# QEMU Emulator User Documentation

## Table of Contents

- 1 Introduction
  - 1.1 Features
- 2 Installation
  - 2.1 Linux
  - 2.2 Windows
  - 2.3 Mac OS X
- 3 QEMU PC System emulator
  - 3.1 Introduction
  - 3.2 Quick Start
  - 3.3 Invocation
  - 3.4 Keys in the graphical frontends
  - 3.5 Keys in the character backend multiplexer
  - 3.6 QEMU Monitor
    - 3.6.1 Commands
    - 3.6.2 Integer expressions
  - 3.7 Disk Images
    - 3.7.1 Quick start for disk image creation
    - 3.7.2 Snapshot mode
    - 3.7.3 VM snapshots
    - 3.7.4 `qemu-img` Invocation
    - 3.7.5 `qemu-nbd` Invocation
    - 3.7.6 `qemu-ga` Invocation
    - 3.7.7 Disk image file formats
      - 3.7.7.1 Read-only formats
    - 3.7.8 Using host drives
      - 3.7.8.1 Linux
      - 3.7.8.2 Windows
      - 3.7.8.3 Mac OS X
    - 3.7.9 Virtual FAT disk images
    - 3.7.10 NBD access
    - 3.7.11 Sheepdog disk images
    - 3.7.12 iSCSI LUNs
    - 3.7.13 GlusterFS disk images
    - 3.7.14 Secure Shell (ssh) disk images
  - 3.8 Network emulation
    - 3.8.1 VLANs
    - 3.8.2 Using TAP network interfaces
      - 3.8.2.1 Linux host
      - 3.8.2.2 Windows host
    - 3.8.3 Using the user mode network stack
    - 3.8.4 Connecting VLANs between QEMU instances
  - 3.9 Other Devices
    - 3.9.1 Inter-VM Shared Memory device
      - 3.9.1.1 Migration with ivshmem
      - 3.9.1.2 ivshmem and hugepages
  - 3.10 Direct Linux Boot
  - 3.11 USB emulation
    - 3.11.1 Connecting USB devices
    - 3.11.2 Using host USB devices on a Linux host
  - 3.12 VNC security
    - 3.12.1 Without passwords
    - 3.12.2 With passwords
    - 3.12.3 With x509 certificates
    - 3.12.4 With x509 certificates and client verification
    - 3.12.5 With x509 certificates, client verification and passwords
    - 3.12.6 With SASL authentication
    - 3.12.7 With x509 certificates and SASL authentication
    - 3.12.8 Generating certificates for VNC
      - 3.12.8.1 Setup the Certificate Authority
      - 3.12.8.2 Issuing server certificates
      - 3.12.8.3 Issuing client certificates
    - 3.12.9 Configuring SASL mechanisms
  - 3.13 GDB usage
  - 3.14 Target OS specific information
    - 3.14.1 Linux
    - 3.14.2 Windows
      - 3.14.2.1 SVGA graphic modes support
      - 3.14.2.2 CPU usage reduction
      - 3.14.2.3 Windows 2000 disk full problem
      - 3.14.2.4 Windows 2000 shutdown
      - 3.14.2.5 Share a directory between Unix and Windows
      - 3.14.2.6 Windows XP security problem
    - 3.14.3 MS-DOS and FreeDOS
      - 3.14.3.1 CPU usage reduction
- 4 QEMU System emulator for non PC targets
  - 4.1 PowerPC System emulator
  - 4.2 Sparc32 System emulator
  - 4.3 Sparc64 System emulator
  - 4.4 MIPS System emulator
  - 4.5 ARM System emulator
  - 4.6 ColdFire System emulator
  - 4.7 Cris System emulator
  - 4.8 Microblaze System emulator
  - 4.9 SH4 System emulator
  - 4.10 Xtensa System emulator
- 5 QEMU User space emulator
  - 5.1 Supported Operating Systems
  - 5.2 Linux User space emulator
    - 5.2.1 Quick Start
    - 5.2.2 Wine launch
    - 5.2.3 Command line options
    - 5.2.4 Other binaries
  - 5.3 BSD User space emulator
    - 5.3.1 BSD Status
    - 5.3.2 Quick Start
    - 5.3.3 Command line options
- 6 Compilation from the sources
  - 6.1 Linux/Unix
    - 6.1.1 Compilation
  - 6.2 Windows
  - 6.3 Cross compilation for Windows with Linux
  - 6.4 Mac OS X
  - 6.5 Make targets
- Appendix A License
- Appendix B Index
  - B.1 Concept Index
  - B.2 Function Index
  - B.3 Keystroke Index
  - B.4 Program Index
  - B.5 Data Type Index
  - B.6 Variable Index

## 1 Introduction

### 1.1 Features

QEMU is a FAST! processor emulator using dynamic translation to achieve good emulation speed.

QEMU has two operating modes:

- Full system emulation. In this mode, QEMU emulates a full system (for example a PC), including one or several processors and various peripherals. It can be used to launch different Operating Systems without rebooting the PC or to debug system code.
- User mode emulation. In this mode, QEMU can launch processes compiled for one CPU on another CPU. It can be used to launch the Wine Windows API emulator (http://www.winehq.org) or to ease cross-compilation and cross-debugging.

QEMU can run without a host kernel driver and yet gives acceptable performance.

For system emulation, the following hardware targets are supported:

- PC (x86 or x86_64 processor)
- ISA PC (old style PC without PCI bus)
- PREP (PowerPC processor)
- G3 Beige PowerMac (PowerPC processor)
- Mac99 PowerMac (PowerPC processor, in progress)
- Sun4m/Sun4c/Sun4d (32-bit Sparc processor)
- Sun4u/Sun4v (64-bit Sparc processor, in progress)
- Malta board (32-bit and 64-bit MIPS processors)
- MIPS Magnum (64-bit MIPS processor)
- ARM Integrator/CP (ARM)
- ARM Versatile baseboard (ARM)
- ARM RealView Emulation/Platform baseboard (ARM)
- Spitz, Akita, Borzoi, Terrier and Tosa PDAs (PXA270 processor)
- Luminary Micro LM3S811EVB (ARM Cortex-M3)
- Luminary Micro LM3S6965EVB (ARM Cortex-M3)
- Freescale MCF5208EVB (ColdFire V2).
- Arnewsh MCF5206 evaluation board (ColdFire V2).
- Palm Tungsten|E PDA (OMAP310 processor)
- N800 and N810 tablets (OMAP2420 processor)
- MusicPal (MV88W8618 ARM processor)
- Gumstix "Connex" and "Verdex" motherboards (PXA255/270).
- Siemens SX1 smartphone (OMAP310 processor)
- AXIS-Devboard88 (CRISv32 ETRAX-FS).
- Petalogix Spartan 3aDSP1800 MMU ref design (MicroBlaze).
- Avnet LX60/LX110/LX200 boards (Xtensa)

For user emulation, x86 (32 and 64 bit), PowerPC (32 and 64 bit), ARM, MIPS (32 bit only), Sparc (32 and 64 bit), Alpha, ColdFire(m68k), CRISv32 and MicroBlaze CPUs are supported.

## 2 Installation

If you want to compile QEMU yourself, see compilation.

### 2.1 Linux

If a precompiled package is available for your distribution - you just have to install it. Otherwise, see compilation.

### 2.2 Windows

Download the experimental binary installer at http://www.free.oszoo.org/download.html. TODO (no longer available)

### 2.3 Mac OS X

Download the experimental binary installer at http://www.free.oszoo.org/download.html. TODO (no longer available)

## 3 QEMU PC System emulator

### 3.1 Introduction

The QEMU PC System emulator simulates the following peripherals:

- - i440FX host PCI bridge and PIIX3 PCI to ISA bridge
- - Cirrus CLGD 5446 PCI VGA card or dummy VGA card with Bochs VESA extensions (hardware level, including all non standard modes).
- - PS/2 mouse and keyboard
- - 2 PCI IDE interfaces with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- - Floppy disk
- - PCI and ISA network adapters
- - Serial ports
- - IPMI BMC, either and internal or external one
- - Creative SoundBlaster 16 sound card
- - ENSONIQ AudioPCI ES1370 sound card
- - Intel 82801AA AC97 Audio compatible sound card
- - Intel HD Audio Controller and HDA codec
- - Adlib (OPL2) - Yamaha YM3812 compatible chip
- - Gravis Ultrasound GF1 sound card
- - CS4231A compatible sound card
- - PCI UHCI USB controller and a virtual USB hub.

SMP is supported with up to 255 CPUs.

QEMU uses the PC BIOS from the Seabios project and the Plex86/Bochs LGPL VGA BIOS.

QEMU uses YM3812 emulation by Tatsuyuki Satoh.

QEMU uses GUS emulation (GUSEMU32 http://www.deinmeister.de/gusemu/) by Tibor "TS" Schütz.

Note that, by default, GUS shares IRQ(7) with parallel ports and so QEMU must be told to not have parallel ports to have working GUS.

    qemu-system-i386 dos.img -soundhw gus -parallel none

Alternatively:

    qemu-system-i386 dos.img -device gus,irq=5

Or some other unclaimed IRQ.

CS4231A is the chip used in Windows Sound System and GUSMAX products

### 3.2 Quick Start

Download and uncompress the linux image (`linux.img`) and type:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img

Linux should boot and give you a prompt.

### 3.3 Invocation

    qemu-system-i386 [options] [disk_image]

disk_image is a raw hard disk image for IDE hard disk 0. Some targets do not need a disk image.

Standard options:

`-h`

  Display help and exit

`-version`

  Display version information and exit

`-machine [type=]name[,prop=value[,...]]`

  Select the emulated machine by name. Use `-machine help` to list available machines. Supported machine properties are:

  `accel=accels1[:accels2[:...]]`

    This is used to enable an accelerator. Depending on the target architecture, kvm, xen, or tcg can be available. By default, tcg is used. If there is more than one accelerator specified, the next one is used if the previous one fails to initialize.

  `kernel_irqchip=on|off`

    Controls in-kernel irqchip support for the chosen accelerator when available.

  `gfx_passthru=on|off`

    Enables IGD GFX passthrough support for the chosen machine when available.

  `vmport=on|off|auto`

    Enables emulation of VMWare IO port, for vmmouse etc. auto says to select the value based on accel. For accel=xen the default is off otherwise the default is on.

  `kvm_shadow_mem=size`

    Defines the size of the KVM shadow MMU.

  `dump-guest-core=on|off`

    Include guest memory in a core dump. The default is on.

  `mem-merge=on|off`

    Enables or disables memory merge support. This feature, when supported by the host, de-duplicates identical memory pages among VMs instances (enabled by default).

  `iommu=on|off`

    Enables or disables emulated Intel IOMMU (VT-d) support. The default is off.

  `aes-key-wrap=on|off`

    Enables or disables AES key wrapping support on s390-ccw hosts. This feature controls whether AES wrapping keys will be created to allow execution of AES cryptographic functions. The default is on.

  `dea-key-wrap=on|off`

    Enables or disables DEA key wrapping support on s390-ccw hosts. This feature controls whether DEA wrapping keys will be created to allow execution of DEA cryptographic functions. The default is on.

  `nvdimm=on|off`

    Enables or disables NVDIMM support. The default is off.

`-cpu model`

  Select CPU model (`-cpu help` for list and additional feature selection)

`-smp [cpus=]n[,cores=cores][,threads=threads][,sockets=sockets][,maxcpus=maxcpus]`

  Simulate an SMP system with n CPUs. On the PC target, up to 255 CPUs are supported. On Sparc32 target, Linux limits the number of usable CPUs to 4. For the PC target, the number of cores per socket, the number of threads per cores and the total number of sockets can be specified. Missing values will be computed. If any on the three values is given, the total number of CPUs n can be omitted. maxcpus specifies the maximum number of hotpluggable CPUs.

`-numa node[,mem=size][,cpus=cpu[-cpu]][,nodeid=node]`
`-numa node[,memdev=id][,cpus=cpu[-cpu]][,nodeid=node]`

  Simulate a multi node NUMA system. If ‘`mem`’, ‘`memdev`’ and ‘`cpus`’ are omitted, resources are split equally. Also, note that the -`numa` option doesn’t allocate any of the specified resources. That is, it just assigns existing resources to NUMA nodes. This means that one still has to use the `-m`, `-smp` options to allocate RAM and VCPUs respectively, and possibly `-object` to specify the memory backend for the ‘`memdev`’ suboption.

  ‘`mem`’ and ‘`memdev`’ are mutually exclusive. Furthermore, if one node uses ‘`memdev`’, all of them have to use it.

`-add-fd fd=fd,set=set[,opaque=opaque]`

  Add a file descriptor to an fd set. Valid options are:

  `fd=fd`

    This option defines the file descriptor of which a duplicate is added to fd set. The file descriptor cannot be stdin, stdout, or stderr.

  `set=set`

    This option defines the ID of the fd set to add the file descriptor to.

  `opaque=opaque`

    This option defines a free-form string that can be used to describe fd.

  You can open an image using pre-opened file descriptors from an fd set:

      qemu-system-i386
      -add-fd fd=3,set=2,opaque="rdwr:/path/to/file"
      -add-fd fd=4,set=2,opaque="rdonly:/path/to/file"
      -drive file=/dev/fdset/2,index=0,media=disk

`-set group.id.arg=value`

  Set parameter arg for item id of type group\n"

`-global driver.prop=value`
`-global driver=driver,property=property,value=value`

  Set default value of driver’s property prop to value, e.g.:

      qemu-system-i386 -global ide-drive.physical_block_size=4096 -drive file=file,if=ide,index=0,media=disk

  In particular, you can use this to set driver properties for devices which are created automatically by the machine model. To create a device which is not created automatically and set properties on it, use -`device`.

  -global driver.prop=value is shorthand for -global driver=driver,property=prop,value=value. The longhand syntax works even when driver contains a dot.

`-boot [order=drives][,once=drives][,menu=on|off][,splash=sp_name][,splash-time=sp_time][,reboot-timeout=rb_timeout][,strict=on|off]`

  Specify boot order drives as a string of drive letters. Valid drive letters depend on the target architecture. The x86 PC uses: a, b (floppy 1 and 2), c (first hard disk), d (first CD-ROM), n-p (Etherboot from network adapter 1-4), hard disk boot is the default. To apply a particular boot order only on the first startup, specify it via `once`.

  Interactive boot menus/prompts can be enabled via `menu=on` as far as firmware/BIOS supports them. The default is non-interactive boot.

  A splash picture could be passed to bios, enabling user to show it as logo, when option splash=sp_name is given and menu=on, If firmware/BIOS supports them. Currently Seabios for X86 system support it. limitation: The splash file could be a jpeg file or a BMP file in 24 BPP format(true color). The resolution should be supported by the SVGA mode, so the recommended is 320x240, 640x480, 800x640.

  A timeout could be passed to bios, guest will pause for rb_timeout ms when boot failed, then reboot. If rb_timeout is ’-1’, guest will not reboot, qemu passes ’-1’ to bios by default. Currently Seabios for X86 system support it.

  Do strict boot via `strict=on` as far as firmware/BIOS supports it. This only effects when boot priority is changed by bootindex options. The default is non-strict boot.

      # try to boot from network first, then from hard disk
      qemu-system-i386 -boot order=nc
      # boot from CD-ROM first, switch back to default order after reboot
      qemu-system-i386 -boot once=d
      # boot with a splash picture for 5 seconds.
      qemu-system-i386 -boot menu=on,splash=/root/boot.bmp,splash-time=5000

  Note: The legacy format ’-boot drives’ is still supported but its use is discouraged as it may be removed from future versions.

`-m [size=]megs[,slots=n,maxmem=size]`

  Sets guest startup RAM size to megs megabytes. Default is 128 MiB. Optionally, a suffix of “M” or “G” can be used to signify a value in megabytes or gigabytes respectively. Optional pair slots, maxmem could be used to set amount of hotpluggable memory slots and maximum amount of memory. Note that maxmem must be aligned to the page size.

  For example, the following command-line sets the guest startup RAM size to 1GB, creates 3 slots to hotplug additional memory and sets the maximum memory the guest can reach to 4GB:

      qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1G,slots=3,maxmem=4G

  If slots and maxmem are not specified, memory hotplug won’t be enabled and the guest startup RAM will never increase.

`-mem-path path`

  Allocate guest RAM from a temporarily created file in path.

`-mem-prealloc`

  Preallocate memory when using -mem-path.

`-k language`

  Use keyboard layout language (for example `fr` for French). This option is only needed where it is not easy to get raw PC keycodes (e.g. on Macs, with some X11 servers or with a VNC display). You don’t normally need to use it on PC/Linux or PC/Windows hosts.

  The available layouts are:

      ar  de-ch  es  fo     fr-ca  hu  ja  mk     no  pt-br  sv
      da  en-gb  et  fr     fr-ch  is  lt  nl     pl  ru     th
      de  en-us  fi  fr-be  hr     it  lv  nl-be  pt  sl     tr

  The default is `en-us`.

`-audio-help`

  Will show the audio subsystem help: list of drivers, tunable parameters.

`-soundhw card1[,card2,...] or -soundhw all`

  Enable audio and selected sound hardware. Use ’help’ to print all available sound hardware.

      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw sb16,adlib disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw es1370 disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw ac97 disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw hda disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw all disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -soundhw help

  Note that Linux’s i810_audio OSS kernel (for AC97) module might require manually specifying clocking.

      modprobe i810_audio clocking=48000

`-balloon none`

  Disable balloon device.

`-balloon virtio[,addr=addr]`

  Enable virtio balloon device (default), optionally with PCI address addr.

`-device driver[,prop[=value][,...]]`

  Add device driver. prop=value sets driver properties. Valid properties depend on the driver. To get help on possible drivers and properties, use `-device help` and `-device driver,help`.

  Some drivers are:

`-device ipmi-bmc-sim,id=id[,slave_addr=val]`

  Add an IPMI BMC. This is a simulation of a hardware management interface processor that normally sits on a system. It provides a watchdog and the ability to reset and power control the system. You need to connect this to an IPMI interface to make it useful

  The IPMI slave address to use for the BMC. The default is 0x20. This address is the BMC’s address on the I2C network of management controllers. If you don’t know what this means, it is safe to ignore it.

`-device ipmi-bmc-extern,id=id,chardev=id[,slave_addr=val]`

  Add a connection to an external IPMI BMC simulator. Instead of locally emulating the BMC like the above item, instead connect to an external entity that provides the IPMI services.

  A connection is made to an external BMC simulator. If you do this, it is strongly recommended that you use the "reconnect=" chardev option to reconnect to the simulator if the connection is lost. Note that if this is not used carefully, it can be a security issue, as the interface has the ability to send resets, NMIs, and power off the VM. It’s best if QEMU makes a connection to an external simulator running on a secure port on localhost, so neither the simulator nor QEMU is exposed to any outside network.

  See the "lanserv/README.vm" file in the OpenIPMI library for more details on the external interface.

`-device isa-ipmi-kcs,bmc=id[,ioport=val][,irq=val]`

  Add a KCS IPMI interafce on the ISA bus. This also adds a corresponding ACPI and SMBIOS entries, if appropriate.

  `bmc=id`

    The BMC to connect to, one of ipmi-bmc-sim or ipmi-bmc-extern above.

  `ioport=val`

    Define the I/O address of the interface. The default is 0xca0 for KCS.

  `irq=val`

    Define the interrupt to use. The default is 5. To disable interrupts, set this to 0.

`-device isa-ipmi-bt,bmc=id[,ioport=val][,irq=val]`

  Like the KCS interface, but defines a BT interface. The default port is 0xe4 and the default interrupt is 5.

`-name name`

  Sets the name of the guest. This name will be displayed in the SDL window caption. The name will also be used for the VNC server. Also optionally set the top visible process name in Linux. Naming of individual threads can also be enabled on Linux to aid debugging.

`-uuid uuid`

  Set system UUID.

Block device options:

`-fda file`
`-fdb file`

  Use file as floppy disk 0/1 image (see disk_images).

`-hda file`
`-hdb file`
`-hdc file`
`-hdd file`

  Use file as hard disk 0, 1, 2 or 3 image (see disk_images).

`-cdrom file`

  Use file as CD-ROM image (you cannot use `-hdc` and `-cdrom` at the same time). You can use the host CD-ROM by using `/dev/cdrom` as filename (see host_drives).

`-drive option[,option[,option[,...]]]`

  Define a new drive. Valid options are:

  `file=file`

    This option defines which disk image (see disk_images) to use with this drive. If the filename contains comma, you must double it (for instance, "file=my,,file" to use file "my,file").

    Special files such as iSCSI devices can be specified using protocol specific URLs. See the section for "Device URL Syntax" for more information.

  `if=interface`

    This option defines on which type on interface the drive is connected. Available types are: ide, scsi, sd, mtd, floppy, pflash, virtio.

  `bus=bus,unit=unit`

    These options define where is connected the drive by defining the bus number and the unit id.

  `index=index`

    This option defines where is connected the drive by using an index in the list of available connectors of a given interface type.

  `media=media`

    This option defines the type of the media: disk or cdrom.

  `cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s[,trans=t]`

    These options have the same definition as they have in `-hdachs`.

  `snapshot=snapshot`

    snapshot is "on" or "off" and controls snapshot mode for the given drive (see `-snapshot`).

  `cache=cache`

    cache is "none", "writeback", "unsafe", "directsync" or "writethrough" and controls how the host cache is used to access block data.

  `aio=aio`

    aio is "threads", or "native" and selects between pthread based disk I/O and native Linux AIO.

  `discard=discard`

    discard is one of "ignore" (or "off") or "unmap" (or "on") and controls whether discard (also known as trim or unmap) requests are ignored or passed to the filesystem. Some machine types may not support discard requests.

  `format=format`

    Specify which disk format will be used rather than detecting the format. Can be used to specifiy format=raw to avoid interpreting an untrusted format header.

  `serial=serial`

    This option specifies the serial number to assign to the device.

  `addr=addr`

    Specify the controller’s PCI address (if=virtio only).

  `werror=action,rerror=action`

    Specify which action to take on write and read errors. Valid actions are: "ignore" (ignore the error and try to continue), "stop" (pause QEMU), "report" (report the error to the guest), "enospc" (pause QEMU only if the host disk is full; report the error to the guest otherwise). The default setting is `werror=enospc` and `rerror=report`.

  `readonly`

    Open drive `file` as read-only. Guest write attempts will fail.

  `copy-on-read=copy-on-read`

    copy-on-read is "on" or "off" and enables whether to copy read backing file sectors into the image file.

  `detect-zeroes=detect-zeroes`

    detect-zeroes is "off", "on" or "unmap" and enables the automatic conversion of plain zero writes by the OS to driver specific optimized zero write commands. You may even choose "unmap" if discard is set to "unmap" to allow a zero write to be converted to an UNMAP operation.

  By default, the `cache=writeback` mode is used. It will report data writes as completed as soon as the data is present in the host page cache. This is safe as long as your guest OS makes sure to correctly flush disk caches where needed. If your guest OS does not handle volatile disk write caches correctly and your host crashes or loses power, then the guest may experience data corruption.

  For such guests, you should consider using `cache=writethrough`. This means that the host page cache will be used to read and write data, but write notification will be sent to the guest only after QEMU has made sure to flush each write to the disk. Be aware that this has a major impact on performance.

  The host page cache can be avoided entirely with `cache=none`. This will attempt to do disk IO directly to the guest’s memory. QEMU may still perform an internal copy of the data. Note that this is considered a writeback mode and the guest OS must handle the disk write cache correctly in order to avoid data corruption on host crashes.

  The host page cache can be avoided while only sending write notifications to the guest when the data has been flushed to the disk using `cache=directsync`.

  In case you don’t care about data integrity over host failures, use `cache=unsafe`. This option tells QEMU that it never needs to write any data to the disk but can instead keep things in cache. If anything goes wrong, like your host losing power, the disk storage getting disconnected accidentally, etc. your image will most probably be rendered unusable. When using the `-snapshot` option, unsafe caching is always used.

  Copy-on-read avoids accessing the same backing file sectors repeatedly and is useful when the backing file is over a slow network. By default copy-on-read is off.

  Instead of `-cdrom` you can use:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=2,media=cdrom

  Instead of `-hda`, `-hdb`, `-hdc`, `-hdd`, you can use:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=0,media=disk
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=1,media=disk
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=2,media=disk
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=3,media=disk

  You can open an image using pre-opened file descriptors from an fd set:

      qemu-system-i386
      -add-fd fd=3,set=2,opaque="rdwr:/path/to/file"
      -add-fd fd=4,set=2,opaque="rdonly:/path/to/file"
      -drive file=/dev/fdset/2,index=0,media=disk

  You can connect a CDROM to the slave of ide0:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,if=ide,index=1,media=cdrom

  If you don’t specify the "file=" argument, you define an empty drive:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive if=ide,index=1,media=cdrom

  You can connect a SCSI disk with unit ID 6 on the bus #0:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,if=scsi,bus=0,unit=6

  Instead of `-fda`, `-fdb`, you can use:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=0,if=floppy
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=file,index=1,if=floppy

  By default, interface is "ide" and index is automatically incremented:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=a -drive file=b"

  is interpreted like:

      qemu-system-i386 -hda a -hdb b

`-mtdblock file`

  Use file as on-board Flash memory image.

`-sd file`

  Use file as SecureDigital card image.

`-pflash file`

  Use file as a parallel flash image.

`-snapshot`

  Write to temporary files instead of disk image files. In this case, the raw disk image you use is not written back. You can however force the write back by pressing `C-a s` (see disk_images).

`-hdachs c,h,s,[,t]`

  Force hard disk 0 physical geometry (1 <= c <= 16383, 1 <= h <= 16, 1 <= s <= 63) and optionally force the BIOS translation mode (t=none, lba or auto). Usually QEMU can guess all those parameters. This option is useful for old MS-DOS disk images.

`-fsdev fsdriver,id=id,path=path,[security_model=security_model][,writeout=writeout][,readonly][,socket=socket|sock_fd=sock_fd]`

  Define a new file system device. Valid options are:

  `fsdriver`

    This option specifies the fs driver backend to use. Currently "local", "handle" and "proxy" file system drivers are supported.

  `id=id`

    Specifies identifier for this device

  `path=path`

    Specifies the export path for the file system device. Files under this path will be available to the 9p client on the guest.

  `security_model=security_model`

    Specifies the security model to be used for this export path. Supported security models are "passthrough", "mapped-xattr", "mapped-file" and "none". In "passthrough" security model, files are stored using the same credentials as they are created on the guest. This requires QEMU to run as root. In "mapped-xattr" security model, some of the file attributes like uid, gid, mode bits and link target are stored as file attributes. For "mapped-file" these attributes are stored in the hidden .virtfs_metadata directory. Directories exported by this security model cannot interact with other unix tools. "none" security model is same as passthrough except the sever won’t report failures if it fails to set file attributes like ownership. Security model is mandatory only for local fsdriver. Other fsdrivers (like handle, proxy) don’t take security model as a parameter.

  `writeout=writeout`

    This is an optional argument. The only supported value is "immediate". This means that host page cache will be used to read and write data but write notification will be sent to the guest only when the data has been reported as written by the storage subsystem.

  `readonly`

    Enables exporting 9p share as a readonly mount for guests. By default read-write access is given.

  `socket=socket`

    Enables proxy filesystem driver to use passed socket file for communicating with virtfs-proxy-helper

  `sock_fd=sock_fd`

    Enables proxy filesystem driver to use passed socket descriptor for communicating with virtfs-proxy-helper. Usually a helper like libvirt will create socketpair and pass one of the fds as sock_fd

  -fsdev option is used along with -device driver "virtio-9p-pci".

`-device virtio-9p-pci,fsdev=id,mount_tag=mount_tag`

  Options for virtio-9p-pci driver are:

  `fsdev=id`

    Specifies the id value specified along with -fsdev option

  `mount_tag=mount_tag`

    Specifies the tag name to be used by the guest to mount this export point

`-virtfs fsdriver[,path=path],mount_tag=mount_tag[,security_model=security_model][,writeout=writeout][,readonly][,socket=socket|sock_fd=sock_fd]`

  The general form of a Virtual File system pass-through options are:

  `fsdriver`

    This option specifies the fs driver backend to use. Currently "local", "handle" and "proxy" file system drivers are supported.

  `id=id`

    Specifies identifier for this device

  `path=path`

    Specifies the export path for the file system device. Files under this path will be available to the 9p client on the guest.

  `security_model=security_model`

    Specifies the security model to be used for this export path. Supported security models are "passthrough", "mapped-xattr", "mapped-file" and "none". In "passthrough" security model, files are stored using the same credentials as they are created on the guest. This requires QEMU to run as root. In "mapped-xattr" security model, some of the file attributes like uid, gid, mode bits and link target are stored as file attributes. For "mapped-file" these attributes are stored in the hidden .virtfs_metadata directory. Directories exported by this security model cannot interact with other unix tools. "none" security model is same as passthrough except the sever won’t report failures if it fails to set file attributes like ownership. Security model is mandatory only for local fsdriver. Other fsdrivers (like handle, proxy) don’t take security model as a parameter.

  `writeout=writeout`

    This is an optional argument. The only supported value is "immediate". This means that host page cache will be used to read and write data but write notification will be sent to the guest only when the data has been reported as written by the storage subsystem.

  `readonly`

    Enables exporting 9p share as a readonly mount for guests. By default read-write access is given.

  `socket=socket`

    Enables proxy filesystem driver to use passed socket file for communicating with virtfs-proxy-helper. Usually a helper like libvirt will create socketpair and pass one of the fds as sock_fd

  `sock_fd`

    Enables proxy filesystem driver to use passed ’sock_fd’ as the socket descriptor for interfacing with virtfs-proxy-helper

`-virtfs_synth`

  Create synthetic file system image

USB options:

`-usb`

  Enable the USB driver (will be the default soon)

`-usbdevice devname`

  Add the USB device devname. See usb_devices.

  `mouse`

    Virtual Mouse. This will override the PS/2 mouse emulation when activated.

  `tablet`

    Pointer device that uses absolute coordinates (like a touchscreen). This means QEMU is able to report the mouse position without having to grab the mouse. Also overrides the PS/2 mouse emulation when activated.

  `disk:[format=format]:file`

    Mass storage device based on file. The optional format argument will be used rather than detecting the format. Can be used to specifiy `format=raw` to avoid interpreting an untrusted format header.

  `host:bus.addr`

    Pass through the host device identified by bus.addr (Linux only).

  `host:vendor_id:product_id`

    Pass through the host device identified by vendor_id:product_id (Linux only).

  `serial:[vendorid=vendor_id][,productid=product_id]:dev`

    Serial converter to host character device dev, see `-serial` for the available devices.

  `braille`

    Braille device. This will use BrlAPI to display the braille output on a real or fake device.

  `net:options`

    Network adapter that supports CDC ethernet and RNDIS protocols.

Display options:

`-display type`

  Select type of display to use. This option is a replacement for the old style -sdl/-curses/... options. Valid values for type are

  `sdl`

    Display video output via SDL (usually in a separate graphics window; see the SDL documentation for other possibilities).

  `curses`

    Display video output via curses. For graphics device models which support a text mode, QEMU can display this output using a curses/ncurses interface. Nothing is displayed when the graphics device is in graphical mode or if the graphics device does not support a text mode. Generally only the VGA device models support text mode.

  `none`

    Do not display video output. The guest will still see an emulated graphics card, but its output will not be displayed to the QEMU user. This option differs from the -nographic option in that it only affects what is done with video output; -nographic also changes the destination of the serial and parallel port data.

  `gtk`

    Display video output in a GTK window. This interface provides drop-down menus and other UI elements to configure and control the VM during runtime.

  `vnc`

    Start a VNC server on display <arg>

`-nographic`

  Normally, QEMU uses SDL to display the VGA output. With this option, you can totally disable graphical output so that QEMU is a simple command line application. The emulated serial port is redirected on the console and muxed with the monitor (unless redirected elsewhere explicitly). Therefore, you can still use QEMU to debug a Linux kernel with a serial console. Use `C-a h` for help on switching between the console and monitor.

`-curses`

  Normally, QEMU uses SDL to display the VGA output. With this option, QEMU can display the VGA output when in text mode using a curses/ncurses interface. Nothing is displayed in graphical mode.

`-no-frame`

  Do not use decorations for SDL windows and start them using the whole available screen space. This makes the using QEMU in a dedicated desktop workspace more convenient.

`-alt-grab`

  Use Ctrl-Alt-Shift to grab mouse (instead of Ctrl-Alt). Note that this also affects the special keys (for fullscreen, monitor-mode switching, etc).

`-ctrl-grab`

  Use Right-Ctrl to grab mouse (instead of Ctrl-Alt). Note that this also affects the special keys (for fullscreen, monitor-mode switching, etc).

`-no-quit`

  Disable SDL window close capability.

`-sdl`

  Enable SDL.

`-spice option[,option[,...]]`

  Enable the spice remote desktop protocol. Valid options are

  `port=<nr>`

    Set the TCP port spice is listening on for plaintext channels.

  `addr=<addr>`

    Set the IP address spice is listening on. Default is any address.

  `ipv4`
  `ipv6`
  `unix`

    Force using the specified IP version.

  `password=<secret>`

    Set the password you need to authenticate.

  `sasl`

    Require that the client use SASL to authenticate with the spice. The exact choice of authentication method used is controlled from the system / user’s SASL configuration file for the ’qemu’ service. This is typically found in /etc/sasl2/qemu.conf. If running QEMU as an unprivileged user, an environment variable SASL_CONF_PATH can be used to make it search alternate locations for the service config. While some SASL auth methods can also provide data encryption (eg GSSAPI), it is recommended that SASL always be combined with the ’tls’ and ’x509’ settings to enable use of SSL and server certificates. This ensures a data encryption preventing compromise of authentication credentials.

  `disable-ticketing`

    Allow client connects without authentication.

  `disable-copy-paste`

    Disable copy paste between the client and the guest.

  `disable-agent-file-xfer`

    Disable spice-vdagent based file-xfer between the client and the guest.

  `tls-port=<nr>`

    Set the TCP port spice is listening on for encrypted channels.

  `x509-dir=<dir>`

    Set the x509 file directory. Expects same filenames as -vnc $display,x509=$dir

  `x509-key-file=<file>`
  `x509-key-password=<file>`
  `x509-cert-file=<file>`
  `x509-cacert-file=<file>`
  `x509-dh-key-file=<file>`

    The x509 file names can also be configured individually.

  `tls-ciphers=<list>`

    Specify which ciphers to use.

  `tls-channel=[main|display|cursor|inputs|record|playback]`
  `plaintext-channel=[main|display|cursor|inputs|record|playback]`

    Force specific channel to be used with or without TLS encryption. The options can be specified multiple times to configure multiple channels. The special name "default" can be used to set the default mode. For channels which are not explicitly forced into one mode the spice client is allowed to pick tls/plaintext as he pleases.

  `image-compression=[auto_glz|auto_lz|quic|glz|lz|off]`

    Configure image compression (lossless). Default is auto_glz.

  `jpeg-wan-compression=[auto|never|always]`
  `zlib-glz-wan-compression=[auto|never|always]`

    Configure wan image compression (lossy for slow links). Default is auto.

  `streaming-video=[off|all|filter]`

    Configure video stream detection. Default is filter.

  `agent-mouse=[on|off]`

    Enable/disable passing mouse events via vdagent. Default is on.

  `playback-compression=[on|off]`

    Enable/disable audio stream compression (using celt 0.5.1). Default is on.

  `seamless-migration=[on|off]`

    Enable/disable spice seamless migration. Default is off.

  `gl=[on|off]`

    Enable/disable OpenGL context. Default is off.

`-portrait`

  Rotate graphical output 90 deg left (only PXA LCD).

`-rotate deg`

  Rotate graphical output some deg left (only PXA LCD).

`-vga type`

  Select type of VGA card to emulate. Valid values for type are

  `cirrus`

    Cirrus Logic GD5446 Video card. All Windows versions starting from Windows 95 should recognize and use this graphic card. For optimal performances, use 16 bit color depth in the guest and the host OS. (This one is the default)

  `std`

    Standard VGA card with Bochs VBE extensions. If your guest OS supports the VESA 2.0 VBE extensions (e.g. Windows XP) and if you want to use high resolution modes (>= 1280x1024x16) then you should use this option.

  `vmware`

    VMWare SVGA-II compatible adapter. Use it if you have sufficiently recent XFree86/XOrg server or Windows guest with a driver for this card.

  `qxl`

    QXL paravirtual graphic card. It is VGA compatible (including VESA 2.0 VBE support). Works best with qxl guest drivers installed though. Recommended choice when using the spice protocol.

  `tcx`

    (sun4m only) Sun TCX framebuffer. This is the default framebuffer for sun4m machines and offers both 8-bit and 24-bit colour depths at a fixed resolution of 1024x768.

  `cg3`

    (sun4m only) Sun cgthree framebuffer. This is a simple 8-bit framebuffer for sun4m machines available in both 1024x768 (OpenBIOS) and 1152x900 (OBP) resolutions aimed at people wishing to run older Solaris versions.

  `virtio`

    Virtio VGA card.

  `none`

    Disable VGA card.

`-full-screen`

  Start in full screen.

`-g widthxheight[xdepth]`

  Set the initial graphical resolution and depth (PPC, SPARC only).

`-vnc display[,option[,option[,...]]]`

  Normally, QEMU uses SDL to display the VGA output. With this option, you can have QEMU listen on VNC display display and redirect the VGA display over the VNC session. It is very useful to enable the usb tablet device when using this option (option `-usbdevice tablet`). When using the VNC display, you must use the `-k` parameter to set the keyboard layout if you are not using en-us. Valid syntax for the display is

  `host:d`

    TCP connections will only be allowed from host on display d. By convention the TCP port is 5900+d. Optionally, host can be omitted in which case the server will accept connections from any host.

  `unix:path`

    Connections will be allowed over UNIX domain sockets where path is the location of a unix socket to listen for connections on.

  `none`

    VNC is initialized but not started. The monitor `change` command can be used to later start the VNC server.

  Following the display value there may be one or more option flags separated by commas. Valid options are

  `reverse`

    Connect to a listening VNC client via a “reverse” connection. The client is specified by the display. For reverse network connections (host:d,`reverse`), the d argument is a TCP port number, not a display number.

  `websocket`

    Opens an additional TCP listening port dedicated to VNC Websocket connections. By definition the Websocket port is 5700+display. If host is specified connections will only be allowed from this host. As an alternative the Websocket port could be specified by using `websocket`=port. If no TLS credentials are provided, the websocket connection runs in unencrypted mode. If TLS credentials are provided, the websocket connection requires encrypted client connections.

  `password`

    Require that password based authentication is used for client connections.

    The password must be set separately using the `set_password` command in the pcsys_monitor. The syntax to change your password is: `set_password <protocol> <password>` where <protocol> could be either "vnc" or "spice".

    If you would like to change <protocol> password expiration, you should use `expire_password <protocol> <expiration-time>` where expiration time could be one of the following options: now, never, +seconds or UNIX time of expiration, e.g. +60 to make password expire in 60 seconds, or 1335196800 to make password expire on "Mon Apr 23 12:00:00 EDT 2012" (UNIX time for this date and time).

    You can also use keywords "now" or "never" for the expiration time to allow <protocol> password to expire immediately or never expire.

  `tls-creds=ID`

    Provides the ID of a set of TLS credentials to use to secure the VNC server. They will apply to both the normal VNC server socket and the websocket socket (if enabled). Setting TLS credentials will cause the VNC server socket to enable the VeNCrypt auth mechanism. The credentials should have been previously created using the `-object tls-creds` argument.

    The `tls-creds` parameter obsoletes the `tls`, `x509`, and `x509verify` options, and as such it is not permitted to set both new and old type options at the same time.

  `tls`

    Require that client use TLS when communicating with the VNC server. This uses anonymous TLS credentials so is susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack. It is recommended that this option be combined with either the `x509` or `x509verify` options.

    This option is now deprecated in favor of using the `tls-creds` argument.

  `x509=/path/to/certificate/dir`

    Valid if `tls` is specified. Require that x509 credentials are used for negotiating the TLS session. The server will send its x509 certificate to the client. It is recommended that a password be set on the VNC server to provide authentication of the client when this is used. The path following this option specifies where the x509 certificates are to be loaded from. See the vnc_security section for details on generating certificates.

    This option is now deprecated in favour of using the `tls-creds` argument.

  `x509verify=/path/to/certificate/dir`

    Valid if `tls` is specified. Require that x509 credentials are used for negotiating the TLS session. The server will send its x509 certificate to the client, and request that the client send its own x509 certificate. The server will validate the client’s certificate against the CA certificate, and reject clients when validation fails. If the certificate authority is trusted, this is a sufficient authentication mechanism. You may still wish to set a password on the VNC server as a second authentication layer. The path following this option specifies where the x509 certificates are to be loaded from. See the vnc_security section for details on generating certificates.

    This option is now deprecated in favour of using the `tls-creds` argument.

  `sasl`

    Require that the client use SASL to authenticate with the VNC server. The exact choice of authentication method used is controlled from the system / user’s SASL configuration file for the ’qemu’ service. This is typically found in /etc/sasl2/qemu.conf. If running QEMU as an unprivileged user, an environment variable SASL_CONF_PATH can be used to make it search alternate locations for the service config. While some SASL auth methods can also provide data encryption (eg GSSAPI), it is recommended that SASL always be combined with the ’tls’ and ’x509’ settings to enable use of SSL and server certificates. This ensures a data encryption preventing compromise of authentication credentials. See the vnc_security section for details on using SASL authentication.

  `acl`

    Turn on access control lists for checking of the x509 client certificate and SASL party. For x509 certs, the ACL check is made against the certificate’s distinguished name. This is something that looks like `C=GB,O=ACME,L=Boston,CN=bob`. For SASL party, the ACL check is made against the username, which depending on the SASL plugin, may include a realm component, eg `bob` or `bob@EXAMPLE.COM`. When the `acl` flag is set, the initial access list will be empty, with a `deny` policy. Thus no one will be allowed to use the VNC server until the ACLs have been loaded. This can be achieved using the `acl` monitor command.

  `lossy`

    Enable lossy compression methods (gradient, JPEG, ...). If this option is set, VNC client may receive lossy framebuffer updates depending on its encoding settings. Enabling this option can save a lot of bandwidth at the expense of quality.

  `non-adaptive`

    Disable adaptive encodings. Adaptive encodings are enabled by default. An adaptive encoding will try to detect frequently updated screen regions, and send updates in these regions using a lossy encoding (like JPEG). This can be really helpful to save bandwidth when playing videos. Disabling adaptive encodings restores the original static behavior of encodings like Tight.

  `share=[allow-exclusive|force-shared|ignore]`

    Set display sharing policy. ’allow-exclusive’ allows clients to ask for exclusive access. As suggested by the rfb spec this is implemented by dropping other connections. Connecting multiple clients in parallel requires all clients asking for a shared session (vncviewer: -shared switch). This is the default. ’force-shared’ disables exclusive client access. Useful for shared desktop sessions, where you don’t want someone forgetting specify -shared disconnect everybody else. ’ignore’ completely ignores the shared flag and allows everybody connect unconditionally. Doesn’t conform to the rfb spec but is traditional QEMU behavior.

i386 target only:

`-win2k-hack`

  Use it when installing Windows 2000 to avoid a disk full bug. After Windows 2000 is installed, you no longer need this option (this option slows down the IDE transfers).

`-no-fd-bootchk`

  Disable boot signature checking for floppy disks in BIOS. May be needed to boot from old floppy disks.

`-no-acpi`

  Disable ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) support. Use it if your guest OS complains about ACPI problems (PC target machine only).

`-no-hpet`

  Disable HPET support.

`-acpitable [sig=str][,rev=n][,oem_id=str][,oem_table_id=str][,oem_rev=n] [,asl_compiler_id=str][,asl_compiler_rev=n][,data=file1[:file2]...]`

  Add ACPI table with specified header fields and context from specified files. For file=, take whole ACPI table from the specified files, including all ACPI headers (possible overridden by other options). For data=, only data portion of the table is used, all header information is specified in the command line. If a SLIC table is supplied to QEMU, then the SLIC’s oem_id and oem_table_id fields will override the same in the RSDT and the FADT (a.k.a. FACP), in order to ensure the field matches required by the Microsoft SLIC spec and the ACPI spec.

`-smbios file=binary`

  Load SMBIOS entry from binary file.

`-smbios type=0[,vendor=str][,version=str][,date=str][,release=%d.%d][,uefi=on|off]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 0 fields

`-smbios type=1[,manufacturer=str][,product=str][,version=str][,serial=str][,uuid=uuid][,sku=str][,family=str]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 1 fields

`-smbios type=2[,manufacturer=str][,product=str][,version=str][,serial=str][,asset=str][,location=str][,family=str]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 2 fields

`-smbios type=3[,manufacturer=str][,version=str][,serial=str][,asset=str][,sku=str]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 3 fields

`-smbios type=4[,sock_pfx=str][,manufacturer=str][,version=str][,serial=str][,asset=str][,part=str]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 4 fields

`-smbios type=17[,loc_pfx=str][,bank=str][,manufacturer=str][,serial=str][,asset=str][,part=str][,speed=%d]`

  Specify SMBIOS type 17 fields

Network options:

`-net nic[,vlan=n][,macaddr=mac][,model=type] [,name=name][,addr=addr][,vectors=v]`

  Create a new Network Interface Card and connect it to VLAN n (n = 0 is the default). The NIC is an e1000 by default on the PC target. Optionally, the MAC address can be changed to mac, the device address set to addr (PCI cards only), and a name can be assigned for use in monitor commands. Optionally, for PCI cards, you can specify the number v of MSI-X vectors that the card should have; this option currently only affects virtio cards; set v = 0 to disable MSI-X. If no `-net` option is specified, a single NIC is created. QEMU can emulate several different models of network card. Valid values for type are `virtio`, `i82551`, `i82557b`, `i82559er`, `ne2k_pci`, `ne2k_isa`, `pcnet`, `rtl8139`, `e1000`, `smc91c111`, `lance` and `mcf_fec`. Not all devices are supported on all targets. Use `-net nic,model=help` for a list of available devices for your target.

`-netdev user,id=id[,option][,option][,...]`
`-net user[,option][,option][,...]`

  Use the user mode network stack which requires no administrator privilege to run. Valid options are:

  `vlan=n`

    Connect user mode stack to VLAN n (n = 0 is the default).

  `id=id`
  `name=name`

    Assign symbolic name for use in monitor commands.

    `ipv4` and `ipv6` specify that either IPv4 or IPv6 must be enabled. If neither is specified both protocols are enabled.

  `net=addr[/mask]`

    Set IP network address the guest will see. Optionally specify the netmask, either in the form a.b.c.d or as number of valid top-most bits. Default is 10.0.2.0/24.

  `host=addr`

    Specify the guest-visible address of the host. Default is the 2nd IP in the guest network, i.e. x.x.x.2.

  `ipv6-net=addr[/int]`

    Set IPv6 network address the guest will see (default is fec0::/64). The network prefix is given in the usual hexadecimal IPv6 address notation. The prefix size is optional, and is given as the number of valid top-most bits (default is 64).

  `ipv6-host=addr`

    Specify the guest-visible IPv6 address of the host. Default is the 2nd IPv6 in the guest network, i.e. xxxx::2.

  `restrict=on|off`

    If this option is enabled, the guest will be isolated, i.e. it will not be able to contact the host and no guest IP packets will be routed over the host to the outside. This option does not affect any explicitly set forwarding rules.

  `hostname=name`

    Specifies the client hostname reported by the built-in DHCP server.

  `dhcpstart=addr`

    Specify the first of the 16 IPs the built-in DHCP server can assign. Default is the 15th to 31st IP in the guest network, i.e. x.x.x.15 to x.x.x.31.

  `dns=addr`

    Specify the guest-visible address of the virtual nameserver. The address must be different from the host address. Default is the 3rd IP in the guest network, i.e. x.x.x.3.

  `ipv6-dns=addr`

    Specify the guest-visible address of the IPv6 virtual nameserver. The address must be different from the host address. Default is the 3rd IP in the guest network, i.e. xxxx::3.

  `dnssearch=domain`

    Provides an entry for the domain-search list sent by the built-in DHCP server. More than one domain suffix can be transmitted by specifying this option multiple times. If supported, this will cause the guest to automatically try to append the given domain suffix(es) in case a domain name can not be resolved.

    Example:

        qemu -net user,dnssearch=mgmt.example.org,dnssearch=example.org [...]

  `tftp=dir`

    When using the user mode network stack, activate a built-in TFTP server. The files in dir will be exposed as the root of a TFTP server. The TFTP client on the guest must be configured in binary mode (use the command `bin` of the Unix TFTP client).

  `bootfile=file`

    When using the user mode network stack, broadcast file as the BOOTP filename. In conjunction with `tftp`, this can be used to network boot a guest from a local directory.

    Example (using pxelinux):

        qemu-system-i386 -hda linux.img -boot n -net user,tftp=/path/to/tftp/files,bootfile=/pxelinux.0

  `smb=dir[,smbserver=addr]`

    When using the user mode network stack, activate a built-in SMB server so that Windows OSes can access to the host files in `dir` transparently. The IP address of the SMB server can be set to addr. By default the 4th IP in the guest network is used, i.e. x.x.x.4.

    In the guest Windows OS, the line:

        10.0.2.4 smbserver

    must be added in the file `C:\WINDOWS\LMHOSTS` (for windows 9x/Me) or `C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\LMHOSTS` (Windows NT/2000).

    Then `dir` can be accessed in `\\smbserver\qemu`.

    Note that a SAMBA server must be installed on the host OS. QEMU was tested successfully with smbd versions from Red Hat 9, Fedora Core 3 and OpenSUSE 11.x.

  `hostfwd=[tcp|udp]:[hostaddr]:hostport-[guestaddr]:guestport`

    Redirect incoming TCP or UDP connections to the host port hostport to the guest IP address guestaddr on guest port guestport. If guestaddr is not specified, its value is x.x.x.15 (default first address given by the built-in DHCP server). By specifying hostaddr, the rule can be bound to a specific host interface. If no connection type is set, TCP is used. This option can be given multiple times.

    For example, to redirect host X11 connection from screen 1 to guest screen 0, use the following:

        # on the host
        qemu-system-i386 -net user,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:6001-:6000 [...]
        # this host xterm should open in the guest X11 server
        xterm -display :1

    To redirect telnet connections from host port 5555 to telnet port on the guest, use the following:

        # on the host
        qemu-system-i386 -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:23 [...]
        telnet localhost 5555

    Then when you use on the host `telnet localhost 5555`, you connect to the guest telnet server.

  `guestfwd=[tcp]:server:port-dev`
  `guestfwd=[tcp]:server:port-cmd:command`

    Forward guest TCP connections to the IP address server on port port to the character device dev or to a program executed by cmd:command which gets spawned for each connection. This option can be given multiple times.

    You can either use a chardev directly and have that one used throughout QEMU’s lifetime, like in the following example:

        # open 10.10.1.1:4321 on bootup, connect 10.0.2.100:1234 to it whenever
        # the guest accesses it
        qemu -net user,guestfwd=tcp:10.0.2.100:1234-tcp:10.10.1.1:4321 [...]

    Or you can execute a command on every TCP connection established by the guest, so that QEMU behaves similar to an inetd process for that virtual server:

        # call "netcat 10.10.1.1 4321" on every TCP connection to 10.0.2.100:1234
        # and connect the TCP stream to its stdin/stdout
        qemu -net 'user,guestfwd=tcp:10.0.2.100:1234-cmd:netcat 10.10.1.1 4321'

  Note: Legacy stand-alone options -tftp, -bootp, -smb and -redir are still processed and applied to -net user. Mixing them with the new configuration syntax gives undefined results. Their use for new applications is discouraged as they will be removed from future versions.

`-netdev tap,id=id[,fd=h][,ifname=name][,script=file][,downscript=dfile][,helper=helper]`
`-net tap[,vlan=n][,name=name][,fd=h][,ifname=name][,script=file][,downscript=dfile][,helper=helper]`

  Connect the host TAP network interface name to VLAN n.

  Use the network script file to configure it and the network script dfile to deconfigure it. If name is not provided, the OS automatically provides one. The default network configure script is `/etc/qemu-ifup` and the default network deconfigure script is `/etc/qemu-ifdown`. Use `script=no` or `downscript=no` to disable script execution.

  If running QEMU as an unprivileged user, use the network helper helper to configure the TAP interface. The default network helper executable is `/path/to/qemu-bridge-helper`.

  `fd`=h can be used to specify the handle of an already opened host TAP interface.

  Examples:

      #launch a QEMU instance with the default network script
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img -net nic -net tap

      #launch a QEMU instance with two NICs, each one connected
      #to a TAP device
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,vlan=0 -net tap,vlan=0,ifname=tap0 \
      -net nic,vlan=1 -net tap,vlan=1,ifname=tap1

      #launch a QEMU instance with the default network helper to
      #connect a TAP device to bridge br0
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic -net tap,"helper=/path/to/qemu-bridge-helper"

`-netdev bridge,id=id[,br=bridge][,helper=helper]`
`-net bridge[,vlan=n][,name=name][,br=bridge][,helper=helper]`

  Connect a host TAP network interface to a host bridge device.

  Use the network helper helper to configure the TAP interface and attach it to the bridge. The default network helper executable is `/path/to/qemu-bridge-helper` and the default bridge device is `br0`.

  Examples:

      #launch a QEMU instance with the default network helper to
      #connect a TAP device to bridge br0
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img -net bridge -net nic,model=virtio

      #launch a QEMU instance with the default network helper to
      #connect a TAP device to bridge qemubr0
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img -net bridge,br=qemubr0 -net nic,model=virtio

`-netdev socket,id=id[,fd=h][,listen=[host]:port][,connect=host:port]`
`-net socket[,vlan=n][,name=name][,fd=h] [,listen=[host]:port][,connect=host:port]`

  Connect the VLAN n to a remote VLAN in another QEMU virtual machine using a TCP socket connection. If `listen` is specified, QEMU waits for incoming connections on port (host is optional). `connect` is used to connect to another QEMU instance using the `listen` option. `fd`=h specifies an already opened TCP socket.

  Example:

      # launch a first QEMU instance
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56 \
      -net socket,listen=:1234
      # connect the VLAN 0 of this instance to the VLAN 0
      # of the first instance
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 \
      -net socket,connect=127.0.0.1:1234

`-netdev socket,id=id[,fd=h][,mcast=maddr:port[,localaddr=addr]]`
`-net socket[,vlan=n][,name=name][,fd=h][,mcast=maddr:port[,localaddr=addr]]`

  Create a VLAN n shared with another QEMU virtual machines using a UDP multicast socket, effectively making a bus for every QEMU with same multicast address maddr and port. NOTES:

  1. Several QEMU can be running on different hosts and share same bus (assuming correct multicast setup for these hosts).
  2. mcast support is compatible with User Mode Linux (argument `ethN=mcast`), see http://user-mode-linux.sf.net.
  3. Use `fd=h` to specify an already opened UDP multicast socket.

  Example:

      # launch one QEMU instance
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56 \
      -net socket,mcast=230.0.0.1:1234
      # launch another QEMU instance on same "bus"
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 \
      -net socket,mcast=230.0.0.1:1234
      # launch yet another QEMU instance on same "bus"
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:58 \
      -net socket,mcast=230.0.0.1:1234

  Example (User Mode Linux compat.):

      # launch QEMU instance (note mcast address selected
      # is UML's default)
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56 \
      -net socket,mcast=239.192.168.1:1102
      # launch UML
      /path/to/linux ubd0=/path/to/root_fs eth0=mcast

  Example (send packets from host’s 1.2.3.4):

      qemu-system-i386 linux.img \
      -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56 \
      -net socket,mcast=239.192.168.1:1102,localaddr=1.2.3.4

`-netdev l2tpv3,id=id,src=srcaddr,dst=dstaddr[,srcport=srcport][,dstport=dstport],txsession=txsession[,rxsession=rxsession][,ipv6][,udp][,cookie64][,counter][,pincounter][,txcookie=txcookie][,rxcookie=rxcookie][,offset=offset]`
`-net l2tpv3[,vlan=n][,name=name],src=srcaddr,dst=dstaddr[,srcport=srcport][,dstport=dstport],txsession=txsession[,rxsession=rxsession][,ipv6][,udp][,cookie64][,counter][,pincounter][,txcookie=txcookie][,rxcookie=rxcookie][,offset=offset]`

  Connect VLAN n to L2TPv3 pseudowire. L2TPv3 (RFC3391) is a popular protocol to transport Ethernet (and other Layer 2) data frames between two systems. It is present in routers, firewalls and the Linux kernel (from version 3.3 onwards).

  This transport allows a VM to communicate to another VM, router or firewall directly.

`src=srcaddr`

  source address (mandatory)

`dst=dstaddr`

  destination address (mandatory)

`udp`

  select udp encapsulation (default is ip).

`srcport=srcport`

  source udp port.

`dstport=dstport`

  destination udp port.

`ipv6`

  force v6, otherwise defaults to v4.

`rxcookie=rxcookie`
`txcookie=txcookie`

  Cookies are a weak form of security in the l2tpv3 specification. Their function is mostly to prevent misconfiguration. By default they are 32 bit.

`cookie64`

  Set cookie size to 64 bit instead of the default 32

`counter=off`

  Force a ’cut-down’ L2TPv3 with no counter as in draft-mkonstan-l2tpext-keyed-ipv6-tunnel-00

`pincounter=on`

  Work around broken counter handling in peer. This may also help on networks which have packet reorder.

`offset=offset`

  Add an extra offset between header and data

  For example, to attach a VM running on host 4.3.2.1 via L2TPv3 to the bridge br-lan on the remote Linux host 1.2.3.4:

      # Setup tunnel on linux host using raw ip as encapsulation
      # on 1.2.3.4
      ip l2tp add tunnel remote 4.3.2.1 local 1.2.3.4 tunnel_id 1 peer_tunnel_id 1 \
      encap udp udp_sport 16384 udp_dport 16384
      ip l2tp add session tunnel_id 1 name vmtunnel0 session_id \
      0xFFFFFFFF peer_session_id 0xFFFFFFFF
      ifconfig vmtunnel0 mtu 1500
      ifconfig vmtunnel0 up
      brctl addif br-lan vmtunnel0

      # on 4.3.2.1
      # launch QEMU instance - if your network has reorder or is very lossy add ,pincounter

      qemu-system-i386 linux.img -net nic -net l2tpv3,src=4.2.3.1,dst=1.2.3.4,udp,srcport=16384,dstport=16384,rxsession=0xffffffff,txsession=0xffffffff,counter

`-netdev vde,id=id[,sock=socketpath][,port=n][,group=groupname][,mode=octalmode]`
`-net vde[,vlan=n][,name=name][,sock=socketpath] [,port=n][,group=groupname][,mode=octalmode]`

  Connect VLAN n to PORT n of a vde switch running on host and listening for incoming connections on socketpath. Use GROUP groupname and MODE octalmode to change default ownership and permissions for communication port. This option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with vde support enabled.

  Example:

      # launch vde switch
      vde_switch -F -sock /tmp/myswitch
      # launch QEMU instance
      qemu-system-i386 linux.img -net nic -net vde,sock=/tmp/myswitch

`-netdev hubport,id=id,hubid=hubid`

  Create a hub port on QEMU "vlan" hubid.

  The hubport netdev lets you connect a NIC to a QEMU "vlan" instead of a single netdev. `-net` and `-device` with parameter `vlan` create the required hub automatically.

`-netdev vhost-user,chardev=id[,vhostforce=on|off][,queues=n]`

  Establish a vhost-user netdev, backed by a chardev id. The chardev should be a unix domain socket backed one. The vhost-user uses a specifically defined protocol to pass vhost ioctl replacement messages to an application on the other end of the socket. On non-MSIX guests, the feature can be forced with vhostforce. Use ’queues=n’ to specify the number of queues to be created for multiqueue vhost-user.

  Example:

      qemu -m 512 -object memory-backend-file,id=mem,size=512M,mem-path=/hugetlbfs,share=on \
      -numa node,memdev=mem \
      -chardev socket,path=/path/to/socket \
      -netdev type=vhost-user,id=net0,chardev=chr0 \
      -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0

`-net dump[,vlan=n][,file=file][,len=len]`

  Dump network traffic on VLAN n to file file (`qemu-vlan0.pcap` by default). At most len bytes (64k by default) per packet are stored. The file format is libpcap, so it can be analyzed with tools such as tcpdump or Wireshark. Note: For devices created with ’-netdev’, use ’-object filter-dump,...’ instead.

`-net none`

  Indicate that no network devices should be configured. It is used to override the default configuration (`-net nic -net user`) which is activated if no `-net` options are provided.

Character device options:

The general form of a character device option is:

`-chardev backend ,id=id [,mux=on|off] [,options]`

  Backend is one of: `null`, `socket`, `udp`, `msmouse`, `vc`, `ringbuf`, `file`, `pipe`, `console`, `serial`, `pty`, `stdio`, `braille`, `tty`, `parallel`, `parport`, `spicevmc`. `spiceport`. The specific backend will determine the applicable options.

  All devices must have an id, which can be any string up to 127 characters long. It is used to uniquely identify this device in other command line directives.

  A character device may be used in multiplexing mode by multiple front-ends. Specify `mux=on` to enable this mode. A multiplexer is a "1:N" device, and here the "1" end is your specified chardev backend, and the "N" end is the various parts of QEMU that can talk to a chardev. If you create a chardev with `id=myid` and `mux=on`, QEMU will create a multiplexer with your specified ID, and you can then configure multiple front ends to use that chardev ID for their input/output. Up to four different front ends can be connected to a single multiplexed chardev. (Without multiplexing enabled, a chardev can only be used by a single front end.) For instance you could use this to allow a single stdio chardev to be used by two serial ports and the QEMU monitor:

      -chardev stdio,mux=on,id=char0 \
      -mon chardev=char0,mode=readline,default \
      -serial chardev:char0 \
      -serial chardev:char0

  You can have more than one multiplexer in a system configuration; for instance you could have a TCP port multiplexed between UART 0 and UART 1, and stdio multiplexed between the QEMU monitor and a parallel port:

      -chardev stdio,mux=on,id=char0 \
      -mon chardev=char0,mode=readline,default \
      -parallel chardev:char0 \
      -chardev tcp,...,mux=on,id=char1 \
      -serial chardev:char1 \
      -serial chardev:char1

  When you’re using a multiplexed character device, some escape sequences are interpreted in the input. See Keys in the character backend multiplexer.

  Note that some other command line options may implicitly create multiplexed character backends; for instance `-serial mon:stdio` creates a multiplexed stdio backend connected to the serial port and the QEMU monitor, and `-nographic` also multiplexes the console and the monitor to stdio.

  There is currently no support for multiplexing in the other direction (where a single QEMU front end takes input and output from multiple chardevs).

  Every backend supports the `logfile` option, which supplies the path to a file to record all data transmitted via the backend. The `logappend` option controls whether the log file will be truncated or appended to when opened.

  Further options to each backend are described below.

`-chardev null ,id=id`

  A void device. This device will not emit any data, and will drop any data it receives. The null backend does not take any options.

`-chardev socket ,id=id [TCP options or unix options] [,server] [,nowait] [,telnet] [,reconnect=seconds] [,tls-creds=id]`

  Create a two-way stream socket, which can be either a TCP or a unix socket. A unix socket will be created if `path` is specified. Behaviour is undefined if TCP options are specified for a unix socket.

  `server` specifies that the socket shall be a listening socket.

  `nowait` specifies that QEMU should not block waiting for a client to connect to a listening socket.

  `telnet` specifies that traffic on the socket should interpret telnet escape sequences.

  `reconnect` sets the timeout for reconnecting on non-server sockets when the remote end goes away. qemu will delay this many seconds and then attempt to reconnect. Zero disables reconnecting, and is the default.

  `tls-creds` requests enablement of the TLS protocol for encryption, and specifies the id of the TLS credentials to use for the handshake. The credentials must be previously created with the `-object tls-creds` argument.

  TCP and unix socket options are given below:

  `TCP options: port=port [,host=host] [,to=to] [,ipv4] [,ipv6] [,nodelay]`

    `host` for a listening socket specifies the local address to be bound. For a connecting socket species the remote host to connect to. `host` is optional for listening sockets. If not specified it defaults to `0.0.0.0`.

    `port` for a listening socket specifies the local port to be bound. For a connecting socket specifies the port on the remote host to connect to. `port` can be given as either a port number or a service name. `port` is required.

    `to` is only relevant to listening sockets. If it is specified, and `port` cannot be bound, QEMU will attempt to bind to subsequent ports up to and including `to` until it succeeds. `to` must be specified as a port number.

    `ipv4` and `ipv6` specify that either IPv4 or IPv6 must be used. If neither is specified the socket may use either protocol.

    `nodelay` disables the Nagle algorithm.

  `unix options: path=path`

    `path` specifies the local path of the unix socket. `path` is required.

`-chardev udp ,id=id [,host=host] ,port=port [,localaddr=localaddr] [,localport=localport] [,ipv4] [,ipv6]`

  Sends all traffic from the guest to a remote host over UDP.

  `host` specifies the remote host to connect to. If not specified it defaults to `localhost`.

  `port` specifies the port on the remote host to connect to. `port` is required.

  `localaddr` specifies the local address to bind to. If not specified it defaults to `0.0.0.0`.

  `localport` specifies the local port to bind to. If not specified any available local port will be used.

  `ipv4` and `ipv6` specify that either IPv4 or IPv6 must be used. If neither is specified the device may use either protocol.

`-chardev msmouse ,id=id`

  Forward QEMU’s emulated msmouse events to the guest. `msmouse` does not take any options.

`-chardev vc ,id=id [[,width=width] [,height=height]] [[,cols=cols] [,rows=rows]]`

  Connect to a QEMU text console. `vc` may optionally be given a specific size.

  `width` and `height` specify the width and height respectively of the console, in pixels.

  `cols` and `rows` specify that the console be sized to fit a text console with the given dimensions.

`-chardev ringbuf ,id=id [,size=size]`

  Create a ring buffer with fixed size `size`. size must be a power of two, and defaults to `64K`).

`-chardev file ,id=id ,path=path`

  Log all traffic received from the guest to a file.

  `path` specifies the path of the file to be opened. This file will be created if it does not already exist, and overwritten if it does. `path` is required.

`-chardev pipe ,id=id ,path=path`

  Create a two-way connection to the guest. The behaviour differs slightly between Windows hosts and other hosts:

  On Windows, a single duplex pipe will be created at `\\.pipe\`path``.

  On other hosts, 2 pipes will be created called ``path`.in` and ``path`.out`. Data written to ``path`.in` will be received by the guest. Data written by the guest can be read from ``path`.out`. QEMU will not create these fifos, and requires them to be present.

  `path` forms part of the pipe path as described above. `path` is required.

`-chardev console ,id=id`

  Send traffic from the guest to QEMU’s standard output. `console` does not take any options.

  `console` is only available on Windows hosts.

`-chardev serial ,id=id ,path=`path``

  Send traffic from the guest to a serial device on the host.

  On Unix hosts serial will actually accept any tty device, not only serial lines.

  `path` specifies the name of the serial device to open.

`-chardev pty ,id=id`

  Create a new pseudo-terminal on the host and connect to it. `pty` does not take any options.

  `pty` is not available on Windows hosts.

`-chardev stdio ,id=id [,signal=on|off]`

  Connect to standard input and standard output of the QEMU process.

  `signal` controls if signals are enabled on the terminal, that includes exiting QEMU with the key sequence `Control-c`. This option is enabled by default, use `signal=off` to disable it.

  `stdio` is not available on Windows hosts.

`-chardev braille ,id=id`

  Connect to a local BrlAPI server. `braille` does not take any options.

`-chardev tty ,id=id ,path=path`

  `tty` is only available on Linux, Sun, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and DragonFlyBSD hosts. It is an alias for `serial`.

  `path` specifies the path to the tty. `path` is required.

`-chardev parallel ,id=id ,path=path`
`-chardev parport ,id=id ,path=path`

  `parallel` is only available on Linux, FreeBSD and DragonFlyBSD hosts.

  Connect to a local parallel port.

  `path` specifies the path to the parallel port device. `path` is required.

`-chardev spicevmc ,id=id ,debug=debug, name=name`

  `spicevmc` is only available when spice support is built in.

  `debug` debug level for spicevmc

  `name` name of spice channel to connect to

  Connect to a spice virtual machine channel, such as vdiport.

`-chardev spiceport ,id=id ,debug=debug, name=name`

  `spiceport` is only available when spice support is built in.

  `debug` debug level for spicevmc

  `name` name of spice port to connect to

  Connect to a spice port, allowing a Spice client to handle the traffic identified by a name (preferably a fqdn).

Device URL Syntax:

In addition to using normal file images for the emulated storage devices, QEMU can also use networked resources such as iSCSI devices. These are specified using a special URL syntax.

`iSCSI`

  iSCSI support allows QEMU to access iSCSI resources directly and use as images for the guest storage. Both disk and cdrom images are supported.

  Syntax for specifying iSCSI LUNs is “iscsi://<target-ip>[:<port>]/<target-iqn>/<lun>”

  By default qemu will use the iSCSI initiator-name ’iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:<name>]’ but this can also be set from the command line or a configuration file.

  Since version Qemu 2.4 it is possible to specify a iSCSI request timeout to detect stalled requests and force a reestablishment of the session. The timeout is specified in seconds. The default is 0 which means no timeout. Libiscsi 1.15.0 or greater is required for this feature.

  Example (without authentication):

      qemu-system-i386 -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.2001-04.com.example:my-initiator \
      -cdrom iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/2 \
      -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1

  Example (CHAP username/password via URL):

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=iscsi://user%password@192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1

  Example (CHAP username/password via environment variables):

      LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME="user" \
      LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD="password" \
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1

  iSCSI support is an optional feature of QEMU and only available when compiled and linked against libiscsi.

  iSCSI parameters such as username and password can also be specified via a configuration file. See qemu-doc for more information and examples.

`NBD`

  QEMU supports NBD (Network Block Devices) both using TCP protocol as well as Unix Domain Sockets.

  Syntax for specifying a NBD device using TCP “nbd:<server-ip>:<port>[:exportname=<export>]”

  Syntax for specifying a NBD device using Unix Domain Sockets “nbd:unix:<domain-socket>[:exportname=<export>]”

  Example for TCP

      qemu-system-i386 --drive file=nbd:192.0.2.1:30000

  Example for Unix Domain Sockets

      qemu-system-i386 --drive file=nbd:unix:/tmp/nbd-socket

`SSH`

  QEMU supports SSH (Secure Shell) access to remote disks.

  Examples:

      qemu-system-i386 -drive file=ssh://user@host/path/to/disk.img
      qemu-system-i386 -drive file.driver=ssh,file.user=user,file.host=host,file.port=22,file.path=/path/to/disk.img

  Currently authentication must be done using ssh-agent. Other authentication methods may be supported in future.

`Sheepdog`

  Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. QEMU supports using either local sheepdog devices or remote networked devices.

  Syntax for specifying a sheepdog device

      sheepdog[+tcp|+unix]://[host:port]/vdiname[?socket=path][#snapid|#tag]

  Example

      qemu-system-i386 --drive file=sheepdog://192.0.2.1:30000/MyVirtualMachine

  See also http://http://www.osrg.net/sheepdog/.

`GlusterFS`

  GlusterFS is an user space distributed file system. QEMU supports the use of GlusterFS volumes for hosting VM disk images using TCP, Unix Domain Sockets and RDMA transport protocols.

  Syntax for specifying a VM disk image on GlusterFS volume is

      gluster[+transport]://[server[:port]]/volname/image[?socket=...]

  Example

      qemu-system-x86_64 --drive file=gluster://192.0.2.1/testvol/a.img

  See also http://www.gluster.org.

`HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/FTPS/TFTP`

  QEMU supports read-only access to files accessed over http(s), ftp(s) and tftp.

  Syntax using a single filename:

      <protocol>://[<username>[:<password>]@]<host>/<path>

  where:

  `protocol`

    ’http’, ’https’, ’ftp’, ’ftps’, or ’tftp’.

  `username`

    Optional username for authentication to the remote server.

  `password`

    Optional password for authentication to the remote server.

  `host`

    Address of the remote server.

  `path`

    Path on the remote server, including any query string.

  The following options are also supported:

  `url`

    The full URL when passing options to the driver explicitly.

  `readahead`

    The amount of data to read ahead with each range request to the remote server. This value may optionally have the suffix ’T’, ’G’, ’M’, ’K’, ’k’ or ’b’. If it does not have a suffix, it will be assumed to be in bytes. The value must be a multiple of 512 bytes. It defaults to 256k.

  `sslverify`

    Whether to verify the remote server’s certificate when connecting over SSL. It can have the value ’on’ or ’off’. It defaults to ’on’.

  `cookie`

    Send this cookie (it can also be a list of cookies separated by ’;’) with each outgoing request. Only supported when using protocols such as HTTP which support cookies, otherwise ignored.

  `timeout`

    Set the timeout in seconds of the CURL connection. This timeout is the time that CURL waits for a response from the remote server to get the size of the image to be downloaded. If not set, the default timeout of 5 seconds is used.

  Note that when passing options to qemu explicitly, `driver` is the value of <protocol>.

  Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 live ISO image

      qemu-system-x86_64 --drive media=cdrom,file=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly

      qemu-system-x86_64 --drive media=cdrom,file.driver=http,file.url=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly

  Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 cloud image using a local overlay for writes, copy-on-read, and a readahead of 64k

      qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"http",, "file.url":"https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Images/x86_64/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2",, "file.readahead":"64k"}' /tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2

      qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=/tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2,copy-on-read=on

  Example: boot from an image stored on a VMware vSphere server with a self-signed certificate using a local overlay for writes, a readahead of 64k and a timeout of 10 seconds.

      qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"https",, "file.url":"https://user:password@vsphere.example.com/folder/test/test-flat.vmdk?dcPath=Datacenter&dsName=datastore1",, "file.sslverify":"off",, "file.readahead":"64k",, "file.timeout":10}' /tmp/test.qcow2

      qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=/tmp/test.qcow2

Bluetooth(R) options:

`-bt hci[...]`

  Defines the function of the corresponding Bluetooth HCI. -bt options are matched with the HCIs present in the chosen machine type. For example when emulating a machine with only one HCI built into it, only the first `-bt hci[...]` option is valid and defines the HCI’s logic. The Transport Layer is decided by the machine type. Currently the machines `n800` and `n810` have one HCI and all other machines have none.

  The following three types are recognized:

  `-bt hci,null`

    (default) The corresponding Bluetooth HCI assumes no internal logic and will not respond to any HCI commands or emit events.

  `-bt hci,host[:id]`

    (`bluez` only) The corresponding HCI passes commands / events to / from the physical HCI identified by the name id (default: `hci0`) on the computer running QEMU. Only available on `bluez` capable systems like Linux.

  `-bt hci[,vlan=n]`

    Add a virtual, standard HCI that will participate in the Bluetooth scatternet n (default `0`). Similarly to `-net` VLANs, devices inside a bluetooth network n can only communicate with other devices in the same network (scatternet).

`-bt vhci[,vlan=n]`

  (Linux-host only) Create a HCI in scatternet n (default 0) attached to the host bluetooth stack instead of to the emulated target. This allows the host and target machines to participate in a common scatternet and communicate. Requires the Linux `vhci` driver installed. Can be used as following:

      qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -bt hci,vlan=5 -bt vhci,vlan=5

`-bt device:dev[,vlan=n]`

  Emulate a bluetooth device dev and place it in network n (default `0`). QEMU can only emulate one type of bluetooth devices currently:

  `keyboard`

    Virtual wireless keyboard implementing the HIDP bluetooth profile.

TPM device options:

The general form of a TPM device option is:

`-tpmdev backend ,id=id [,options]`

  Backend type must be: `passthrough`.

  The specific backend type will determine the applicable options. The `-tpmdev` option creates the TPM backend and requires a `-device` option that specifies the TPM frontend interface model.

  Options to each backend are described below.

  Use ’help’ to print all available TPM backend types.

      qemu -tpmdev help

`-tpmdev passthrough, id=id, path=path, cancel-path=cancel-path`

  (Linux-host only) Enable access to the host’s TPM using the passthrough driver.

  `path` specifies the path to the host’s TPM device, i.e., on a Linux host this would be `/dev/tpm0`. `path` is optional and by default `/dev/tpm0` is used.

  `cancel-path` specifies the path to the host TPM device’s sysfs entry allowing for cancellation of an ongoing TPM command. `cancel-path` is optional and by default QEMU will search for the sysfs entry to use.

  Some notes about using the host’s TPM with the passthrough driver:

  The TPM device accessed by the passthrough driver must not be used by any other application on the host.

  Since the host’s firmware (BIOS/UEFI) has already initialized the TPM, the VM’s firmware (BIOS/UEFI) will not be able to initialize the TPM again and may therefore not show a TPM-specific menu that would otherwise allow the user to configure the TPM, e.g., allow the user to enable/disable or activate/deactivate the TPM. Further, if TPM ownership is released from within a VM then the host’s TPM will get disabled and deactivated. To enable and activate the TPM again afterwards, the host has to be rebooted and the user is required to enter the firmware’s menu to enable and activate the TPM. If the TPM is left disabled and/or deactivated most TPM commands will fail.

  To create a passthrough TPM use the following two options:

      -tpmdev passthrough,id=tpm0 -device tpm-tis,tpmdev=tpm0

  Note that the `-tpmdev` id is `tpm0` and is referenced by `tpmdev=tpm0` in the device option.

Linux/Multiboot boot specific:

When using these options, you can use a given Linux or Multiboot kernel without installing it in the disk image. It can be useful for easier testing of various kernels.

`-kernel bzImage`

  Use bzImage as kernel image. The kernel can be either a Linux kernel or in multiboot format.

`-append cmdline`

  Use cmdline as kernel command line

`-initrd file`

  Use file as initial ram disk.

`-initrd "file1 arg=foo,file2"`

  This syntax is only available with multiboot.

  Use file1 and file2 as modules and pass arg=foo as parameter to the first module.

`-dtb file`

  Use file as a device tree binary (dtb) image and pass it to the kernel on boot.

Debug/Expert options:

`-fw_cfg [name=]name,file=file`

  Add named fw_cfg entry with contents from file file.

`-fw_cfg [name=]name,string=str`

  Add named fw_cfg entry with contents from string str.

  The terminating NUL character of the contents of str will not be included as part of the fw_cfg item data. To insert contents with embedded NUL characters, you have to use the file parameter.

  The fw_cfg entries are passed by QEMU through to the guest.

  Example:

      -fw_cfg name=opt/com.mycompany/blob,file=./my_blob.bin

  creates an fw_cfg entry named opt/com.mycompany/blob with contents from ./my_blob.bin.

`-serial dev`

  Redirect the virtual serial port to host character device dev. The default device is `vc` in graphical mode and `stdio` in non graphical mode.

  This option can be used several times to simulate up to 4 serial ports.

  Use `-serial none` to disable all serial ports.

  Available character devices are:

  `vc[:WxH]`

    Virtual console. Optionally, a width and height can be given in pixel with

        vc:800x600

    It is also possible to specify width or height in characters:

        vc:80Cx24C

  `pty`

    [Linux only] Pseudo TTY (a new PTY is automatically allocated)

  `none`

    No device is allocated.

  `null`

    void device

  `chardev:id`

    Use a named character device defined with the `-chardev` option.

  `/dev/XXX`

    [Linux only] Use host tty, e.g. `/dev/ttyS0`. The host serial port parameters are set according to the emulated ones.

  `/dev/parportN`

    [Linux only, parallel port only] Use host parallel port N. Currently SPP and EPP parallel port features can be used.

  `file:filename`

    Write output to filename. No character can be read.

  `stdio`

    [Unix only] standard input/output

  `pipe:filename`

    name pipe filename

  `COMn`

    [Windows only] Use host serial port n

  `udp:[remote_host]:remote_port[@[src_ip]:src_port]`

    This implements UDP Net Console. When remote_host or src_ip are not specified they default to `0.0.0.0`. When not using a specified src_port a random port is automatically chosen.

    If you just want a simple readonly console you can use `netcat` or `nc`, by starting QEMU with: `-serial udp::4555` and nc as: `nc -u -l -p 4555`. Any time QEMU writes something to that port it will appear in the netconsole session.

    If you plan to send characters back via netconsole or you want to stop and start QEMU a lot of times, you should have QEMU use the same source port each time by using something like `-serial udp::4555@:4556` to QEMU. Another approach is to use a patched version of netcat which can listen to a TCP port and send and receive characters via udp. If you have a patched version of netcat which activates telnet remote echo and single char transfer, then you can use the following options to step up a netcat redirector to allow telnet on port 5555 to access the QEMU port.

    `QEMU Options:`

      -serial udp::4555@:4556

    `netcat options:`

      -u -P 4555 -L 0.0.0.0:4556 -t -p 5555 -I -T

    `telnet options:`

      localhost 5555

  `tcp:[host]:port[,server][,nowait][,nodelay][,reconnect=seconds]`

    The TCP Net Console has two modes of operation. It can send the serial I/O to a location or wait for a connection from a location. By default the TCP Net Console is sent to host at the port. If you use the server option QEMU will wait for a client socket application to connect to the port before continuing, unless the `nowait` option was specified. The `nodelay` option disables the Nagle buffering algorithm. The `reconnect` option only applies if noserver is set, if the connection goes down it will attempt to reconnect at the given interval. If host is omitted, 0.0.0.0 is assumed. Only one TCP connection at a time is accepted. You can use `telnet` to connect to the corresponding character device.

    `Example to send tcp console to 192.168.0.2 port 4444`

      -serial tcp:192.168.0.2:4444

    `Example to listen and wait on port 4444 for connection`

      -serial tcp::4444,server

    `Example to not wait and listen on ip 192.168.0.100 port 4444`

      -serial tcp:192.168.0.100:4444,server,nowait

  `telnet:host:port[,server][,nowait][,nodelay]`

    The telnet protocol is used instead of raw tcp sockets. The options work the same as if you had specified `-serial tcp`. The difference is that the port acts like a telnet server or client using telnet option negotiation. This will also allow you to send the MAGIC_SYSRQ sequence if you use a telnet that supports sending the break sequence. Typically in unix telnet you do it with Control-] and then type "send break" followed by pressing the enter key.

  `unix:path[,server][,nowait][,reconnect=seconds]`

    A unix domain socket is used instead of a tcp socket. The option works the same as if you had specified `-serial tcp` except the unix domain socket path is used for connections.

  `mon:dev_string`

    This is a special option to allow the monitor to be multiplexed onto another serial port. The monitor is accessed with key sequence of `Control-a` and then pressing `c`. dev_string should be any one of the serial devices specified above. An example to multiplex the monitor onto a telnet server listening on port 4444 would be:

    `-serial mon:telnet::4444,server,nowait`

    When the monitor is multiplexed to stdio in this way, Ctrl+C will not terminate QEMU any more but will be passed to the guest instead.

  `braille`

    Braille device. This will use BrlAPI to display the braille output on a real or fake device.

  `msmouse`

    Three button serial mouse. Configure the guest to use Microsoft protocol.

`-parallel dev`

  Redirect the virtual parallel port to host device dev (same devices as the serial port). On Linux hosts, `/dev/parportN` can be used to use hardware devices connected on the corresponding host parallel port.

  This option can be used several times to simulate up to 3 parallel ports.

  Use `-parallel none` to disable all parallel ports.

`-monitor dev`

  Redirect the monitor to host device dev (same devices as the serial port). The default device is `vc` in graphical mode and `stdio` in non graphical mode. Use `-monitor none` to disable the default monitor.

`-qmp dev`

  Like -monitor but opens in ’control’ mode.

`-qmp-pretty dev`

  Like -qmp but uses pretty JSON formatting.

`-mon [chardev=]name[,mode=readline|control][,default]`

  Setup monitor on chardev name.

`-debugcon dev`

  Redirect the debug console to host device dev (same devices as the serial port). The debug console is an I/O port which is typically port 0xe9; writing to that I/O port sends output to this device. The default device is `vc` in graphical mode and `stdio` in non graphical mode.

`-pidfile file`

  Store the QEMU process PID in file. It is useful if you launch QEMU from a script.

`-singlestep`

  Run the emulation in single step mode.

`-S`

  Do not start CPU at startup (you must type ’c’ in the monitor).

`-realtime mlock=on|off`

  Run qemu with realtime features. mlocking qemu and guest memory can be enabled via `mlock=on` (enabled by default).

`-gdb dev`

  Wait for gdb connection on device dev (see gdb_usage). Typical connections will likely be TCP-based, but also UDP, pseudo TTY, or even stdio are reasonable use case. The latter is allowing to start QEMU from within gdb and establish the connection via a pipe:

      (gdb) target remote | exec qemu-system-i386 -gdb stdio ...

`-s`

  Shorthand for -gdb tcp::1234, i.e. open a gdbserver on TCP port 1234 (see gdb_usage).

`-d item1[,...]`

  Enable logging of specified items. Use ’-d help’ for a list of log items.

`-D logfile`

  Output log in logfile instead of to stderr

`-dfilter range1[,...]`

  Filter debug output to that relevant to a range of target addresses. The filter spec can be either start+size, start-size or start..end where start end and size are the addresses and sizes required. For example:

      -dfilter 0x8000..0x8fff,0xffffffc000080000+0x200,0xffffffc000060000-0x1000

  Will dump output for any code in the 0x1000 sized block starting at 0x8000 and the 0x200 sized block starting at 0xffffffc000080000 and another 0x1000 sized block starting at 0xffffffc00005f000.

`-L path`

  Set the directory for the BIOS, VGA BIOS and keymaps.

`-bios file`

  Set the filename for the BIOS.

`-enable-kvm`

  Enable KVM full virtualization support. This option is only available if KVM support is enabled when compiling.

`-xen-domid id`

  Specify xen guest domain id (XEN only).

`-xen-create`

  Create domain using xen hypercalls, bypassing xend. Warning: should not be used when xend is in use (XEN only).

`-xen-attach`

  Attach to existing xen domain. xend will use this when starting QEMU (XEN only).

`-no-reboot`

  Exit instead of rebooting.

`-no-shutdown`

  Don’t exit QEMU on guest shutdown, but instead only stop the emulation. This allows for instance switching to monitor to commit changes to the disk image.

`-loadvm file`

  Start right away with a saved state (`loadvm` in monitor)

`-daemonize`

  Daemonize the QEMU process after initialization. QEMU will not detach from standard IO until it is ready to receive connections on any of its devices. This option is a useful way for external programs to launch QEMU without having to cope with initialization race conditions.

`-option-rom file`

  Load the contents of file as an option ROM. This option is useful to load things like EtherBoot.

`-rtc [base=utc|localtime|date][,clock=host|vm][,driftfix=none|slew]`

  Specify `base` as `utc` or `localtime` to let the RTC start at the current UTC or local time, respectively. `localtime` is required for correct date in MS-DOS or Windows. To start at a specific point in time, provide date in the format `2006-06-17T16:01:21` or `2006-06-17`. The default base is UTC.

  By default the RTC is driven by the host system time. This allows using of the RTC as accurate reference clock inside the guest, specifically if the host time is smoothly following an accurate external reference clock, e.g. via NTP. If you want to isolate the guest time from the host, you can set `clock` to `rt` instead. To even prevent it from progressing during suspension, you can set it to `vm`.

  Enable `driftfix` (i386 targets only) if you experience time drift problems, specifically with Windows’ ACPI HAL. This option will try to figure out how many timer interrupts were not processed by the Windows guest and will re-inject them.

`-icount [shift=N|auto][,rr=record|replay,rrfile=filename]`

  Enable virtual instruction counter. The virtual cpu will execute one instruction every 2^N ns of virtual time. If `auto` is specified then the virtual cpu speed will be automatically adjusted to keep virtual time within a few seconds of real time.

  When the virtual cpu is sleeping, the virtual time will advance at default speed unless `sleep=on|off` is specified. With `sleep=on|off`, the virtual time will jump to the next timer deadline instantly whenever the virtual cpu goes to sleep mode and will not advance if no timer is enabled. This behavior give deterministic execution times from the guest point of view.

  Note that while this option can give deterministic behavior, it does not provide cycle accurate emulation. Modern CPUs contain superscalar out of order cores with complex cache hierarchies. The number of instructions executed often has little or no correlation with actual performance.

  `align=on` will activate the delay algorithm which will try to synchronise the host clock and the virtual clock. The goal is to have a guest running at the real frequency imposed by the shift option. Whenever the guest clock is behind the host clock and if `align=on` is specified then we print a message to the user to inform about the delay. Currently this option does not work when `shift` is `auto`. Note: The sync algorithm will work for those shift values for which the guest clock runs ahead of the host clock. Typically this happens when the shift value is high (how high depends on the host machine).

  When `rr` option is specified deterministic record/replay is enabled. Replay log is written into filename file in record mode and read from this file in replay mode.

`-watchdog model`

  Create a virtual hardware watchdog device. Once enabled (by a guest action), the watchdog must be periodically polled by an agent inside the guest or else the guest will be restarted. Choose a model for which your guest has drivers.

  The model is the model of hardware watchdog to emulate. Use `-watchdog help` to list available hardware models. Only one watchdog can be enabled for a guest.

  The following models may be available:

  `ib700`

    iBASE 700 is a very simple ISA watchdog with a single timer.

  `i6300esb`

    Intel 6300ESB I/O controller hub is a much more featureful PCI-based dual-timer watchdog.

  `diag288`

    A virtual watchdog for s390x backed by the diagnose 288 hypercall (currently KVM only).

`-watchdog-action action`

  The action controls what QEMU will do when the watchdog timer expires. The default is `reset` (forcefully reset the guest). Other possible actions are: `shutdown` (attempt to gracefully shutdown the guest), `poweroff` (forcefully poweroff the guest), `pause` (pause the guest), `debug` (print a debug message and continue), or `none` (do nothing).

  Note that the `shutdown` action requires that the guest responds to ACPI signals, which it may not be able to do in the sort of situations where the watchdog would have expired, and thus `-watchdog-action shutdown` is not recommended for production use.

  Examples:

  `-watchdog i6300esb -watchdog-action pause`
  `-watchdog ib700`
`-echr numeric_ascii_value`

  Change the escape character used for switching to the monitor when using monitor and serial sharing. The default is `0x01` when using the `-nographic` option. `0x01` is equal to pressing `Control-a`. You can select a different character from the ascii control keys where 1 through 26 map to Control-a through Control-z. For instance you could use the either of the following to change the escape character to Control-t.

  `-echr 0x14`
  `-echr 20`
`-virtioconsole c`

  Set virtio console.

  This option is maintained for backward compatibility.

  Please use `-device virtconsole` for the new way of invocation.

`-show-cursor`

  Show cursor.

`-tb-size n`

  Set TB size.

`-incoming tcp:[host]:port[,to=maxport][,ipv4][,ipv6]`
`-incoming rdma:host:port[,ipv4][,ipv6]`

  Prepare for incoming migration, listen on a given tcp port.

`-incoming unix:socketpath`

  Prepare for incoming migration, listen on a given unix socket.

`-incoming fd:fd`

  Accept incoming migration from a given filedescriptor.

`-incoming exec:cmdline`

  Accept incoming migration as an output from specified external command.

`-incoming defer`

  Wait for the URI to be specified via migrate_incoming. The monitor can be used to change settings (such as migration parameters) prior to issuing the migrate_incoming to allow the migration to begin.

`-nodefaults`

  Don’t create default devices. Normally, QEMU sets the default devices like serial port, parallel port, virtual console, monitor device, VGA adapter, floppy and CD-ROM drive and others. The `-nodefaults` option will disable all those default devices.

`-chroot dir`

  Immediately before starting guest execution, chroot to the specified directory. Especially useful in combination with -runas.

`-runas user`

  Immediately before starting guest execution, drop root privileges, switching to the specified user.

`-prom-env variable=value`

  Set OpenBIOS nvram variable to given value (PPC, SPARC only).

`-semihosting`

  Enable semihosting mode (ARM, M68K, Xtensa, MIPS only).

`-semihosting-config [enable=on|off][,target=native|gdb|auto][,arg=str[,...]]`

  Enable and configure semihosting (ARM, M68K, Xtensa, MIPS only).

  `target=`native|gdb|auto``

    Defines where the semihosting calls will be addressed, to QEMU (`native`) or to GDB (`gdb`). The default is `auto`, which means `gdb` during debug sessions and `native` otherwise.

  `arg=str1,arg=str2,...`

    Allows the user to pass input arguments, and can be used multiple times to build up a list. The old-style `-kernel`/`-append` method of passing a command line is still supported for backward compatibility. If both the `--semihosting-config arg` and the `-kernel`/`-append` are specified, the former is passed to semihosting as it always takes precedence.

`-old-param`

  Old param mode (ARM only).

`-sandbox arg`

  Enable Seccomp mode 2 system call filter. ’on’ will enable syscall filtering and ’off’ will disable it. The default is ’off’.

`-readconfig file`

  Read device configuration from file. This approach is useful when you want to spawn QEMU process with many command line options but you don’t want to exceed the command line character limit.

`-writeconfig file`

  Write device configuration to file. The file can be either filename to save command line and device configuration into file or dash `-`) character to print the output to stdout. This can be later used as input file for `-readconfig` option.

`-nodefconfig`

  Normally QEMU loads configuration files from sysconfdir and datadir at startup. The `-nodefconfig` option will prevent QEMU from loading any of those config files.

`-no-user-config`

  The `-no-user-config` option makes QEMU not load any of the user-provided config files on sysconfdir, but won’t make it skip the QEMU-provided config files from datadir.

`-trace [events=file][,file=file]`

  Specify tracing options.

  `[enable=]pattern`

    Immediately enable events matching pattern. The file must contain one event name (as listed in the `trace-events` file) per line; globbing patterns are accepted too. This option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple, stderr or ftrace tracing backend. To specify multiple events or patterns, specify the `-trace` option multiple times.

    Use `-trace help` to print a list of names of trace points.

  `events=file`

    Immediately enable events listed in file. The file must contain one event name (as listed in the `trace-events` file) per line; globbing patterns are accepted too. This option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple, stderr or ftrace tracing backend.

  `file=file`

    Log output traces to file. This option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple tracing backend.

`-enable-fips`

  Enable FIPS 140-2 compliance mode.

`-msg timestamp[=on|off]`

  prepend a timestamp to each log message.(default:on)

`-dump-vmstate file`

  Dump json-encoded vmstate information for current machine type to file in file Generic object creation

`-object typename[,prop1=value1,...]`

  Create a new object of type typename setting properties in the order they are specified. Note that the ’id’ property must be set. These objects are placed in the ’/objects’ path.

  `-object memory-backend-file,id=id,size=size,mem-path=dir,share=on|off`

    Creates a memory file backend object, which can be used to back the guest RAM with huge pages. The `id` parameter is a unique ID that will be used to reference this memory region when configuring the `-numa` argument. The `size` option provides the size of the memory region, and accepts common suffixes, eg `500M`. The `mem-path` provides the path to either a shared memory or huge page filesystem mount. The `share` boolean option determines whether the memory region is marked as private to QEMU, or shared. The latter allows a co-operating external process to access the QEMU memory region.

  `-object rng-random,id=id,filename=/dev/random`

    Creates a random number generator backend which obtains entropy from a device on the host. The `id` parameter is a unique ID that will be used to reference this entropy backend from the `virtio-rng` device. The `filename` parameter specifies which file to obtain entropy from and if omitted defaults to `/dev/random`.

  `-object rng-egd,id=id,chardev=chardevid`

    Creates a random number generator backend which obtains entropy from an external daemon running on the host. The `id` parameter is a unique ID that will be used to reference this entropy backend from the `virtio-rng` device. The `chardev` parameter is the unique ID of a character device backend that provides the connection to the RNG daemon.

  `-object tls-creds-anon,id=id,endpoint=endpoint,dir=/path/to/cred/dir,verify-peer=on|off`

    Creates a TLS anonymous credentials object, which can be used to provide TLS support on network backends. The `id` parameter is a unique ID which network backends will use to access the credentials. The `endpoint` is either `server` or `client` depending on whether the QEMU network backend that uses the credentials will be acting as a client or as a server. If `verify-peer` is enabled (the default) then once the handshake is completed, the peer credentials will be verified, though this is a no-op for anonymous credentials.

    The dir parameter tells QEMU where to find the credential files. For server endpoints, this directory may contain a file dh-params.pem providing diffie-hellman parameters to use for the TLS server. If the file is missing, QEMU will generate a set of DH parameters at startup. This is a computationally expensive operation that consumes random pool entropy, so it is recommended that a persistent set of parameters be generated upfront and saved.

  `-object tls-creds-x509,id=id,endpoint=endpoint,dir=/path/to/cred/dir,verify-peer=on|off,passwordid=id`

    Creates a TLS anonymous credentials object, which can be used to provide TLS support on network backends. The `id` parameter is a unique ID which network backends will use to access the credentials. The `endpoint` is either `server` or `client` depending on whether the QEMU network backend that uses the credentials will be acting as a client or as a server. If `verify-peer` is enabled (the default) then once the handshake is completed, the peer credentials will be verified. With x509 certificates, this implies that the clients must be provided with valid client certificates too.

    The dir parameter tells QEMU where to find the credential files. For server endpoints, this directory may contain a file dh-params.pem providing diffie-hellman parameters to use for the TLS server. If the file is missing, QEMU will generate a set of DH parameters at startup. This is a computationally expensive operation that consumes random pool entropy, so it is recommended that a persistent set of parameters be generated upfront and saved.

    For x509 certificate credentials the directory will contain further files providing the x509 certificates. The certificates must be stored in PEM format, in filenames ca-cert.pem, ca-crl.pem (optional), server-cert.pem (only servers), server-key.pem (only servers), client-cert.pem (only clients), and client-key.pem (only clients).

    For the server-key.pem and client-key.pem files which contain sensitive private keys, it is possible to use an encrypted version by providing the passwordid parameter. This provides the ID of a previously created `secret` object containing the password for decryption.

  `-object filter-buffer,id=id,netdev=netdevid,interval=t[,queue=all|rx|tx][,status=on|off]`

    Interval t can’t be 0, this filter batches the packet delivery: all packets arriving in a given interval on netdev netdevid are delayed until the end of the interval. Interval is in microseconds. `status` is optional that indicate whether the netfilter is on (enabled) or off (disabled), the default status for netfilter will be ’on’.

    queue all|rx|tx is an option that can be applied to any netfilter.

    `all`: the filter is attached both to the receive and the transmit queue of the netdev (default).

    `rx`: the filter is attached to the receive queue of the netdev, where it will receive packets sent to the netdev.

    `tx`: the filter is attached to the transmit queue of the netdev, where it will receive packets sent by the netdev.

  `-object filter-mirror,id=id,netdev=netdevid,outdev=chardevid[,queue=all|rx|tx]`

    filter-mirror on netdev netdevid,mirror net packet to chardev chardevid

  `-object filter-redirector,id=id,netdev=netdevid,indev=chardevid,`

    outdev=chardevid[,queue=all|rx|tx]

    filter-redirector on netdev netdevid,redirect filter’s net packet to chardev chardevid,and redirect indev’s packet to filter. Create a filter-redirector we need to differ outdev id from indev id, id can not be the same. we can just use indev or outdev, but at least one of indev or outdev need to be specified.

  `-object filter-dump,id=id,netdev=dev,file=filename][,maxlen=len]`

    Dump the network traffic on netdev dev to the file specified by filename. At most len bytes (64k by default) per packet are stored. The file format is libpcap, so it can be analyzed with tools such as tcpdump or Wireshark.

  `-object secret,id=id,data=string,format=raw|base64[,keyid=secretid,iv=string]`
  `-object secret,id=id,file=filename,format=raw|base64[,keyid=secretid,iv=string]`

    Defines a secret to store a password, encryption key, or some other sensitive data. The sensitive data can either be passed directly via the data parameter, or indirectly via the file parameter. Using the data parameter is insecure unless the sensitive data is encrypted.

    The sensitive data can be provided in raw format (the default), or base64. When encoded as JSON, the raw format only supports valid UTF-8 characters, so base64 is recommended for sending binary data. QEMU will convert from which ever format is provided to the format it needs internally. eg, an RBD password can be provided in raw format, even though it will be base64 encoded when passed onto the RBD sever.

    For added protection, it is possible to encrypt the data associated with a secret using the AES-256-CBC cipher. Use of encryption is indicated by providing the keyid and iv parameters. The keyid parameter provides the ID of a previously defined secret that contains the AES-256 decryption key. This key should be 32-bytes long and be base64 encoded. The iv parameter provides the random initialization vector used for encryption of this particular secret and should be a base64 encrypted string of the 16-byte IV.

    The simplest (insecure) usage is to provide the secret inline

        # $QEMU -object secret,id=sec0,data=letmein,format=raw

    The simplest secure usage is to provide the secret via a file

    # echo -n "letmein" > mypasswd.txt # $QEMU -object secret,id=sec0,file=mypasswd.txt,format=raw

    For greater security, AES-256-CBC should be used. To illustrate usage, consider the openssl command line tool which can encrypt the data. Note that when encrypting, the plaintext must be padded to the cipher block size (32 bytes) using the standard PKCS#5/6 compatible padding algorithm.

    First a master key needs to be created in base64 encoding:

        # openssl rand -base64 32 > key.b64
        # KEY=$(base64 -d key.b64 | hexdump  -v -e '/1 "%02X"')

    Each secret to be encrypted needs to have a random initialization vector generated. These do not need to be kept secret

        # openssl rand -base64 16 > iv.b64
        # IV=$(base64 -d iv.b64 | hexdump  -v -e '/1 "%02X"')

    The secret to be defined can now be encrypted, in this case we’re telling openssl to base64 encode the result, but it could be left as raw bytes if desired.

        # SECRET=$(echo -n "letmein" |
        openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -a -K $KEY -iv $IV)

    When launching QEMU, create a master secret pointing to `key.b64` and specify that to be used to decrypt the user password. Pass the contents of `iv.b64` to the second secret

        # $QEMU \
        -object secret,id=secmaster0,format=base64,file=key.b64 \
        -object secret,id=sec0,keyid=secmaster0,format=base64,\
        data=$SECRET,iv=$(<iv.b64)

### 3.4 Keys in the graphical frontends

During the graphical emulation, you can use special key combinations to change modes. The default key mappings are shown below, but if you use `-alt-grab` then the modifier is Ctrl-Alt-Shift (instead of Ctrl-Alt) and if you use `-ctrl-grab` then the modifier is the right Ctrl key (instead of Ctrl-Alt):

`Ctrl-Alt-f`

  Toggle full screen

`Ctrl-Alt-+`

  Enlarge the screen

`Ctrl-Alt--`

  Shrink the screen

`Ctrl-Alt-u`

  Restore the screen’s un-scaled dimensions

`Ctrl-Alt-n`

  Switch to virtual console ’n’. Standard console mappings are:

  1

    Target system display

  2

    Monitor

  3

    Serial port

`Ctrl-Alt`

  Toggle mouse and keyboard grab.

In the virtual consoles, you can use `Ctrl-Up`, `Ctrl-Down`, `Ctrl-PageUp` and `Ctrl-PageDown` to move in the back log.

### 3.5 Keys in the character backend multiplexer

During emulation, if you are using a character backend multiplexer (which is the default if you are using `-nographic`) then several commands are available via an escape sequence. These key sequences all start with an escape character, which is `Ctrl-a` by default, but can be changed with `-echr`. The list below assumes you’re using the default.

`Ctrl-a h`

  Print this help

`Ctrl-a x`

  Exit emulator

`Ctrl-a s`

  Save disk data back to file (if -snapshot)

`Ctrl-a t`

  Toggle console timestamps

`Ctrl-a b`

  Send break (magic sysrq in Linux)

`Ctrl-a c`

  Rotate between the frontends connected to the multiplexer (usually this switches between the monitor and the console)

`Ctrl-a Ctrl-a`

  Send the escape character to the frontend

### 3.6 QEMU Monitor

The QEMU monitor is used to give complex commands to the QEMU emulator. You can use it to:

- - Remove or insert removable media images (such as CD-ROM or floppies).
- - Freeze/unfreeze the Virtual Machine (VM) and save or restore its state from a disk file.
- - Inspect the VM state without an external debugger.

#### 3.6.1 Commands

The following commands are available:

`help or ? [cmd]`

  Show the help for all commands or just for command cmd.

`commit`

  Commit changes to the disk images (if -snapshot is used) or backing files. If the backing file is smaller than the snapshot, then the backing file will be resized to be the same size as the snapshot. If the snapshot is smaller than the backing file, the backing file will not be truncated. If you want the backing file to match the size of the smaller snapshot, you can safely truncate it yourself once the commit operation successfully completes.

`q or quit`

  Quit the emulator.

`block_resize`

  Resize a block image while a guest is running. Usually requires guest action to see the updated size. Resize to a lower size is supported, but should be used with extreme caution. Note that this command only resizes image files, it can not resize block devices like LVM volumes.

`block_stream`

  Copy data from a backing file into a block device.

`block_job_set_speed`

  Set maximum speed for a background block operation.

`block_job_cancel`

  Stop an active background block operation (streaming, mirroring).

`block_job_complete`

  Manually trigger completion of an active background block operation. For mirroring, this will switch the device to the destination path.

`block_job_pause`

  Pause an active block streaming operation.

`block_job_resume`

  Resume a paused block streaming operation.

`eject [-f] device`

  Eject a removable medium (use -f to force it).

`drive_del device`

  Remove host block device. The result is that guest generated IO is no longer submitted against the host device underlying the disk. Once a drive has been deleted, the QEMU Block layer returns -EIO which results in IO errors in the guest for applications that are reading/writing to the device. These errors are always reported to the guest, regardless of the drive’s error actions (drive options rerror, werror).

`change device setting`

  Change the configuration of a device.

  `change diskdevice filename [format [read-only-mode]]`

    Change the medium for a removable disk device to point to filename. eg

        (qemu) change ide1-cd0 /path/to/some.iso

    format is optional.

    read-only-mode may be used to change the read-only status of the device. It accepts the following values:

    retain

      Retains the current status; this is the default.

    read-only

      Makes the device read-only.

    read-write

      Makes the device writable.

  `change vnc display,options`

    Change the configuration of the VNC server. The valid syntax for display and options are described at sec_invocation. eg

        (qemu) change vnc localhost:1

  `change vnc password [password]`

    Change the password associated with the VNC server. If the new password is not supplied, the monitor will prompt for it to be entered. VNC passwords are only significant up to 8 letters. eg

        (qemu) change vnc password
        Password: ********

`screendump filename`

  Save screen into PPM image filename.

`logfile filename`

  Output logs to filename.

`trace-event`

  changes status of a trace event

`trace-file on|off|flush`

  Open, close, or flush the trace file. If no argument is given, the status of the trace file is displayed.

`log item1[,...]`

  Activate logging of the specified items.

`savevm [tag|id]`

  Create a snapshot of the whole virtual machine. If tag is provided, it is used as human readable identifier. If there is already a snapshot with the same tag or ID, it is replaced. More info at vm_snapshots.

`loadvm tag|id`

  Set the whole virtual machine to the snapshot identified by the tag tag or the unique snapshot ID id.

`delvm tag|id`

  Delete the snapshot identified by tag or id.

`singlestep [off]`

  Run the emulation in single step mode. If called with option off, the emulation returns to normal mode.

`stop`

  Stop emulation.

`c or cont`

  Resume emulation.

`system_wakeup`

  Wakeup guest from suspend.

`gdbserver [port]`

  Start gdbserver session (default port=1234)

`x/fmt addr`

  Virtual memory dump starting at addr.

`xp /fmt addr`

  Physical memory dump starting at addr.

  fmt is a format which tells the command how to format the data. Its syntax is: `/{count}{format}{size}`

  count

    is the number of items to be dumped.

  format

    can be x (hex), d (signed decimal), u (unsigned decimal), o (octal), c (char) or i (asm instruction).

  size

    can be b (8 bits), h (16 bits), w (32 bits) or g (64 bits). On x86, `h` or `w` can be specified with the `i` format to respectively select 16 or 32 bit code instruction size.

  Examples:

  - Dump 10 instructions at the current instruction pointer:

        (qemu) x/10i $eip
        0x90107063:  ret
        0x90107064:  sti
        0x90107065:  lea    0x0(%esi,1),%esi
        0x90107069:  lea    0x0(%edi,1),%edi
        0x90107070:  ret
        0x90107071:  jmp    0x90107080
        0x90107073:  nop
        0x90107074:  nop
        0x90107075:  nop
        0x90107076:  nop

  - Dump 80 16 bit values at the start of the video memory.

        (qemu) xp/80hx 0xb8000
        0x000b8000: 0x0b50 0x0b6c 0x0b65 0x0b78 0x0b38 0x0b36 0x0b2f 0x0b42
        0x000b8010: 0x0b6f 0x0b63 0x0b68 0x0b73 0x0b20 0x0b56 0x0b47 0x0b41
        0x000b8020: 0x0b42 0x0b69 0x0b6f 0x0b73 0x0b20 0x0b63 0x0b75 0x0b72
        0x000b8030: 0x0b72 0x0b65 0x0b6e 0x0b74 0x0b2d 0x0b63 0x0b76 0x0b73
        0x000b8040: 0x0b20 0x0b30 0x0b35 0x0b20 0x0b4e 0x0b6f 0x0b76 0x0b20
        0x000b8050: 0x0b32 0x0b30 0x0b30 0x0b33 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720
        0x000b8060: 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720
        0x000b8070: 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720
        0x000b8080: 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720
        0x000b8090: 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720 0x0720

`p or print/fmt expr`

  Print expression value. Only the format part of fmt is used.

`i/fmt addr [.index]`

  Read I/O port.

`o/fmt addr val`

  Write to I/O port.

`sendkey keys`

  Send keys to the guest. keys could be the name of the key or the raw value in hexadecimal format. Use `-` to press several keys simultaneously. Example:

      sendkey ctrl-alt-f1

  This command is useful to send keys that your graphical user interface intercepts at low level, such as `ctrl-alt-f1` in X Window.

`system_reset`

  Reset the system.

`system_powerdown`

  Power down the system (if supported).

`sum addr size`

  Compute the checksum of a memory region.

`usb_add devname`

  Add the USB device devname. For details of available devices see usb_devices

`usb_del devname`

  Remove the USB device devname from the QEMU virtual USB hub. devname has the syntax `bus.addr`. Use the monitor command `info usb` to see the devices you can remove.

`device_add config`

  Add device.

`device_del id`

  Remove device id. id may be a short ID or a QOM object path.

`cpu index`

  Set the default CPU.

`mouse_move dx dy [dz]`

  Move the active mouse to the specified coordinates dx dy with optional scroll axis dz.

`mouse_button val`

  Change the active mouse button state val (1=L, 2=M, 4=R).

`mouse_set index`

  Set which mouse device receives events at given index, index can be obtained with

      info mice

`wavcapture filename [frequency [bits [channels]]]`

  Capture audio into filename. Using sample rate frequency bits per sample bits and number of channels channels.

  Defaults:

  - - Sample rate = 44100 Hz - CD quality
  - - Bits = 16
  - - Number of channels = 2 - Stereo
`stopcapture index`

  Stop capture with a given index, index can be obtained with

      info capture

`memsave addr size file`

  save to disk virtual memory dump starting at addr of size size.

`pmemsave addr size file`

  save to disk physical memory dump starting at addr of size size.

`boot_set bootdevicelist`

  Define new values for the boot device list. Those values will override the values specified on the command line through the `-boot` option.

  The values that can be specified here depend on the machine type, but are the same that can be specified in the `-boot` command line option.

`nmi cpu`

  Inject an NMI on the default CPU (x86/s390) or all CPUs (ppc64).

`ringbuf_write device data`

  Write data to ring buffer character device device. data must be a UTF-8 string.

`ringbuf_read device`

  Read and print up to size bytes from ring buffer character device device. Certain non-printable characters are printed \uXXXX, where XXXX is the character code in hexadecimal. Character \ is printed \\. Bug: can screw up when the buffer contains invalid UTF-8 sequences, NUL characters, after the ring buffer lost data, and when reading stops because the size limit is reached.

`migrate [-d] [-b] [-i] uri`

  Migrate to uri (using -d to not wait for completion). -b for migration with full copy of disk -i for migration with incremental copy of disk (base image is shared)

`migrate_cancel`

  Cancel the current VM migration.

`migrate_incoming uri`

  Continue an incoming migration using the uri (that has the same syntax as the -incoming option).

`migrate_set_cache_size value`

  Set cache size to value (in bytes) for xbzrle migrations.

`migrate_set_speed value`

  Set maximum speed to value (in bytes) for migrations.

`migrate_set_downtime second`

  Set maximum tolerated downtime (in seconds) for migration.

`migrate_set_capability capability state`

  Enable/Disable the usage of a capability capability for migration.

`migrate_set_parameter parameter value`

  Set the parameter parameter for migration.

`migrate_start_postcopy`

  Switch in-progress migration to postcopy mode. Ignored after the end of migration (or once already in postcopy).

`client_migrate_info protocol hostname port tls-port cert-subject`

  Set migration information for remote display. This makes the server ask the client to automatically reconnect using the new parameters once migration finished successfully. Only implemented for SPICE.

`dump-guest-memory [-p] filename begin length`
`dump-guest-memory [-z|-l|-s] filename`

  Dump guest memory to protocol. The file can be processed with crash or gdb. Without -z|-l|-s, the dump format is ELF. -p: do paging to get guest’s memory mapping. -z: dump in kdump-compressed format, with zlib compression. -l: dump in kdump-compressed format, with lzo compression. -s: dump in kdump-compressed format, with snappy compression. filename: dump file name. begin: the starting physical address. It’s optional, and should be specified together with length. length: the memory size, in bytes. It’s optional, and should be specified together with begin.

`dump-skeys filename`

  Save guest storage keys to a file.

`snapshot_blkdev`

  Snapshot device, using snapshot file as target if provided

`snapshot_blkdev_internal`

  Take an internal snapshot on device if it support

`snapshot_delete_blkdev_internal`

  Delete an internal snapshot on device if it support

`drive_mirror`

  Start mirroring a block device’s writes to a new destination, using the specified target.

`drive_backup`

  Start a point-in-time copy of a block device to a specificed target.

`drive_add`

  Add drive to PCI storage controller.

`pcie_aer_inject_error`

  Inject PCIe AER error

`host_net_add`

  Add host VLAN client.

`host_net_remove`

  Remove host VLAN client.

`netdev_add`

  Add host network device.

`netdev_del`

  Remove host network device.

`object_add`

  Create QOM object.

`object_del`

  Destroy QOM object.

`hostfwd_add`

  Redirect TCP or UDP connections from host to guest (requires -net user).

`hostfwd_remove`

  Remove host-to-guest TCP or UDP redirection.

`balloon value`

  Request VM to change its memory allocation to value (in MB).

`set_link name [on|off]`

  Switch link name on (i.e. up) or off (i.e. down).

`watchdog_action`

  Change watchdog action.

`acl_show aclname`

  List all the matching rules in the access control list, and the default policy. There are currently two named access control lists, vnc.x509dname and vnc.username matching on the x509 client certificate distinguished name, and SASL username respectively.

`acl_policy aclname `allow|deny``

  Set the default access control list policy, used in the event that none of the explicit rules match. The default policy at startup is always `deny`.

`acl_add aclname match `allow|deny` [index]`

  Add a match rule to the access control list, allowing or denying access. The match will normally be an exact username or x509 distinguished name, but can optionally include wildcard globs. eg `*@EXAMPLE.COM` to allow all users in the `EXAMPLE.COM` kerberos realm. The match will normally be appended to the end of the ACL, but can be inserted earlier in the list if the optional index parameter is supplied.

`acl_remove aclname match`

  Remove the specified match rule from the access control list.

`acl_reset aclname`

  Remove all matches from the access control list, and set the default policy back to `deny`.

`nbd_server_start host:port`

  Start an NBD server on the given host and/or port. If the `-a` option is included, all of the virtual machine’s block devices that have an inserted media on them are automatically exported; in this case, the `-w` option makes the devices writable too.

`nbd_server_add device`

  Export a block device through QEMU’s NBD server, which must be started beforehand with `nbd_server_start`. The `-w` option makes the exported device writable too.

`nbd_server_stop`

  Stop the QEMU embedded NBD server.

`mce cpu bank status mcgstatus addr misc`

  Inject an MCE on the given CPU (x86 only).

`getfd fdname`

  If a file descriptor is passed alongside this command using the SCM_RIGHTS mechanism on unix sockets, it is stored using the name fdname for later use by other monitor commands.

`closefd fdname`

  Close the file descriptor previously assigned to fdname using the `getfd` command. This is only needed if the file descriptor was never used by another monitor command.

`block_passwd device password`

  Set the encrypted device device password to password

`block_set_io_throttle device bps bps_rd bps_wr iops iops_rd iops_wr`

  Change I/O throttle limits for a block drive to bps bps_rd bps_wr iops iops_rd iops_wr

`set_password [ vnc | spice ] password [ action-if-connected ]`

  Change spice/vnc password. Use zero to make the password stay valid forever. action-if-connected specifies what should happen in case a connection is established: fail makes the password change fail. disconnect changes the password and disconnects the client. keep changes the password and keeps the connection up. keep is the default.

`expire_password [ vnc | spice ] expire-time`

  Specify when a password for spice/vnc becomes invalid. expire-time accepts:

  now

    Invalidate password instantly.

  never

    Password stays valid forever.

  +nsec

    Password stays valid for nsec seconds starting now.

  nsec

    Password is invalidated at the given time. nsec are the seconds passed since 1970, i.e. unix epoch.

`chardev-add args`

  chardev_add accepts the same parameters as the -chardev command line switch.

`chardev-remove id`

  Removes the chardev id.

`qemu-io device command`

  Executes a qemu-io command on the given block device.

`cpu-add id`

  Add CPU with id id

`qom-list [path]`

  Print QOM properties of object at location path

`qom-set path property value`

  Set QOM property property of object at location path to value value

`info subcommand`

  Show various information about the system state.

  `info version`

    Show the version of QEMU.

  `info network`

    Show the network state.

  `info chardev`

    Show the character devices.

  `info block`

    Show info of one block device or all block devices.

  `info blockstats`

    Show block device statistics.

  `info block-jobs`

    Show progress of ongoing block device operations.

  `info registers`

    Show the cpu registers.

  `info lapic`

    Show local APIC state

  `info ioapic`

    Show io APIC state

  `info cpus`

    Show infos for each CPU.

  `info history`

    Show the command line history.

  `info irq`

    Show the interrupts statistics (if available).

  `info pic`

    Show i8259 (PIC) state.

  `info pci`

    Show PCI information.

  `info tlb`

    Show virtual to physical memory mappings.

  `info mem`

    Show the active virtual memory mappings.

  `info mtree`

    Show memory tree.

  `info jit`

    Show dynamic compiler info.

  `info opcount`

    Show dynamic compiler opcode counters

  `info kvm`

    Show KVM information.

  `info numa`

    Show NUMA information.

  `info usb`

    Show guest USB devices.

  `info usbhost`

    Show host USB devices.

  `info profile`

    Show profiling information.

  `info capture`

    Show capture information.

  `info snapshots`

    Show the currently saved VM snapshots.

  `info status`

    Show the current VM status (running|paused).

  `info mice`

    Show which guest mouse is receiving events.

  `info vnc`

    Show the vnc server status.

  `info spice`

    Show the spice server status.

  `info name`

    Show the current VM name.

  `info uuid`

    Show the current VM UUID.

  `info cpustats`

    Show CPU statistics.

  `info usernet`

    Show user network stack connection states.

  `info migrate`

    Show migration status.

  `info migrate_capabilities`

    Show current migration capabilities.

  `info migrate_parameters`

    Show current migration parameters.

  `info migrate_cache_size`

    Show current migration xbzrle cache size.

  `info balloon`

    Show balloon information.

  `info qtree`

    Show device tree.

  `info qdm`

    Show qdev device model list.

  `info qom-tree`

    Show QOM composition tree.

  `info roms`

    Show roms.

  `info trace-events`

    Show available trace-events & their state.

  `info tpm`

    Show the TPM device.

  `info memdev`

    Show memory backends

  `info memory-devices`

    Show memory devices.

  `info iothreads`

    Show iothread’s identifiers.

  `info rocker name`

    Show rocker switch.

  `info rocker_ports name-ports`

    Show rocker ports.

  `info rocker_of_dpa_flows name [tbl_id]`

    Show rocker OF-DPA flow tables.

  `info rocker-of-dpa-groups name [type]`

    Show rocker OF-DPA groups.

  `info skeys address`

    Display the value of a storage key (s390 only)

  `info dump`

    Display the latest dump status.

#### 3.6.2 Integer expressions

The monitor understands integers expressions for every integer argument. You can use register names to get the value of specifics CPU registers by prefixing them with $.

### 3.7 Disk Images

Since version 0.6.1, QEMU supports many disk image formats, including growable disk images (their size increase as non empty sectors are written), compressed and encrypted disk images. Version 0.8.3 added the new qcow2 disk image format which is essential to support VM snapshots.

#### 3.7.1 Quick start for disk image creation

You can create a disk image with the command:

    qemu-img create myimage.img mysize

where myimage.img is the disk image filename and mysize is its size in kilobytes. You can add an `M` suffix to give the size in megabytes and a `G` suffix for gigabytes.

See qemu_img_invocation for more information.

#### 3.7.2 Snapshot mode

If you use the option `-snapshot`, all disk images are considered as read only. When sectors in written, they are written in a temporary file created in `/tmp`. You can however force the write back to the raw disk images by using the `commit` monitor command (or `C-a s` in the serial console).

#### 3.7.3 VM snapshots

VM snapshots are snapshots of the complete virtual machine including CPU state, RAM, device state and the content of all the writable disks. In order to use VM snapshots, you must have at least one non removable and writable block device using the `qcow2` disk image format. Normally this device is the first virtual hard drive.

Use the monitor command `savevm` to create a new VM snapshot or replace an existing one. A human readable name can be assigned to each snapshot in addition to its numerical ID.

Use `loadvm` to restore a VM snapshot and `delvm` to remove a VM snapshot. `info snapshots` lists the available snapshots with their associated information:

    (qemu) info snapshots
    Snapshot devices: hda
    Snapshot list (from hda):
    ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
    1         start                   41M 2006-08-06 12:38:02   00:00:14.954
    2                                 40M 2006-08-06 12:43:29   00:00:18.633
    3         msys                    40M 2006-08-06 12:44:04   00:00:23.514

A VM snapshot is made of a VM state info (its size is shown in `info snapshots`) and a snapshot of every writable disk image. The VM state info is stored in the first `qcow2` non removable and writable block device. The disk image snapshots are stored in every disk image. The size of a snapshot in a disk image is difficult to evaluate and is not shown by `info snapshots` because the associated disk sectors are shared among all the snapshots to save disk space (otherwise each snapshot would need a full copy of all the disk images).

When using the (unrelated) `-snapshot` option (disk_images_snapshot_mode), you can always make VM snapshots, but they are deleted as soon as you exit QEMU.

VM snapshots currently have the following known limitations:

- They cannot cope with removable devices if they are removed or inserted after a snapshot is done.
- A few device drivers still have incomplete snapshot support so their state is not saved or restored properly (in particular USB).

#### 3.7.4 `qemu-img` Invocation

    qemu-img command [command options]

qemu-img allows you to create, convert and modify images offline. It can handle all image formats supported by QEMU.

Warning: Never use qemu-img to modify images in use by a running virtual machine or any other process; this may destroy the image. Also, be aware that querying an image that is being modified by another process may encounter inconsistent state.

The following commands are supported:

`check [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] [-r [leaks | all]] [-T src_cache] filename`
`create [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] [-f fmt] [-o options] filename [size]`
`commit [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-b base] [-d] [-p] filename`
`compare [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-f fmt] [-F fmt] [-T src_cache] [-p] [-q] [-s] filename1 filename2`
`convert [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-c] [-p] [-q] [-n] [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-T src_cache] [-O output_fmt] [-o options] [-s snapshot_id_or_name] [-l snapshot_param] [-S sparse_size] filename [filename2 [...]] output_filename`
`info [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] [--backing-chain] filename`
`map [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] filename`
`snapshot [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] [-l | -a snapshot | -c snapshot | -d snapshot] filename`
`rebase [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-T src_cache] [-p] [-u] -b backing_file [-F backing_fmt] filename`
`resize [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-q] filename [+ | -]size`
`amend [--object objectdef] [--image-opts] [-p] [-q] [-f fmt] [-t cache] -o options filename`

Command parameters:

filename

  is a disk image filename

–object objectdef

  is a QEMU user creatable object definition. See the `qemu(1)` manual page for a description of the object properties. The most common object type is a `secret`, which is used to supply passwords and/or encryption keys.

–image-opts

  Indicates that the filename parameter is to be interpreted as a full option string, not a plain filename. This parameter is mutually exclusive with the -f and -F parameters.

fmt

  is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases. See below for a description of the supported disk formats.

–backing-chain

  will enumerate information about backing files in a disk image chain. Refer below for further description.

size

  is the disk image size in bytes. Optional suffixes `k` or `K` (kilobyte, 1024) `M` (megabyte, 1024k) and `G` (gigabyte, 1024M) and T (terabyte, 1024G) are supported. `b` is ignored.

output_filename

  is the destination disk image filename

output_fmt

  is the destination format

options

  is a comma separated list of format specific options in a name=value format. Use `-o ?` for an overview of the options supported by the used format or see the format descriptions below for details.

snapshot_param

  is param used for internal snapshot, format is ’snapshot.id=[ID],snapshot.name=[NAME]’ or ’[ID_OR_NAME]’

snapshot_id_or_name

  is deprecated, use snapshot_param instead

-c

  indicates that target image must be compressed (qcow format only)

-h

  with or without a command shows help and lists the supported formats

-p

  display progress bar (compare, convert and rebase commands only). If the -p option is not used for a command that supports it, the progress is reported when the process receives a `SIGUSR1` signal.

-q

  Quiet mode - do not print any output (except errors). There’s no progress bar in case both -q and -p options are used.

-S size

  indicates the consecutive number of bytes that must contain only zeros for qemu-img to create a sparse image during conversion. This value is rounded down to the nearest 512 bytes. You may use the common size suffixes like `k` for kilobytes.

-t cache

  specifies the cache mode that should be used with the (destination) file. See the documentation of the emulator’s `-drive cache=...` option for allowed values.

-T src_cache

  specifies the cache mode that should be used with the source file(s). See the documentation of the emulator’s `-drive cache=...` option for allowed values.

Parameters to snapshot subcommand:

`snapshot`

  is the name of the snapshot to create, apply or delete

`-a`

  applies a snapshot (revert disk to saved state)

`-c`

  creates a snapshot

`-d`

  deletes a snapshot

`-l`

  lists all snapshots in the given image

Parameters to compare subcommand:

`-f`

  First image format

`-F`

  Second image format

`-s`

  Strict mode - fail on different image size or sector allocation

Parameters to convert subcommand:

`-n`

  Skip the creation of the target volume

Command description:

`check [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] [-r [leaks | all]] [-T src_cache] filename`

  Perform a consistency check on the disk image filename. The command can output in the format ofmt which is either `human` or `json`.

  If `-r` is specified, qemu-img tries to repair any inconsistencies found during the check. `-r leaks` repairs only cluster leaks, whereas `-r all` fixes all kinds of errors, with a higher risk of choosing the wrong fix or hiding corruption that has already occurred.

  Only the formats `qcow2`, `qed` and `vdi` support consistency checks.

  In case the image does not have any inconsistencies, check exits with `0`. Other exit codes indicate the kind of inconsistency found or if another error occurred. The following table summarizes all exit codes of the check subcommand:

  `0`

    Check completed, the image is (now) consistent

  `1`

    Check not completed because of internal errors

  `2`

    Check completed, image is corrupted

  `3`

    Check completed, image has leaked clusters, but is not corrupted

  `63`

    Checks are not supported by the image format

  If `-r` is specified, exit codes representing the image state refer to the state after (the attempt at) repairing it. That is, a successful `-r all` will yield the exit code 0, independently of the image state before.

`create [-f fmt] [-o options] filename [size]`

  Create the new disk image filename of size size and format fmt. Depending on the file format, you can add one or more options that enable additional features of this format.

  If the option backing_file is specified, then the image will record only the differences from backing_file. No size needs to be specified in this case. backing_file will never be modified unless you use the `commit` monitor command (or qemu-img commit).

  The size can also be specified using the size option with `-o`, it doesn’t need to be specified separately in this case.

`commit [-q] [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-b base] [-d] [-p] filename`

  Commit the changes recorded in filename in its base image or backing file. If the backing file is smaller than the snapshot, then the backing file will be resized to be the same size as the snapshot. If the snapshot is smaller than the backing file, the backing file will not be truncated. If you want the backing file to match the size of the smaller snapshot, you can safely truncate it yourself once the commit operation successfully completes.

  The image filename is emptied after the operation has succeeded. If you do not need filename afterwards and intend to drop it, you may skip emptying filename by specifying the `-d` flag.

  If the backing chain of the given image file filename has more than one layer, the backing file into which the changes will be committed may be specified as base (which has to be part of filename’s backing chain). If base is not specified, the immediate backing file of the top image (which is filename) will be used. For reasons of consistency, explicitly specifying base will always imply `-d` (since emptying an image after committing to an indirect backing file would lead to different data being read from the image due to content in the intermediate backing chain overruling the commit target).

`compare [-f fmt] [-F fmt] [-T src_cache] [-p] [-s] [-q] filename1 filename2`

  Check if two images have the same content. You can compare images with different format or settings.

  The format is probed unless you specify it by -f (used for filename1) and/or -F (used for filename2) option.

  By default, images with different size are considered identical if the larger image contains only unallocated and/or zeroed sectors in the area after the end of the other image. In addition, if any sector is not allocated in one image and contains only zero bytes in the second one, it is evaluated as equal. You can use Strict mode by specifying the -s option. When compare runs in Strict mode, it fails in case image size differs or a sector is allocated in one image and is not allocated in the second one.

  By default, compare prints out a result message. This message displays information that both images are same or the position of the first different byte. In addition, result message can report different image size in case Strict mode is used.

  Compare exits with `0` in case the images are equal and with `1` in case the images differ. Other exit codes mean an error occurred during execution and standard error output should contain an error message. The following table sumarizes all exit codes of the compare subcommand:

  `0`

    Images are identical

  `1`

    Images differ

  `2`

    Error on opening an image

  `3`

    Error on checking a sector allocation

  `4`

    Error on reading data

`convert [-c] [-p] [-n] [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-T src_cache] [-O output_fmt] [-o options] [-s snapshot_id_or_name] [-l snapshot_param] [-S sparse_size] filename [filename2 [...]] output_filename`

  Convert the disk image filename or a snapshot snapshot_param(snapshot_id_or_name is deprecated) to disk image output_filename using format output_fmt. It can be optionally compressed (`-c` option) or use any format specific options like encryption (`-o` option).

  Only the formats `qcow` and `qcow2` support compression. The compression is read-only. It means that if a compressed sector is rewritten, then it is rewritten as uncompressed data.

  Image conversion is also useful to get smaller image when using a growable format such as `qcow`: the empty sectors are detected and suppressed from the destination image.

  sparse_size indicates the consecutive number of bytes (defaults to 4k) that must contain only zeros for qemu-img to create a sparse image during conversion. If sparse_size is 0, the source will not be scanned for unallocated or zero sectors, and the destination image will always be fully allocated.

  You can use the backing_file option to force the output image to be created as a copy on write image of the specified base image; the backing_file should have the same content as the input’s base image, however the path, image format, etc may differ.

  If the `-n` option is specified, the target volume creation will be skipped. This is useful for formats such as `rbd` if the target volume has already been created with site specific options that cannot be supplied through qemu-img.

`info [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] [--backing-chain] filename`

  Give information about the disk image filename. Use it in particular to know the size reserved on disk which can be different from the displayed size. If VM snapshots are stored in the disk image, they are displayed too. The command can output in the format ofmt which is either `human` or `json`.

  If a disk image has a backing file chain, information about each disk image in the chain can be recursively enumerated by using the option `--backing-chain`.

  For instance, if you have an image chain like:

      base.qcow2 <- snap1.qcow2 <- snap2.qcow2

  To enumerate information about each disk image in the above chain, starting from top to base, do:

      qemu-img info --backing-chain snap2.qcow2

`map [-f fmt] [--output=ofmt] filename`

  Dump the metadata of image filename and its backing file chain. In particular, this commands dumps the allocation state of every sector of filename, together with the topmost file that allocates it in the backing file chain.

  Two option formats are possible. The default format (`human`) only dumps known-nonzero areas of the file. Known-zero parts of the file are omitted altogether, and likewise for parts that are not allocated throughout the chain. `qemu-img` output will identify a file from where the data can be read, and the offset in the file. Each line will include four fields, the first three of which are hexadecimal numbers. For example the first line of:

      Offset          Length          Mapped to       File
      0               0x20000         0x50000         /tmp/overlay.qcow2
      0x100000        0x10000         0x95380000      /tmp/backing.qcow2

  means that 0x20000 (131072) bytes starting at offset 0 in the image are available in /tmp/overlay.qcow2 (opened in `raw` format) starting at offset 0x50000 (327680). Data that is compressed, encrypted, or otherwise not available in raw format will cause an error if `human` format is in use. Note that file names can include newlines, thus it is not safe to parse this output format in scripts.

  The alternative format `json` will return an array of dictionaries in JSON format. It will include similar information in the `start`, `length`, `offset` fields; it will also include other more specific information:

  - - whether the sectors contain actual data or not (boolean field `data`; if false, the sectors are either unallocated or stored as optimized all-zero clusters);
  - - whether the data is known to read as zero (boolean field `zero`);
  - - in order to make the output shorter, the target file is expressed as a `depth`; for example, a depth of 2 refers to the backing file of the backing file of filename.

  In JSON format, the `offset` field is optional; it is absent in cases where `human` format would omit the entry or exit with an error. If `data` is false and the `offset` field is present, the corresponding sectors in the file are not yet in use, but they are preallocated.

  For more information, consult `include/block/block.h` in QEMU’s source code.

`snapshot [-l | -a snapshot | -c snapshot | -d snapshot ] filename`

  List, apply, create or delete snapshots in image filename.

`rebase [-f fmt] [-t cache] [-T src_cache] [-p] [-u] -b backing_file [-F backing_fmt] filename`

  Changes the backing file of an image. Only the formats `qcow2` and `qed` support changing the backing file.

  The backing file is changed to backing_file and (if the image format of filename supports this) the backing file format is changed to backing_fmt. If backing_file is specified as “” (the empty string), then the image is rebased onto no backing file (i.e. it will exist independently of any backing file).

  cache specifies the cache mode to be used for filename, whereas src_cache specifies the cache mode for reading backing files.

  There are two different modes in which `rebase` can operate:

  `Safe mode`

    This is the default mode and performs a real rebase operation. The new backing file may differ from the old one and qemu-img rebase will take care of keeping the guest-visible content of filename unchanged.

    In order to achieve this, any clusters that differ between backing_file and the old backing file of filename are merged into filename before actually changing the backing file.

    Note that the safe mode is an expensive operation, comparable to converting an image. It only works if the old backing file still exists.

  `Unsafe mode`

    qemu-img uses the unsafe mode if `-u` is specified. In this mode, only the backing file name and format of filename is changed without any checks on the file contents. The user must take care of specifying the correct new backing file, or the guest-visible content of the image will be corrupted.

    This mode is useful for renaming or moving the backing file to somewhere else. It can be used without an accessible old backing file, i.e. you can use it to fix an image whose backing file has already been moved/renamed.

  You can use `rebase` to perform a “diff” operation on two disk images. This can be useful when you have copied or cloned a guest, and you want to get back to a thin image on top of a template or base image.

  Say that `base.img` has been cloned as `modified.img` by copying it, and that the `modified.img` guest has run so there are now some changes compared to `base.img`. To construct a thin image called `diff.qcow2` that contains just the differences, do:

      qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b modified.img diff.qcow2
      qemu-img rebase -b base.img diff.qcow2

  At this point, `modified.img` can be discarded, since `base.img + diff.qcow2` contains the same information.

`resize filename [+ | -]size`

  Change the disk image as if it had been created with size.

  Before using this command to shrink a disk image, you MUST use file system and partitioning tools inside the VM to reduce allocated file systems and partition sizes accordingly. Failure to do so will result in data loss!

  After using this command to grow a disk image, you must use file system and partitioning tools inside the VM to actually begin using the new space on the device.

`amend [-p] [-f fmt] [-t cache] -o options filename`

  Amends the image format specific options for the image file filename. Not all file formats support this operation.

#### 3.7.5 `qemu-nbd` Invocation

    qemu-nbd [OPTION]... filename

    qemu-nbd -d dev

Export a QEMU disk image using the NBD protocol.

filename is a disk image filename, or a set of block driver options if –image-opts is specified.

dev is an NBD device.

`--object type,id=id,...props...`

  Define a new instance of the type object class identified by id. See the `qemu(1)` manual page for full details of the properties supported. The common object types that it makes sense to define are the `secret` object, which is used to supply passwords and/or encryption keys, and the `tls-creds` object, which is used to supply TLS credentials for the qemu-nbd server.

`-p, --port=port`

  The TCP port to listen on (default ‘`10809`’)

`-o, --offset=offset`

  The offset into the image

`-b, --bind=iface`

  The interface to bind to (default ‘`0.0.0.0`’)

`-k, --socket=path`

  Use a unix socket with path path

`--image-opts`

  Treat filename as a set of image options, instead of a plain filename. If this flag is specified, the -f flag should not be used, instead the ’`format=`’ option should be set.

`-f, --format=fmt`

  Force the use of the block driver for format fmt instead of auto-detecting

`-r, --read-only`

  Export the disk as read-only

`-P, --partition=num`

  Only expose partition num

`-s, --snapshot`

  Use filename as an external snapshot, create a temporary file with backing_file=filename, redirect the write to the temporary one

`-l, --load-snapshot=snapshot_param`

  Load an internal snapshot inside filename and export it as an read-only device, snapshot_param format is ’snapshot.id=[ID],snapshot.name=[NAME]’ or ’[ID_OR_NAME]’

`-n, --nocache`
`--cache=cache`

  The cache mode to be used with the file. See the documentation of the emulator’s `-drive cache=...` option for allowed values.

`--aio=aio`

  Set the asynchronous I/O mode between ‘`threads`’ (the default) and ‘`native`’ (Linux only).

`--discard=discard`

  Control whether discard (also known as trim or unmap) requests are ignored or passed to the filesystem. discard is one of ‘`ignore`’ (or ‘`off`’), ‘`unmap`’ (or ‘`on`’). The default is ‘`ignore`’.

`--detect-zeroes=detect-zeroes`

  Control the automatic conversion of plain zero writes by the OS to driver-specific optimized zero write commands. detect-zeroes is one of ‘`off`’, ‘`on`’ or ‘`unmap`’. ‘`unmap`’ converts a zero write to an unmap operation and can only be used if discard is set to ‘`unmap`’. The default is ‘`off`’.

`-c, --connect=dev`

  Connect filename to NBD device dev

`-d, --disconnect`

  Disconnect the device dev

`-e, --shared=num`

  Allow up to num clients to share the device (default ‘`1`’)

`-t, --persistent`

  Don’t exit on the last connection

`-x NAME, --export-name=NAME`

  Set the NBD volume export name. This switches the server to use the new style NBD protocol negotiation

`--tls-creds=ID`

  Enable mandatory TLS encryption for the server by setting the ID of the TLS credentials object previously created with the –object option.

`-v, --verbose`

  Display extra debugging information

`-h, --help`

  Display this help and exit

`-V, --version`

  Display version information and exit

#### 3.7.6 `qemu-ga` Invocation

    qemu-ga [OPTIONS]

The QEMU Guest Agent is a daemon intended to be run within virtual machines. It allows the hypervisor host to perform various operations in the guest, such as:

- get information from the guest
- set the guest’s system time
- read/write a file
- sync and freeze the filesystems
- suspend the guest
- reconfigure guest local processors
- set user’s password
- ...

qemu-ga will read a system configuration file on startup (located at q`/etc/qemu/qemu-ga.conf` by default), then parse remaining configuration options on the command line. For the same key, the last option wins, but the lists accumulate (see below for configuration file format).

`-m, --method=method`

  Transport method: one of ‘`unix-listen`’, ‘`virtio-serial`’, or ‘`isa-serial`’ (‘`virtio-serial`’ is the default).

`-p, --path=path`

  Device/socket path (the default for virtio-serial is ‘`/dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0`’, the default for isa-serial is ‘`/dev/ttyS0`’)

`-l, --logfile=path`

  Set log file path (default is stderr).

`-f, --pidfile=path`

  Specify pid file (default is ‘`/var/run/qemu-ga.pid`’).

`-F, --fsfreeze-hook=path`

  Enable fsfreeze hook. Accepts an optional argument that specifies script to run on freeze/thaw. Script will be called with ’freeze’/’thaw’ arguments accordingly (default is ‘`/etc/qemu/fsfreeze-hook`’). If using -F with an argument, do not follow -F with a space (for example: ‘`-F/var/run/fsfreezehook.sh`’).

`-t, --statedir=path`

  Specify the directory to store state information (absolute paths only, default is ‘`/var/run`’).

`-v, --verbose`

  Log extra debugging information.

`-V, --version`

  Print version information and exit.

`-d, --daemon`

  Daemonize after startup (detach from terminal).

`-b, --blacklist=list`

  Comma-separated list of RPCs to disable (no spaces, ‘`?`’ to list available RPCs).

`-D, --dump-conf`

  Dump the configuration in a format compatible with `qemu-ga.conf` and exit.

`-h, --help`

  Display this help and exit.

The syntax of the `qemu-ga.conf` configuration file follows the Desktop Entry Specification, here is a quick summary: it consists of groups of key-value pairs, interspersed with comments.

    # qemu-ga configuration sample
    [general]
    daemonize = 0
    pidfile = /var/run/qemu-ga.pid
    verbose = 0
    method = virtio-serial
    path = /dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0
    statedir = /var/run

The list of keys follows the command line options:

`daemon= boolean`
`method= string`
`path= string`
`logfile= string`
`pidfile= string`
`fsfreeze-hook= string`
`statedir= string`
`verbose= boolean`
`blacklist= string list`

#### 3.7.7 Disk image file formats

QEMU supports many image file formats that can be used with VMs as well as with any of the tools (like `qemu-img`). This includes the preferred formats raw and qcow2 as well as formats that are supported for compatibility with older QEMU versions or other hypervisors.

Depending on the image format, different options can be passed to `qemu-img create` and `qemu-img convert` using the `-o` option. This section describes each format and the options that are supported for it.

`raw`

  Raw disk image format. This format has the advantage of being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your file system supports holes (for example in ext2 or ext3 on Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve space. Use `qemu-img info` to know the real size used by the image or `ls -ls` on Unix/Linux.

  Supported options:

  `preallocation`

    Preallocation mode (allowed values: `off`, `falloc`, `full`). `falloc` mode preallocates space for image by calling posix_fallocate(). `full` mode preallocates space for image by writing zeros to underlying storage.

`qcow2`

  QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example on Windows), zlib based compression and support of multiple VM snapshots.

  Supported options:

  `compat`

    Determines the qcow2 version to use. `compat=0.10` uses the traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10. `compat=1.1` enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes zero clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images.

  `backing_file`

    File name of a base image (see `create` subcommand)

  `backing_fmt`

    Image format of the base image

  `encryption`

    If this option is set to `on`, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC.

    The use of encryption in qcow and qcow2 images is considered to be flawed by modern cryptography standards, suffering from a number of design problems:

    - - The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks which can reveal the existence of encrypted data.
    - - The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption.
    - - In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred, though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies.

    Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption with QEMU is deprecated, and support for it will go away in a future release. Users are recommended to use an alternative encryption technology such as the Linux dm-crypt / LUKS system.

  `cluster_size`

    Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally provide better performance.

  `preallocation`

    Preallocation mode (allowed values: `off`, `metadata`, `falloc`, `full`). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can improve performance when the image needs to grow. `falloc` and `full` preallocations are like the same options of `raw` format, but sets up metadata also.

  `lazy_refcounts`

    If this option is set to `on`, reference count updates are postponed with the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is particularly interesting with `cache=writethrough` which doesn’t batch metadata updates. The tradeoff is that after a host crash, the reference count tables must be rebuilt, i.e. on the next open an (automatic) `qemu-img check -r all` is required, which may take some time.

    This option can only be enabled if `compat=1.1` is specified.

  `nocow`

    If this option is set to `on`, it will turn off COW of the file. It’s only valid on btrfs, no effect on other file systems.

    Btrfs has low performance when hosting a VM image file, even more when the guest on the VM also using btrfs as file system. Turning off COW is a way to mitigate this bad performance. Generally there are two ways to turn off COW on btrfs: a) Disable it by mounting with nodatacow, then all newly created files will be NOCOW. b) For an empty file, add the NOCOW file attribute. That’s what this option does.

    Note: this option is only valid to new or empty files. If there is an existing file which is COW and has data blocks already, it couldn’t be changed to NOCOW by setting `nocow=on`. One can issue `lsattr filename` to check if the NOCOW flag is set or not (Capital ’C’ is NOCOW flag).

`qed`

  Old QEMU image format with support for backing files and compact image files (when your filesystem or transport medium does not support holes).

  When converting QED images to qcow2, you might want to consider using the `lazy_refcounts=on` option to get a more QED-like behaviour.

  Supported options:

  `backing_file`

    File name of a base image (see `create` subcommand).

  `backing_fmt`

    Image file format of backing file (optional). Useful if the format cannot be autodetected because it has no header, like some vhd/vpc files.

  `cluster_size`

    Changes the cluster size (must be power-of-2 between 4K and 64K). Smaller cluster sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally provide better performance.

  `table_size`

    Changes the number of clusters per L1/L2 table (must be power-of-2 between 1 and 16). There is normally no need to change this value but this option can be used for performance benchmarking.

`qcow`

  Old QEMU image format with support for backing files, compact image files, encryption and compression.

  Supported options:

  `backing_file`

    File name of a base image (see `create` subcommand)

  `encryption`

    If this option is set to `on`, the image is encrypted.

`vdi`

  VirtualBox 1.1 compatible image format. Supported options:

  `static`

    If this option is set to `on`, the image is created with metadata preallocation.

`vmdk`

  VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format.

  Supported options:

  `backing_file`

    File name of a base image (see `create` subcommand).

  `compat6`

    Create a VMDK version 6 image (instead of version 4)

  `subformat`

    Specifies which VMDK subformat to use. Valid options are `monolithicSparse` (default), `monolithicFlat`, `twoGbMaxExtentSparse`, `twoGbMaxExtentFlat` and `streamOptimized`.

`vpc`

  VirtualPC compatible image format (VHD). Supported options:

  `subformat`

    Specifies which VHD subformat to use. Valid options are `dynamic` (default) and `fixed`.

`VHDX`

  Hyper-V compatible image format (VHDX). Supported options:

  `subformat`

    Specifies which VHDX subformat to use. Valid options are `dynamic` (default) and `fixed`.

  `block_state_zero`

    Force use of payload blocks of type ’ZERO’. Can be set to `on` (default) or `off`. When set to `off`, new blocks will be created as `PAYLOAD_BLOCK_NOT_PRESENT`, which means parsers are free to return arbitrary data for those blocks. Do not set to `off` when using `qemu-img convert` with `subformat=dynamic`.

  `block_size`

    Block size; min 1 MB, max 256 MB. 0 means auto-calculate based on image size.

  `log_size`

    Log size; min 1 MB.

#### 3.7.7.1 Read-only formats

More disk image file formats are supported in a read-only mode.

`bochs`

  Bochs images of `growing` type.

`cloop`

  Linux Compressed Loop image, useful only to reuse directly compressed CD-ROM images present for example in the Knoppix CD-ROMs.

`dmg`

  Apple disk image.

`parallels`

  Parallels disk image format.

#### 3.7.8 Using host drives

In addition to disk image files, QEMU can directly access host devices. We describe here the usage for QEMU version >= 0.8.3.

#### 3.7.8.1 Linux

On Linux, you can directly use the host device filename instead of a disk image filename provided you have enough privileges to access it. For example, use `/dev/cdrom` to access to the CDROM.

`CD`

  You can specify a CDROM device even if no CDROM is loaded. QEMU has specific code to detect CDROM insertion or removal. CDROM ejection by the guest OS is supported. Currently only data CDs are supported.

`Floppy`

  You can specify a floppy device even if no floppy is loaded. Floppy removal is currently not detected accurately (if you change floppy without doing floppy access while the floppy is not loaded, the guest OS will think that the same floppy is loaded). Use of the host’s floppy device is deprecated, and support for it will be removed in a future release.

`Hard disks`

  Hard disks can be used. Normally you must specify the whole disk (`/dev/hdb` instead of `/dev/hdb1`) so that the guest OS can see it as a partitioned disk. WARNING: unless you know what you do, it is better to only make READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise you may corrupt your host data (use the `-snapshot` command line option or modify the device permissions accordingly).

#### 3.7.8.2 Windows

`CD`

  The preferred syntax is the drive letter (e.g. `d:`). The alternate syntax `\\.\d:` is supported. `/dev/cdrom` is supported as an alias to the first CDROM drive.

  Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it is better to use the `change` or `eject` monitor commands to change or eject media.

`Hard disks`

  Hard disks can be used with the syntax: `\\.\PhysicalDriveN` where N is the drive number (0 is the first hard disk).

  WARNING: unless you know what you do, it is better to only make READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise you may corrupt your host data (use the `-snapshot` command line so that the modifications are written in a temporary file).

#### 3.7.8.3 Mac OS X

`/dev/cdrom` is an alias to the first CDROM.

Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it is better to use the `change` or `eject` monitor commands to change or eject media.

#### 3.7.9 Virtual FAT disk images

QEMU can automatically create a virtual FAT disk image from a directory tree. In order to use it, just type:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -hdb fat:/my_directory

Then you access access to all the files in the `/my_directory` directory without having to copy them in a disk image or to export them via SAMBA or NFS. The default access is read-only.

Floppies can be emulated with the `:floppy:` option:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -fda fat:floppy:/my_directory

A read/write support is available for testing (beta stage) with the `:rw:` option:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -fda fat:floppy:rw:/my_directory

What you should never do:

- use non-ASCII filenames ;
- use "-snapshot" together with ":rw:" ;
- expect it to work when loadvm’ing ;
- write to the FAT directory on the host system while accessing it with the guest system.

#### 3.7.10 NBD access

QEMU can access directly to block device exported using the Network Block Device protocol.

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -hdb nbd://my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024/

If the NBD server is located on the same host, you can use an unix socket instead of an inet socket:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket

In this case, the block device must be exported using qemu-nbd:

    qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket my_disk.qcow2

The use of qemu-nbd allows sharing of a disk between several guests:

    qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket --share=2 my_disk.qcow2

and then you can use it with two guests:

    qemu-system-i386 linux1.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket
    qemu-system-i386 linux2.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket

If the nbd-server uses named exports (supported since NBD 2.9.18, or with QEMU’s own embedded NBD server), you must specify an export name in the URI:

    qemu-system-i386 -cdrom nbd://localhost/debian-500-ppc-netinst
    qemu-system-i386 -cdrom nbd://localhost/openSUSE-11.1-ppc-netinst

The URI syntax for NBD is supported since QEMU 1.3. An alternative syntax is also available. Here are some example of the older syntax:

    qemu-system-i386 linux.img -hdb nbd:my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024
    qemu-system-i386 linux2.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket
    qemu-system-i386 -cdrom nbd:localhost:10809:exportname=debian-500-ppc-netinst

#### 3.7.11 Sheepdog disk images

Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. It provides highly available block level storage volumes that can be attached to QEMU-based virtual machines.

You can create a Sheepdog disk image with the command:

    qemu-img create sheepdog:///image size

where image is the Sheepdog image name and size is its size.

To import the existing filename to Sheepdog, you can use a convert command.

    qemu-img convert filename sheepdog:///image

You can boot from the Sheepdog disk image with the command:

    qemu-system-i386 sheepdog:///image

You can also create a snapshot of the Sheepdog image like qcow2.

    qemu-img snapshot -c tag sheepdog:///image

where tag is a tag name of the newly created snapshot.

To boot from the Sheepdog snapshot, specify the tag name of the snapshot.

    qemu-system-i386 sheepdog:///image#tag

You can create a cloned image from the existing snapshot.

    qemu-img create -b sheepdog:///base#tag sheepdog:///image

where base is a image name of the source snapshot and tag is its tag name.

You can use an unix socket instead of an inet socket:

    qemu-system-i386 sheepdog+unix:///image?socket=path

If the Sheepdog daemon doesn’t run on the local host, you need to specify one of the Sheepdog servers to connect to.

    qemu-img create sheepdog://hostname:port/image size
    qemu-system-i386 sheepdog://hostname:port/image

#### 3.7.12 iSCSI LUNs

iSCSI is a popular protocol used to access SCSI devices across a computer network.

There are two different ways iSCSI devices can be used by QEMU.

The first method is to mount the iSCSI LUN on the host, and make it appear as any other ordinary SCSI device on the host and then to access this device as a /dev/sd device from QEMU. How to do this differs between host OSes.

The second method involves using the iSCSI initiator that is built into QEMU. This provides a mechanism that works the same way regardless of which host OS you are running QEMU on. This section will describe this second method of using iSCSI together with QEMU.

In QEMU, iSCSI devices are described using special iSCSI URLs

    URL syntax:
    iscsi://[<username>[%<password>]@]<host>[:<port>]/<target-iqn-name>/<lun>

Username and password are optional and only used if your target is set up using CHAP authentication for access control. Alternatively the username and password can also be set via environment variables to have these not show up in the process list

    export LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME=<username>
    export LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD=<password>
    iscsi://<host>/<target-iqn-name>/<lun>

Various session related parameters can be set via special options, either in a configuration file provided via ’-readconfig’ or directly on the command line.

If the initiator-name is not specified qemu will use a default name of ’iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:<name>’] where <name> is the name of the virtual machine.

    Setting a specific initiator name to use when logging in to the target
    -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator

    Controlling which type of header digest to negotiate with the target
    -iscsi header-digest=CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE

These can also be set via a configuration file

    [iscsi]
      user = "CHAP username"
      password = "CHAP password"
      initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator"
      # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE
      header-digest = "CRC32C"

Setting the target name allows different options for different targets

    [iscsi "iqn.target.name"]
      user = "CHAP username"
      password = "CHAP password"
      initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator"
      # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE
      header-digest = "CRC32C"

Howto use a configuration file to set iSCSI configuration options:

    cat >iscsi.conf <<EOF
    [iscsi]
      user = "me"
      password = "my password"
      initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator"
      header-digest = "CRC32C"
    EOF

    qemu-system-i386 -drive file=iscsi://127.0.0.1/iqn.qemu.test/1 \
        -readconfig iscsi.conf

Howto set up a simple iSCSI target on loopback and accessing it via QEMU:

    This example shows how to set up an iSCSI target with one CDROM and one DISK
    using the Linux STGT software target. This target is available on Red Hat based
    systems as the package 'scsi-target-utils'.

    tgtd --iscsi portal=127.0.0.1:3260
    tgtadm --lld iscsi --op new --mode target --tid 1 -T iqn.qemu.test
    tgtadm --lld iscsi --mode logicalunit --op new --tid 1 --lun 1 \
        -b /IMAGES/disk.img --device-type=disk
    tgtadm --lld iscsi --mode logicalunit --op new --tid 1 --lun 2 \
        -b /IMAGES/cd.iso --device-type=cd
    tgtadm --lld iscsi --op bind --mode target --tid 1 -I ALL

    qemu-system-i386 -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator \
        -boot d -drive file=iscsi://127.0.0.1/iqn.qemu.test/1 \
        -cdrom iscsi://127.0.0.1/iqn.qemu.test/2

#### 3.7.13 GlusterFS disk images

GlusterFS is an user space distributed file system.

You can boot from the GlusterFS disk image with the command:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster[+transport]://[server[:port]]/volname/image[?socket=...]

gluster is the protocol.

transport specifies the transport type used to connect to gluster management daemon (glusterd). Valid transport types are tcp, unix and rdma. If a transport type isn’t specified, then tcp type is assumed.

server specifies the server where the volume file specification for the given volume resides. This can be either hostname, ipv4 address or ipv6 address. ipv6 address needs to be within square brackets [ ]. If transport type is unix, then server field should not be specified. Instead socket field needs to be populated with the path to unix domain socket.

port is the port number on which glusterd is listening. This is optional and if not specified, QEMU will send 0 which will make gluster to use the default port. If the transport type is unix, then port should not be specified.

volname is the name of the gluster volume which contains the disk image.

image is the path to the actual disk image that resides on gluster volume.

You can create a GlusterFS disk image with the command:

    qemu-img create gluster://server/volname/image size

Examples

    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster://1.2.3.4/testvol/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+tcp://1.2.3.4/testvol/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+tcp://1.2.3.4:24007/testvol/dir/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+tcp://[1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]/testvol/dir/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+tcp://[1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]:24007/testvol/dir/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+tcp://server.domain.com:24007/testvol/dir/a.img
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+unix:///testvol/dir/a.img?socket=/tmp/glusterd.socket
    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=gluster+rdma://1.2.3.4:24007/testvol/a.img

#### 3.7.14 Secure Shell (ssh) disk images

You can access disk images located on a remote ssh server by using the ssh protocol:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=ssh://[user@]server[:port]/path[?host_key_check=host_key_check]

Alternative syntax using properties:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file.driver=ssh[,file.user=user],file.host=server[,file.port=port],file.path=path[,file.host_key_check=host_key_check]

ssh is the protocol.

user is the remote user. If not specified, then the local username is tried.

server specifies the remote ssh server. Any ssh server can be used, but it must implement the sftp-server protocol. Most Unix/Linux systems should work without requiring any extra configuration.

port is the port number on which sshd is listening. By default the standard ssh port (22) is used.

path is the path to the disk image.

The optional host_key_check parameter controls how the remote host’s key is checked. The default is `yes` which means to use the local `.ssh/known_hosts` file. Setting this to `no` turns off known-hosts checking. Or you can check that the host key matches a specific fingerprint: `host_key_check=md5:78:45:8e:14:57:4f:d5:45:83:0a:0e:f3:49:82:c9:c8` (`sha1:` can also be used as a prefix, but note that OpenSSH tools only use MD5 to print fingerprints).

Currently authentication must be done using ssh-agent. Other authentication methods may be supported in future.

Note: Many ssh servers do not support an `fsync`-style operation. The ssh driver cannot guarantee that disk flush requests are obeyed, and this causes a risk of disk corruption if the remote server or network goes down during writes. The driver will print a warning when `fsync` is not supported:

warning: ssh server `ssh.example.com:22` does not support fsync

With sufficiently new versions of libssh2 and OpenSSH, `fsync` is supported.

### 3.8 Network emulation

QEMU can simulate several network cards (PCI or ISA cards on the PC target) and can connect them to an arbitrary number of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). Host TAP devices can be connected to any QEMU VLAN. VLAN can be connected between separate instances of QEMU to simulate large networks. For simpler usage, a non privileged user mode network stack can replace the TAP device to have a basic network connection.

#### 3.8.1 VLANs

QEMU simulates several VLANs. A VLAN can be symbolised as a virtual connection between several network devices. These devices can be for example QEMU virtual Ethernet cards or virtual Host ethernet devices (TAP devices).

#### 3.8.2 Using TAP network interfaces

This is the standard way to connect QEMU to a real network. QEMU adds a virtual network device on your host (called `tapN`), and you can then configure it as if it was a real ethernet card.

#### 3.8.2.1 Linux host

As an example, you can download the `linux-test-xxx.tar.gz` archive and copy the script `qemu-ifup` in `/etc` and configure properly `sudo` so that the command `ifconfig` contained in `qemu-ifup` can be executed as root. You must verify that your host kernel supports the TAP network interfaces: the device `/dev/net/tun` must be present.

See sec_invocation to have examples of command lines using the TAP network interfaces.

#### 3.8.2.2 Windows host

There is a virtual ethernet driver for Windows 2000/XP systems, called TAP-Win32. But it is not included in standard QEMU for Windows, so you will need to get it separately. It is part of OpenVPN package, so download OpenVPN from : http://openvpn.net/.

#### 3.8.3 Using the user mode network stack

By using the option `-net user` (default configuration if no `-net` option is specified), QEMU uses a completely user mode network stack (you don’t need root privilege to use the virtual network). The virtual network configuration is the following:

             QEMU VLAN      <------>  Firewall/DHCP server <-----> Internet
                               |          (10.0.2.2)
                               |
                               ---->  DNS server (10.0.2.3)
                               |
                               ---->  SMB server (10.0.2.4)

The QEMU VM behaves as if it was behind a firewall which blocks all incoming connections. You can use a DHCP client to automatically configure the network in the QEMU VM. The DHCP server assign addresses to the hosts starting from 10.0.2.15.

In order to check that the user mode network is working, you can ping the address 10.0.2.2 and verify that you got an address in the range 10.0.2.x from the QEMU virtual DHCP server.

Note that ICMP traffic in general does not work with user mode networking. `ping`, aka. ICMP echo, to the local router (10.0.2.2) shall work, however. If you’re using QEMU on Linux >= 3.0, it can use unprivileged ICMP ping sockets to allow `ping` to the Internet. The host admin has to set the ping_group_range in order to grant access to those sockets. To allow ping for GID 100 (usually users group):

    echo 100 100 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ping_group_range

When using the built-in TFTP server, the router is also the TFTP server.

When using the `'-netdev user,hostfwd=...'` option, TCP or UDP connections can be redirected from the host to the guest. It allows for example to redirect X11, telnet or SSH connections.

#### 3.8.4 Connecting VLANs between QEMU instances

Using the `-net socket` option, it is possible to make VLANs that span several QEMU instances. See sec_invocation to have a basic example.

### 3.9 Other Devices

#### 3.9.1 Inter-VM Shared Memory device

On Linux hosts, a shared memory device is available. The basic syntax is:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -device ivshmem-plain,memdev=hostmem

where hostmem names a host memory backend. For a POSIX shared memory backend, use something like

    -object memory-backend-file,size=1M,share,mem-path=/dev/shm/ivshmem,id=hostmem

If desired, interrupts can be sent between guest VMs accessing the same shared memory region. Interrupt support requires using a shared memory server and using a chardev socket to connect to it. The code for the shared memory server is qemu.git/contrib/ivshmem-server. An example syntax when using the shared memory server is:

    # First start the ivshmem server once and for all
    ivshmem-server -p pidfile -S path -m shm-name -l shm-size -n vectors

    # Then start your qemu instances with matching arguments
    qemu-system-x86_64 -device ivshmem-doorbell,vectors=vectors,chardev=id
                     -chardev socket,path=path,id=id

When using the server, the guest will be assigned a VM ID (>=0) that allows guests using the same server to communicate via interrupts. Guests can read their VM ID from a device register (see ivshmem-spec.txt).

#### 3.9.1.1 Migration with ivshmem

With device property `master=on`, the guest will copy the shared memory on migration to the destination host. With `master=off`, the guest will not be able to migrate with the device attached. In the latter case, the device should be detached and then reattached after migration using the PCI hotplug support.

At most one of the devices sharing the same memory can be master. The master must complete migration before you plug back the other devices.

#### 3.9.1.2 ivshmem and hugepages

Instead of specifying the <shm size> using POSIX shm, you may specify a memory backend that has hugepage support:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -object memory-backend-file,size=1G,mem-path=/dev/hugepages/my-shmem-file,share,id=mb1
                     -device ivshmem-plain,memdev=mb1

ivshmem-server also supports hugepages mount points with the `-m` memory path argument.

### 3.10 Direct Linux Boot

This section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without having to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux kernel testing.

The syntax is:

    qemu-system-i386 -kernel arch/i386/boot/bzImage -hda root-2.4.20.img -append "root=/dev/hda"

Use `-kernel` to provide the Linux kernel image and `-append` to give the kernel command line arguments. The `-initrd` option can be used to provide an INITRD image.

When using the direct Linux boot, a disk image for the first hard disk `hda` is required because its boot sector is used to launch the Linux kernel.

If you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the virtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the `-nographic` option. The typical command line is:

    qemu-system-i386 -kernel arch/i386/boot/bzImage -hda root-2.4.20.img \
                     -append "root=/dev/hda console=ttyS0" -nographic

Use `Ctrl-a c` to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see pcsys_keys).

### 3.11 USB emulation

QEMU emulates a PCI UHCI USB controller. You can virtually plug virtual USB devices or real host USB devices (experimental, works only on Linux hosts). QEMU will automatically create and connect virtual USB hubs as necessary to connect multiple USB devices.

#### 3.11.1 Connecting USB devices

USB devices can be connected with the `-usbdevice` commandline option or the `usb_add` monitor command. Available devices are:

`mouse`

  Virtual Mouse. This will override the PS/2 mouse emulation when activated.

`tablet`

  Pointer device that uses absolute coordinates (like a touchscreen). This means QEMU is able to report the mouse position without having to grab the mouse. Also overrides the PS/2 mouse emulation when activated.

`disk:file`

  Mass storage device based on file (see disk_images)

`host:bus.addr`

  Pass through the host device identified by bus.addr (Linux only)

`host:vendor_id:product_id`

  Pass through the host device identified by vendor_id:product_id (Linux only)

`wacom-tablet`

  Virtual Wacom PenPartner tablet. This device is similar to the `tablet` above but it can be used with the tslib library because in addition to touch coordinates it reports touch pressure.

`keyboard`

  Standard USB keyboard. Will override the PS/2 keyboard (if present).

`serial:[vendorid=vendor_id][,product_id=product_id]:dev`

  Serial converter. This emulates an FTDI FT232BM chip connected to host character device dev. The available character devices are the same as for the `-serial` option. The `vendorid` and `productid` options can be used to override the default 0403:6001. For instance,

      usb_add serial:productid=FA00:tcp:192.168.0.2:4444

  will connect to tcp port 4444 of ip 192.168.0.2, and plug that to the virtual serial converter, faking a Matrix Orbital LCD Display (USB ID 0403:FA00).

`braille`

  Braille device. This will use BrlAPI to display the braille output on a real or fake device.

`net:options`

  Network adapter that supports CDC ethernet and RNDIS protocols. options specifies NIC options as with `-net nic,`options (see description). For instance, user-mode networking can be used with

      qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -net user,vlan=0 -usbdevice net:vlan=0

  Currently this cannot be used in machines that support PCI NICs.

`bt[:hci-type]`

  Bluetooth dongle whose type is specified in the same format as with the `-bt hci` option, see allowed HCI types. If no type is given, the HCI logic corresponds to `-bt hci,vlan=0`. This USB device implements the USB Transport Layer of HCI. Example usage:

      qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -usbdevice bt:hci,vlan=3 -bt device:keyboard,vlan=3

#### 3.11.2 Using host USB devices on a Linux host

WARNING: this is an experimental feature. QEMU will slow down when using it. USB devices requiring real time streaming (i.e. USB Video Cameras) are not supported yet.

1. If you use an early Linux 2.4 kernel, verify that no Linux driver is actually using the USB device. A simple way to do that is simply to disable the corresponding kernel module by renaming it from `mydriver.o` to `mydriver.o.disabled`.
2. Verify that `/proc/bus/usb` is working (most Linux distributions should enable it by default). You should see something like that:

       ls /proc/bus/usb
       001  devices  drivers

3. Since only root can access to the USB devices directly, you can either launch QEMU as root or change the permissions of the USB devices you want to use. For testing, the following suffices:

       chown -R myuid /proc/bus/usb

4. Launch QEMU and do in the monitor:

       info usbhost
         Device 1.2, speed 480 Mb/s
           Class 00: USB device 1234:5678, USB DISK

   You should see the list of the devices you can use (Never try to use hubs, it won’t work).

5. Add the device in QEMU by using:

       usb_add host:1234:5678

   Normally the guest OS should report that a new USB device is plugged. You can use the option `-usbdevice` to do the same.

6. Now you can try to use the host USB device in QEMU.

When relaunching QEMU, you may have to unplug and plug again the USB device to make it work again (this is a bug).

### 3.12 VNC security

The VNC server capability provides access to the graphical console of the guest VM across the network. This has a number of security considerations depending on the deployment scenarios.

#### 3.12.1 Without passwords

The simplest VNC server setup does not include any form of authentication. For this setup it is recommended to restrict it to listen on a UNIX domain socket only. For example

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc unix:/home/joebloggs/.qemu-myvm-vnc

This ensures that only users on local box with read/write access to that path can access the VNC server. To securely access the VNC server from a remote machine, a combination of netcat+ssh can be used to provide a secure tunnel.

#### 3.12.2 With passwords

The VNC protocol has limited support for password based authentication. Since the protocol limits passwords to 8 characters it should not be considered to provide high security. The password can be fairly easily brute-forced by a client making repeat connections. For this reason, a VNC server using password authentication should be restricted to only listen on the loopback interface or UNIX domain sockets. Password authentication is not supported when operating in FIPS 140-2 compliance mode as it requires the use of the DES cipher. Password authentication is requested with the `password` option, and then once QEMU is running the password is set with the monitor. Until the monitor is used to set the password all clients will be rejected.

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,password -monitor stdio
    (qemu) change vnc password
    Password: ********
    (qemu)

#### 3.12.3 With x509 certificates

The QEMU VNC server also implements the VeNCrypt extension allowing use of TLS for encryption of the session, and x509 certificates for authentication. The use of x509 certificates is strongly recommended, because TLS on its own is susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. Basic x509 certificate support provides a secure session, but no authentication. This allows any client to connect, and provides an encrypted session.

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,tls,x509=/etc/pki/qemu -monitor stdio

In the above example `/etc/pki/qemu` should contain at least three files, `ca-cert.pem`, `server-cert.pem` and `server-key.pem`. Unprivileged users will want to use a private directory, for example `$HOME/.pki/qemu`. NB the `server-key.pem` file should be protected with file mode 0600 to only be readable by the user owning it.

#### 3.12.4 With x509 certificates and client verification

Certificates can also provide a means to authenticate the client connecting. The server will request that the client provide a certificate, which it will then validate against the CA certificate. This is a good choice if deploying in an environment with a private internal certificate authority.

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,tls,x509verify=/etc/pki/qemu -monitor stdio

#### 3.12.5 With x509 certificates, client verification and passwords

Finally, the previous method can be combined with VNC password authentication to provide two layers of authentication for clients.

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,password,tls,x509verify=/etc/pki/qemu -monitor stdio
    (qemu) change vnc password
    Password: ********
    (qemu)

#### 3.12.6 With SASL authentication

The SASL authentication method is a VNC extension, that provides an easily extendable, pluggable authentication method. This allows for integration with a wide range of authentication mechanisms, such as PAM, GSSAPI/Kerberos, LDAP, SQL databases, one-time keys and more. The strength of the authentication depends on the exact mechanism configured. If the chosen mechanism also provides a SSF layer, then it will encrypt the datastream as well.

Refer to the later docs on how to choose the exact SASL mechanism used for authentication, but assuming use of one supporting SSF, then QEMU can be launched with:

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,sasl -monitor stdio

#### 3.12.7 With x509 certificates and SASL authentication

If the desired SASL authentication mechanism does not supported SSF layers, then it is strongly advised to run it in combination with TLS and x509 certificates. This provides securely encrypted data stream, avoiding risk of compromising of the security credentials. This can be enabled, by combining the ’sasl’ option with the aforementioned TLS + x509 options:

    qemu-system-i386 [...OPTIONS...] -vnc :1,tls,x509,sasl -monitor stdio

#### 3.12.8 Generating certificates for VNC

The GNU TLS packages provides a command called `certtool` which can be used to generate certificates and keys in PEM format. At a minimum it is necessary to setup a certificate authority, and issue certificates to each server. If using certificates for authentication, then each client will also need to be issued a certificate. The recommendation is for the server to keep its certificates in either `/etc/pki/qemu` or for unprivileged users in `$HOME/.pki/qemu`.

#### 3.12.8.1 Setup the Certificate Authority

This step only needs to be performed once per organization / organizational unit. First the CA needs a private key. This key must be kept VERY secret and secure. If this key is compromised the entire trust chain of the certificates issued with it is lost.

    # certtool --generate-privkey > ca-key.pem

A CA needs to have a public certificate. For simplicity it can be a self-signed certificate, or one issue by a commercial certificate issuing authority. To generate a self-signed certificate requires one core piece of information, the name of the organization.

    # cat > ca.info <<EOF
    cn = Name of your organization
    ca
    cert_signing_key
    EOF
    # certtool --generate-self-signed \
               --load-privkey ca-key.pem
               --template ca.info \
               --outfile ca-cert.pem

The `ca-cert.pem` file should be copied to all servers and clients wishing to utilize TLS support in the VNC server. The `ca-key.pem` must not be disclosed/copied at all.

#### 3.12.8.2 Issuing server certificates

Each server (or host) needs to be issued with a key and certificate. When connecting the certificate is sent to the client which validates it against the CA certificate. The core piece of information for a server certificate is the hostname. This should be the fully qualified hostname that the client will connect with, since the client will typically also verify the hostname in the certificate. On the host holding the secure CA private key:

    # cat > server.info <<EOF
    organization = Name  of your organization
    cn = server.foo.example.com
    tls_www_server
    encryption_key
    signing_key
    EOF
    # certtool --generate-privkey > server-key.pem
    # certtool --generate-certificate \
               --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \
               --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem \
               --load-privkey server-key.pem \
               --template server.info \
               --outfile server-cert.pem

The `server-key.pem` and `server-cert.pem` files should now be securely copied to the server for which they were generated. The `server-key.pem` is security sensitive and should be kept protected with file mode 0600 to prevent disclosure.

#### 3.12.8.3 Issuing client certificates

If the QEMU VNC server is to use the `x509verify` option to validate client certificates as its authentication mechanism, each client also needs to be issued a certificate. The client certificate contains enough metadata to uniquely identify the client, typically organization, state, city, building, etc. On the host holding the secure CA private key:

    # cat > client.info <<EOF
    country = GB
    state = London
    locality = London
    organization = Name of your organization
    cn = client.foo.example.com
    tls_www_client
    encryption_key
    signing_key
    EOF
    # certtool --generate-privkey > client-key.pem
    # certtool --generate-certificate \
               --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \
               --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem \
               --load-privkey client-key.pem \
               --template client.info \
               --outfile client-cert.pem

The `client-key.pem` and `client-cert.pem` files should now be securely copied to the client for which they were generated.

#### 3.12.9 Configuring SASL mechanisms

The following documentation assumes use of the Cyrus SASL implementation on a Linux host, but the principals should apply to any other SASL impl. When SASL is enabled, the mechanism configuration will be loaded from system default SASL service config /etc/sasl2/qemu.conf. If running QEMU as an unprivileged user, an environment variable SASL_CONF_PATH can be used to make it search alternate locations for the service config.

The default configuration might contain

    mech_list: digest-md5
    sasldb_path: /etc/qemu/passwd.db

This says to use the ’Digest MD5’ mechanism, which is similar to the HTTP Digest-MD5 mechanism. The list of valid usernames & passwords is maintained in the /etc/qemu/passwd.db file, and can be updated using the saslpasswd2 command. While this mechanism is easy to configure and use, it is not considered secure by modern standards, so only suitable for developers / ad-hoc testing.

A more serious deployment might use Kerberos, which is done with the ’gssapi’ mechanism

    mech_list: gssapi
    keytab: /etc/qemu/krb5.tab

For this to work the administrator of your KDC must generate a Kerberos principal for the server, with a name of ’qemu/somehost.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM’ replacing ’somehost.example.com’ with the fully qualified host name of the machine running QEMU, and ’EXAMPLE.COM’ with the Kerberos Realm.

Other configurations will be left as an exercise for the reader. It should be noted that only Digest-MD5 and GSSAPI provides a SSF layer for data encryption. For all other mechanisms, VNC should always be configured to use TLS and x509 certificates to protect security credentials from snooping.

### 3.13 GDB usage

QEMU has a primitive support to work with gdb, so that you can do ’Ctrl-C’ while the virtual machine is running and inspect its state.

In order to use gdb, launch QEMU with the ’-s’ option. It will wait for a gdb connection:

    qemu-system-i386 -s -kernel arch/i386/boot/bzImage -hda root-2.4.20.img \
                        -append "root=/dev/hda"
    Connected to host network interface: tun0
    Waiting gdb connection on port 1234

Then launch gdb on the ’vmlinux’ executable:

    > gdb vmlinux

In gdb, connect to QEMU:

    (gdb) target remote localhost:1234

Then you can use gdb normally. For example, type ’c’ to launch the kernel:

    (gdb) c

Here are some useful tips in order to use gdb on system code:

1. Use `info reg` to display all the CPU registers.
2. Use `x/10i $eip` to display the code at the PC position.
3. Use `set architecture i8086` to dump 16 bit code. Then use `x/10i $cs*16+$eip` to dump the code at the PC position.

Advanced debugging options:

The default single stepping behavior is step with the IRQs and timer service routines off. It is set this way because when gdb executes a single step it expects to advance beyond the current instruction. With the IRQs and timer service routines on, a single step might jump into the one of the interrupt or exception vectors instead of executing the current instruction. This means you may hit the same breakpoint a number of times before executing the instruction gdb wants to have executed. Because there are rare circumstances where you want to single step into an interrupt vector the behavior can be controlled from GDB. There are three commands you can query and set the single step behavior:

`maintenance packet qqemu.sstepbits`

  This will display the MASK bits used to control the single stepping IE:

      (gdb) maintenance packet qqemu.sstepbits
      sending: "qqemu.sstepbits"
      received: "ENABLE=1,NOIRQ=2,NOTIMER=4"

`maintenance packet qqemu.sstep`

  This will display the current value of the mask used when single stepping IE:

      (gdb) maintenance packet qqemu.sstep
      sending: "qqemu.sstep"
      received: "0x7"

`maintenance packet Qqemu.sstep=HEX_VALUE`

  This will change the single step mask, so if wanted to enable IRQs on the single step, but not timers, you would use:

      (gdb) maintenance packet Qqemu.sstep=0x5
      sending: "qemu.sstep=0x5"
      received: "OK"

### 3.14 Target OS specific information

#### 3.14.1 Linux

To have access to SVGA graphic modes under X11, use the `vesa` or the `cirrus` X11 driver. For optimal performances, use 16 bit color depth in the guest and the host OS.

When using a 2.6 guest Linux kernel, you should add the option `clock=pit` on the kernel command line because the 2.6 Linux kernels make very strict real time clock checks by default that QEMU cannot simulate exactly.

When using a 2.6 guest Linux kernel, verify that the 4G/4G patch is not activated because QEMU is slower with this patch. The QEMU Accelerator Module is also much slower in this case. Earlier Fedora Core 3 Linux kernel (< 2.6.9-1.724_FC3) were known to incorporate this patch by default. Newer kernels don’t have it.

#### 3.14.2 Windows

If you have a slow host, using Windows 95 is better as it gives the best speed. Windows 2000 is also a good choice.

#### 3.14.2.1 SVGA graphic modes support

QEMU emulates a Cirrus Logic GD5446 Video card. All Windows versions starting from Windows 95 should recognize and use this graphic card. For optimal performances, use 16 bit color depth in the guest and the host OS.

If you are using Windows XP as guest OS and if you want to use high resolution modes which the Cirrus Logic BIOS does not support (i.e. >= 1280x1024x16), then you should use the VESA VBE virtual graphic card (option `-std-vga`).

#### 3.14.2.2 CPU usage reduction

Windows 9x does not correctly use the CPU HLT instruction. The result is that it takes host CPU cycles even when idle. You can install the utility from http://www.user.cityline.ru/~maxamn/amnhltm.zip to solve this problem. Note that no such tool is needed for NT, 2000 or XP.

#### 3.14.2.3 Windows 2000 disk full problem

Windows 2000 has a bug which gives a disk full problem during its installation. When installing it, use the `-win2k-hack` QEMU option to enable a specific workaround. After Windows 2000 is installed, you no longer need this option (this option slows down the IDE transfers).

#### 3.14.2.4 Windows 2000 shutdown

Windows 2000 cannot automatically shutdown in QEMU although Windows 98 can. It comes from the fact that Windows 2000 does not automatically use the APM driver provided by the BIOS.

In order to correct that, do the following (thanks to Struan Bartlett): go to the Control Panel => Add/Remove Hardware & Next => Add/Troubleshoot a device => Add a new device & Next => No, select the hardware from a list & Next => NT Apm/Legacy Support & Next => Next (again) a few times. Now the driver is installed and Windows 2000 now correctly instructs QEMU to shutdown at the appropriate moment.

#### 3.14.2.5 Share a directory between Unix and Windows

See sec_invocation about the help of the option `'-netdev user,smb=...'`.

#### 3.14.2.6 Windows XP security problem

Some releases of Windows XP install correctly but give a security error when booting:

    A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the
    license for this computer. Error code: 0x800703e6.

The workaround is to install a service pack for XP after a boot in safe mode. Then reboot, and the problem should go away. Since there is no network while in safe mode, its recommended to download the full installation of SP1 or SP2 and transfer that via an ISO or using the vvfat block device ("-hdb fat:directory_which_holds_the_SP").

#### 3.14.3 MS-DOS and FreeDOS

#### 3.14.3.1 CPU usage reduction

DOS does not correctly use the CPU HLT instruction. The result is that it takes host CPU cycles even when idle. You can install the utility from http://www.vmware.com/software/dosidle210.zip to solve this problem.

## 4 QEMU System emulator for non PC targets

QEMU is a generic emulator and it emulates many non PC machines. Most of the options are similar to the PC emulator. The differences are mentioned in the following sections.

### 4.1 PowerPC System emulator

Use the executable `qemu-system-ppc` to simulate a complete PREP or PowerMac PowerPC system.

QEMU emulates the following PowerMac peripherals:

- - UniNorth or Grackle PCI Bridge
- - PCI VGA compatible card with VESA Bochs Extensions
- - 2 PMAC IDE interfaces with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- - NE2000 PCI adapters
- - Non Volatile RAM
- - VIA-CUDA with ADB keyboard and mouse.

QEMU emulates the following PREP peripherals:

- - PCI Bridge
- - PCI VGA compatible card with VESA Bochs Extensions
- - 2 IDE interfaces with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- - Floppy disk
- - NE2000 network adapters
- - Serial port
- - PREP Non Volatile RAM
- - PC compatible keyboard and mouse.

QEMU uses the Open Hack’Ware Open Firmware Compatible BIOS available at http://perso.magic.fr/l_indien/OpenHackWare/index.htm.

Since version 0.9.1, QEMU uses OpenBIOS http://www.openbios.org/ for the g3beige and mac99 PowerMac machines. OpenBIOS is a free (GPL v2) portable firmware implementation. The goal is to implement a 100% IEEE 1275-1994 (referred to as Open Firmware) compliant firmware.

The following options are specific to the PowerPC emulation:

`-g WxH[xDEPTH]`

  Set the initial VGA graphic mode. The default is 800x600x32.

`-prom-env string`

  Set OpenBIOS variables in NVRAM, for example:

      qemu-system-ppc -prom-env 'auto-boot?=false' \
       -prom-env 'boot-device=hd:2,\yaboot' \
       -prom-env 'boot-args=conf=hd:2,\yaboot.conf'

  These variables are not used by Open Hack’Ware.

More information is available at http://perso.magic.fr/l_indien/qemu-ppc/.

### 4.2 Sparc32 System emulator

Use the executable `qemu-system-sparc` to simulate the following Sun4m architecture machines:

- - SPARCstation 4
- - SPARCstation 5
- - SPARCstation 10
- - SPARCstation 20
- - SPARCserver 600MP
- - SPARCstation LX
- - SPARCstation Voyager
- - SPARCclassic
- - SPARCbook

The emulation is somewhat complete. SMP up to 16 CPUs is supported, but Linux limits the number of usable CPUs to 4.

QEMU emulates the following sun4m peripherals:

- - IOMMU
- - TCX or cgthree Frame buffer
- - Lance (Am7990) Ethernet
- - Non Volatile RAM M48T02/M48T08
- - Slave I/O: timers, interrupt controllers, Zilog serial ports, keyboard and power/reset logic
- - ESP SCSI controller with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- - Floppy drive (not on SS-600MP)
- - CS4231 sound device (only on SS-5, not working yet)

The number of peripherals is fixed in the architecture. Maximum memory size depends on the machine type, for SS-5 it is 256MB and for others 2047MB.

Since version 0.8.2, QEMU uses OpenBIOS http://www.openbios.org/. OpenBIOS is a free (GPL v2) portable firmware implementation. The goal is to implement a 100% IEEE 1275-1994 (referred to as Open Firmware) compliant firmware.

A sample Linux 2.6 series kernel and ram disk image are available on the QEMU web site. There are still issues with NetBSD and OpenBSD, but most kernel versions work. Please note that currently older Solaris kernels don’t work probably due to interface issues between OpenBIOS and Solaris.

The following options are specific to the Sparc32 emulation:

`-g WxHx[xDEPTH]`

  Set the initial graphics mode. For TCX, the default is 1024x768x8 with the option of 1024x768x24. For cgthree, the default is 1024x768x8 with the option of 1152x900x8 for people who wish to use OBP.

`-prom-env string`

  Set OpenBIOS variables in NVRAM, for example:

      qemu-system-sparc -prom-env 'auto-boot?=false' \
       -prom-env 'boot-device=sd(0,2,0):d' -prom-env 'boot-args=linux single'

`-M [SS-4|SS-5|SS-10|SS-20|SS-600MP|LX|Voyager|SPARCClassic] [|SPARCbook]`

  Set the emulated machine type. Default is SS-5.

### 4.3 Sparc64 System emulator

Use the executable `qemu-system-sparc64` to simulate a Sun4u (UltraSPARC PC-like machine), Sun4v (T1 PC-like machine), or generic Niagara (T1) machine. The Sun4u emulator is mostly complete, being able to run Linux, NetBSD and OpenBSD in headless (-nographic) mode. The Sun4v and Niagara emulators are still a work in progress.

QEMU emulates the following peripherals:

- - UltraSparc IIi APB PCI Bridge
- - PCI VGA compatible card with VESA Bochs Extensions
- - PS/2 mouse and keyboard
- - Non Volatile RAM M48T59
- - PC-compatible serial ports
- - 2 PCI IDE interfaces with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- - Floppy disk

The following options are specific to the Sparc64 emulation:

`-prom-env string`

  Set OpenBIOS variables in NVRAM, for example:

      qemu-system-sparc64 -prom-env 'auto-boot?=false'

`-M [sun4u|sun4v|Niagara]`

  Set the emulated machine type. The default is sun4u.

### 4.4 MIPS System emulator

Four executables cover simulation of 32 and 64-bit MIPS systems in both endian options, `qemu-system-mips`, `qemu-system-mipsel` `qemu-system-mips64` and `qemu-system-mips64el`. Five different machine types are emulated:

- - A generic ISA PC-like machine "mips"
- - The MIPS Malta prototype board "malta"
- - An ACER Pica "pica61". This machine needs the 64-bit emulator.
- - MIPS emulator pseudo board "mipssim"
- - A MIPS Magnum R4000 machine "magnum". This machine needs the 64-bit emulator.

The generic emulation is supported by Debian ’Etch’ and is able to install Debian into a virtual disk image. The following devices are emulated:

- - A range of MIPS CPUs, default is the 24Kf
- - PC style serial port
- - PC style IDE disk
- - NE2000 network card

The Malta emulation supports the following devices:

- - Core board with MIPS 24Kf CPU and Galileo system controller
- - PIIX4 PCI/USB/SMbus controller
- - The Multi-I/O chip’s serial device
- - PCI network cards (PCnet32 and others)
- - Malta FPGA serial device
- - Cirrus (default) or any other PCI VGA graphics card

The ACER Pica emulation supports:

- - MIPS R4000 CPU
- - PC-style IRQ and DMA controllers
- - PC Keyboard
- - IDE controller

The mipssim pseudo board emulation provides an environment similar to what the proprietary MIPS emulator uses for running Linux. It supports:

- - A range of MIPS CPUs, default is the 24Kf
- - PC style serial port
- - MIPSnet network emulation

The MIPS Magnum R4000 emulation supports:

- - MIPS R4000 CPU
- - PC-style IRQ controller
- - PC Keyboard
- - SCSI controller
- - G364 framebuffer

### 4.5 ARM System emulator

Use the executable `qemu-system-arm` to simulate a ARM machine. The ARM Integrator/CP board is emulated with the following devices:

- - ARM926E, ARM1026E, ARM946E, ARM1136 or Cortex-A8 CPU
- - Two PL011 UARTs
- - SMC 91c111 Ethernet adapter
- - PL110 LCD controller
- - PL050 KMI with PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
- - PL181 MultiMedia Card Interface with SD card.

The ARM Versatile baseboard is emulated with the following devices:

- - ARM926E, ARM1136 or Cortex-A8 CPU
- - PL190 Vectored Interrupt Controller
- - Four PL011 UARTs
- - SMC 91c111 Ethernet adapter
- - PL110 LCD controller
- - PL050 KMI with PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
- - PCI host bridge. Note the emulated PCI bridge only provides access to PCI memory space. It does not provide access to PCI IO space. This means some devices (eg. ne2k_pci NIC) are not usable, and others (eg. rtl8139 NIC) are only usable when the guest drivers use the memory mapped control registers.
- - PCI OHCI USB controller.
- - LSI53C895A PCI SCSI Host Bus Adapter with hard disk and CD-ROM devices.
- - PL181 MultiMedia Card Interface with SD card.

Several variants of the ARM RealView baseboard are emulated, including the EB, PB-A8 and PBX-A9. Due to interactions with the bootloader, only certain Linux kernel configurations work out of the box on these boards.

Kernels for the PB-A8 board should have CONFIG_REALVIEW_HIGH_PHYS_OFFSET enabled in the kernel, and expect 512M RAM. Kernels for The PBX-A9 board should have CONFIG_SPARSEMEM enabled, CONFIG_REALVIEW_HIGH_PHYS_OFFSET disabled and expect 1024M RAM.

The following devices are emulated:

- - ARM926E, ARM1136, ARM11MPCore, Cortex-A8 or Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU
- - ARM AMBA Generic/Distributed Interrupt Controller
- - Four PL011 UARTs
- - SMC 91c111 or SMSC LAN9118 Ethernet adapter
- - PL110 LCD controller
- - PL050 KMI with PS/2 keyboard and mouse
- - PCI host bridge
- - PCI OHCI USB controller
- - LSI53C895A PCI SCSI Host Bus Adapter with hard disk and CD-ROM devices
- - PL181 MultiMedia Card Interface with SD card.

The XScale-based clamshell PDA models ("Spitz", "Akita", "Borzoi" and "Terrier") emulation includes the following peripherals:

- - Intel PXA270 System-on-chip (ARM V5TE core)
- - NAND Flash memory
- - IBM/Hitachi DSCM microdrive in a PXA PCMCIA slot - not in "Akita"
- - On-chip OHCI USB controller
- - On-chip LCD controller
- - On-chip Real Time Clock
- - TI ADS7846 touchscreen controller on SSP bus
- - Maxim MAX1111 analog-digital converter on I^2C bus
- - GPIO-connected keyboard controller and LEDs
- - Secure Digital card connected to PXA MMC/SD host
- - Three on-chip UARTs
- - WM8750 audio CODEC on I^2C and I^2S busses

The Palm Tungsten|E PDA (codename "Cheetah") emulation includes the following elements:

- - Texas Instruments OMAP310 System-on-chip (ARM 925T core)
- - ROM and RAM memories (ROM firmware image can be loaded with -option-rom)
- - On-chip LCD controller
- - On-chip Real Time Clock
- - TI TSC2102i touchscreen controller / analog-digital converter / Audio CODEC, connected through MicroWire and I^2S busses
- - GPIO-connected matrix keypad
- - Secure Digital card connected to OMAP MMC/SD host
- - Three on-chip UARTs

Nokia N800 and N810 internet tablets (known also as RX-34 and RX-44 / 48) emulation supports the following elements:

- - Texas Instruments OMAP2420 System-on-chip (ARM 1136 core)
- - RAM and non-volatile OneNAND Flash memories
- - Display connected to EPSON remote framebuffer chip and OMAP on-chip display controller and a LS041y3 MIPI DBI-C controller
- - TI TSC2301 (in N800) and TI TSC2005 (in N810) touchscreen controllers driven through SPI bus
- - National Semiconductor LM8323-controlled qwerty keyboard driven through I^2C bus
- - Secure Digital card connected to OMAP MMC/SD host
- - Three OMAP on-chip UARTs and on-chip STI debugging console
- - A Bluetooth(R) transceiver and HCI connected to an UART
- - Mentor Graphics "Inventra" dual-role USB controller embedded in a TI TUSB6010 chip - only USB host mode is supported
- - TI TMP105 temperature sensor driven through I^2C bus
- - TI TWL92230C power management companion with an RTC on I^2C bus
- - Nokia RETU and TAHVO multi-purpose chips with an RTC, connected through CBUS

The Luminary Micro Stellaris LM3S811EVB emulation includes the following devices:

- - Cortex-M3 CPU core.
- - 64k Flash and 8k SRAM.
- - Timers, UARTs, ADC and I^2C interface.
- - OSRAM Pictiva 96x16 OLED with SSD0303 controller on I^2C bus.

The Luminary Micro Stellaris LM3S6965EVB emulation includes the following devices:

- - Cortex-M3 CPU core.
- - 256k Flash and 64k SRAM.
- - Timers, UARTs, ADC, I^2C and SSI interfaces.
- - OSRAM Pictiva 128x64 OLED with SSD0323 controller connected via SSI.

The Freecom MusicPal internet radio emulation includes the following elements:

- - Marvell MV88W8618 ARM core.
- - 32 MB RAM, 256 KB SRAM, 8 MB flash.
- - Up to 2 16550 UARTs
- - MV88W8xx8 Ethernet controller
- - MV88W8618 audio controller, WM8750 CODEC and mixer
- - 128×64 display with brightness control
- - 2 buttons, 2 navigation wheels with button function

The Siemens SX1 models v1 and v2 (default) basic emulation. The emulation includes the following elements:

- - Texas Instruments OMAP310 System-on-chip (ARM 925T core)
- - ROM and RAM memories (ROM firmware image can be loaded with -pflash) V1 1 Flash of 16MB and 1 Flash of 8MB V2 1 Flash of 32MB
- - On-chip LCD controller
- - On-chip Real Time Clock
- - Secure Digital card connected to OMAP MMC/SD host
- - Three on-chip UARTs

A Linux 2.6 test image is available on the QEMU web site. More information is available in the QEMU mailing-list archive.

The following options are specific to the ARM emulation:

`-semihosting`

  Enable semihosting syscall emulation.

  On ARM this implements the "Angel" interface.

  Note that this allows guest direct access to the host filesystem, so should only be used with trusted guest OS.

### 4.6 ColdFire System emulator

Use the executable `qemu-system-m68k` to simulate a ColdFire machine. The emulator is able to boot a uClinux kernel.

The M5208EVB emulation includes the following devices:

- - MCF5208 ColdFire V2 Microprocessor (ISA A+ with EMAC).
- - Three Two on-chip UARTs.
- - Fast Ethernet Controller (FEC)

The AN5206 emulation includes the following devices:

- - MCF5206 ColdFire V2 Microprocessor.
- - Two on-chip UARTs.

The following options are specific to the ColdFire emulation:

`-semihosting`

  Enable semihosting syscall emulation.

  On M68K this implements the "ColdFire GDB" interface used by libgloss.

  Note that this allows guest direct access to the host filesystem, so should only be used with trusted guest OS.

### 4.7 Cris System emulator

TODO

### 4.8 Microblaze System emulator

TODO

### 4.9 SH4 System emulator

TODO

### 4.10 Xtensa System emulator

Two executables cover simulation of both Xtensa endian options, `qemu-system-xtensa` and `qemu-system-xtensaeb`. Two different machine types are emulated:

- - Xtensa emulator pseudo board "sim"
- - Avnet LX60/LX110/LX200 board

The sim pseudo board emulation provides an environment similar to one provided by the proprietary Tensilica ISS. It supports:

- - A range of Xtensa CPUs, default is the DC232B
- - Console and filesystem access via semihosting calls

The Avnet LX60/LX110/LX200 emulation supports:

- - A range of Xtensa CPUs, default is the DC232B
- - 16550 UART
- - OpenCores 10/100 Mbps Ethernet MAC

The following options are specific to the Xtensa emulation:

`-semihosting`

  Enable semihosting syscall emulation.

  Xtensa semihosting provides basic file IO calls, such as open/read/write/seek/select. Tensilica baremetal libc for ISS and linux platform "sim" use this interface.

  Note that this allows guest direct access to the host filesystem, so should only be used with trusted guest OS.

## 5 QEMU User space emulator

### 5.1 Supported Operating Systems

The following OS are supported in user space emulation:

- - Linux (referred as qemu-linux-user)
- - BSD (referred as qemu-bsd-user)

### 5.2 Linux User space emulator

#### 5.2.1 Quick Start

In order to launch a Linux process, QEMU needs the process executable itself and all the target (x86) dynamic libraries used by it.

- On x86, you can just try to launch any process by using the native libraries:

      qemu-i386 -L / /bin/ls

  `-L /` tells that the x86 dynamic linker must be searched with a `/` prefix.

- Since QEMU is also a linux process, you can launch QEMU with QEMU (NOTE: you can only do that if you compiled QEMU from the sources):

      qemu-i386 -L / qemu-i386 -L / /bin/ls

- On non x86 CPUs, you need first to download at least an x86 glibc (`qemu-runtime-i386-XXX-.tar.gz` on the QEMU web page). Ensure that `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` is not set:

      unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH

  Then you can launch the precompiled `ls` x86 executable:

      qemu-i386 tests/i386/ls

  You can look at `scripts/qemu-binfmt-conf.sh` so that QEMU is automatically launched by the Linux kernel when you try to launch x86 executables. It requires the `binfmt_misc` module in the Linux kernel.

- The x86 version of QEMU is also included. You can try weird things such as:

      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/qemu-i386 \
                /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/ls-i386

#### 5.2.2 Wine launch

- Ensure that you have a working QEMU with the x86 glibc distribution (see previous section). In order to verify it, you must be able to do:

      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/ls-i386

- Download the binary x86 Wine install (`qemu-XXX-i386-wine.tar.gz` on the QEMU web page).
- Configure Wine on your account. Look at the provided script `/usr/local/qemu-i386/bin/wine-conf.sh`. Your previous `${HOME}/.wine` directory is saved to `${HOME}/.wine.org`.
- Then you can try the example `putty.exe`:

      qemu-i386 /usr/local/qemu-i386/wine/bin/wine \
                /usr/local/qemu-i386/wine/c/Program\ Files/putty.exe

#### 5.2.3 Command line options

    qemu-i386 [-h] [-d] [-L path] [-s size] [-cpu model] [-g port] [-B offset] [-R size] program [arguments...]

`-h`

  Print the help

`-L path`

  Set the x86 elf interpreter prefix (default=/usr/local/qemu-i386)

`-s size`

  Set the x86 stack size in bytes (default=524288)

`-cpu model`

  Select CPU model (-cpu help for list and additional feature selection)

`-E var=value`

  Set environment var to value.

`-U var`

  Remove var from the environment.

`-B offset`

  Offset guest address by the specified number of bytes. This is useful when the address region required by guest applications is reserved on the host. This option is currently only supported on some hosts.

`-R size`

  Pre-allocate a guest virtual address space of the given size (in bytes). "G", "M", and "k" suffixes may be used when specifying the size.

Debug options:

`-d item1,...`

  Activate logging of the specified items (use ’-d help’ for a list of log items)

`-p pagesize`

  Act as if the host page size was ’pagesize’ bytes

`-g port`

  Wait gdb connection to port

`-singlestep`

  Run the emulation in single step mode.

Environment variables:

`QEMU_STRACE`

  Print system calls and arguments similar to the ’strace’ program (NOTE: the actual ’strace’ program will not work because the user space emulator hasn’t implemented ptrace). At the moment this is incomplete. All system calls that don’t have a specific argument format are printed with information for six arguments. Many flag-style arguments don’t have decoders and will show up as numbers.

#### 5.2.4 Other binaries

`qemu-alpha` TODO.

`qemu-armeb` TODO.

`qemu-arm` is also capable of running ARM "Angel" semihosted ELF binaries (as implemented by the arm-elf and arm-eabi Newlib/GDB configurations), and arm-uclinux bFLT format binaries.

`qemu-m68k` is capable of running semihosted binaries using the BDM (m5xxx-ram-hosted.ld) or m68k-sim (sim.ld) syscall interfaces, and coldfire uClinux bFLT format binaries.

The binary format is detected automatically.

`qemu-cris` TODO.

`qemu-i386` TODO. `qemu-x86_64` TODO.

`qemu-microblaze` TODO.

`qemu-mips` TODO. `qemu-mipsel` TODO.

`qemu-ppc64abi32` TODO. `qemu-ppc64` TODO. `qemu-ppc` TODO.

`qemu-sh4eb` TODO. `qemu-sh4` TODO.

`qemu-sparc` can execute Sparc32 binaries (Sparc32 CPU, 32 bit ABI).

`qemu-sparc32plus` can execute Sparc32 and SPARC32PLUS binaries (Sparc64 CPU, 32 bit ABI).

`qemu-sparc64` can execute some Sparc64 (Sparc64 CPU, 64 bit ABI) and SPARC32PLUS binaries (Sparc64 CPU, 32 bit ABI).

### 5.3 BSD User space emulator

#### 5.3.1 BSD Status

- - target Sparc64 on Sparc64: Some trivial programs work.

#### 5.3.2 Quick Start

In order to launch a BSD process, QEMU needs the process executable itself and all the target dynamic libraries used by it.

- On Sparc64, you can just try to launch any process by using the native libraries:

      qemu-sparc64 /bin/ls

#### 5.3.3 Command line options

    qemu-sparc64 [-h] [-d] [-L path] [-s size] [-bsd type] program [arguments...]

`-h`

  Print the help

`-L path`

  Set the library root path (default=/)

`-s size`

  Set the stack size in bytes (default=524288)

`-ignore-environment`

  Start with an empty environment. Without this option, the initial environment is a copy of the caller’s environment.

`-E var=value`

  Set environment var to value.

`-U var`

  Remove var from the environment.

`-bsd type`

  Set the type of the emulated BSD Operating system. Valid values are FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD (default).

Debug options:

`-d item1,...`

  Activate logging of the specified items (use ’-d help’ for a list of log items)

`-p pagesize`

  Act as if the host page size was ’pagesize’ bytes

`-singlestep`

  Run the emulation in single step mode.

## 6 Compilation from the sources

### 6.1 Linux/Unix

#### 6.1.1 Compilation

First you must decompress the sources:

    cd /tmp
    tar zxvf qemu-x.y.z.tar.gz
    cd qemu-x.y.z

Then you configure QEMU and build it (usually no options are needed):

    ./configure
    make

Then type as root user:

    make install

to install QEMU in `/usr/local`.

### 6.2 Windows

- Install the current versions of MSYS and MinGW from http://www.mingw.org/. You can find detailed installation instructions in the download section and the FAQ.
- Download the MinGW development library of SDL 1.2.x (`SDL-devel-1.2.x-mingw32.tar.gz`) from http://www.libsdl.org. Unpack it in a temporary place and edit the `sdl-config` script so that it gives the correct SDL directory when invoked.
- Install the MinGW version of zlib and make sure `zlib.h` and `libz.dll.a` are in MinGW’s default header and linker search paths.
- Extract the current version of QEMU.
- Start the MSYS shell (file `msys.bat`).
- Change to the QEMU directory. Launch `./configure` and `make`. If you have problems using SDL, verify that `sdl-config` can be launched from the MSYS command line.
- You can install QEMU in `Program Files/QEMU` by typing `make install`. Don’t forget to copy `SDL.dll` in `Program Files/QEMU`.

### 6.3 Cross compilation for Windows with Linux

- Install the MinGW cross compilation tools available at http://www.mingw.org/.
- Download the MinGW development library of SDL 1.2.x (`SDL-devel-1.2.x-mingw32.tar.gz`) from http://www.libsdl.org. Unpack it in a temporary place and edit the `sdl-config` script so that it gives the correct SDL directory when invoked. Set up the `PATH` environment variable so that `sdl-config` can be launched by the QEMU configuration script.
- Install the MinGW version of zlib and make sure `zlib.h` and `libz.dll.a` are in MinGW’s default header and linker search paths.
- Configure QEMU for Windows cross compilation:

      PATH=/usr/i686-pc-mingw32/sys-root/mingw/bin:$PATH ./configure --cross-prefix='i686-pc-mingw32-'

  The example assumes `sdl-config` is installed under `/usr/i686-pc-mingw32/sys-root/mingw/bin` and MinGW cross compilation tools have names like `i686-pc-mingw32-gcc` and `i686-pc-mingw32-strip`. We set the `PATH` environment variable to ensure the MinGW version of `sdl-config` is used and use –cross-prefix to specify the name of the cross compiler. You can also use –prefix to set the Win32 install path which defaults to `c:/Program Files/QEMU`.

  Under Fedora Linux, you can run:

      yum -y install mingw32-gcc mingw32-SDL mingw32-zlib

  to get a suitable cross compilation environment.

- You can install QEMU in the installation directory by typing `make install`. Don’t forget to copy `SDL.dll` and `zlib1.dll` into the installation directory.

Wine can be used to launch the resulting qemu-system-i386.exe and all other qemu-system-target.exe compiled for Win32.

### 6.4 Mac OS X

System Requirements:

- Mac OS 10.5 or higher
- The clang compiler shipped with Xcode 4.2 or higher, or GCC 4.3 or higher

Additional Requirements (install in order):

1. libffi: https://sourceware.org/libffi/
2. gettext: http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/
3. glib: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/glib/
4. pkg-config: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config/
5. autoconf: http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/autoconf.html
6. automake: http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/
7. pixman: http://www.pixman.org/

* You may find it easiest to get these from a third-party packager such as Homebrew, Macports, or Fink.

After downloading the QEMU source code, double-click it to expand it.

Then configure and make QEMU:

    ./configure
    make

If you have a recent version of Mac OS X (OSX 10.7 or better with Xcode 4.2 or better) we recommend building QEMU with the default compiler provided by Apple, for your version of Mac OS X (which will be ’clang’). The configure script will automatically pick this.

Note: If after the configure step you see a message like this:

    ERROR: Your compiler does not support the __thread specifier for
           Thread-Local Storage (TLS). Please upgrade to a version that does.

you may have to build your own version of gcc from source. Expect that to take several hours. More information can be found here: https://gcc.gnu.org/install/

These are some of the third party binaries of gcc available for download:

- Homebrew: http://brew.sh/
- https://www.litebeam.net/gcc/gcc_472.pkg
- http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=gcc

You can have several versions of GCC on your system. To specify a certain version, use the –cc and –cxx options.

    ./configure --cxx=<path of your c++ compiler> --cc=<path of your c compiler> <other options>

### 6.5 Make targets

`make`
`make all`

  Make everything which is typically needed.

`install`

  TODO

`install-doc`

  TODO

`make clean`

  Remove most files which were built during make.

`make distclean`

  Remove everything which was built during make.

`make dvi`
`make html`
`make info`
`make pdf`

  Create documentation in dvi, html, info or pdf format.

`make cscope`

  TODO

`make defconfig`

  (Re-)create some build configuration files. User made changes will be overwritten.

`tar`
`tarbin`

  TODO

## Appendix A License

QEMU is a trademark of Fabrice Bellard.

QEMU is released under the GNU General Public License (TODO: add link). Parts of QEMU have specific licenses, see file LICENSE.

TODO (refer to file LICENSE, include it, include the GPL?)

## Appendix B Index

### B.1 Concept Index

This is the main index. Should we combine all keywords in one index? TODO

Jump to: | E I O Q S U

| Index Entry |  | Section

E |  |
| emulated target systems: |  | intro_features

I |  |
| installation (Linux): |  | install_linux
| installation (Windows): |  | install_windows

O |  |
| operating modes: |  | intro_features

Q |  |
| QEMU monitor: |  | pcsys_monitor
| quick start: |  | pcsys_quickstart

S |  |
| supported target systems: |  | intro_features
| supported user mode targets: |  | intro_features
| system emulation: |  | intro_features
| system emulation (ARM): |  | ARM System emulator
| system emulation (ColdFire): |  | ColdFire System emulator
| system emulation (Cris): |  | Cris System emulator
| system emulation (M68K): |  | ColdFire System emulator
| system emulation (Microblaze): |  | Microblaze System emulator
| system emulation (MIPS): |  | MIPS System emulator
| system emulation (PC): |  | QEMU PC System emulator
| system emulation (PowerPC): |  | PowerPC System emulator
| system emulation (SH4): |  | SH4 System emulator
| system emulation (Sparc32): |  | Sparc32 System emulator
| system emulation (Sparc64): |  | Sparc64 System emulator
| system emulation (Xtensa): |  | Xtensa System emulator

U |  |
| user mode (Alpha): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (ARM): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (ARM): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (ColdFire): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (Cris): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (i386): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (M68K): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (Microblaze): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (MIPS): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (PowerPC): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (SH4): |  | Other binaries
| user mode (SPARC): |  | Other binaries
| user mode emulation: |  | intro_features

Jump to: | E I O Q S U

### B.2 Function Index

This index could be used for command line options and monitor functions.

Jump to: | - A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

| Index Entry |  | Section

- |  |
| `-acpitable`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-add-fd`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-alt-grab`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-append`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-audio-help`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-balloon`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-bios`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-boot`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-bt`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-cdrom`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-chardev`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-chroot`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-cpu`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-ctrl-grab`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-curses`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-d`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-D`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-daemonize`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-debugcon`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-device`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-dfilter`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-display`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-drive`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-dtb`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-dump-vmstate`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-echr`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-enable-fips`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-enable-kvm`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-fda`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-fdb`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-fsdev`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-full-screen`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-fw_cfg`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-g`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-gdb`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-global`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-h`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-hda`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-hdachs`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-hdb`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-hdc`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-hdd`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-icount`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-incoming`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-initrd`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-k`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-kernel`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-L`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-loadvm`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-m`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-machine`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-mem-path`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-mem-prealloc`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-mon`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-monitor`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-msg`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-mtdblock`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-name`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-net`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-netdev`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-acpi`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-fd-bootchk`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-frame`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-hpet`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-quit`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-reboot`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-shutdown`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-no-user-config`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-nodefaults`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-nodefconfig`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-nographic`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-numa`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-object`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-old-param (ARM)`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-option-rom`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-parallel`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-pflash`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-pidfile`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-portrait`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-prom-env`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-qmp`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-qmp-pretty`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-readconfig`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-realtime`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-rotate`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-rtc`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-runas`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-S`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-s`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-sandbox`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-sd`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-sdl`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-semihosting`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-semihosting-config`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-serial`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-set`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-show-cursor`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-singlestep`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-smbios`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-smp`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-snapshot`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-soundhw`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-spice`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-tb-size`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-tpmdev`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-trace`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-usb`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-usbdevice`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-uuid`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-version`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-vga`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-virtfs`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-virtfs_synth`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-virtioconsole`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-vnc`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-watchdog`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-watchdog-action`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-win2k-hack`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-writeconfig`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-xen-attach`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-xen-create`: |  | sec_invocation
| `-xen-domid`: |  | sec_invocation

A |  |
| `acl_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `acl_policy`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `acl_remove`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `acl_reset`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `acl_show`: |  | pcsys_monitor

B |  |
| `balloon`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `balloon`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block-jobs`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `blockstats`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_job_cancel`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_job_complete`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_job_pause`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_job_resume`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_job_set_speed`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_passwd`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_resize`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_set_io_throttle`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `block_stream`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `boot_set`: |  | pcsys_monitor

C |  |
| `capture`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `change`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `chardev`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `chardev-add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `chardev-remove`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `client_migrate_info`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `closefd`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `commit`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `cont`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `cpu`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `cpu-add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `cpus`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `cpustats`: |  | pcsys_monitor

D |  |
| `delvm`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `device_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `device_del`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `drive_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `drive_backup`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `drive_del`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `drive_mirror`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `dump`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `dump-guest-memory`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `dump-skeys`: |  | pcsys_monitor

E |  |
| `eject`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `expire_password`: |  | pcsys_monitor

G |  |
| `gdbserver`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `getfd`: |  | pcsys_monitor

H |  |
| `help`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `history`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `hostfwd_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `hostfwd_remove`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `host_net_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `host_net_remove`: |  | pcsys_monitor

I |  |
| `i`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `info`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `ioapic`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `iothreads`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `irq`: |  | pcsys_monitor

J |  |
| `jit`: |  | pcsys_monitor

K |  |
| `kvm`: |  | pcsys_monitor

L |  |
| `lapic`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `loadvm`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `log`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `logfile`: |  | pcsys_monitor

M |  |
| `mce (x86)`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mem`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `memdev`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `memory-devices`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `memsave`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mice`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_cache_size`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_cancel`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_capabilities`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_incoming`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_parameters`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_set_cache_size`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_set_capability`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_set_downtime`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_set_parameter`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_set_speed`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `migrate_start_postcopy`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mouse_button`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mouse_move`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mouse_set`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `mtree`: |  | pcsys_monitor

N |  |
| `name`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `nbd_server_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `nbd_server_start`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `nbd_server_stop`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `netdev_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `netdev_del`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `network`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `nmi`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `numa`: |  | pcsys_monitor

O |  |
| `o`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `object_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `object_del`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `ocker-ports`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `opcount`: |  | pcsys_monitor

P |  |
| `pci`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `pcie_aer_inject_error`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `pic`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `pmemsave`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `print`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `profile`: |  | pcsys_monitor

Q |  |
| `qdm`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `qemu-io`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `qom-tree`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `qtree`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `quit`: |  | pcsys_monitor

R |  |
| `registers`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `ringbuf_read`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `ringbuf_write`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `rocker`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `rocker-of-dpa-flows`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `rocker-of-dpa-groups`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `roms`: |  | pcsys_monitor

S |  |
| `savevm`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `screendump`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `sendkey`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `set_link`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `set_password`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `singlestep`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `skeys`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `snapshots`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `snapshot_blkdev`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `snapshot_blkdev_internal`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `snapshot_delete_blkdev_internal`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `spice`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `status`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `stop`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `stopcapture`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `sum`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `system_powerdown`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `system_reset`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `system_wakeup`: |  | pcsys_monitor

T |  |
| `tlb`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `tpm`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `trace-event`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `trace-events`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `trace-file`: |  | pcsys_monitor

U |  |
| `usb`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `usbhost`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `usb_add`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `usb_del`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `usernet`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `uuid`: |  | pcsys_monitor

V |  |
| `version`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `vnc`: |  | pcsys_monitor

W |  |
| `watchdog_action`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `wavcapture`: |  | pcsys_monitor

X |  |
| `x`: |  | pcsys_monitor
| `xp`: |  | pcsys_monitor

Jump to: | - A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

### B.3 Keystroke Index

This is a list of all keystrokes which have a special function in system emulation.

Jump to: | C

| Index Entry |  | Section

C |  |
| `Ctrl-a b`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a c`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a Ctrl-a`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a h`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a s`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a t`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-a x`: |  | mux_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt-+`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt--`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt-f`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt-n`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Alt-u`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Down`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-PageDown`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-PageUp`: |  | pcsys_keys
| `Ctrl-Up`: |  | pcsys_keys

Jump to: | C

### B.4 Program Index

### B.5 Data Type Index

This index could be used for qdev device names and options.

### B.6 Variable Index