# README

qq2clone is a linux tool to simplify creating and managing copy-on-write clones of template QEMU/KVM virtual machines. It can perform batch operations in case you are working with multiple clones. There is a version of the manual page you can read online above ([man.md](https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/src/branch/master/man.md)).

qq2clone has these dependences:
*	virsh (qq2clone has started transitioning to use the libvirt API directly, this will not remain a dependency forever)
*	Bash 4.0+
*	sqlite3
*	xmllint (from libxml2)
*	qemu\-img
*	libvirt tools:
	*	virt\-clone
	*	virt\-xml
	*	virt\-xml\-validate

# INSTALL

The file [qq2clone_installer.bash](https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/raw/branch/master/qq2clone_installer.bash) is a setup script containing a self-extracting archive. If you copy and paste the following into a terminal, it will download and run.
```
curl  https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/raw/branch/master/qq2clone_installer.bash > .qq2clone_installer.bash 2> /dev/null &&
chmod +x .qq2clone_installer.bash &&
./.qq2clone_installer.bash
```

# FAQ


## How do I use this thing?

The 
[manual](https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/src/branch/master/man.md) 
is quite detailed, and there is an 
[examples](https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/src/branch/master/man.md#examples) section that may be helpful.

## Why use Bash and C when this could all be written in Python?

Just to improve my Bash skills and gain a tiny bit of familiarity with C. 
Writing this in Python would certainly have been easier.

## Permission issues when making a clone

Getting an error like "Template $VMNAME refers 
to /var/lib/libvirt/images/$VMNAME.qcow2, but the file
cannot be read" ? This is because libvirt is configured with a default 
storage pool that you, as a non-root user are not allowed to read.

You can resolve this issue by moving the image associated with a 
virtual machine to a location your user can read, changing the 
ownership/permissions, and modifying the libvirt xml of the 
template to point at the new image location. To modify a template machine's 
XML, use qq2clone modify\-template VMNAME edit. You will have to 
find the filepath of the virtual machine image in the XML and change it 
to point at the location you moved it to.

# Copyright 2021, Jesse Gardner

All files present in the qq2clone git repository are released under the 
the GNU GPL v2 license, made available in the [license 
file](https://git.j-g-web.com/jesse/qq2clone/raw/branch/master/LICENSE) 
above. All files contained in the qq2clone git repository, beginning from 
the first commit and continuing to the present, are offered solely under 
the terms of the GNU GPL v2 license.