8VBoxManage reference
8.9VBoxManage 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
•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.
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