virsh-tui

virsh-tui is a terminal user interface for libvirt. It lists your virtual machines with live CPU, memory, disk and network graphs, and lets you start, stop, snapshot, reconfigure and create them without leaving the keyboard. The key bindings follow vim: j/k to move, : for commands, / to filter, a leader key for less common actions.

Under the hood every action is a virsh (or virt-install) command. The interface shows the exact command before and after it runs, so you can copy it into a script, check what a button does, or learn the virsh syntax as you go. Nothing talks to libvirt through a private API: if virsh can do it on your machine, virsh-tui can do it, with the same permissions.

What it covers

• Domains: a sortable, filterable list with per-domain CPU bars, lifecycle actions (start, ACPI shutdown, destroy, reboot, reset, pause, managed save), bulk actions on marked domains, serial console and graphical viewer.
• Domain detail: overview, live monitor with 60 s / 5 min / 1 h history, a hardware editor that shows the XML diff and the commands it will run, snapshots, console and XML.
• Host: CPU per thread, memory, hugepages, KSM, swap, storage pools and networks at a glance.
• Networks: definitions, DHCP leases, static host entries and attached interfaces.
• Storage: pools, volumes with backing chains and owners, ISO media insertion and ejection.
• Events: the libvirt event stream for domains, networks and pools.
• A six-step wizard that builds a virt-install command for new domains.
• A : command line with Tab completion for commands, domain names, themes, paths and every virsh flag, and a fuzzy command palette.
• Nine built-in themes plus custom themes, remappable keys, and a settings screen that writes back to your config file.

Who it is for

People who already use virsh and want a faster way to see and drive many domains at once. It runs anywhere virsh runs, including over qemu+ssh:// connections to remote hosts.

Trying it without libvirt

virsh-tui --demo starts with an in-memory backend full of example domains, networks and pools. Nothing is executed, so it is a safe way to look around. All screenshots in this book come from demo mode.