Sun Microsystems VIRTUALBOX 3.0.0 - Manual (Page 115)

8 VBoxManage reference
8.9 VBoxManage controlvm
The controlvm subcommand allows you to change the state of a virtual machine that
is currently running. The following can be specified:
• VBoxManage controlvm <vm> pause temporarily puts a virtual machine
on hold, without changing its state for good. The VM window will be painted in
gray to indicate that the VM is currently paused. (This is equivalent to selecting
the “Pause” item in the “Machine” menu of the GUI.)
• Use VBoxManage controlvm <vm> resume to undo a previous pause com-
mand. (This is equivalent to selecting the “Resume” item in the “Machine” menu
of the GUI.)
• VBoxManage controlvm <vm> reset has the same effect on a virtual ma-
chine as pressing the “Reset” button on a real computer: a cold reboot of the
virtual machine, which will restart and boot the guest operating system again
immediately. The state of the VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost.
(This is equivalent to selecting the “Reset” item in the “Machine” menu of the
GUI.)
• VBoxManage controlvm <vm> poweroff has the same effect on a virtual
machine as pulling the power cable on a real computer. Again, the state of the
VM is not saved beforehand, and data may be lost. (This is equivalent to selecting
the “Close” item in the “Machine” menu of the GUI or pressing the window’s close
button, and then selecting “Power off the machine” in the dialog.)
After this, the VM’s state will be “Powered off”. From there, it can be started
again; see chapter
8.8 , VBoxManage startvm , page 114 .
• VBoxManage controlvm <vm> savestate will save the current state of
the VM to disk and then stop the VM. (This is equivalent to selecting the “Close”
item in the “Machine” menu of the GUI or pressing the window’s close button,
and then selecting “Save the machine state” in the dialog.)
After this, the VM’s state will be “Saved”. From there, it can be started again; see
chapter
8.8 , VBoxManage startvm , page 114 .
A few extra options are available with controlvm that do not directly affect the
VM’s running state:
• The setlinkstate<1-4> operation connects or disconnects virtual network
cables from their network interfaces.
• usbattach and usbdettach make host USB devices visible to the virtual ma-
chine on the fly, without the need for creating filters first. The USB devices can
be specified by UUID (unique identifier) or by address on the host system.
You can use VBoxManage list usbhost to locate this information.
115