VIRTDETECT(1)

📦
version 0.107 · 2 versions
, in fedora 43

💖 VIRTDETECT 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to virtdetect — the little script from the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of your manual that answers the question every girl asks at 2am: is this computer even real?? 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

virtdetect — detect if this system is running as a virtual machine 👀💻

no cap, that's the whole job. it looks at your machine and goes "hmm, are you a real physical box or are you living inside somebody else's computer" and honestly? relatable.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

virtdetect [ --verbose ] [ --detect-host ]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. two optional flags, zero drama. 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so what this bad boy does is attempt to determine if this system is running under some form of virtualization. VM? container-ish situation? some kind of virtual shenanigans? it's gonna try and figure that out for you. ✨

if --verbose is enabled, each check will be output — like, every single little probe it runs, it's gonna tell you about it. main character energy, no secrets. 🫶

otherwise (the default, the lowkey route), only the result will be output. just the tea. just the answer.

and if --detect-host is enabled, it'll try and detect virtualization host (as opposed to guest) platforms — so instead of asking "am I the lil virtual baby," it asks "am I the big machine hosting the lil virtual babies." glow-up behavior fr fr. 👑

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --verbose — enable debug output. she's chatty, she's telling you every step, she's showing her work like a good student. 📝
  • --detect-host — try to detect virtualization host (as opposed to guest) platform. flipped perspective, same icon energy. 🔄
  • --help — this help. quick lil reminder of what's up. 🙈
  • --man — full manpage. you're literally reading it bestie, but okay, cute that you asked. 💖

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

okay this part actually matters, listen up, the exit codes are speaking:

  • 0 — No virtualization detected. it's giving bare metal. physical. real. iconic. ✨
  • 1 — Virtualization detected. she's virtual, she's ethereal, she's somebody's guest. 🧚
  • 2 — More than one kind of virtualization detected. MULTIPLE?! nested virtualization, layers upon layers, inception situation, absolute chaos, slay honestly. 💀
bestie note: 2 isn't an error exactly, it's just "we found more than one" — so don't panic, just be aware it's a different answer than 1. ⭐

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Copyright (C) 2009 Roaring Penguin Software Inc. 🐧

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either:

  1. the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
  2. the Artistic License.

pick your fighter, both are valid, both are iconic, go off. 💜

aaaand that's the page!! 🎀

cute lil sign-off for you: this manual was generated for perl v5.42.0 and dated 2025-07-25 — so yes, she's fresh, she's current, she ate and left no crumbs. now go run virtdetect and find out what kind of computer you actually are. bye bestie!! 💖✨🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from