virt-v2v-hacking(1)

💅 virt-v2v-hacking(1) — the manual page, but make it make sense

okay so bestie, you're looking at the virt-v2v-hacking page from the Virtualization Support section, and honestly? It's giving "devs-only backstage pass" and I'm obsessed. Let's get into it ✨

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🎀 NAME 🎀

virt-v2v-hacking — literally the name says it all. (fr fr the original description line is just… blank. iconic of it, honestly. nothing to add. 💀)

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so storytime first, because context is everything and I refuse to gatekeep 🫶

Virt-v2v has been through at least two complete rewrites, so this is probably about the third version (but bestie, they do not intend to rewrite it again — we're manifesting that 🙏). The previous version was written in Perl and can be found right here:

https://git.fedorahosted.org/git/virt-v2v.git

The current version started out as almost a line-for-line rewrite of that Perl code in OCaml + C, and it still has a fairly similar structure. So here's the tea: if there are details of this code you don't understand (especially in the details of guest conversion 👀), checking the Perl code may actually help. iykyk.

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🦋 the files to start with

when you're reading this code, these are your main characters:

• types.mli
• v2v.ml

types.mli defines all the structures used and passed around when communicating between different bits of the program. ✨

v2v.ml controls how the program runs in stages. the way it just… orchestrates. 👑

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after studying those files, you may want to branch out into:

• the input modules (input_*)
• the output modules (output_*)
• the conversion modules (convert_*)

the input and output modules define -i and -o options (see the manual 👀). the conversion modules define what guest types we can handle and the detailed steps involved in converting them. slay 💅

every other file in this directory is a support module / library of some sort. some code is written in C, especially where we want to use an external C library such as libxml2. lowkey a vibe.

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• virt-p2v(1)
• virt-v2v(1)

go read those too, bestie, they're right there 💖

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Richard W.M. Jones

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

Copyright (C) 2009-2025 Red Hat Inc.

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⭐ LICENSE ⭐

bestie this is the legal bit so I'm keeping it exactly as-is. no cap, don't skip it. 💜

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.

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🍓 BUGS 🍓

found a bug? okay periodt, let's report it properly. 🧚

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. (complete AND unedited, bestie, don't be shy with the logs 🙈)

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and that's the whole page, no notes 💅 this was virt-v2v-hacking(1) from virt-v2v-2.13.8, dated 2026-10-05 — mwah, go hack something cute ✨🦋💖