GUESTFS-RELEASE-NOTES-1.24(1)

📦
version 1.61.3 · 14 versions
, in centos-stream 10

🌸 guestfs-release-notes-1.24(1) — Virtualization Support 🌸

okay bestie, so this is guestfs-release-notes-1.24(1), and it lives over in Virtualization Support land. Buckle up, we're doing a whole release-note arc. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

guestfs-release-notes — the libguestfs Release Notes, like a yearbook but for software 🎀

💖 RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGUESTFS 1.24 💖

okay so real talk: these release notes only cover the diffs from the previous stable/dev branch split (1.22.0). If you want the full detailed changelogs, bestie, go look at the git repository, or the ChangeLog file that's distributed in the tarball. iykyk 📚

✨ New features ✨

lowkey huge: User-Mode Linux (UML) can be used as an alternative backend — like, instead of KVM. And this improves performance especially when you're using libguestfs inside a VM (eg. in the cloud 🌈). UML is supported as a first-class backend. See "USER-MODE LINUX BACKEND" in guestfs(3) for how to use this. slay.

ARM (32 bit) and PPC64 are now fully supported. periodt. 👑

🛠️ Tools 🛠️

  • virt-builder(1) is a new tool for building virtual machine images. It lets you rapidly and securely create guests and customize them. it's giving main character energy, ngl.
  • New virt-sysprep(1) operations: Remove files in /tmp and /var/tmp. Remove RPM database files. Change root and user passwords. More log files are removed. New operations which are not enabled by default: Create random UUIDs for filesystems. Reset firewall rules. (Wanlong Gao) 🫶
  • virt-resize(1) and virt-sysprep can now use URIs to specify a remote disk. obsessed.
  • Use guestfish -N filename=type to create a named disk image (instead of the default test1.img etc).
  • virt-sparsify(1) now tests if there is enough disk space to complete the operation, instead of possibly running out of space half way through. no more mid-operation betrayal 😭
  • virt-format(1) and virt-make-fs(1): new --label option for setting filesystem label.
  • virt-resize --no-sparse flag can be used to resize on to partitions and other targets that are not zeroed.
  • Language bindings
  • New bindings for the Go programming language. 🦋

👑 API 👑

  • Support for the systemd journal.
  • "guestfs_add_drive_opts" can now control the qemu caching mode through a new "cachemode" parameter. You can select improved performance for temporary drives, or safety.
  • "guestfs_set_label" now works for XFS and btrfs.
  • New GUESTFS_EVENT_WARNING event for warning messages.

🔍 Inspection 🔍

  • Better inspection of SUSE guests (Olaf Hering).
  • Better support for non-standard Windows %systemroot% (Matthew Booth).
  • Enhanced error reporting for Augeas errors.

🔥 Security 🔥

bestie. pay attention. these are the serious ones. 💀

🌟 New APIs 🌟

like, so many new APIs. not me making a whole list:

  • add-drive-scratch — Add a temporary scratch drive
  • aug-label
  • aug-setm
  • journal-open — Systemd journal support
  • journal-close
  • journal-next
  • journal-skip
  • journal-get
  • journal-get-data-threshold
  • journal-set-data-threshold
  • remount — Allow rw flag to be adjusted on mounted filesystems
  • set-uuid — Set UUID of filesystem

also: "is-file", "is-dir", "is-blockdev", "is-chardev", "is-fifo", "is-socket" APIs now have an extra "followsymlinks" flag. 🎀

and "add-drive" has a new "cachemode" parameter.

🧚 Build changes 🧚

The following packages are required to build libguestfs 1.24:

  • Augeas ≥ 1.0.0

The following optional packages may be added to enhance functionality but are not required:

  • sd-journal — To read journal files from guests which use that.
  • url_mkcow — For UML backend.
  • curl
  • gpg
  • xz — For virt-builder.
  • golang ≥ 1.1.1 — For Go language bindings.

⭐ Internals ⭐

  • New make check-* rules replace make extra-tests. See make help and guestfs(3) for details.
  • Perl code can now be valgrinded.
  • Inspection code is now fuzz-tested.
  • make no longer recurses into the generator directory in every other directory. This reduces the overhead of builds considerably. lowkey a glow-up.
  • Additional tests for Augeas, hivex.
  • Add a launch timeout of 20 minutes waiting for the appliance to start up.
  • Add a timeout (4 hours) to all tests so we can catch the case where qemu or other components hang.
  • Use kvmclock and -cpu host. This improves clock stability and overall performance.
  • ./configure --enable-packet-dump mode is fixed.
  • ./configure --enable-valgrind-daemon mode has been rewritten. It is now feasible for developers to keep this flag enabled at all times. 🫶
  • Backends have been refactored to be modular (although they are not actually loadable modules).
  • When enabled, the network now uses resolver configuration (ie. /etc/resolv.conf) from the host.

🐛 Bugs fixed 🐛

a whole era of bugs, gone. rest in peace:

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

guestfs-examples(1), guestfs-faq(1), guestfs-performance(1), guestfs-recipes(1), guestfs-testing(1), guestfs(3), guestfish(1), http://libguestfs.org/

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Richard W.M. Jones

Copyright (C) 2009-2025 Red Hat Inc.

🎀 LICENSE 🎀

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

🐞 BUGS 🐞

To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools

To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools

When reporting a bug, please supply:

  • The version of libguestfs.
  • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from source, etc)
  • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
  • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output into the bug report. 🙏
ngl if you skipped the bug-report steps your ticket is getting sent straight back to you. be thorough bestie, the maintainers deserve it 💅

and that's a wrap, babes ✨ this whole thing shipped as libguestfs-1.61.3, dated 2026-09-16, and the page itself answers to the name guestfs-release-notes-1.24(1) — go forth and virtualize responsibly 🫶🎀

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