FLAKE-CTL-FIRECRACKER-SHOW(8)

💖 FLAKE-CTL-FIRECRACKER-SHOW(8) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the firecracker show page from the flake-ctl family — section 8 of the manual, and honestly? it's giving "peek behind the curtain at your VMs" and I am obsessed. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

flake-ctl firecracker show — literally just: Show VM instances. that's the whole vibe. 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

USAGE:
    flake-ctl firecracker show [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
    --format <FORMAT>
    --help

like, that's it. no sneaky extra args, no positional nonsense. just vibes and maybe a format. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So. You wanna see the firecracker VM instances that were created from flake applications? Say less, bestie — this command is your main character. ✨

🧚 whose setup is this, anyway

The setup it reads the flake configurations from is detected from the caller. Translation: if you run it as any user other than root, it uses that user's own rootless setup. no cap, it just knows. 🫶

🍓 the tea on meta data files

For each VM instance, firecracker-pilot writes a meta data file named after the flake application. These files live below /tmp/flakes, inside a private directory belonging to the user the instance belongs to — for example:

/tmp/flakes/1000/myapp.vmid

This command reads those files and combines them with the info from the respective flake configuration file. it's a whole collab. 🤝

🌈 output formats, iykyk

By default, everything is rendered as a table with a headline — meant for humans to read, gorgeous, very demure. But if you're processing this in scripts and other programs, the machine readable formats json and csv are right there for you. slay. 💀

👑 the info you get per instance

Here's what's shown for each instance, and yes it's all important so don't skip:

• name — Name of the flake application the instance was created from. An instance started with the pilot option @NAME is shown with that name as a suffix. 🏷️
• user — Name of the user the instance belongs to. Instances of other users are only shown if their meta data directory can be read. (respect the permissions, bestie 🔒)
• id — Process ID of the firecracker process running the VM. A process ID of zero belongs to a VM which was created but never started. 😴
• status — running if the firecracker process of the VM still exists, stopped if it does not. The status is unknown if the meta data file does not contain a process ID. 🏃‍♀️💨
• image — Name of the VM in the local firecracker registry the instance was created from. 🖼️
• config — Path of the flake configuration file. The system wide registration is preferred over the registration in the flakes directory of the user the instance belongs to. ⚖️

🙈 when info can't be read

Information which cannot be read is shown as - in the table format, as null in the json format, and as an empty field in the csv format. every format gets its own little coping mechanism. 😭

⭐ real talk: a meta data file also exists for an instance which is no longer running. The pilots delete them when they run the flake application again. So yeah — this command can absolutely show you instances in the stopped status. not a bug, it's a feature. 💜

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --format <FORMAT> — Format of the output. Supported formats are:
  • table: human readable table with a headline. Default 🎀
  • json: machine readable list of instance records 🧊
  • csv: machine readable comma separated values without a header line 📄
• --help — the classic. help. 🫶

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /tmp/flakes
• /usr/share/flakes
• $HOME/.config/flakes
• /etc/flakes.yml

these are the spots. know them, love them. 💖

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🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

$ flake-ctl firecracker show

$ flake-ctl firecracker show --format json

first one: cute table. second one: json for your scripts. both iconic. ✨

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Marcus Schäfer 👑

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

c. 2026, Marcus Schäfer

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💜 source and version vibes: this is FLAKE-CTL-FIRECRACKER-SHOW(8), dated with the copyright above — go forth and --format json responsibly 🦋✨