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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 ma-
       nipulating 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 re-
       sources 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 lib-
       virtd daemon can	be instructed  to  additionally	 listen	 on  a	TCP/IP
       socket.	The TCP/IP socket to use is defined in the libvirtd configura-
       tion file.

       Restarting libvirtd does	not impact running guests.  Guests continue to
       operate	and will be picked up automatically if their XML configuration
       has been	defined.  Any guests whose XML configuration has not been  de-
       fined 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 it-
       self.  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/libvirt/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	--lis-
       ten parameter, and  most	 of  the  socket  related  config  options  in
       /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.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 in-
       stead 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  in-
       stalled	 /usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirt-guests.service	 to  /etc/sys-
       temd/system/libvirt-guests.service and make the change there,  specifi-
       cally  make  sure the After= ordering mentions 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 ma-
       chines created within their respective drivers,	and  offer  a  way  to
       override	 the  built  in	 defaults,  for	instance (but not limited to):
       paths to	various	supplementary  binaries,  TLS  certificates  location,
       graphical  consoles  configuration  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 over-
       ride the	built in defaults, for instance	(but not limited to): paths to
       various supplementary binaries, TLS  certificates  location,  graphical
       consoles	configuration and others. Location of this file	can't be over-
       ridden 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) 11.1.0

       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	/ ven-
       dor.

AUTHORS
       Please refer to the AUTHORS file	distributed with libvirt.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2006-2012 Red Hat,	Inc., and the authors  listed  in  the
       libvirt 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 war-
       ranty; 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)

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