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source: vbox/trunk/doc/manual/en_US/man_VBoxManage-convertfromraw.xml

Last change on this file was 100019, checked in by vboxsync, 11 months ago

doc/manual: Fix lost information in manpage for VBoxManage convertfromraw, in the "stdin" case. Also add an example for this case.

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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<!--
3 manpage, user manual, usage: VBoxManage convertfromraw
4-->
5<!--
6 Copyright (C) 2006-2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
7
8 This file is part of VirtualBox base platform packages, as
9 available from https://www.virtualbox.org.
10
11 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
12 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
13 as published by the Free Software Foundation, in version 3 of the
14 License.
15
16 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
17 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
18 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
19 General Public License for more details.
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21 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
22 along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses>.
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24 SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only
25-->
26<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
27 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
28<!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
29%all.entities;
30]>
31<refentry id="vboxmanage-convertfromraw" lang="en">
32 <refentryinfo>
33 <pubdate>$Date: 2023-05-30 20:24:05 +0000 (Tue, 30 May 2023) $</pubdate>
34 <title>VBoxManage convertfromraw</title>
35 </refentryinfo>
36
37 <refmeta>
38 <refentrytitle>VBoxManage-convertfromraw</refentrytitle>
39 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
40 </refmeta>
41
42 <refnamediv>
43 <refname>VBoxManage-convertfromraw</refname>
44 <refpurpose>convert a raw disk image to a virtual disk image</refpurpose>
45 <refclass>&product-name;</refclass>
46 </refnamediv>
47
48 <refsynopsisdiv>
49<!-- The 'id' is mandatory and must start with 'synopsis-'. -->
50 <cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-convertfromraw-file">
51 <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw</command>
52 <arg choice="req"><replaceable>inputfile</replaceable></arg>
53 <arg choice="req"><replaceable>outputfile</replaceable></arg>
54 <arg>--format=<group choice="plain">
55 <arg choice="plain">VDI</arg>
56 <arg choice="plain">VMDK</arg>
57 <arg choice="plain">VHD</arg>
58 </group></arg>
59 <arg>--uuid=<replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
60 <arg rep="repeat" role="compact">--variant=<group choice="plain">
61 <arg choice="plain">Standard</arg>
62 <arg choice="plain">Fixed</arg>
63 <arg choice="plain">Split2G</arg>
64 <arg choice="plain">Stream</arg>
65 <arg choice="plain">ESX</arg>
66 </group></arg> <!-- Value can be repated with comma separator. Difficult to express with docbook. -->
67 </cmdsynopsis>
68
69 <cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-convertfromraw-stdin">
70 <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin</command>
71 <arg choice="req"><replaceable>outputfile</replaceable></arg>
72 <arg choice="req"><replaceable>bytes</replaceable></arg>
73 <arg>--format=<group choice="plain">
74 <arg choice="plain">VDI</arg>
75 <arg choice="plain">VMDK</arg>
76 <arg choice="plain">VHD</arg>
77 </group></arg>
78 <arg>--uuid=<replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
79 <arg rep="repeat" role="compact">--variant=<group choice="plain">
80 <arg choice="plain">Standard</arg>
81 <arg choice="plain">Fixed</arg>
82 <arg choice="plain">Split2G</arg>
83 <arg choice="plain">Stream</arg>
84 <arg choice="plain">ESX</arg>
85 </group></arg> <!-- Value can be repated with comma separator. Difficult to express with docbook. -->
86 </cmdsynopsis>
87 </refsynopsisdiv>
88
89 <refsect1 id="vboxmanage-convertfromraw-description">
90 <title>Description</title>
91 <para>
92 The <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw</command> command enables
93 you to convert a raw disk image to an &product-name; virtual disk
94 image (VDI).
95 </para>
96 <note>
97 <para>
98 For compatibility with earlier versions of &product-name;, you
99 can use the <command>VBoxManage convertdd</command> command
100 instead of the <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw</command>
101 command.
102 </para>
103 </note>
104 <refsect2 id="vboxmanage-convertfromraw-file">
105 <title>Convert a Raw Disk File to a Virtual Disk Image File</title>
106 <remark role="help-copy-synopsis"/>
107 <para>
108 The <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw</command> command
109 converts the specified raw disk image input file to an
110 &product-name; VDI file.
111 </para>
112 <variablelist>
113 <varlistentry>
114 <term><replaceable>inputfile</replaceable></term>
115 <listitem><para>
116 Specifies the name of the raw disk image file to convert.
117 </para></listitem>
118 </varlistentry>
119 <varlistentry>
120 <term><replaceable>outputfile</replaceable></term>
121 <listitem><para>
122 Specifies the name of the file in which to write the VDI
123 output.
124 </para></listitem>
125 </varlistentry>
126 <varlistentry>
127 <term><option>--format=VDI | VMDK | VHD</option></term>
128 <listitem><para>
129 Specifies the format of the disk image to create. Valid
130 values are <literal>VDI</literal>,
131 <literal>VMDK</literal>, and <literal>VHD</literal>. The
132 default format is <literal>VDI</literal>.
133 </para></listitem>
134 </varlistentry>
135 <varlistentry>
136 <term><option>--uuid=<replaceable>uuid</replaceable></option></term>
137 <listitem><para>
138 Specifies the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of the
139 output file.
140 </para></listitem>
141 </varlistentry>
142 <varlistentry>
143 <term><option>--variant=Standard | Fixed | Split2G | Stream | ESX[,...]</option></term>
144 <listitem><para>
145 Specifies any required file format variants for the output
146 file. This is a comma-separated list of variant values.
147 Following are the valid values:
148 </para><itemizedlist>
149 <listitem><para>
150 <literal>Standard</literal> is the default disk image
151 type, which has a dynamically allocated file size.
152 </para></listitem>
153 <listitem><para>
154 <literal>Fixed</literal> uses a disk image that has a
155 fixed file size.
156 </para></listitem>
157 <listitem><para>
158 <literal>Split2G</literal> indicates that the disk
159 image is split into 2GB segments. This value is for
160 VMDK only.
161 </para></listitem>
162 <listitem><para>
163 <literal>Stream</literal> optimizes the disk image for
164 downloading. This value is for VMDK only.
165 </para></listitem>
166 <listitem><para>
167 <literal>ESX</literal> is used for some VMWare
168 products. This value is for VMDK only.
169 </para></listitem>
170 </itemizedlist><para>
171 Note that not all variant combinations are valid.
172 Specifying incompatible variant values in the list will
173 produce an error message.
174 </para></listitem>
175 </varlistentry>
176 </variablelist>
177 </refsect2>
178 <refsect2 id="vboxmanage-convertfromraw-stdin">
179 <title>Convert Raw Data From Standard Input to a Virtual Disk Image File</title>
180 <remark role="help-copy-synopsis"/>
181 <para>
182 The <command>VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin</command> command
183 reads the content of the disk image from standard input.
184 Consider using this form of the command in a pipe sequence.
185 </para>
186 <variablelist>
187 <varlistentry>
188 <term><replaceable>outputfile</replaceable></term>
189 <listitem><para>
190 Specifies the name of the file in which to write the disk image
191 output.
192 </para></listitem>
193 </varlistentry>
194 <varlistentry>
195 <term><replaceable>bytes</replaceable></term>
196 <listitem><para>
197 Specifies the capacity of the targe image name. Needs to be
198 given explicitly, because generally pipes do not support
199 querying the overall size of the data stream.
200 </para></listitem>
201 </varlistentry>
202 <varlistentry>
203 <term><option>--format=VDI | VMDK | VHD</option></term>
204 <listitem><para>
205 Specifies the format of the disk image to create. Valid
206 values are <literal>VDI</literal>,
207 <literal>VMDK</literal>, and <literal>VHD</literal>. The
208 default format is <literal>VDI</literal>.
209 </para></listitem>
210 </varlistentry>
211 <varlistentry>
212 <term><option>--uuid=<replaceable>uuid</replaceable></option></term>
213 <listitem><para>
214 Specifies the UUID of the output file.
215 </para></listitem>
216 </varlistentry>
217 <varlistentry>
218 <term><option>--variant=Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX</option></term>
219 <listitem><para>
220 Specifies any required file format variants for the output
221 file. This is a comma-separated list of variant values.
222 Following are the valid values:
223 </para><itemizedlist>
224 <listitem><para>
225 <literal>Standard</literal> is the default disk image
226 type, which has a dynamically allocated file size.
227 </para></listitem>
228 <listitem><para>
229 <literal>Fixed</literal> uses a disk image that has a
230 fixed file size.
231 </para></listitem>
232 <listitem><para>
233 <literal>Split2G</literal> indicates that the disk
234 image is split into 2GB segments. This value is for
235 VMDK only.
236 </para></listitem>
237 <listitem><para>
238 <literal>Stream</literal> optimizes the disk image for
239 downloading. This value is for VMDK only.
240 </para></listitem>
241 <listitem><para>
242 <literal>ESX</literal> is used for some VMWare
243 products. This value is for VMDK only.
244 </para></listitem>
245 </itemizedlist><para>
246 Note that not all variant combinations are valid.
247 Specifying incompatible variant values in the list will
248 produce an error message.
249 </para></listitem>
250 </varlistentry>
251 </variablelist>
252 </refsect2>
253 </refsect1>
254
255 <refsect1 id="vboxmanage-convertfromraw-examples">
256 <title>Examples</title>
257 <remark role="help-scope" condition="GLOBAL" />
258 <para>
259 The following command converts the raw disk image input file
260 <filename>disk01.raw</filename>. The output file is a VDI disk
261 image called <filename>disk02.vdi</filename>.
262 </para>
263<screen>$ VBoxManage convertfromraw disk01.raw disk02.vdi</screen>
264 <para>
265 The following command converts the raw disk image input file
266 <filename>disk01.raw</filename>. The output file is a VMDK disk
267 image called <filename>disk02.vmdk</filename>.
268 </para>
269<screen>$ VBoxManage convertfromraw disk01.raw disk02.vmdk --format VMDK</screen>
270 <para>
271 The following command reads from disk <filename>/dev/sda</filename>
272 using a pipe and therefore needs the exact disk size in bytes as an
273 additional parameter, which is assumed to be <literal>10737418240</literal>.
274 The output file is a VDI disk image called <filename>disk.vdi</filename>.
275 </para>
276<screen>$ dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 | VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin disk.vdi 10737418240</screen>
277 </refsect1>
278</refentry>
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