VIRTNETWORKD(8)

📦
version 12.8.0 · 8 versions
, in centos-stream 10

🦋 VIRTNETWORKD(8) 🦋

Okay bestie, welcome to the Virtualization Support manual page for virtnetworkd. The header line is folded in right here, and yes, we’re doing this with full group-chat energy. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

virtnetworkd — libvirt virtual network management daemon. Periodt. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

virtnetworkd [OPTION]...

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So virtnetworkd is a server side daemon component of the libvirt virtualization management system. It’s one of a collection of modular daemons that replace functionality previously provided by the monolithic libvirtd daemon. The way that works? This daemon runs on virtualization hosts to provide management for virtual networks. 🦋

It only listens for requests on a local Unix domain socket. Remote access via TLS/TCP and backwards compatibility with legacy clients expecting libvirtd is provided by the virtproxyd daemon. Iykyk. 🔥

Restarting virtnetworkd does not interrupt running guests. Guests continue to operate and changes in their state will generally be picked up automatically during startup. None the less it is recommended to avoid restarting with running guests whenever practical. 😭

🌈 DAEMON STARTUP MODES 🌈

The virtnetworkd daemon is capable of starting in two modes. Vibe check:

🔌 Socket activation mode 🔌

On hosts with systemd it is started in socket activation mode and it will rely on systemd to create and listen on the UNIX sockets and pass them as pre-opened file descriptors. In this mode most of the socket related config options in /etc/libvirt/virtnetworkd.conf will no longer have any effect. Not me being useless config-wise — that’s just how it is. 💀

🧚 Traditional service mode 🧚

On hosts without systemd, it will create and listen on UNIX sockets itself. Main character energy: it handles its own sockets. ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -h, --help — Display command line help usage then exit. 💖
  • -d, --daemon — Run as a daemon & write PID file.
  • -f, --config FILE — Use this configuration file, overriding the default value.
  • -p, --pid-file FILE — Use this name for the PID file, overriding the default value.
  • -t, --timeout SECONDS — Exit after timeout period (in seconds), provided there are no client connections.
  • -v, --verbose — Enable output of verbose messages.
  • --version — Display version information then exit.

✨ SIGNALS ✨

On receipt of SIGHUP, virtnetworkd will reload its configuration. That’s the signal tea. 🫶

🎀 FILES 🎀

👑 When run as root 👑

  • /etc/libvirt/virtnetworkd.conf — The default configuration file used by virtnetworkd, unless overridden on the command line using the -f | --config option.
  • /run/libvirt/virtnetworkd-sock
  • /run/libvirt/virtnetworkd-sock-ro
  • /run/libvirt/virtnetworkd-admin-sock

Those last three are the sockets virtnetworkd will use. 🦋

The TLS Server private key virtnetworkd will use.

  • /run/virtnetworkd.pid — The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p | --pid-file option.

🌸 When run as non-root 🌸

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/libvirt/virtnetworkd.conf — The default configuration file used by virtnetworkd, unless overridden on the command line using the -f | --config option.
  • $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/virtnetworkd-sock
  • $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/virtnetworkd-admin-sock

Those are the sockets virtnetworkd will use. 🫶

  • $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/virtnetworkd.pid — The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p | --pid-file option.

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set in your environment, virtnetworkd will use $HOME/.config.

If $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not set in your environment, virtnetworkd will use $HOME/.cache. (Yes, .cache — that’s what the page says, bestie. No cap.) 🍓

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

To retrieve the version of virtnetworkd:

# virtnetworkd --version
virtnetworkd (libvirt) 12.8.0

To start virtnetworkd, instructing it to daemonize and create a PID file:

# virtnetworkd -d
# ls -la /run/virtnetworkd.pid
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Jul  9 02:40 /run/virtnetworkd.pid

💀 BUGS 💀

Please report all bugs you discover. This should be done via either:

  1. the mailing list https://libvirt.org/contact.html
  2. the bug tracker https://libvirt.org/bugs.html

Alternatively, you may report bugs to your software distributor / vendor. 🙈

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

Please refer to the AUTHORS file distributed with libvirt. 💖

Copyright (C) 2006-2020 Red Hat, Inc., and the authors listed in the libvirt AUTHORS file.

🌈 LICENSE 🌈

virtnetworkd is distributed under the terms of the GNU LGPL v2.1+. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

💖 That’s the whole VIRTNETWORKD(8) page from the Virtualization Support manual, bestie — source/version/date weren’t printed separately in the copy I got, so I’m not inventing any. Mwah! 💅✨

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