=head1 NAME

libguestfs-test-tool - Diagnostics for libguestfs

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 libguestfs-test-tool [--options]

=head1 DESCRIPTION

libguestfs-test-tool is a test program shipped with libguestfs to
allow you to check basic libguestfs functionality is working.  This is
needed because libguestfs occasionally breaks for reasons beyond our
control: usually because of changes in the underlying qemu or kernel
packages, or the host environment.

If you suspect a problem in libguestfs, then just run:

 libguestfs-test-tool

It will print lots of diagnostic messages.

If it runs to completion successfully, you will see this near the end:

 ===== TEST FINISHED OK =====

and the test tool will exit with code 0.

If it fails (and/or exits with non-zero error code), please paste the
I<complete, unedited> output of the test tool into a bug report.  More
information about reporting bugs can be found on the
L<http://libguestfs.org/> website.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 4

=item B<--help>

Display short usage information and exit.

=item B<--qemu> qemu_binary

If you have downloaded another qemu binary, point this option at the
full path of the binary to try it.

=item B<--qemudir> qemu_source_dir

If you have compiled qemu from source, point this option at the source
directory to try it.

=item B<-t> N

=item B<--timeout> N

Set the launch timeout to C<N> seconds.  The default is 600 seconds
(10 minutes) which does not usually need to be adjusted.

=item B<-V>

=item B<--version>

Display the libguestfs version number and exit.

=back

=head1 TRYING OUT A DIFFERENT VERSION OF QEMU

If you have compiled another version of qemu from source and would
like to try that, then you can use the I<--qemudir> option to point to
the qemu source directory.

If you have downloaded a qemu binary from somewhere, use the I<--qemu>
option to point to the binary.

Note when using these options, you can ignore the business of qemu
wrapper scripts (L<guestfs(3)/QEMU WRAPPERS>), since
libguestfs-test-tool writes a wrapper script for you if one is needed.

=head1 TRYING OUT A DIFFERENT KERNEL

You can tell supermin to try a different kernel.  You do this by
setting the environment variables C<SUPERMIN_KERNEL>,
C<SUPERMIN_KERNEL_VERSION> and/or C<SUPERMIN_MODULES>.

Refer to L<supermin(1)/ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES> for further information.

=head1 TRYING OUT A DIFFERENT VERSION OF LIBVIRT

To find out which backend is the default in your libguestfs
package, do:

 unset LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND
 guestfish get-backend

If you are using the libvirt backend, then you can try out a
different (eg. upstream) version of libvirt by running these commands
(I<not> as root):

 killall libvirtd lt-libvirtd
 ~/path/to/libvirt/run libguestfs-test-tool

The first command kills any session C<libvirtd> process(es) that may
be running on the machine.  The second command uses libvirt’s C<run>
script (in the top-level libvirt build directory) to set some
environment variables so that the alternate version of libvirt is used
to run the program.

=head1 TRYING OUT WITH / WITHOUT LIBVIRT

To find out which backend is the default in your libguestfs
package, do:

 unset LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND
 guestfish get-backend

If you are using the libvirt backend, you can try without
(ie. libguestfs directly launching qemu) by doing:

 export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct

Or if you are using the default (direct) backend, then you
can try libvirt:

 export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=libvirt

or with libvirt and a specific
L<libvirt URI|http://libvirt.org/uri.html>:

 export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=libvirt:qemu:///session

=head1 TRYING OUT DIFFERENT SELINUX SETTINGS

To find out which backend is the default in your libguestfs
package, do:

 unset LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND
 guestfish get-backend

To find out if SELinux is being used, do:

 getenforce

If you are using libvirt, SELinux and sVirt, then you can try to see
if changing SELinux to "permissive" mode makes any difference.  Use
this command as root:

 setenforce Permissive

If this makes a difference, look in the audit logs for recent
failures ("AVCs"):

 ausearch -m avc -ts recent

You can convert AVCs into suggested SELinux policy rules using tools
like L<audit2allow(1)>.  For more information, see the "Security
Enhanced Linux User Guide".

To re-enable SELinux and sVirt, do:

 setenforce Enforcing

=head1 SELF-DIAGNOSIS

Refer to L<guestfs(3)/APPLIANCE BOOT PROCESS> to understand the
messages produced by libguestfs-test-tool and/or possible errors.

=head1 EXIT STATUS

libguestfs-test-tool returns I<0> if the tests completed without
error, or I<1> if there was an error.

=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

For the full list of environment variables which may affect
libguestfs, please see the L<guestfs(3)> manual page.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<guestfs(3)>,
L<http://libguestfs.org/>,
L<http://qemu.org/>.

=head1 AUTHORS

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

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2009-2025 Red Hat Inc.