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LIBVIRTD(8)		     Virtualization Support		     LIBVIRTD(8)

NAME
     libvirtd - libvirt management daemon

SYNOPSIS
     libvirtd [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION
     The  libvirtd  program  is  the server side daemon component of the libvirt
     virtualization management system.

     This daemon runs on host servers and performs required management tasks for
     virtualized guests.  This includes activities such  as  starting,	stopping
     and  migrating  guests  between  host servers, configuring and manipulating
     networking, and managing storage for use by guests.

     The libvirt client libraries and utilities connect to this daemon to  issue
     tasks  and collect information about the configuration and resources of the
     host system and guests.

     By default, the libvirtd daemon listens for requests on a local Unix domain
     socket.  Using the -l | --listen command line option, the	libvirtd  daemon
     can  be  instructed  to additionally listen on a TCP/IP socket.  The TCP/IP
     socket to use is defined in the libvirtd configuration file.

     Restarting libvirtd does not impact running guests.  Guests continue to op-
     erate and will be picked up automatically if their  XML  configuration  has
     been defined.  Any guests whose XML configuration has not been defined will
     be lost from the configuration.

SYSTEM SOCKET ACTIVATION
     The libvirtd daemon is capable of starting in two modes.

     In  the traditional mode, it will create and listen on UNIX sockets itself.
     If the  --listen  parameter  is  given,  it  will	also  listen  on  TCP/IP
     socket(s),  according to the listen_tcp and listen_tls options in /etc/lib-
     virt/libvirtd.conf

     In socket activation mode, it will rely on systemd to create and listen  on
     the  UNIX,  and optionally TCP/IP, sockets and pass them as pre-opened file
     descriptors. In this mode, it is not permitted to pass the --listen parame-
     ter, and most of the socket related  config  options  in  /etc/libvirt/lib-
     virtd.conf will no longer have any effect. To enable TCP or TLS sockets use
     either

	$ systemctl start libvirtd-tls.socket

     Or

	$ systemctl start libvirtd-tcp.socket

     Socket  activation  mode is generally the default when running on a host OS
     that uses systemd. To revert to the traditional mode, all the  socket  unit
     files must be masked:

	$ systemctl mask libvirtd.socket libvirtd-ro.socket \
	   libvirtd-admin.socket libvirtd-tls.socket libvirtd-tcp.socket

     On  top  of  that make sure that the --timeout argument is not used for the
     daemon since it would not be started upon any later connection.

     If using libvirt-guests service then the ordering for that service needs to
     be adapted so that it is ordered after the  service  unit	instead  of  the
     socket  unit.   Since  dependencies  and  ordering  cannot  be changed with
     drop-in overrides, the whole libvirt-guests unit file needs to be	changed.
     In  order	to preserve such change copy the installed /usr/lib/systemd/sys-
     tem/libvirt-guests.service  to   /etc/systemd/system/libvirt-guests.service
     and  make the change there, specifically make sure the After= ordering men-
     tions libvirtd.service and not libvirtd.socket:

	[Unit]
	After=libvirtd.service

OPTIONS
     -h, --help

     Display command line help usage then exit.

     -d, --daemon

     Run as a daemon & write PID file.

     -f, --config *FILE*

     Use this configuration file, overriding the default value.

     -l, --listen

     Listen for TCP/IP connections. This should not  be  set  if  using  systemd
     socket   activation.  Instead  activate  the  libvirtd-tls.socket	or  lib-
     virtd-tcp.socket unit files.

     -p, --pid-file *FILE*

     Use this name for the PID file, overriding the default value.

     -t, --timeout *SECONDS*

     Exit after timeout period (in seconds),  provided	there  are  neither  any
     client connections nor any running domains.

     -v, --verbose

     Enable output of verbose messages.

     --version

     Display version information then exit.

SIGNALS
     On receipt of SIGHUP libvirtd will reload its configuration.

FILES
   When run as root
     * /usr/local/etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

     The  default  configuration file used by libvirtd, unless overridden on the
     command line using the -f | --config option.

     Depending on what driver is installed, then the following	files  are  also
     read:

     * /usr/local/etc/libvirt/qemu.conf for the QEMU driver

     * /usr/local/etc/libvirt/lxc.conf for the LXC driver

     * /usr/local/etc/libvirt/libxl.conf for the libxl driver

     These  files  contain various knobs and default values for virtual machines
     created within their respective drivers, and offer a way  to  override  the
     built in defaults, for instance (but not limited to): paths to various sup-
     plementary binaries, TLS certificates location, graphical consoles configu-
     ration  and others. Location of neither of these files can be overridden by
     any command line switch.

     * /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock

     * /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock-ro

     The sockets libvirtd will use.

     * /usr/local/etc/pki/CA/cacert.pem

     The TLS Certificate Authority certificate libvirtd will use.

     * /usr/local/etc/pki/libvirt/servercert.pem

     The TLS Server certificate libvirtd will use.

     * /usr/local/etc/pki/libvirt/private/serverkey.pem

     The TLS Server private key libvirtd will use.

     * /var/run/libvirtd.pid

     The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p | --pid-file option.

   When run as non-root
     * $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

     The default configuration file used by libvirtd, unless overridden  on  the
     command line using the -f``|--config`` option.

     If QEMU driver is installed, then the following file is also read:

     * $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/libvirt/qemu.conf

     If  the  file  exists,  it can contain various knobs and default values for
     virtual machines created within QEMU driver, and offers a way  to	override
     the  built in defaults, for instance (but not limited to): paths to various
     supplementary binaries, TLS certificates location, graphical consoles  con-
     figuration  and  others.  Location  of this file can't be overridden by any
     command line switch.

     * $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/libvirt-sock

     The socket libvirtd will use.

     * $HOME/.pki/libvirt/cacert.pem

     The TLS Certificate Authority certificate libvirtd will use.

     * $HOME/.pki/libvirt/servercert.pem

     The TLS Server certificate libvirtd will use.

     * $HOME/.pki/libvirt/serverkey.pem

     The TLS Server private key libvirtd will use.

     * $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/libvirtd.pid

     The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p``|--pid-file`` option.

     If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set  in  your  environment,  libvirtd  will  use
     $HOME/.config

     If  $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR  is  not  set  in  your environment, libvirtd will use
     $HOME/.cache

EXAMPLES
     To retrieve the version of libvirtd:

	# libvirtd --version
	libvirtd (libvirt) 12.5.0

     To start libvirtd, instructing it to daemonize and create a PID file:

	# libvirtd -d
	# ls -la /var/run/libvirtd.pid
	-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Jul  9 02:40 /var/run/libvirtd.pid

BUGS
     Please report all bugs you discover.  This should be done via either:

     1. the mailing list

	 <https://libvirt.org/contact.html>

     2. the bug tracker

	 <https://libvirt.org/bugs.html>

     Alternatively, you may report bugs to your software distributor / vendor.

AUTHORS
     Please refer to the AUTHORS file distributed with libvirt.

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (C) 2006-2012 Red Hat, Inc., and the authors listed in  the  lib-
     virt AUTHORS file.

LICENSE
     libvirtd  is  distributed	under  the terms of the GNU LGPL v2.1+.  This is
     free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty;
     not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

SEE ALSO
     virsh(1), virt-install(1), virt-xml-validate(1),  virt-top(1),  virt-df(1),
     <https://libvirt.org/>

								     LIBVIRTD(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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