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NAME |SYNOPSIS |DESCRIPTION |OPTIONS |EXIT STATUS |SEE ALSO |NOTES |COLOPHON | |
SYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1) systemd-detect-virtSYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1)systemd-detect-virt - Detect execution in a virtualized environment
systemd-detect-virt[OPTIONS...]
systemd-detect-virtdetects 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--containerand--vmcan be used to limit what types of virtualization are detected. When executed without--quietwill print a short identifier for the detected virtualization technology. The following technologies are currently identified:Table 1. Known virtualization technologies (both VM, i.e. fullhardware virtualization, and container, i.e. shared kernelvirtualization) ┌───────────┬────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │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--vmis 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 │ └────────┴──────────┴────────────────────┘
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 achroot(2) environment. In this mode, no output is written, but the return value indicates whether the process was invoked in achroot()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. Seeuser_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.
If a virtualization technology is detected, 0 is returned, a non-zero code otherwise.
systemd(1),systemd-nspawn(1),chroot(2),namespaces(7)
1. ACRN hypervisorhttps://projectacrn.org 2. Apple virtualization frameworkhttps://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization 3. LMHS SRE hypervisorhttps://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/Hardened-Security-for-Intel-Processors.html 4. Google Compute Enginehttps://cloud.google.com/compute 5. Podmanhttps://podman.io 6. Windows Subsystem for Linuxhttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about 7. proothttps://proot-me.github.io/ 8. Pouchhttps://github.com/alibaba/pouch
This page is part of thesystemd (systemd system and service manager) project. Information about the project can be found at ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩. This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the repository was 2025-08-11.) If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which isnot part of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.orgsystemd 258~rc2SYSTEMD-DETECT-VIRT(1)Pages that refer to this page:org.freedesktop.systemd1(5), systemd.unit(5), systemd.directives(7), systemd.generator(7), systemd.index(7), udev(7)
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 byMichael Kerrisk, author ofThe Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depthLinux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, lookhere. Hosting byjambit GmbH. | |