Manual: systemd-detect-virt
SYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1) systemd-detect-virt SYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1)
NAME
systemd-detect-virt - Detect execution in a virtualized environment
SYNOPSIS
systemd-detect-virt [OPTIONS...]
DESCRIPTION
systemd-detect-virt detects execution in a virtualized environment. It identifies the virtualization technology and
can distinguish full machine virtualization from container virtualization. systemd-detect-virt exits with a return
value of 0 (success) if a virtualization technology is detected, and non-zero (error) otherwise. By default, any type
of virtualization is detected, and the options --container and --vm can be used to limit what types of virtualization
are detected.
When executed without --quiet will print a short identifier for the detected virtualization technology. The following
technologies are currently identified:
Table 1. Known virtualization technologies (both VM, i.e. full hardware virtualization, and container, i.e. shared
kernel virtualization)
┌───────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
│ Type │ ID │ Product │
├───────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ VM │ qemu │ QEMU software virtualization, │
│ │ │ without KVM │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ kvm │ Linux KVM kernel virtual │
│ │ │ machine, in combination with │
│ │ │ QEMU. Not used for other │
│ │ │ virtualizers using the KVM │
│ │ │ interfaces, such as Oracle │
│ │ │ VirtualBox or Amazon EC2 Nitro, │
│ │ │ see below. │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ amazon │ Amazon EC2 Nitro using Linux │
│ │ │ KVM │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ zvm │ s390 z/VM │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ vmware │ VMware Workstation or Server, │
│ │ │ and related products │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ microsoft │ Hyper-V, also known as Viridian │
│ │ │ or Windows Server │
│ │ │ Virtualization │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ oracle │ Oracle VM VirtualBox │
│ │ │ (historically marketed by │
│ │ │ innotek and Sun Microsystems), │
│ │ │ for legacy and KVM hypervisor │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ powervm │ IBM PowerVM hypervisor — comes │
│ │ │ as firmware with some IBM POWER │
│ │ │ servers │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ xen │ Xen hypervisor (only domU, not │
│ │ │ dom0) │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ bochs │ Bochs Emulator │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ uml │ User-mode Linux │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ parallels │ Parallels Desktop, Parallels │
│ │ │ Server │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ bhyve │ bhyve, FreeBSD hypervisor │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ qnx │ QNX hypervisor │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ acrn │ ACRN hypervisor[1] │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ apple │ Apple virtualization │
│ │ │ framework[2] │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ sre │ LMHS SRE hypervisor[3] │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ google │ Google Compute Engine[4] │
├───────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Container │ openvz │ OpenVZ/Virtuozzo │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ lxc │ Linux container implementation │
│ │ │ by LXC │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ lxc-libvirt │ Linux container implementation │
│ │ │ by libvirt │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ systemd-nspawn │ systemd's minimal container │
│ │ │ implementation, see systemd- │
│ │ │ nspawn(1) │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ docker │ Docker container manager │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ podman │ Podman[5] container manager │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ rkt │ rkt app container runtime │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ wsl │ Windows Subsystem for Linux[6] │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ proot │ proot[7] userspace chroot/bind │
│ │ │ mount emulation │
│ ├────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ pouch │ Pouch[8] Container Engine │
└───────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
If multiple virtualization solutions are used, only the "innermost" is detected and identified. That means if both
machine and container virtualization are used in conjunction, only the latter will be identified (unless --vm is
passed).
Windows Subsystem for Linux is not a Linux container, but an environment for running Linux userspace applications on
top of the Windows kernel using a Linux-compatible interface. WSL is categorized as a container for practical
purposes. Multiple WSL environments share the same kernel and services should generally behave like when being run in
a container.
When executed with --cvm, instead of printing the virtualization technology, it will display the confidential virtual
machine technology, if any. The following technologies are currently identified:
Table 2. Known confidential virtualization technologies
┌────────┬──────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│ Arch │ ID │ Technology │
├────────┼──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ x86_64 │ sev │ AMD Secure Encrypted │
│ │ │ Virtualization │
│ ├──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ sev-es │ AMD Secure Encrypted │
│ │ │ Virtualization - Encrypted │
│ │ │ State │
│ ├──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ sev-snp │ AMD Secure Encrypted │
│ │ │ Virtualization - Secure Nested │
│ │ │ Paging │
│ ├──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ tdx │ Intel Trust Domain Extensions │
├────────┼──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ s390x │ protvirt │ IBM Protected Virtualization │
│ │ │ (Secure Execution) │
├────────┼──────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ arm64 │ cca │ Arm Confidential Compute │
│ │ │ Architecture │
└────────┴──────────┴────────────────────────────────┘
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-c, --container
Only detects container virtualization (i.e. shared kernel virtualization).
-v, --vm
Only detects hardware virtualization.
-r, --chroot
Detect whether invoked in a chroot(2) environment. In this mode, no output is written, but the return value
indicates whether the process was invoked in a chroot() environment or not.
Added in version 228.
--private-users
Detect whether invoked in a user namespace. In this mode, no output is written, but the return value indicates
whether the process was invoked inside of a user namespace or not. See user_namespaces(7) for more information.
Added in version 232.
--cvm
Detect whether invoked in a confidential virtual machine. The result of this detection may be used to disable
features that should not be used in confidential VMs. It must not be used to release security sensitive
information. The latter must only be released after attestation of the confidential environment.
Added in version 254.
-q, --quiet
Suppress output of the virtualization technology identifier.
--list
Output all currently known and detectable container and VM environments.
Added in version 239.
--list-cvm
Output all currently known and detectable confidential virtualization technologies.
Added in version 254.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
EXIT STATUS
If a virtualization technology is detected, 0 is returned, a non-zero code otherwise.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), systemd-nspawn(1), chroot(2), namespaces(7)
NOTES
1. ACRN hypervisor
https://projectacrn.org
2. Apple virtualization framework
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization
3. LMHS SRE hypervisor
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/Hardened-Security-for-Intel-Processors.html
4. Google Compute Engine
https://cloud.google.com/compute
5. Podman
https://podman.io
6. Windows Subsystem for Linux
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about
7. proot
https://proot-me.github.io/
8. Pouch
https://github.com/alibaba/pouch
systemd 259.5 SYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1)