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+@example
+@c man begin SYNOPSIS
+usage: qemu-img command [command options]
+@c man end
+@end example
+
+@c man begin DESCRIPTION
+qemu-img allows you to create, convert and modify images offline. It can handle
+all image formats supported by QEMU.
+
+@b{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.
+@c man end
+
+@c man begin OPTIONS
+
+The following commands are supported:
+
+@include qemu-img-cmds.texi
+
+Command parameters:
+@table @var
+@item filename
+ is a disk image filename
+@item fmt
+is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases. See below
+for a description of the supported disk formats.
+
+@item --backing-chain
+will enumerate information about backing files in a disk image chain. Refer
+below for further description.
+
+@item size
+is the disk image size in bytes. Optional suffixes @code{k} or @code{K}
+(kilobyte, 1024) @code{M} (megabyte, 1024k) and @code{G} (gigabyte, 1024M)
+and T (terabyte, 1024G) are supported. @code{b} is ignored.
+
+@item output_filename
+is the destination disk image filename
+
+@item output_fmt
+ is the destination format
+@item options
+is a comma separated list of format specific options in a
+name=value format. Use @code{-o ?} for an overview of the options supported
+by the used format or see the format descriptions below for details.
+@item snapshot_param
+is param used for internal snapshot, format is
+'snapshot.id=[ID],snapshot.name=[NAME]' or '[ID_OR_NAME]'
+@item snapshot_id_or_name
+is deprecated, use snapshot_param instead
+
+@item -c
+indicates that target image must be compressed (qcow format only)
+@item -h
+with or without a command shows help and lists the supported formats
+@item -p
+display progress bar (compare, convert and rebase commands only).
+If the @var{-p} option is not used for a command that supports it, the
+progress is reported when the process receives a @code{SIGUSR1} signal.
+@item -q
+Quiet mode - do not print any output (except errors). There's no progress bar
+in case both @var{-q} and @var{-p} options are used.
+@item -S @var{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
+@code{k} for kilobytes.
+@item -t @var{cache}
+specifies the cache mode that should be used with the (destination) file. See
+the documentation of the emulator's @code{-drive cache=...} option for allowed
+values.
+@item -T @var{src_cache}
+specifies the cache mode that should be used with the source file(s). See
+the documentation of the emulator's @code{-drive cache=...} option for allowed
+values.
+@end table
+
+Parameters to snapshot subcommand:
+
+@table @option
+
+@item snapshot
+is the name of the snapshot to create, apply or delete
+@item -a
+applies a snapshot (revert disk to saved state)
+@item -c
+creates a snapshot
+@item -d
+deletes a snapshot
+@item -l
+lists all snapshots in the given image
+@end table
+
+Parameters to compare subcommand:
+
+@table @option
+
+@item -f
+First image format
+@item -F
+Second image format
+@item -s
+Strict mode - fail on on different image size or sector allocation
+@end table
+
+Parameters to convert subcommand:
+
+@table @option
+
+@item -n
+Skip the creation of the target volume
+@end table
+
+Command description:
+
+@table @option
+@item check [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [-r [leaks | all]] [-T @var{src_cache}] @var{filename}
+
+Perform a consistency check on the disk image @var{filename}. The command can
+output in the format @var{ofmt} which is either @code{human} or @code{json}.
+
+If @code{-r} is specified, qemu-img tries to repair any inconsistencies found
+during the check. @code{-r leaks} repairs only cluster leaks, whereas
+@code{-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 @code{qcow2}, @code{qed} and @code{vdi} support
+consistency checks.
+
+In case the image does not have any inconsistencies, check exits with @code{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:
+
+@table @option
+
+@item 0
+Check completed, the image is (now) consistent
+@item 1
+Check not completed because of internal errors
+@item 2
+Check completed, image is corrupted
+@item 3
+Check completed, image has leaked clusters, but is not corrupted
+@item 63
+Checks are not supported by the image format
+
+@end table
+
+If @code{-r} is specified, exit codes representing the image state refer to the
+state after (the attempt at) repairing it. That is, a successful @code{-r all}
+will yield the exit code 0, independently of the image state before.
+
+@item create [-f @var{fmt}] [-o @var{options}] @var{filename} [@var{size}]
+
+Create the new disk image @var{filename} of size @var{size} and format
+@var{fmt}. Depending on the file format, you can add one or more @var{options}
+that enable additional features of this format.
+
+If the option @var{backing_file} is specified, then the image will record
+only the differences from @var{backing_file}. No size needs to be specified in
+this case. @var{backing_file} will never be modified unless you use the
+@code{commit} monitor command (or qemu-img commit).
+
+The size can also be specified using the @var{size} option with @code{-o},
+it doesn't need to be specified separately in this case.
+
+@item commit [-q] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-b @var{base}] [-d] [-p] @var{filename}
+
+Commit the changes recorded in @var{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 @var{filename} is emptied after the operation has succeeded. If you do
+not need @var{filename} afterwards and intend to drop it, you may skip emptying
+@var{filename} by specifying the @code{-d} flag.
+
+If the backing chain of the given image file @var{filename} has more than one
+layer, the backing file into which the changes will be committed may be
+specified as @var{base} (which has to be part of @var{filename}'s backing
+chain). If @var{base} is not specified, the immediate backing file of the top
+image (which is @var{filename}) will be used. For reasons of consistency,
+explicitly specifying @var{base} will always imply @code{-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).
+
+@item compare [-f @var{fmt}] [-F @var{fmt}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-p] [-s] [-q] @var{filename1} @var{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 @var{-f} (used for
+@var{filename1}) and/or @var{-F} (used for @var{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 @var{-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 @code{0} in case the images are equal and with @code{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:
+
+@table @option
+
+@item 0
+Images are identical
+@item 1
+Images differ
+@item 2
+Error on opening an image
+@item 3
+Error on checking a sector allocation
+@item 4
+Error on reading data
+
+@end table
+
+@item convert [-c] [-p] [-n] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-O @var{output_fmt}] [-o @var{options}] [-s @var{snapshot_id_or_name}] [-l @var{snapshot_param}] [-S @var{sparse_size}] @var{filename} [@var{filename2} [...]] @var{output_filename}
+
+Convert the disk image @var{filename} or a snapshot @var{snapshot_param}(@var{snapshot_id_or_name} is deprecated)
+to disk image @var{output_filename} using format @var{output_fmt}. It can be optionally compressed (@code{-c}
+option) or use any format specific options like encryption (@code{-o} option).
+
+Only the formats @code{qcow} and @code{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 @code{qcow}: the empty sectors are detected and
+suppressed from the destination image.
+
+@var{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 @var{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 @var{backing_file} option to force the output image to be
+created as a copy on write image of the specified base image; the
+@var{backing_file} should have the same content as the input's base image,
+however the path, image format, etc may differ.
+
+If the @code{-n} option is specified, the target volume creation will be
+skipped. This is useful for formats such as @code{rbd} if the target
+volume has already been created with site specific options that cannot
+be supplied through qemu-img.
+
+@item info [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] [--backing-chain] @var{filename}
+
+Give information about the disk image @var{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 @var{ofmt}
+which is either @code{human} or @code{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 @code{--backing-chain}.
+
+For instance, if you have an image chain like:
+
+@example
+base.qcow2 <- snap1.qcow2 <- snap2.qcow2
+@end example
+
+To enumerate information about each disk image in the above chain, starting from top to base, do:
+
+@example
+qemu-img info --backing-chain snap2.qcow2
+@end example
+
+@item map [-f @var{fmt}] [--output=@var{ofmt}] @var{filename}
+
+Dump the metadata of image @var{filename} and its backing file chain.
+In particular, this commands dumps the allocation state of every sector
+of @var{filename}, together with the topmost file that allocates it in
+the backing file chain.
+
+Two option formats are possible. The default format (@code{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. @command{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:
+@example
+Offset Length Mapped to File
+0 0x20000 0x50000 /tmp/overlay.qcow2
+0x100000 0x10000 0x95380000 /tmp/backing.qcow2
+@end example
+@noindent
+means that 0x20000 (131072) bytes starting at offset 0 in the image are
+available in /tmp/overlay.qcow2 (opened in @code{raw} format) starting
+at offset 0x50000 (327680). Data that is compressed, encrypted, or
+otherwise not available in raw format will cause an error if @code{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 @code{json} will return an array of dictionaries
+in JSON format. It will include similar information in
+the @code{start}, @code{length}, @code{offset} fields;
+it will also include other more specific information:
+@itemize @minus
+@item
+whether the sectors contain actual data or not (boolean field @code{data};
+if false, the sectors are either unallocated or stored as optimized
+all-zero clusters);
+
+@item
+whether the data is known to read as zero (boolean field @code{zero});
+
+@item
+in order to make the output shorter, the target file is expressed as
+a @code{depth}; for example, a depth of 2 refers to the backing file
+of the backing file of @var{filename}.
+@end itemize
+
+In JSON format, the @code{offset} field is optional; it is absent in
+cases where @code{human} format would omit the entry or exit with an error.
+If @code{data} is false and the @code{offset} field is present, the
+corresponding sectors in the file are not yet in use, but they are
+preallocated.
+
+For more information, consult @file{include/block/block.h} in QEMU's
+source code.
+
+@item snapshot [-l | -a @var{snapshot} | -c @var{snapshot} | -d @var{snapshot} ] @var{filename}
+
+List, apply, create or delete snapshots in image @var{filename}.
+
+@item rebase [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] [-T @var{src_cache}] [-p] [-u] -b @var{backing_file} [-F @var{backing_fmt}] @var{filename}
+
+Changes the backing file of an image. Only the formats @code{qcow2} and
+@code{qed} support changing the backing file.
+
+The backing file is changed to @var{backing_file} and (if the image format of
+@var{filename} supports this) the backing file format is changed to
+@var{backing_fmt}. If @var{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).
+
+@var{cache} specifies the cache mode to be used for @var{filename}, whereas
+@var{src_cache} specifies the cache mode for reading backing files.
+
+There are two different modes in which @code{rebase} can operate:
+@table @option
+@item 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 @var{filename} unchanged.
+
+In order to achieve this, any clusters that differ between @var{backing_file}
+and the old backing file of @var{filename} are merged into @var{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.
+
+@item Unsafe mode
+qemu-img uses the unsafe mode if @code{-u} is specified. In this mode, only the
+backing file name and format of @var{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.
+@end table
+
+You can use @code{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 @code{base.img} has been cloned as @code{modified.img} by
+copying it, and that the @code{modified.img} guest has run so there
+are now some changes compared to @code{base.img}. To construct a thin
+image called @code{diff.qcow2} that contains just the differences, do:
+
+@example
+qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b modified.img diff.qcow2
+qemu-img rebase -b base.img diff.qcow2
+@end example
+
+At this point, @code{modified.img} can be discarded, since
+@code{base.img + diff.qcow2} contains the same information.
+
+@item resize @var{filename} [+ | -]@var{size}
+
+Change the disk image as if it had been created with @var{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.
+
+@item amend [-p] [-f @var{fmt}] [-t @var{cache}] -o @var{options} @var{filename}
+
+Amends the image format specific @var{options} for the image file
+@var{filename}. Not all file formats support this operation.
+@end table
+@c man end
+
+@ignore
+@c man begin NOTES
+Supported image file formats:
+
+@table @option
+@item raw
+
+Raw disk image format (default). This format has the advantage of
+being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your
+file system supports @emph{holes} (for example in ext2 or ext3 on
+Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve
+space. Use @code{qemu-img info} to know the real size used by the
+image or @code{ls -ls} on Unix/Linux.
+
+Supported options:
+@table @code
+@item preallocation
+Preallocation mode (allowed values: @code{off}, @code{falloc}, @code{full}).
+@code{falloc} mode preallocates space for image by calling posix_fallocate().
+@code{full} mode preallocates space for image by writing zeros to underlying
+storage.
+@end table
+
+@item 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), optional AES encryption, zlib based compression and
+support of multiple VM snapshots.
+
+Supported options:
+@table @code
+@item compat
+Determines the qcow2 version to use. @code{compat=0.10} uses the
+traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10.
+@code{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.
+
+@item backing_file
+File name of a base image (see @option{create} subcommand)
+@item backing_fmt
+Image format of the base image
+@item encryption
+If this option is set to @code{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:
+
+@itemize @minus
+@item 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.
+@item The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly
+chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption.
+@item 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.
+@end itemize
+
+Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption is thus strongly discouraged. Users are
+recommended to use an alternative encryption technology such as the
+Linux dm-crypt / LUKS system.
+
+@item 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.
+
+@item preallocation
+Preallocation mode (allowed values: @code{off}, @code{metadata}, @code{falloc},
+@code{full}). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can
+improve performance when the image needs to grow. @code{falloc} and @code{full}
+preallocations are like the same options of @code{raw} format, but sets up
+metadata also.
+
+@item lazy_refcounts
+If this option is set to @code{on}, reference count updates are postponed with
+the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is
+particularly interesting with @option{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) @code{qemu-img
+check -r all} is required, which may take some time.
+
+This option can only be enabled if @code{compat=1.1} is specified.
+
+@item nocow
+If this option is set to @code{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 @code{nocow=on}. One can issue @code{lsattr filename} to check if
+the NOCOW flag is set or not (Capital 'C' is NOCOW flag).
+
+@end table
+
+@item Other
+QEMU also supports various other image file formats for compatibility with
+older QEMU versions or other hypervisors, including VMDK, VDI, VHD (vpc), VHDX,
+qcow1 and QED. For a full list of supported formats see @code{qemu-img --help}.
+For a more detailed description of these formats, see the QEMU Emulation User
+Documentation.
+
+The main purpose of the block drivers for these formats is image conversion.
+For running VMs, it is recommended to convert the disk images to either raw or
+qcow2 in order to achieve good performance.
+@end table
+
+
+@c man end
+
+@setfilename qemu-img
+@settitle QEMU disk image utility
+
+@c man begin SEEALSO
+The HTML documentation of QEMU for more precise information and Linux
+user mode emulator invocation.
+@c man end
+
+@c man begin AUTHOR
+Fabrice Bellard
+@c man end
+
+@end ignore