virt-get-kernel(1)

📦

version 1.57.3 · 15 versions

💖 virt-get-kernel — like, the manual page but make it make sense 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to virt-get-kernel(1) from the Virtualization Support manual section 🎀 — yes that's the manual name, and yes it's giving "the folder your dad keeps his Linux stuff in", but we're here and we're thriving.

✨ NAME ✨

virt-get-kernel — grab the kernel and ramdisk out of your guests, no cap 🧚

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

 virt-get-kernel [--options] -d domname

 virt-get-kernel [--options] -a disk.img

see how it's literally two whole vibes? either you point it at a libvirt domain, or you point it at a disk image. pick your fighter 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So what does this icon actually do? It extracts the kernel and initramfs from a guest. That's the whole personality. 🫶

The format of the disk image is auto-detected for you — unless you go out of your way and specify it with the --format option. (Very "I got it, but I appreciate the help" energy.)

Now, important bit, listen up 👑: in the case where the guest contains multiple kernels, the one with the highest version number gets chosen. That's the main character kernel. If you want arbitrary kernels off the disk image, go see guestfish(1). And if you want the entire /boot directory of a guest, that's virt-copy-out(1)'s moment to shine. ⭐

💅 OPTIONS 💅

--help — Display help. bless. 🙏
-a file, --add file — Add file, which should be a disk image from a virtual machine.

The format of the disk image is auto-detected. To override this and force a particular format use the --format option.

-a URI, --add URI — Add a remote disk. The URI format is compatible with guestfish. See "ADDING REMOTE STORAGE" in guestfish(1). 🌈
--blocksize 512, --blocksize 4096 — This parameter sets the sector size of the disk image added with the -a option and is ignored for libvirt guest added with the -d option. See also "guestfs_add_drive_opts" in guestfs(3).
--colors, --colours — Use ANSI colour sequences to colourize messages. This is the default when the output is a tty. If the output of the program is redirected to a file, ANSI colour sequences are disabled unless you use this option. (yes both spellings, we're bilingual in American and British 💖)
-c URI, --connect URI — If using libvirt, connect to the given URI. If omitted, then we connect to the default libvirt hypervisor.

If you specify guest block devices directly (-a), then libvirt is not used at all. zero libvirt, all vibes.

-d guest, --domain guest — Add all the disks from the named libvirt guest. Domain UUIDs can be used instead of names. 👑
--echo-keys — When prompting for keys and passphrases, virt-get-kernel normally turns echoing off so you cannot see what you are typing. If you are not worried about Tempest attacks and there is no one else in the room you can specify this flag to see what you are typing.

okay but fr, "there is no one else in the room" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting there. shoulders. 💀

--format raw|qcow2|.., --format auto — The default for the -a option is to auto-detect the format of the disk image. Using this forces the disk format for the -a option on the command line.

If you have untrusted raw-format guest disk images, you should use this option to specify the disk format. This avoids a possible security problem with malicious guests (CVE-2010-3851). 🚨 like please use it, this is not a drill.

--key SELECTOR — Specify a key for LUKS, to automatically open a LUKS device when using the inspection.
- --key NAME:key:KEY_STRING
- --key UUID:key:KEY_STRING
- --key all:key:KEY_STRING

"NAME" is the libguestfs device name (eg. /dev/sda1). "UUID" is the device UUID. "all" means try the key against any encrypted device.

Use the specified "KEY_STRING" as passphrase.

--key NAME:file:FILENAME
--key UUID:file:FILENAME
--key all:file:FILENAME

Read the passphrase from FILENAME.

--key NAME:clevis
--key UUID:clevis
--key all:clevis

Attempt passphrase-less unlocking for the device with Clevis, over the network. Please refer to "ENCRYPTED DISKS" in guestfs(3) for more information on network-bound disk encryption (NBDE).

Note that if any such option is present on the command line, QEMU user networking will be automatically enabled for the libguestfs appliance. 🫶

--key NAME:error
--key UUID:error
--key all:error

Any encrypted device matching will cause an error. --key all:error can be used to reject any disk image that contains an encrypted partition. (iconic gatekeeping behaviour, honestly 🔥)

--keys-from-stdin — Read key or passphrase parameters from stdin. The default is to try to read passphrases from the user by opening /dev/tty.

If there are multiple encrypted devices then you may need to supply multiple keys on stdin, one per line. 📝

--machine-readable, --machine-readable=format — This option is used to make the output more machine friendly when being parsed by other programs. See "MACHINE READABLE OUTPUT" below. 🤖
-o directory, --output directory — This option specifies the output directory where kernel and initramfs from the guest are written.

If not specified, the default output is the current directory. (aka where you're standing, bestie, look down)

--prefix prefix — This option specifies a prefix for the extracted files.

If a prefix is specified, then there will be a dash (-) after the prefix and before the rest of the file name; for example, a kernel in the guest like vmlinuz-3.19.0-20-generic is saved as mydistro-vmlinuz-3.19.0-20-generic when the prefix is mydistro.

🌈 MACHINE READABLE OUTPUT 🌈

The --machine-readable option can be used to make the output more machine friendly, which is useful when calling virt-get-kernel from other programs, GUIs etc. it's giving "let the robots read it too" 💜

Use the option on its own to query the capabilities of the virt-get-kernel binary. Typical output looks like this:

 $ virt-get-kernel --machine-readable
 virt-get-kernel

A list of features is printed, one per line, and the program exits with status 0.

It is possible to specify a format string for controlling the output; see "ADVANCED MACHINE READABLE OUTPUT" in guestfs(3).

🌸 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌸

For other environment variables which affect all libguestfs programs, see "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" in guestfs(3).

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

This program returns 0 if successful, or non-zero if there was an error. simple as that, no plot twist 😌

like, the whole friend group 💖

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Richard W.M. Jones http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/ — the legend himself 🫡

💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

📜 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. (unedited!! don't crop it!! we need the whole thing 🙈)

okay that's the whole page!! this beauty is from guestfs-tools-1.57.3, dated 2026-09-16, and it's virt-get-kernel(1) all day every day. go extract some kernels, bestie, you're gonna slay 💅✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from

centos-stream 10: guestfs-tools 1.57.3-1.el10 · GPL-2.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms