**vws** script is main workhorse of the first stage of project.

It allows to send commands to the vm

Starting and stopping
---------------------

    vws start [--no-gui] [--cdrom isofile] [--snapshot] [ --args "more args" ] vmname

Starts machine. By default, immediately after machine starts, launches spice client (remote-viewer) to connect it. If no DISPLAY environment variable is set or if **--no-gui** is specified, doesn't launch GUI. If **--cdrom** is specified, connects specified ISO to machine CDROM and boots it from it.

If **--snapshot** is specified, starts qemu in snapshot mode. In this mode all disk images are read only and all changes in the fs are written into temporary file which is removed upon shutting machine down.

If **--args*** is specified, its argument is added to the QEMU command line.

If machine is running in the background, just launches gui, unless not asked to. If machine is running and gui is not needed, just exits immedieately with zero exit code. In this case **--args** and **--snapshot** would be ignored with warning and **--cdrom** is interpreted as if **vws cdrom** command was issued.

If machine is not running and saved state exists, load saved state.

Semantic: "make this machine running*

    vws stop vmname [--hard]

Sends system_shutdown command to machine. With **--hard** powers virtual machine off unconditionally and immediatelty. Without it, sends ACPI shutdown request.

    vws save vmname

Saves machine state and terminates emulation.

    vws reset vmname

Sends system_reset command to machine

Removable devices management
----------------------------

    vws cdrom machine [id] [iso-file|--eject]

Connects given iso file (CDROM special device) to the machine or disconnects
one. If there is more than one cdrom drive in the virtual machine, id should be specified.

    vws usb insert machine [pattern|--address=bus:device]

Connects USB device which matches pattern or have specifed address

    vws usb list

List host devices available to connect to the machine

    vws usb machine remove [pattern|id]

Removes device which matches pattern. Pattern is reqular expression which is matches against lsusb output, so vendorid:productid is perfectly valid pattern.

If there is more than one device which matches pattern, complains vws usb complans and exits with non-zero code.

Snapshots
---------

    vws snapshot machine snapshot_id

Creates a snapshot of machine. Works only if machine is powered off

    vws revert machine

Reverts machine to previous snapshot, deleting current and creating new.
Works only if machine is powered off.

    vws commit machine

Commits snapshot into its backing file. If machine is running in snapshot mode, commits temporary changes. If machine is not running, commits and removes alast snapshot.

    vws snapshots machine

List existing snapshots.

Screenshots and recording
-------------------------

    vws screenshot machine filename.ppm

Makes a screenshot.

    vws record machine filename.wav

Start recording of machine sound output

    vws stoprecord machine

Stop recording

Creating a virtual machine
--------------------------

     vws create [ --no-usb] [--size size] [--arch cputype] [--no-sound]
               [--sound cardtype] [--vga cardtype] [--net NET] [--mem size]
               [--diskif interface-type] [--shared] [--image filename]
               [--install filename.iso]
               machine

Creates new virtual machine. By default - private one, if **--shared** specified  - shared one.

**--net** can be either **user** (default) or name of existing bridge interface.
To use bridge you must have **qemu-bridge-helper**(8) setuid root.

**--size** sets virtual size of first drive image. Not needed if **--image** is used. Acceptable syntax nnM or nnG

**--mem** size of memory - same syntax as **--size**

**--vga** allows to specify type of emulated graphic card instead of default **qxl**. May be needed for some older OS.

**--diskif** allows to specify disk interface (ide or scsi) insteado of default virtio (required for non-linux guests).

**--image** specifies preexisting image in the format, understandable by **qemu-img**(1) to use as disk of newly created VM. Image would be copied into VM directory and converted to **qcow2** format.

**--install** specifies, that ISO image with OS distribution should be connected and newly created VM started, booting from it.

Miscellaneous
-------------

    vws monitor machine

Connects to monitor socket and send there commands, read from stdin
and writes results to stdout. Provides way to interact with QEMU respecting [locking](wiki?name=monitor+locking)

    vws spiceurl machine

Outputs to stdout spice url needed to connect machine, if machine is running
and exits with non-zero exit code if machine is not running.

    vws version

Reports a version

Operation on  multiple machines
--------------------------------

    vws list [--state] [--address] [--usb] [-l]

List all machines set up via these tools. Option **--state** shows whether machine is running or not, **--address** - shows mac address **-l** is equevalent of both --state and --address


    vws autostart

Starts all machines in the authostart directory. *(not implemented in version 0.2)*

    vws autostop

Tries to shutdown correctly all running machines. *(not implemented in version 0.2)*