keep particular user accounts.
(Pino Toscano).

New L<guestmount(1)> I<--fd> option, allowing you to run guestmount
captive under another process.

L<virt-sparsify(1)> has a new I<--tmp> option allowing you to
precisely control where temporary files are stored.

L<virt-sparsify(1)> can now write to a block device.

L<virt-customize(1)> and L<virt-sysprep(1)> now support adding
firstboot scripts to Windows guests.

L<virt-cat(1)>, L<virt-edit(1)>, L<virt-ls(1)> now support the I<-m>
option, allowing you to override automatic inspection of guests and
instead specify where to mount partitions (Pino Toscano).

The virt tools now have coloured output: green for OK, red for errors,
blue for warnings.

=head3 Language bindings

You can build a Python distribution using C<make -C python sdist>

Ruby bindings have switched from C<Test::Unit> to C<MiniTest>.

The Java bindings are now compatible with OpenJDK 8 (Pino Toscano).

=head3 Inspection

Oracle Linux is returned as C<oraclelinux> (Nikos Skalkotos).

Linux guests which do not have F</etc/fstab> can now be handled
(Pino Toscano).

Minix is returned as C<minix> (Pino Toscano).

=head3 Architectures

Aarch64 (64 bit ARM) support has been added.

Inspection and the C<guestfs_file_architecture> call can now recognize
arm (32 bit) and aarch64 guests.

=head2 Security

=over 4

=item CVE-2014-0191 Network usage and entity resolution in XML parsing

Libguestfs previously used unsafe libxml2 APIs for parsing libvirt
XML.  These APIs defaulted to allowing network connections to be made
when certain XML documents were presented.  Using a malformed XML
document it was also possible to exhaust all CPU, memory or file
descriptors on the machine.

Since the libvirt XML comes from a trusted source (the libvirt daemon)
it is not thought that this could have been exploitable.

This was fixed in libguestfs E<ge> 1.27.9 and the fix was backported
to stable versions E<ge> 1.26.2, E<ge> 1.24.9, E<ge> 1.22.10 and E<ge>
1.20.13.  (Thanks: Dan Berrange, Pino Toscano).

=item Shellshock (bash CVE-2014-6271)

This bash bug indirectly affects libguestfs.  For more information
see:
L<https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2014-September/msg00252.html>

=back

=head2 API

=head3 New APIs

=over 4

=item C<guestfs_clear_backend_setting>

=item C<guestfs_get_backend_setting>

=item C<guestfs_set_backend_setting>

Use these APIs to set individual backend settings.

=item C<guestfs_cpio_out>

Convert a directory within the disk image to cpio format.

=item C<guestfs_journal_get_realtime_usec>

Fetch precise journal times, see L<sd_journal_get_realtime_usec(3)>.

=item C<guestfs_lstatns>

=item C<guestfs_lstatnslist>

=item C<guestfs_statns>

Enhanced versions of C<guestfs_lstat>, C<guestfs_lstatlist>,
C<guestfs_stat> which return nanosecond timestamps.

=back

=head2 Build changes

Libguestfs can now be built with qemu 2.x.

Add support for packaging the appliance on Mageia (Joseph Wang,
Thierry Vignaud).

Augeas is now a required dependency.

Flex and bison are now required dependencies.

=head2 Internals

User-Mode Linux (UML) is no longer a supported backend (although still
available).  It will be supported again once someone steps in and
fixes various regressions and brokenness in the UML (Linux) kernel.

You can now connect gdb to qemu by specifying
C<LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND_SETTINGS=gdb>

Serial BIOS (sgabios) is now used by the libvirt backend (on x86 only)
so that we see early BIOS messages.

For the OCaml virt tools, exceptions are now handled and printed by a
common function.

A GCC warning about large stack frames is now enabled by default.
Several places that used large arrays and structures on the stack have
been fixed.

There is now a test for booting the appliance repeatedly.  Useful for
finding kernel leaks.  See: F<tests/qemu/qemu-boot.c>

There is a test for testing the speed of various qemu features such as
virtio-serial uploads and block device writes.  See:
F<tests/qemu/qemu-speed-test.c>

GCC warnings are now enabled for OCaml-C bindings in the OCaml virt
tools.

The code for editing files used by L<virt-edit(1)>, L<guestfish(1)>
C<edit> command, L<virt-customize(1)> I<--edit> option and more is now
shared between all these utilities (thanks Pino Toscano).

The FUSE tests were rewritten in C to ensure finer control over how
system calls are tested.

The F<update-bugs.sh> script has been fixed so it should no longer
create an empty C<BUGS> file if the Bugzilla server is unavailable.

The L<virt-resize(1)> tests now use a stochastic method to ensure much
deeper and broader testing.

When the network is enabled, the appliance now uses DHCP to acquire an
IP address.

If libvirt is being used then the appliance will connect to C<virbr0>
(can be overridden by setting
C<LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND_SETTINGS=network_bridge=E<lt>some_bridgeE<gt>>).
This enables full-featured network connections, with working ICMP,
ping and so on.

=head2 Bugs fixed

=begin comment

./bugs-in-changelog.sh 1.26.0..

=end comment

=over 4

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1153515>

empty (but set) LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND prints libguestfs: error: invalid backend:

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151766>

libguestfs-bash-completion package contains file /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/virt-log, but no _virt_log() function in that file

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151738>

typo error in man page of virt-edit

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1151033>

virt-v2v conversions from VMware vCenter server run slowly

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150880>

virt-v2v: warning: display <graphics type='sdl'> was ignored when converting rhel5 guest with sdl graphics

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150867>

'copy-file-to-file /src /dest' create file /dest even if command 'copy-file-to-file /src /dest' failed

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150815>

Can not find "RECURSIVE LONG LISTING" in 'man virt-diff'

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150701>

virt-v2v does not fstrim data disks and non-mounted filesystems

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1150475>

Exporting 2+ disk guest to RHEV, only one disk shows after import

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148355>

virt-filesystems: incorrect LVM vg name when listing Fedora 21 Alpha Atomic image filesystems

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148072>

Option missing --no-selinux-relabel

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1148012>

RFE: Allow qemu-bridge-helper to be used to implement guestfs_set_network

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146815>

virt-v2v prints warning: /files/etc/fstab/8/spec references unknown device "cdrom"

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146275>

regression setting root password with virt-builder/virt-customize

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1146017>

virt-v2v -v -x during windows guest conversion will hang at hivex: hivex_open: used block id ……

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1145995>

Improve the error info when converting windows guest with unclean file system

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1145916>

virt-v2v fails to convert win7 guest

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144891>

RFE: stat calls do not return nanosecond timestamps

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144766>

futimens() is a no-op via guestmount

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1144201>

guestfish can not restore terminal's output colour when exit guestfish, if the terminal's background colour is black then it will make a inconvenient

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143949>

virt-customize option '--password-crypto' do not work

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143887>

Warning shows when converting guests to rhev:chown: changing ownership of ‘/tmp/v2v.u48xag/*.ovf’: Invalid argument

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143883>

warning shows when converting rhel7 guest:virt-v2v:could not update grub2 console: aug_get: no matching node (ignored)

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1143866>

virt-v2v fails with error: cannot open Packages index using db5

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142416>

part-get-name give 'libguestfs: error: part_get_name: parted does not support the machine output (-m)' error message when run 'part-get-name /dev/sda 1'

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142186>

virt-sysprep option '--mount-options' don't work well

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142158>

Illegal command 'part-get-name /dev/sda1 1' cause libguestfs appliance crashed

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1142004>

virt-v2v prints warning:WARNING:/files/boot/grub/device.map references unknown device "xvda"

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141723>

virt-v2v: error: disk sda has no defined format shows when converting xen hvm guest

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141680>

[RFE] virt-v2 should support convert a domain with using domain's UUID instead of domain name

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141631>

[RFE] virt-v2 should support convert a guest to a dir-pool with using pool's uuid

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141157>

virt-sysprep option '--user-accounts' don't work well

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141145>

virt-v2v fails to convert xen pv guests.

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1141113>

virt-v2v fails to convert esx guests

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140946>

qemu-img shows error message for backing file twice

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140894>

No error messages output if append '--format qcow2' after '-a guest.img', guest.img is a raw format image file

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140547>

virt-builder option '--format' don't work well

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140156>

RFE: Export to RHEV data domain

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1140050>

No error shows when multiple conflicting options used with virt-v2v

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1139973>

Improve the error info when converting xen guest with no passwordless SSH access configured

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1139543>

Improve the error info when converting guest with no space left

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138586>

No error shows when converting running guest with virt-v2v

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138184>

virt-v2v will fail when converting guests with initramfs-*kdump.img under /boot

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1138182>

xen guest will be kernel panic after converted by virt-v2v

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1130189>

Annoying message about permissions of /dev/kvm

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1123007>

libguestfs 'direct' backend should close file descriptors before exec-ing qemu to avoid leaking !O_CLOEXEC fds

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1122557>

virt-sparsify overwrites block devices if used as output files

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1113156>

Empty fstab breaks libguestfs inspection

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1111662>

Guestfs.Error("vgchange_uuid_all:   Volume group has active logical volumes")

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1109174>

virt-win-reg manual page is corrupted

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1106548>

root gets an error accessing to a non-root dir on a snapshot guestmount VMDK img

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1103877>

These APIs also need to add to `guestfish -h` command list

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1102448>

mageia package list is incorrect

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1102447>

libguestfs 1.27.13 does not build due to libxml library order

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1100498>

RFE: non-polling mechanism to detect guestmount --no-fork readiness

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1099490>

scrub-file can't handle link file

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1099284>

typo errors in man pages

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1098718>

RFE: virt-builder aliases

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1096465>

virt-builder "proxy=off" setting doesn't turn off the proxy for downloads

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1094746>

virt-sparsify man fails to mention what happens to snapshots within a qcow2 image (they are discarded)

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1092753>

virt-builder: If several repos contain the same os-version images, then they are duplicated in -l output

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1091803>

tar-in-opts execute failed that cause libguestfs appliance crashed

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1088424>

virt-resize: libguestfs error: part_set_name: parted: /dev/sdb: Error during translation: Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1088262>

virt-builder cannot write to a block device

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1085029>

Ruby tests fail with latest Ruby

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1079210>

virt-sparsify --in-place cannot sparsify as much as it should

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1079182>

virt-df cannot report used disk space of windows guest when updated to 6.5

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1077817>

virt-builder error: "syntax error at line 3: syntax error"

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1056290>

virt-sparsify overwrites block devices if used as output files

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/812970>

virt-rescue cannot set E<ge>E<lt>rescueE<gt> prompt, on Ubuntu 12.04

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

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

=head1 AUTHOR

Richard W.M. Jones

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2009-2025 Red Hat Inc.
