=head1 NAME

guestfs-release-notes - libguestfs Release Notes

=head1 RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGUESTFS 1.24

These release notes only cover the differences from the previous
stable/dev branch split (1.22.0).  For detailed changelogs, please see
the git repository, or the ChangeLog file distributed in the tarball.

=head2 New features

User-Mode Linux (UML) can be used as an alternative backend
(ie. instead of KVM).  This improves performance especially
when using libguestfs inside a VM (eg. in the cloud).  UML is
supported as a first-class backend.
See L<guestfs(3)/USER-MODE LINUX BACKEND> for how to use this.

ARM (32 bit) and PPC64 are now fully supported.

=head3 Tools

L<virt-builder(1)> is a new tool for building virtual machine images.
It lets you rapidly and securely create guests and customize them.

New L<virt-sysprep(1)> operations:
Remove files in F</tmp> and F</var/tmp>.
Remove RPM database files.
Change root and user passwords.
More log files are removed.
New operations which are not enabled by default:
Create random UUIDs for filesystems.
Reset firewall rules.
(Wanlong Gao)

L<virt-resize(1)> and virt-sysprep can now use URIs to specify a
remote disk.

Use C<guestfish -N filename=type> to create a named disk image
(instead of the default F<test1.img> etc).

L<virt-sparsify(1)> now tests if there is enough disk space to
complete the operation, instead of possibly running out of space half
way through.

L<virt-format(1)> and L<virt-make-fs(1)>: new I<--label> option for
setting filesystem label.

virt-resize I<--no-sparse> flag can be used to resize on to partitions
and other targets that are not zeroed.

=head3 Language bindings

New bindings for the Go programming language.

=head3 API

Support for the systemd journal.

C<guestfs_add_drive_opts> can now control the qemu caching mode
through a new C<cachemode> parameter.  You can select improved
performance for temporary drives, or safety.

C<guestfs_set_label> now works for XFS and btrfs.

New GUESTFS_EVENT_WARNING event for warning messages.

=head3 Inspection

Better inspection of SUSE guests (Olaf Hering).

Better support for non-standard Windows %systemroot% (Matthew Booth).

Enhanced error reporting for Augeas errors.

=head2 Security

=over 4

=item CVE-2013-2124

L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=968306>

A denial of service was possible when inspecting certain guests.  The
fix has been backported to 1.20 and 1.22 branches.

=item CVE-2013-4419

L<https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2013-October/msg00031.html>

Fix insecure temporary directory handling for remote guestfish.  The
fix has been backported to 1.20 and 1.22 branches.

=back

=head2 New APIs

 add-drive-scratch: Add a temporary scratch drive
 aug-label
 aug-setm
 journal-open: Systemd journal support
 journal-close
 journal-next
 journal-skip
 journal-get
 journal-get-data-threshold
 journal-set-data-threshold
 remount: Allow rw flag to be adjusted on mounted filesystems
 set-uuid: Set UUID of filesystem

C<is-file>, C<is-dir>, C<is-blockdev>, C<is-chardev>, C<is-fifo>,
C<is-socket> APIs now have an extra C<followsymlinks> flag.

C<add-drive> has a new C<cachemode> parameter.

=head2 Build changes

The following packages are required to build libguestfs 1.24:

=over 4

=item Augeas E<ge> 1.0.0

=back

The following optional packages may be added to enhance functionality
but are not required:

=over 4

=item sd-journal

To read journal files from guests which use that.

=item url_mkcow

For UML backend.

=item curl

=item gpg

=item xz

For virt-builder.

=item golang E<ge> 1.1.1

For Go language bindings.

=back

=head2 Internals

New C<make check-*> rules replace C<make extra-tests>.  See C<make
help> and L<guestfs(3)> for details.

Perl code can now be valgrinded.

Inspection code is now fuzz-tested.

C<make> no longer recurses into the generator directory in every other
directory.  This reduces the overhead of builds considerably.

Additional tests for Augeas, hivex.

Add a launch timeout of 20 minutes waiting for the appliance to start
up.

Add a timeout (4 hours) to all tests so we can catch the case where
qemu or other components hang.

Use kvmclock and C<-cpu host>.  This improves clock stability and
overall performance.

C<./configure --enable-packet-dump> mode is fixed.

C<./configure --enable-valgrind-daemon> mode has been rewritten.  It
is now feasible for developers to keep this flag enabled at all times.

Backends have been refactored to be modular (although they are not
actually loadable modules).

When enabled, the network now uses resolver configuration
(ie. /etc/resolv.conf) from the host.

=head2 Bugs fixed

=begin comment

./bugs-in-changelog.sh 1.22.0..

=end comment

=over 4

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1019889>

libguestfs-tools.conf should have a man page

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1018149>

valgrind errors in btrfs_subvolume_list

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1002032>

mke2fs can't return the correct filesystem type when blockscount is less than 2048 for ext3

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1001876>

Update "rsync-out" helpout for using wildcard

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1001875>

Argument 'excludes' of tar-out does not work

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1000428>

virt-format uses wrong partition type for vfat filesystems

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1000121>

'sh' command before mount causes daemon to segfault

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/998513>

guestfish does not work when you mix --remote and --add options

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/998482>

guestfish remote prints "libguestfs: error: waitpid (qemu): No child processes"

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/995711>

list-filesystems command fails if there are no block devices

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/994517>

cache=none/O_DIRECT workaround doesn't work for images with backing files

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/989356>

cap-get-file will return error if the file has not be set capabilities

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/986877>

RFE: Implement set-uuid command

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/986875>

RFE: Implement set-label for xfs

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/985269>

Can't set acl value for a specified user with 'acl-set-file'

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/983218>

libguestfs double free when kernel link fails during launch

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/981715>

Make xfs filesystem failed with specified blocksize, gives "unknown option -b" error

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/981683>

"hivex-commit" should fail with a relative path

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/981663>

disk-format "qemu-img info: JSON parse error" when target file does not exist

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/978302>

mke2fs-J should give a meaningful error when specified type is anything except 'ext{2,3,4}'

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/975797>

Specifying virtio interface ('iface' parameter) breaks the direct backend - libguestfs hangs

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/975753>

"virt-resize --expand" and "virt-resize --resize" outputs error message for Win2008 32bit OS

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/975412>

inspection: Augeas expressions are broken with augeas >= 0.10

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/974904>

virt-resize --expand fails on Ubuntu Cloud Image

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/974489>

Regression: Fedora inspection broken by change from guestfs_exists to guestfs_is_file

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/972775>

txz-out command produces a bzip2-compressed file (should be xz-compressed)

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/969845>

upload to a directory occasionally hangs instead of failing

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/968875>

virt-sysprep should support URL-type arguments

=item L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/624334>

blockdev-setbsz succeeds, but does not affect blockdev-getbsz

=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.
