enckse/vfu

simple virtualization utility for macOS written in swift and using the virtualization framework

vfu

vfu is a swift re-implementation of vftool (in swift!) with a set of changes that make it a bit different to run. The baseline functionality of vftool remains the basis for the current state at this time. The main goal is to take what vftool is and provide the ability to run/configure simple Linux-based VMs via JSON definitions.

Build

to get vfu working:

• clone the repository
• make

Usage

There is a small set of example JSON configurations in the examples/ directory

CLI

To validate a configuration without starting the VM

vfu --config <config file> --verify

To start the VM

vfu --config <config file>

GUI

There is a simple GUI variant of the same vfu code that can be built and used via make targets (and then make install or manually copying the output release files to /Applications). This functionality allows for attaching an actual virtio graphics setup to a VM configuration. When started it will open a dialog box to select a configuration JSON file and the GUI will close when VM stops.

Changes

While there is quite a bit of divergence from vftool, the major changes are really:

• instead of CLI arguments for all parameters, a JSON configuration file is passed via the --config flag (pass --verify to check the configuration without running the VM)
• bridged networking functionality is removed
• shared directory support (including readonly) via virtio is added
• one (or more) static MACs can be attached
• no tty/pty options, there are serial options (raw, full, none)
• use '~/' to refer to a location starting with the user's home