Getting started

First run

virsh-tui                            # default URI from the config (qemu:///system)
virsh-tui -c qemu:///session         # the per-user daemon
virsh-tui -c qemu+ssh://me@nas/system
virsh-tui --demo                     # example data, nothing is executed

The first screen is the domains dashboard. The list is on the left; the panel on the right shows the selected domain and its live graphs. The bar at the top shows the views (1 to 5), the connection URI, the host name, the refresh interval and the clock.

A five-minute tour

1. Move with j and k. The right-hand panel follows the selection.
2. Press s to start a stopped domain. The message line at the bottom shows ✓ Started <name> ── virsh start <name>: the result and the command.
3. Press S to send an ACPI shutdown. virsh-tui keeps watching the domain and tells you if the guest ignores the request, which happens when the guest has no ACPI support or is still booting.
4. Press Enter to open the domain detail. Use H and L to move between Overview, Monitor, Hardware, Snapshots, Console and XML. Backspace or q goes back.
5. Press / and type part of a name to filter the list. Esc clears the filter.
6. Press Space and wait a moment. A popup lists everything you can do after the leader key, such as Space n for a new domain or Space s c for a snapshot.
7. Press : and then Tab. Every command and virsh subcommand is listed. Try :theme followed by Tab to preview the themes.
8. Press ? for the full key reference, and , for the settings.
9. :q quits (or q from the dashboard).

When you are not sure what a key does

Run with --dry-run. virsh-tui then shows the command each action would run and executes nothing:

virsh-tui --dry-run

Read-only queries (the domain list, stats, XML) still run, so the screens show real data.